of war-whoops; and when the thunder of Smith's cannon, summoning the mutineers to "stay or sink,” had taken the place of the Sabbath bells. Lord Delaware did not remain long in Virginia. His health became so bad that he was compelled to return, but during his sojourn in the colony he proved himself an energetic ruler. He built forts Henry and Charles on Southampton River; sent Percy to punish some depredations of the Paspahegh tribe above Jamestown; procured full supplies of corn from the Potomac Indians; and dispatched Sir George Somers to the Bermudas for more food -a voyage from which, as we have seen, the good Admiral never returned. He commanded in person in an engagement with the Indians at the present site of Richmond, and left no doubt in any mind of his capacity as a soldier and ruler. But his strength gave way. He was seized with a violent ague, and (March, 1611) sailed for England, on which voyage he is said to have been driven northward, and named the harbor in which he took refuge Delaware Bay. Seven years afterwards he set out again for Virginia, but died on the voyage. Delaware remains one of the most popular of the early Virginia Governors. Between summer and spring he established the colony on a firm basis. He ruled the unruly without resorting to harshness, added to the public defenses, inculcated respect for religion, and during his short stay in the country all things prospered. His sudden death on the voyage back to Virginia was sincerely lamented, and he is remembered still as one of the most gallant and picturesque personages of the early Virginia history. Memory takes hold of figures rather than generalities. The public services of "the Lord La Warre" are unknown or forgotten, but what is still remembered is the affecting scene when he landed at the deserted town, and fell on his knees, thanking God that he had come in time to save Virginia. XV. 66 IN these first years of Virginia history, the stalwart figures rapidly succeed each other. Lord Delaware went away in March, and in May (1611) came Sir Thomas Dale, “High Marshal of Virginia." He had a hard task before him. George Percy had been acting in place of Sir Thomas Gates, who had gone to England, and the idlers had taken advantage of his amiable temper to neglect work. In place of planting corn, they resorted to the more agreeable occupation of playing bowls in the grass-grown streets of Jamestown; at which employment the High Marshal found them, on his arrival. The drones saw that they had a master. Sir Thomas Dale was a soldier who had seen hard service in Flanders, “a man of good conscience and knowledge in divinity," but a born ruler and unshrinking disciplinarian. The "unruly" class soon felt his iron hand, upon which there was no velvet glove whatever. He had brought with him one of the worst "supplies" that ever came to Virginia, but he had also brought a "Code of Martial Law," and made prompt use of it. A conspiracy was entered into by a number of the malcontents, but Dale promptly arrested the leaders, and crushed it by inflicting upon them the death penalty, in a manner cruel, unusual, and barbarous.” 66 This is the guarded phrase of the chronicle, which only adds that the mode of punishment was one at the time customary "in France." But many years afterwards the mystery was cleared up. In 1624, a number of the Burgesses signed a "declaration of what they had witnessed at Jamestown. One offender "had a bodkin thrust through his tongue and was chained to a tree till he perished," and others were put to death "by hanging, shooting, breaking on the wheel, and the like." The strange fact is thus established that this horrible punishment, inflicted by the Kings of France for political conspiracy, was inflicted by Sir Thomas Dale also for the same offense on the soil of Virginia. But the death penalty, in some form, seems to have been a necessity, and Dale was apparently obliged to be merciless. "If his laws had not been so strictly executed," says one of the fairest of the contemporary writers, "I see not how the utter subversion of the colony should have been prevented." The man of good conscience and great knowledge of divinity did not hesitate. He had to deal with desperate characters, and thrust bodkins through their tongues, broke them on the wheel, and there was no more trouble. In the summer occurred an incident which clearly indicates the ever-present dread of the Spanish power. The settlements in Florida were a standing menace to the English, and the foes were ever watching each other, and expecting an attack. At any moment the Spanish hawks might swoop on the Jamestown dove-cote; and one day in the bright summer season, a fleet was seen in the distance slowly coming up the river. Suddenly all was in commotion. The ships were apparently Spaniards, and Dale hastened to man "the two good ships, : the Star and the Prosperous, and our own Deliverance, then riding before Jamestown," with plain intent to go out and fight. The heart of the Marshal was evidently in the business, and he "animated" his men with a brave speech. He meant to attack the new comers, he said if they were too strong for him he would grapple with them, and both would sink together; "if God had ordained to set a period to their lives, they could never be sacrificed in a more acceptable service." It was the spirit of Grenville in his famous combat off the Azores, and of the old sea voyagers in general; there were the hated Spaniards, and it was necessary to overcome them or die. Dale was no doubt in earnest when he said that he meant to do that, but a "small shallop with thirty good shot" was first sent to reconnoitre. Soon the shallop came back quietly—the ships were Englishmen, not Spaniards. Sir Thomas Gates, the Lieutenant-Governor, was returning with a supply of provisions and three hundred additional colonists; and the Marshal fired a salute, doubtless, instead of opening upon them with his culverins. With the return of the Lieutenant-Governor, the High Marshal found himself at liberty to carry out a favorite project—to establish a new city. His opinion of Virginia was enthusiastic. "Take four of the best kingdoms in Christendom, and put them all together," he wrote, "they may no way compare with this country, either for commodities or goodness of soil." Having resolved to found his city, he selected the plateau within Dutch Gap, nearly surrounded by James River, above the present City Point, the centre of a fertile and picturesque domain called Varina. In September he went thither with three hundred and fifty men, built a pali sade across the narrow neck, and another without, from water to water, and in this strong position erected his 66 City of Henricus." It had three streets, store-houses, a church, and regular watch-houses. Across the stream, on the south bank, a large inclosure, "twelve English miles of ground," was shut in also by stout palisades, and defended by forts Charity, Patience, and others. Hope-in-Faith, the name of a part of this tract, suggests a Puritan origin, and it is not improbable that a portion of Sir Thomas's settlers were of that faith. He had his official residence in the town on the plateau, and Rock Hall, the parsonage of the good Alexander Whitaker, the "Apostle of Virginia," was in sight across the river. The name Henrico, or City of Henricus, was conferred upon the place in honor of Prince Henry, son of James I., of whom Dale wrote these noble words, on his sudden death: "My glorious master is gone, that would have enameled with his favors the labors I undertake for God's cause and his immortal honor. He was the great captain of our Israel; the hope to have builded up this heavenly New Jerusalem be interred, I think; the whole frame of this business fell into his grave." Having founded the City of Henricus, the High Marshal proceeded to found another at Bermuda Hundreds, and the new communities were illustrations of society in its first stage of social-military organization. Each group of families had its "commander," in peace a magistrate, and in war a captain. Excellent Mr. Whitaker looked after the morals of all. "Every Sabbath day," he writes to a friend in London, "we preach in the forenoon, and catechise in the afternoon. Every Saturday, at night, I exercise in Sir Thomas Dale's house." |