DISCOVERY OF THE BERMUDAS.

129

men to whom the management of the colony was now entrusted was a guarantee for a vigorous and upright policy. Lord Delaware had been in the spring appointed Captain-General and Governor of the English colonies to be planted in Virginia. For the present, however, he was willing to leave the control of the colony to the most experienced and capable members of the company, and the command of the present expedition was entrusted to Gates, Somers, and Newport. Ratcliffe, despite his previous failure, returned with them. On the 1st of June they set sail with a fleet of nine vessels. In the very hour of departure a dispute broke out between the three leaders which in its results was nearly fatal to the colony. Being unable to settle the question of precedence, they decided that all three should sail in one ship. About the end of July a storm scattered the fleet. Seven out of the nine ships at length reached Virginia, but one perished, and the Sea Venture, in which were the three leaders, was completely cut off from the rest of the fleet. The ship was, in the words of one of her crew, "so shaken, torn, and leaked, that she received so much water as covered two ton of hogshead about the ballast." For five days the crew baled and pumped "without any intermission, and yet the water seemed rather to increase than to diminish; insomuch that all our men being utterly spent, tyred and disabled for longer labour, were even resolved, without any hope of their lives, to shut up the hatches, and to have committed themselves to the mercy of the sea." Some sank down, utterly exhausted, and slept: others stupefied themselves with strong drink. But there was at least one man on board who had been trained in a school where death was no stranger, and who did not think that a man could face it best drunk or sleeping. As undaunted as when in the prime of manhood he had fought his way up the cliffs above St. Jago, Somers sat for three days and rights on the poop, scarcely eating or drinking, using all his skill to keep the vessel upright and save her from foundering. When everything seemed hopeless a cry of "land" from Somers. roused the crew from their despair. By dint of hard pumping the ship was kept above water till within half a mile of shore, where, "fortunately in so great a misfortune," she stuck fast between two rocks. The whole company, one hundred and fifty

1 "Some of them having good and comfortable waters in the ship fetcht them and drunke one to the other, taking their last leave one of the other until their more joyful and happy meeting in a more blessed world."-Plain Description, p. 10. The quaintly euphemistic language suggests that the writer was himself an actor in this part of the affair.

in number, landed in safety, with a good part of their furniture, which the sea had spared, and most of the gear from the ship.

of the

The land proved to be the Bermudas, a “land never inhabited by any Christian or heathen people,” and a name of dread to the Discovery seamen of those days as "ever esteemed and reputed Bermudas, a most prodigious and enchanted place, affording nothing but gusts, storms, and foul weather." The island, however, completely belied its evil reputation. It was found to be a very garden of nature, "the richest, healthfullest, and most pleasing land as ever man put foot upon." The energy of Somers supplied his companions with abundance of fish and hog's flesh, to which they soon added turtles, wild-fowl, and various fruits. The island gave promise of abundant resources to make it a possession of permanent value. Pearls and ambergris, both of the best quality, abounded, and whales were seen in numbers off the shore. For ten months the emigrants stayed on the island, during which time two children were born and one marriage solemnized. Meanwhile the leaders of the expedition did not forget their original object. Two pinnaces were built and fitted as well as they could be with the gear saved from the wreck of the Sea Venture. These were stored with salted hogs'-flesh and other food, and on the 10th of May the voyagers set sail for Virginia.

State of

the settle

ment of

On their arrival there a discouraging spectacle met their view. From the time of Newport's departure in 1608 everything had gone amiss with the settlement. Powhatan, if we may believe Smith's account, was perpetually intriguing to Virginia. get the settlers in his power, though his devices were baffled by the craft and courage of the President. The treachery of the Indians was abetted by some Germans whom Smith had sent to Powhatan to build him a stone house, and who seemingly preferred his interests to the welfare of the English. Pocahontas, it is almost needless to say, figures throughout the story as the good genius of the settlers, warning them of the hostile schemes of her countrymen. Finally the hostility of Powhatan was averted by a happy accident. An Indian prisoner at Jamestown was accidentally stupefied by the fumes of charcoal and was believed by his countrymen to be dead. Smith restored him by the

2 lb., p. 11.

A Plain Description, p. 11. Our knowledge of this period is derived mainly from Smith's History. We have also two letters, one from Archer, in Purchas, vol. iv. p. 1733, the other from Ratcliffe to Lord Salisbury, Col. Papers, Oct. 4. 1609.

DEPARTURE OF SMITH.

131

application of aqua vitæ and vinegar. The supposed resurrection of a dead man impressed the Indians with a deep reverence for the supernatural powers of their enemy, and for a while the settlement enjoyed an immunity from attacks. About the same time the material condition of the colony seems to have been brightened by a transient gleam of prosperity. We can readily believe the statement that the President, true to his old military habits, succeeded in establishing regular hours of labor, and that under his management houses were built, the church roofed, and fishing weirs made. Thirty or forty acres were brought under tillage, and the live stock increased rapidly. Despite this it was needful to divide the colony by sending out three detachments to the oyster fisheries and by billeting some among the Indians. A series of calamities soon robbed the colony of the services of its ablest members. Scrivener, who had acted as Smith's deputy, was upset in his boat while trading among the Indians and was drowned, with nine others, among whom was a brother of Gosnold.

In May, 1609, the fleet arrived, having, as we have seen, lost its leaders. This addition to the numbers of the colony seems to have brought nothing but misfortune. Smith describes the new-comers as "unruly gallants, packed thither by their friends to escape ill destinies."

Departure of Smith.

The old enmity of Ratcliffe, Archer, and Martin towards Smith again made itself felt, and the authority which the President had established over the settlers was at an end. The folly of the newcomers soon involved the settlement in descreditable squabbles with the natives. The formal purchase of a tract of land from Powhatan, with the understanding that each of its inhabitants should pay a tribute of corn to the new-comers on condition of being protected against their enemies, the Manakins, is the only sensible or useful transaction recorded during this time. At length an accident robbed the colony of the one man who was able to protect it from danger without, and to enforce some degree of order within. An accidental discharge of powder injured Smith so severely that he was forced to return to England, never to revisit Virginia. With all his boastfulness and arrogance, his services to the colony had been solid and valuable.

1 Smith, p. 90.

According to Ratcliffe, he was sent home to stand his trial. Archer does not confirm this, but refers to dissensions for which Smith was to blame.

The positions of authority and trust that he afterwards filled are in themselves sufficient proof that his colonial career was highly esteemed in his own age, and though the special incidents with which popular belief has associated his name may be fabulous, yet it is no unjust chance which has given him the foremost place in the early history of Virginia.

condition of

under

Percy.

After Smith's departure, the post of President devolved on Percy. That amid all the complaints and abuse which were inWretched discriminately heaped upon the leading men of the colthe colony ony, his character should have escaped, is in itself high testimony to his conduct. But his health was so feeble that he had nothing more than the weight of his name wherewith to enforce his authority. As might have been expected in such a community, that proved unavailing, and utter anarchy and destitution ensued. The Indians slew the settlers' hogs, and cut off any stragglers from the fort. Ratcliffe, who had gone in command of a foraging party, was entrapped into an ambush by the Indians and killed, with thirty of his men. The outward aspect of the colony proclaimed its state of anarchy and distress. Jamestown looked more like the ruin of an ancient fortress than an inhabited town. The palisade was torn down, and the gates off their hinges. Rows of deserted houses told of the mortality which had thinned the settlement, while their shattered timbers, torn and broken for firewood, bore witness to the sloth and thriftlessness of the survivors.

Such was the spectacle which met the eyes of Gates and Somers on their arrival from the Bermudas. As might be supposed, Intended the new-comers found themselves unable to bring about break-up of the colony. any lasting improvement. Luckily some part of the stores brought from the Bermudas still remained, and the vessels at command were enough to embark the whole colony. A consultation was held, and it was found that the stores could not last for more than sixteen days. To break up the colony was a hopeess confession of defeat, a step only to be taken in the last ex

Our knowledge of the internal condition of the colony after Smith's departure is derived from: 1. Percy's account in Purchas. vol. iv. ch. 2. 2. The report of Gates and Somers on their arrival. The latter is found in a letter from Lord Delaware and his council to the London Company, published in Mr. Major's introduction to Strachey's Travayle into Virginia. 3. A pamphlet published in 1620 by authority of the Company, entitled A Declaration of the State of the Colony in Virginia. Republished in Force, vol. iii. 4. Strachey's account above referred to. We have also a statement drawn up in 1624 at the time of the attacks on the Company, entitled A Brief Declaration of Virginia. It appears to have been written by one of the original colonists. It is epitomized in the "Colonial Papers."

* Delaware's letter, p. xxvii. Strachey in Purchas, vol. iv. p. 1752.

ARRIVAL OF DELAWARE.

133

tremity, yet to stay meant to die of famine. Accordingly, the settlers decided to embark in the two pinnaces, and to make for Newfoundland, where, as it was now the fishing season, they might find supplies, and get shipping for England. A proposal to burn Jamestown was resisted by Gates, and on the 7th of June, at noon, the settlers, with a salvo of small arms, bade farewell to the colony. At that moment it might have seemed to the most sanguine as if an impassable barrier was set up against the settlement of Virginia. Each attempt had been more costly than the one before it, and each had miscarried more miserably. Lane's colonists had returned as they went, baffled only by inexperience and weakness, and having done their duty as pioneers. White's had failed through no fault of their own, but through the sloth and folly of those who should have succored them. The present settlers had received every help and every care that they could ask, the wisest and richest men of the age had lavished thought, energy, and money on the colony, and this was the end. The very magnitude of the undertaking made the failure more final, and any attempt at a revival more hopeless. At length, however, in its darkest hour, a gleam of good fortune visited the luckless settlement.

Arrival of

Early in the spring of 1610, Delaware had determined to sail in person for Virginia with three ships. In a sermon preached at the Temple Church, William Crashaw bade him God Delaware. speed, as one "whom God had stirred up to neglect the pleasures of England, and with Abraham to go from thy country, and forsake thy kindred, and thy father's house to go to a land which God will show thee"; and reminded him how "his ancestor had taken a king prisoner in the fields, in his own land," while it was left to him, "by the godly managing of this business, to take the devil prisoner in open field and in his own kingdom." On the 10th of April Delaware sailed. After a rough passage, in which the ships were separated, they reached Chesapeake Bay. The fleet anchored off Cape Comfort, where, in Delaware's own phrase, 66 we met with much cold comfort." The commander of the fort here came on board and “unfolded a strange narrative of double

1

1 Crashaw's sermon was published, seemingly without the author's consent. Mr. Neill gives copious extracts from it in his English Colonization, p. 35.

Our authorities for Delaware's voyage are his own letters above referred to, and Stra chey's account in Purchas. We have also a letter from Delaware to Lord Salisbury, Colo nial Papers, July, 1610, and one from Somers to Salisbury, June 15. Mr. Major adduces substantial arguments for supposing that Delaware's letter to the Council was written by Strachey.