37. The First Permanent English Settlement. Raleigh had made it impossible for Englishmen to forget America. They sent out ships every year to trade with the Indians. In 1606 a great company was formed of London merchants and other rich men to plant a colony in Virginia.

King James gave them a charter, ministers preached sermons about Virginia, and poets sang her praises. At Christmas time one of Raleigh's old sea captains, Newport, sailed with a colony of more than one hundred settlers. They went by way of the West Indies, and the Spaniards, although watching, did not dare to attack them.

In the spring, when Virginia is in her gayest dress, the ships sailed up Chesapeake Bay into the James River, and landed on a peninsula. Here they began to plant Jamestown, named in honor of their king, the first permanent English settlement in the New World.

They first built a fort to protect them from any attacks of Indians and Spaniards. But most of the settlers wanted to get rich quick, go back to England, and spend the rest of their days in ease. Therefore, instead of building comfortable houses and raising something to eat, they spent their time in searching for gold.

The result was that most of them fell sick and food grew scarce. Within a few months more than half of the settlers were dead, and the others were discouraged and homesick. Would this colony fail, too, as Raleigh's colony had?

38. John Smith. There was one man, however, in the colony who could make Jamestown a success. He bore the plain name of John Smith. But he was no common man. John Smith had already had as wonderful adventures as the knights of old.

While yet a young man he went to the land of dikes and windmills to help the brave Hollanders fight against the Spaniards. But he grew tired of seeing Christians fighting one another, and resolved to go and fight the Turks. On his way he was robbed in France and left half dead in a great forest, but was rescued and made his way to the sea. Then he sailed with a colony of pilgrims going to the Holy Land. After many adventures John Smith found himself in eastern Europe. He was made captain of a troop of cavalry and was soon fighting the Turks. In three hand-to-hand combats, Captain Smith slew his enemies, cut off their heads, and presented them to his commander.

The Christian army looked on Smith as a hero, and the ruler of the land gave him a shield with three Turks' heads painted on it as a coat of arms. The Turks afterwards captured Smith and made a slave of him. His master's cruelty was so great that Smith slew him, mounted his horse, and rode away to Russia. He finally returned to England in time to talk with Captain Newport about America. Just such a man was needed in founding Jamestown.

The king had made Smith an officer of the new colony, but the other officers would not permit him to take part in governing Virginia. John Smith was not a man to sulk and idle his time away, but resolved to do something useful, by visiting the Indians and gathering food for the colony.

While on an expedition up the Chickahominy, Smith's party was attacked by two hundred Indians. Smith seized his Indian guide, tied him in front for a shield, and with his gun was able to hold the Indians at bay until he fell into a swamp and had to surrender.

He immediately showed the red men his ivory pocket compass. They saw the little needle tremble on its pivot, but could not touch it. He wrote a letter to Jamestown. An Indian took it and returned with the articles asked for in the letter. This was still more mysterious than the compass.

The Indians marched him from one village to another to show off their prisoner. This gave Smith a chance to learn a great deal about the Indians. Some of them lived in houses made of the bark and branches of trees; others had rude huts to shelter them. Now and then a wigwam was seen large enough to hold several families.

The Indian warriors painted their bodies to make themselves look fierce. They carried bows and arrows and clubs as weapons, for they had no guns at that time. The men did the hunting and fighting, but in other things they were lazy. The Indian women not only cared for the children, did the cooking, and made the clothes, but also gathered wood, tilled the soil, and built the wigwams. The Indian wife was the warrior's drudge.

Smith saw a more wonderful sight still, when he was led to the village where lived Powhatan. The old chief had prepared a real surprise for this Englishman. Powhatan, tall, gaunt, and grim, was wrapped in a robe of raccoon skins. He sat upon a bench before the wigwam fire. His wives sat at his side. Along the walls stood a row of women with faces and shoulders painted bright red, and with chains of white shells about their necks. In front of the women stood Powhatan's fierce warriors. This council of Indians was to decide the fate of Smith.

Two big stones were rolled in front of Powhatan, and a number of powerful warriors sprang upon Smith, dragged him to the stones, and forced his head upon one of them. As the warriors stood, clubs in hand, ready to slay Smith, Pocahontas, the beautiful twelve-year-old daughter of Powhatan, rushed forward, threw her arms around the prisoner, and begged for his life.

Pocahontas had her way. Powhatan adopted Smith as a son and set him to making toys for the little maid. This was strange work for the man who had fought the Spaniards and slain the Turks, and who was to save a colony. This story is doubted by some people, but is believed by many good historians.

After a time Smith returned to Jamestown only to find the settlers facing starvation, and the officers planning to escape to England in the colony's only vessels. He promptly arrested the leaders and restored order. In a few days a band of Indians, led by Pocahontas, entered the fort. They were loaded down with baskets of corn.

The fear of starvation was now gone, because every few days the little maiden came with food for the settlers. Ever afterwards they called her "the dear blessed Pocahontas." She was the good angel of the colony.

When winter came on, Smith resolved to secure another supply of corn. But Powhatan had noticed the increase of settlers and the building of more houses. He feared that his people might be driven from their hunting grounds. Smith knew that Powhatan's women had raised plenty of corn, so immediately sailed up the river to the old chief's village.

Powhatan bluntly told Smith he could have no corn unless he would give a good English sword for each basketful. Smith promptly refused, and compelled the Indians to carry the corn on board his boat. That very night, at the risk of her life, Pocahontas stole through the woods to tell Smith of her father's plot to kill his men. They kept close watch all night, and next morning sailed safely away.

But Smith needed still more corn, and stopped at another Indian town. Suddenly he found himself and his men surrounded by several hundred Indian warriors. A moment's delay, and all would have been over. Smith rushed into the chief's wigwam, seized him by the scalp-lock, dragged him out before his astonished warriors, pointed a pistol at his breast, and demanded corn. He got it; and the English sailed back to Jamestown with three hundred bushels of corn on board.

When spring came Smith resolved that the settlers must go to work. He called them together and made a speech declaring that "he that will not work shall not eat. You shall not only gather for yourself, but for those that are sick. They shall not starve." The people in the colony not only planted more grain, but repaired the fort and built more and better houses. Thus they grew happier and more contented with their home in the Virginia woods.

Unfortunately for the colony, Smith was wounded so badly by an explosion of gunpowder that he had to return to England for medical treatment. The settlers again fell into idleness after he left, and many of them died. Still the colony had gained such a foothold that it was strong enough to live.

Some years later, Smith sailed to America again, explored the coast from Penobscot Bay to Cape Cod, drew a map of it, and named the region New England. This was his last visit to America.

39. Pocahontas. After John Smith left, Pocahontas did not visit the English any more. One time she was seized by an Englishman, put on board a vessel, and carried weeping to Jamestown.

Before long an English settler, John Rolfe, fell in love with her and she with him. What should they do? Did not this beautiful maiden of eighteen years have a strange religion? But she was anxious to learn about the white man's religion, so the minister at Jamestown baptized her and gave her the Christian name of Rebecca.

The wedding took place in the little wooden church. No doubt it was made bright with the wild flowers of Virginia and that all the settlers crowded to see the strange event. Powhatan gave his consent, but would not come to the wedding himself. But we may be sure that the sisters and brothers and the Indian friends of Pocahontas were there.

It was a happy day in Jamestown, for all the people, white and red, loved Pocahontas. The marriage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe was taken to mean the uniting of the Indians and settlers by ties of peace and friendship. For several years white men and red men lived as good neighbors. Rolfe took Pocahontas to England, where she was received "as the daughter of a king." The fine people, lords and ladies, called on her; and the king and queen received her at court as if she were a princess of the royal blood.

How different the rich clothes, the carriages, and the high feasting from her simple life in the woods of Virginia! Here, too, she met her old friend, John Smith. He called her "Lady Rebecca," as did everybody. But the memory of other days and other scenes came before her mind. She covered her face with her hands for a moment, and then said he must call her "child," and that she would call him "father." Smith must have thought of the days when she brought corn to Jamestown to feed his starving people.

When about to sail for her native land, Pocahontas became ill and died (1617). Her son, Thomas Rolfe, was educated in England by his father's brother, but later he returned to the land of his mother. He became the ancestor of many noted Virginians; among these the best known was the famous orator and statesman, John Randolph of Roanoke.

So ended the life of one who had indeed been a good and true friend of the people of Virginia. Her name, Pocahontas, meant "Bright Stream between Two Hills."

40. A Colony of Catholics and Protestants. When the people of England began to change their religion, some became Puritans, others members of the English Church, and still others Catholics. Great disputes arose among the religious sects. There was much persecution. To escape this, many English people fled to the New World. The Puritans settled in New England, and the Cavalier members of the English Church found new homes in Virginia.

George Calvert desired to find a home for his people, the Catholics. He had studied at Oxford University, and had been secretary to one of Queen Elizabeth's great statesmen. When James I became king, he made Calvert Baron of Baltimore.

His successor, Charles I, was also Baltimore's friend, and when the latter asked the king for permission to found a colony of Catholics in America, Charles gave him the whole of what is now Maryland. He also declared that the colony should bear the name of Maryland in honor of his queen, Henrietta Maria.

Lord Baltimore immediately began to gather a colony of emigrants. He welcomed Protestants as well as Catholics, for it was decided that in the colony of Maryland all Christians were to have the same rights. Very few nations in the world at that time permitted people to worship as they pleased.

Lord Baltimore died before the expedition was ready, and according to the custom of England, Cecil Calvert, his eldest son, fell heir to his estate and titles. The new Lord Baltimore sent more than three hundred persons in two ships, the Ark and the Dove. The long voyage had a happy ending; the immigrants reached the mouth of the Potomac in the springtime, when Maryland is at the height of its beauty (1634).

Governor Calvert, in the Dove, sailed up the Potomac. He decided to locate his little village, which was to be called St. Mary's, on land occupied by the Indians. He paid for the land on which the wigwams and cornfields stood, and the Indians invited the settlers to live with them until their log cabins could be built. This good feeling lasted a long time, and these settlers escaped the savage wars from which many of the colonists suffered in the early days.

Many Puritans came into Maryland and settled a town afterwards named Annapolis. A number of interesting events took place there in the early days. Later the city became the home of the famous training school for the American navy, the United States Naval Academy.

Once Baltimore's authority was taken away because there were some disputes with a Virginian high in authority. The Puritans joined him and overthrew Baltimore's rule. Later, however, his authority was restored and religious freedom reËstablished.

Baltimore, named after the founder of the colony, and afterward the most important town of Maryland, was settled in 1720.

41. How the Virginia Colonists Lived. After the first hardships the colony grew and prospered. Ships continued to bring settlers from England and other countries of Europe. In a few years the little settlement at Jamestown was surrounded on all sides by newly cleared farms.

To any one living to-day the old colony would seem strange indeed. There were practically no towns; almost every one lived on a large farm, called a plantation. On these plantations were great fields of tobacco, whose broad leaves in summer almost concealed the ground. Here and there a field of corn could be seen, but little else was grown. After a time the owners, or planters, built themselves great houses and kept an army of servants to grow the crops and do the work about the house. The planters did no work with their hands, but looked after their estates and enjoyed such pleasures as hunting and horseback riding. Many of these old places were the scenes of brilliant dinners and balls at which the fine ladies and gentlemen of the colony gathered.

Many poor people in England wanted to come to America, but had no money. To pay for the cost of bringing them over, these people were forced to work for the planters, often for six years or more. During this time they were almost slaves, but at the end of their service they became free. Then negroes were brought from Africa, and soon most of the work was done by black slaves.

Tobacco supported the colony and made the planters wealthy. It bought the food, clothes, and luxuries, and paid the taxes. It was even used as money, and people reckoned the value of an article in pounds of tobacco, as we do in dollars and cents. Most of the crop was shipped to England. The plantations lay along creeks or rivers up which boats could sail from the sea. When the tobacco was cured, it was packed in hogsheads, which were then rolled on board ship.

42. Blackbeard the Pirate. The streams on which the planters shipped their goods also served as hiding places for pirates. When these sea robbers had plundered a ship on the open sea, they would hide away in a bend of one of the wooded streams. Most famous of these lawless men was Blackbeard. For years his very name was a terror to sailors along the coast. He plundered scores of merchant ships before he was run down and captured.

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