vided for the chief, but with no seeming benefit. It soon became evident that he must die. He lingered, however, for several days. He gave no utterance of suffering, and no sign of dejection. He spake but few words, and those chiefly to his followers; but in many ways he discovered to the last an unbroken pride, a stoical indifference to his fate, and a lofty contempt for every Englishman who intruded upon his presence. He betrayed none of the milder feelings of human nature, except by the silent but eloquent affection with which he received the services of his countrymen. Now and then it was displayed in the satisfaction with which he would gaze upon his attendants for a few moments, and in the look of farewell with which he would then order his eyelids to be dropped. His children, as he always called them, were about him night and day. It would have moved the hardest heart to witness the breathless anxiety with which they bent over his couch; the big tears which sometimes dropped from their eyes, in spite of their pride; the womanly tenderness with which they relieved his posture, or ministered to his burning thirst; the gentle tones in which they asked his wants; the noiseless tread with which they moved; the tremulous whispers in which they spake; and the sullen anguish with which they sometimes sank writhing on the floor. "The strong men bowed themselves."

"Uttomatin!" whispered the dying patriarch, "why are my children so noisy? Let them be silent."

66

They are the pale-faces, my father. They come to see."

A frown clouded the brow of Opechancanough. Uttomatin! let me see."

As his eyes were opened, he gave a look at the intruders upon his privacy, beneath which some of them shrank, brutal as they were.

"Raise me, Uttomatin!"

The warrior did so, supporting the dying man against his breast.

"Let the chief of the white men be called. He must come instantly. Opechancanough demands it." When Sir William shortly after appeared, the chief with great effort attained to a full and strong voice, and said, with a look of right royal scorn: "Shame, — shame to the pale-face chief, who makes a gazingstock of his captive on a dying bed! Had it been my fortune to have taken Sir William Berkeley prisoner, I would have given him honor, such as a great chief should have, at the stake, and in the presence of my braves. But I would not meanly have kept him for a show. A dog has a right to peace and privacy when the hand of the Great Spirit is upon him." *

Soon after, the scene closed. Opechancanough had fulfilled his course. His spirit had returned unto God who gave it.

*I have varied the traditionary words of Opechancanough only so far as to give what I believe to have been his real meaning.

The historian who retorts that he "made a show" of Captain Smith, should remember that Opechancanough made no complaint that he, like Captain Smith, was made a show on his progress to the head-quarters of his captors; and that there is a heaven-wide difference between the exhibition of a military captive in a triumphal procession, and the admission of a gaping rabble to the private apartment of a dying man. Opechancanough was consistent with himself, with his own behavior, with his own high sense of honor. His rebuke was as sound as caustic; and, had the supposition on which it was made that Sir William was privy to the transaction — been true, it would have been infamously deserved.

CHAPTER XXI.

VIRGINIA AND CROMWELL.

IN the same month in which Opechanca- 1645. nough died, Sir William Berkeley sailed for

England, disappointed of his trophy. He returned, however, and resumed the duties of his office in June of the next year.

In October, 1646, a treaty of peace was effected with Necotowance, the successor of Opechancanough. He acknowledged himself a tributary of the king of England, and ceded to the English all the country between the York and James rivers.

In March, 1648, he came in person to Jamestown, having in his train five subordinate chiefs, and bringing his annual tribute to King Charles. Upon this occasion he made "a long oration" to Sir William Berkeley, in which he protested that "the sun and moon should first lose their glorious lights and shining, before he or his people should evermore hereafter wrong the English in any kind, but they would ever hold love and friendship together."

A large measure of internal thrift was now the lot of the colony. The Indians seemed thoroughly indisposed to cope with their powerful invaders, retired beyond the neighborhood of their settlements, and were forbidden by Necotowance, on pain of death, to appear within the English limits, unless sent by

him as messengers. The colonists now numbered fifteen thousand," and "of negroes three hundred good servants." They were visited usually by about thirty trading-vessels in a year, and in the preceding December there lay in their waters at one time twelve ships from England, twelve from Holland, and seven from New England. There were in the colony twenty thousand neat cattle, two hundred horses and mares, fifty asses, three thousand sheep, five thousand goats, and innumerable swine and poultry; hundreds of acres of wheat, "plenty of barley, excellent malt, and six publike Brew-houses"; indigo, hemp, and flax; four wind-mills, five water-mills, many horse-mills, but no saw-mills; twenty churches, and ministers to each whose livings were worth at least one hundred pounds per annum. The Governor, from half a bushel of rice, had raised fifteen, which he was intending to sow at the next season. He had fifteen hundred fruit-trees, besides apricots, peaches, quinces, &c. Captain Brocas had planted a vineyard, and "made most excellent wine." Richard Bennet, from an orchard of his own planting, "had made twenty Butts of excellent cider." For the last three or four years, Richard Kinsman had made forty or fifty butts of perry. But "worthy Captaine Matthews, an old Planter of above thirty years standing," seems to have been the prince of planters," hath a fine house, sowes yeerly store of Hemp and Flax, and causes it to be spun; keeps weavers, and hath a Tan House; causes leather to be dressed; hath eight shoemakers

"Perfect Description," p. 3. Bancroft states the number at twenty thousand. Grahame gives twenty thousand as the number in 1642! Vol. I. p. 96.

employed in their trade; hath forty negroe servants," more than one eighth of all in Virginia; "brings them up to trades in his house; yeerly sows abundance of wheat, barley, &c.; hath abundance of kine, a brave dairy, swine great store, and Poltery; keeps a good house, lives bravely, and a true lover of Virginia; he is worthy of much honor."

There was also at this time "a Free-schoole with two hundred acres of land, a fine house upon it, forty milch kine.” It was established "by Mr. Benjamin Symes, worthy to be chronicled." *

1649.

The civil war in England, which had been raging since 1642, was closed by the execution of the king on the 30th of January, 1649. Virginia had no share in the strife. Her intercourse with England had, indeed, been much interrupted, and her trade hindered; still, as we have seen, her domestic condition was prosperous. The planters pursued their quiet labors without interruption, and waited with anxiety for the issue of the struggle in the mother country. But when, at length, the news arrived that the king was beheaded, - that British royalty was overthrown, the Virginians did not acknowledge "The Commonwealth." Their Assembly met in October, and in their first act "expressed the profoundest veneration for the late king; denounced all aspersions upon his memory as treasonable; declared it treason to doubt the right of Prince Charles to succeed to the crown, or to propose a change of government in the colony, or to doubt the authority of the Governor or government."

* Perfect Description of Virginia.