The History of Virginia, from its first settlement to the commencement of the Revolution

Front matter

THE Mi^m^ %w Tim^iiri^ FROM ITS FIRST SETTIiEMLfcJS'T TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF ®wm mmw^ihw^iKDmo IN THREE VOLS. by JOHN BURK, esq. VOL. I. PETERSTiURO, VIRGINIA, asaa* DEDICATION. SIR, THE History of Virginia, by a sort of national right, claims you as its guardian and patron. Born in this state, and conversant, from your earliest youth, with the records of her laws and government, to whose improvement aud preservation, you have devoted considerable time and attention, you know better than any other man, the arduous nature ofthe present work. Animated by a laudable zeal for the honor of your coun try, you early published your observations and reflections on her laws, climate, &c. taking occasion, at the same time, to repel the rash charges of certain philosophers, against her physical and moral productions.

Your work is not an his tory : It may not improperly be considered an interesting epitome of politics, history, and science ; wherein you have contrived to enliven a subject, -whose title promised little in teresting, with much curious and elegant research, together w ith a rich variety of new matter, placed in a new and pro per light. To this work, sir, I acknowledge myself much indebted ; and I have endeavored to regulate myself by its advice.... keeping clear of the tedious, although correct, cir cumstantiality of Stith; and, (I hope) the hasty and ob scure brevity of Beverley. To the people of America, who feel and acknowledge the practical blessings of liberty under your administration, lit tle apology is necessary for my choice of a patron : I hate the word I have been compelled to adopt, ow*ing to the po verty of language ; for although in use, anterior to the exist ence of die feudal system, it conveys a feudal spirit and sig nification.

You will take it in its manliest and most liberal sense, as a phrase of sentiment, bespeaking merely attachment and respect. To attempt an apology to you, for the liberty I have ta ken, would, I hope, be equally impertinent... I inscribe it to you, because I conceive you to be the first and most useful citizen in the republic : And, whatever be the value of my work, I mean you a compliment and a favor. Should any motives of vanity be ascribed to me, in plac ing my name with yours ; perhaps, I am not insensible to the pleasure of appearing in company with a man, whose singular good fortune it has been, to govern a great and en lightened people, by the mild agency of laws ; and who has always found more satisfaction in abridging his authority, than other rulers have in aggrandizing themselves, at the expence of the liberty and happiness of their country.

Preface

. 11 history comprises only a space of tw*enty years, and it is to be found only in the libraries ofthe curious. Beverley is a mere annalist of petty incidents, put to gether without method, and unenlivened by any of the gra ces of stile. He is moreover the apologist of power, in which respect also, he differs essentially from Stith, who on all occasions, displays a manly contempt and defiance of inj us tice and tyranny. Sir W. Keith, although more diffuse than Beverley, and more graceful and correct, has little more of detail. Smith's is a sort of epic history or romance, where the author, like Ossian, recounts his atchievments in the spirit with which he fought. His narrative, however, occasionally discovers much good sense, and raises no inconsidera ble interest. It is moreover the ground work of succeeding histories, and is valuable as a piece of rare and curious an tiquity.

These books, taken together, contain a mass of valuable matter, which it would be prudent to collect, arrange, and concentrate, before the few copies which remain, disappear from private libraries, as they have already done from the shelf of the book-seller. In addition to the assistance, which rnipht be derived from those publications, chance has tin-own in my way two large manuscript volumes, containing the minutes of the London Company, together with the proceedings of the Virginia councils and assembly, with little interruption, to the middle of the reign of George II. These volumes arc a mine of information, and their value is enhanced by the conside ration, that they are, in all? -probability, the only copies in existence. This collection may be further. enriched by such docu mci ts as are tobefoundin the ptibiie offices, and in the library oi \ , illiam and Mary College, to the free use of which the Author has been politely invited.

PREFACE.

. r.t It -would seem almost unnecessary to speak any thing of the use and importance of history itself. It is universally con sidered as a grand field of experience, where, as in philoso phical experiments, principles and systems are tested by their processes and results ; and it is in this species of com position, at once the simplest and most diversified, whilst it is obviously* the most authentic, that we find so many su blime examples of virtue and intelligence. It never can be a matter of indifference to a gallant and in telligent people, that there be a faithful record of their lives and manners. It is a debt which their ancestors have paid to them ; it is a duty they owe to posterity* : To themselves, it is an inexhaustible magazine of precepts and models for all human occasions. It were to be wished indeed, that a mind of greater com pass and vigour had undertaken the present work.

To carry on a regular and lucid series of incident for any length of time, giving a just and lively picture of the manners and customs of each age ; to note the slow and gradual transition ofthe mind from barbarism, to taste, from tyranny to freedom ; to en large the scope and range of narrative, with reflections which shall appear to be dictated by the precision of science and the foresight of prophecy : And to adorn the whole with the rich treasures of antiquity, requires indeed an union of powers to which the Author is not arrogant enough to lay claim. Yet he conceives that patience and fidelity, a strong relish for what is great and beautiful, and a determination to be strictly impartial, may enable him to produce something not wholly unprofitable ; and as the field has long remained un occupied by an abler advocate, he hopes it will not be thought presumption to attempt, what he is free to admit, requires a mind of greater experience and capacity.

PREFACE.

. IV POSTSCRIPT. SINCE waiting the above, several interesting papers have been added to my collection, by the friendship and public spirit of several citizens, of which all the use possible shall be made in the notes and the general appendix. In my introduction, as the subject was not necessarily connected w*ith Virginia, I have principally attended to bre vity ; having condensed the matter found in M'Laurin's preface, in the history of philosophers, and Dr. Robertson's introduction, in the fifth part of the space taken up by the latter gentleman. I take leave of my reader, with the following quotation from David Hume : — "And though I am sensible (says he) that I must repeat many observations and reflections, which have been com municated by others ; yet as every book, agreeably to the observation of a * great historian, should be complete as possible within itself, and should never refer for any thing material to other books," &c. Sec. Hume's England, Append. 2, p. 423. * Padir Paodo. Hist. cone. Tred.

Chapter I

Introduction — Fables concerning the origin of nations — Curiosity of nations respecting their origin — This curiosity, when laudable — The origin of Virginia freed from obscurity — by its recent establishment — by the art of printing — by the concurrent testimony of history. The importance of an history of this state to her own citlz ns — to those of her sister states — to the worl I at large — A short history of commerce and navigation, previously necessary, in order to judge coijectly of the merit of modern navigators — to connect the series of maritime -adventure — Ignorance of the ancients in geography — theirnotions ofthe torrid zone — their actual observation, confined to the northern temperate zone. State of navigation in the beginning of the lAth century — attempt to rescue the ancients from the imputation of geographical ignorance — by whom made — parallel between the ancients and moderns — State of ancient navigation — Circumnavigation . of Afric.

Discovery of T slide — of the Canaries. Commerce of tfie Lgyptians — of the Phenicians — of the Carthagh ians — ofthe Romans — of the Greek empire— of the Italian cities, fnvention of the mariner's compass by Flario Gioiaz — no immediate advantage derived from this discovery. Discovery of Canaries by the Spaniards. Expedition of the Portuguese to the western coasts of Afric — C NZon doubled — Porto Santo and Madeira dis- B CHAP, I covered — Cape de Verde. Spirit of discovery sus pended, through fear of the heat of the equatorial regions — Party spirit in Portugal — Regains its elasticity by the philosophic ardor of Prince Henry. Azores discovered. Portuguese cross the line. Cape of Good Hope discovered by Eartholomew Diaz. Christopher Columbus — his birth — education — born at Genoa — early discovers a genius and predilection for the sea — at 14 makes his first voyage to Mediterranean — sails to the coast of Iceland — next voyage with a celebrated captain of his own name — his courage and skill in this service — engagement with Venetian Car aval — his ship takes fire — He gains by the help of an oar the Portuguese coast — marries the daughter of Bartholomew Perestrello — he derives assistance from t/ie journals and charts of this navigator — refections and hopes suggested by their perusal — trades with Madeira and the other discoveries of Portuguese and Spaniards.

Prevailing opinion respecting the route to India — opinion of Columbus. Foundation of his theory — rosolves to put it in execution — -applies to Spain — his flan approved — sets sail from Pahs — steers towards the west — Apprehensions of his crews. Westerly variation of needle — address of Columbus in accounting for it — apprehensions of sailors encrease — their hopes revive — are disap pointed — their mutiny — compromise of Columbus with his crew — land discovered in the night — Penitence of sailors — he forgives them — goes on shore — takes possession ofthe Island in the name ofthe Spanish monarch — discovers several others in that Archipelago — returns to Spain — makes three other voyages — discovers the continent — In gratitude of the king — persecution and neglect of Columbus — Dies at Valladolid — his character.

CHAP I HISTORY. THERE has prevailed among mankind in eve ry age, a desire to be acquainted w ith their origin ; and the disposition is almost equally general, to believe this origin illustrious, or at least respectable. The notion of noble blood, and the gradations of rank, which their chiefs have stre nuously insisted are established by nature, for die better government of the world, and which, they contend, are essential to its peace and prosperity, probably suggested the vain pride of deriving lus tre from ancestry. It would serve the double purpose of infusing a sort of national pride and spirit into the people, and of directing this spirit to es tablish and perpetuate their own authority. A people is with difficulty induced to question the rights of rulers, avIio derive them descent and au thority from the Gods.* We find, that nations, in other respects, acute and rational, have not been able to divest them selves of this vanity : Even the Greeks and Ro mans, men, whose faculties were eminently im proved by every species of knowledge, and who enjoyed the inestimable privilege of self-government, appear to have felt its influence in its full- * Witness the blind submission of the tribes of the Nat ches, to their horrible government, and the idolatrous res pect entertained for their monarchs, by the Peruvians and Mexicans.

CHAP, 1 est extent. The fathers of history* and song, ar® forever wandering in the mazes of fable, for their original. Virgil and Livy ; Thucidides and So phocles, have alike given sanction to this error ; and those sublime geniuses, whose writings have improved and delighted the -world, pretend to have all imaginable respect for those traditions, which derive the blood of Romulus, of Theseus, and Achilles, from one of the thirty thousand deities, who composed the magnificent establishment of heathen worship. In modern times, indeed, there is less of fable in the genealogy of nations ; the art of printing affording a stronger light and clearer medium than the weak and dubious gleam of oral tradition Yet we too, have had our *sables; and our priests to the full as liberal as those of antiquity, have col lected armies of -jmartyrs and saints, w hose pic tures and statues, executed by the ablest Jartists, command our admiration and sympathy The establishment of offices of heraldry, in the several countries of Europe, and the rage with which armorial bearings and devices are sought for by individuals, is sufficient evidence, that Tfwe are not * See the account of the origin of the French monarchy, and of the northern countries of Europe. f The moderns do infinitely out-number the ancients in divinities : One item alone in the account, is eleven thousand virgins : The mythology of the ancients is positively jejune and barren, compared to such prolific powers of de ification. t The chef d'euvrjs ofthe best masters of the Flemish and Italian schools, express the sufferings of the pious.

The pkurches are full of those pathetic representations. Mankind in general. VIRGINIA. 5 CHAP, 1 much wiser in this respect, than those, who have gone before us. An honester and more manly pride, I will ac knowledge, actuates the people, whose history I write, although even they do not furnish a com plete exception. Separated from Europe by a Avar, provoked by tyranny, and which terminated in the triumph of liberty, and the establishment of a republican government, the people of Virgi nia, in common with those of the other members of the American confederacy, deliberately turned their backs on antiquity, looking solely to nature and reason for models aud examples. The revolution, like a strong tempest, scattered the ar chives of superstition, and blew down her temples ; and the minds ofthe people, unfettered by a slavish respect for authority, every day disclos ed new* energies in the faculty of reasoning.

The curiosity which nations discover concerning: their original, when it amounts to nothing; more than a thirst for knowledge ; a desire to ex amine the springs of human actions, to read the lives of their founders, for the purpose of imi tating their virtues, and steering clear of their errors ; to compare the actions cf men with their professions, and to note the march of mind v. 6 the causes of its occasional declension : If it seek to draw from the revolution of empires, maxims for regulating their manners, and correcting their policy, it is a laudable quality, which should be fostered by the sensibility of man, and the policy* of government. Fortunately for the people, whose history I WTite, the source of their greatness needs not to be traced to the night nor the infancy of time ; to the dark or heroic ages : They derive no artificial renown from the beautiful fictions of poetry : Tradition has thrown round their origin nothing G CHAP, I of the mysterious or marvellous : Their founders are scarcely out of sight.

A handful of hardy adventurers appeared on different parts of this continent, within the last two hundred years, and from them sprang a republican confederacy of seventeen nations. But for their principal virtues and exploits we must direct our attention to the last thirty years. In this short span, they have crouded ages of glory ; during this period, they resisted the encroachments ofthe mother country ; they broke the fetters of colonial subjection ; they defied the armies and navies of Britain. Within this short period, generals and statesmen were formed without any previous discipline or instruction ; orators and poets sprang up as it were by magic ; whilst inventive and experimental wisdom were successfully employed in advancing in all directions, the boundaries of human knowledge. These thirty years form the most lumi nous portion of the line of duration.

It is clue to the virtues and glory of this people, that history should eternize their atchievments : It is important to the world, that their struggles and their triumphs should remain on record. Ty rants will learn moderation whilst they read ; by them, slaves will be instructed how to regain their rights, and afflicted humanity will find consolation in the prospect of a better order of things. Previously to entering on the history of this people, and the first settlement of this state, it is conceived essential to consider the state of naviga tion and commerce among the ancients. The merit of modem discoveries cannot be fairly ap preciated, but by comparison. It will be necessary then briefly to state what lights were found in the writings of the ancient sages. Such an en quiry will moreover connect and complete a series of maritime adventure.

VIRGINIA. 7 CHAP, i Notwithstanding the astonishing advances made by the ancients in the sine arts, and several branches of science, their notions of geography were crude and unnatural. They had early made a division* of the earth into zones, and pretend ed to fix with precision the number of |degrees to each zone. But their actual observation and experience was confined to Jthe northern tem perate zone. Beyond this, ,all was fiction and conjecture. * Pythagoras and Thales divided the heavens into five zones. Parmenides transferred this division to the terres trial globe. t Eratosthenes supposed the torrid zone to comprehend sixteen degrees : The calculation of Posidonius supposed twelve degrees on each side of the equator : Parmenides, in his division, makes the torrid zone the largest ofthe five. f Men can only subsist on a small part of the surface of the terraqueous globe, the extremes of heat and cold not allowing them to inhabit the regions near the poles, or those adjoining to the equinoctial line.

They have multiplied only in temperate climates : But many geographical maps have erroneously given a circular form to the portion of the earth which they occupy. The habitable world stretches to a much less distance from south to north, than from east to west. To the north of the Euxine we'find the Schythian nations; some of which cultivate the earth, and others wan der over their vast domains. The countries still farther are inhabited by different nations and tribes, and among others by the Artbropophagi. Beyond this barbarous people, we suppose there are immense desarts. Towards the north-east, beyond the Caspian sea, dwell several nations, the names of which have been transmitted to us, with this additional circumstance, that' some of them sleep six months together ; that others have only one eye, and others again the feet of goats.

You will judge from these stories of our geographical knowledge. — To the west ward, we have penetrated as far as the pillars of Hercules, and have a confused idea, ot the nations inhabiting the coast s CHAP 1 HISTORY OF Reasoning analogically from the increase of heat in approaching the equator, they concluded that the torrid zone, continually exposed to the acti on of a vertical sun, was waste and uninhabitable. That the opposite temperate zone possessed inhabi tants, was, with them, barely a conjecture, depend ing too on analogies, only somewhat more natu ral ; but they imagined, that the central zone op posed itself as an impassable and everlasting barrier of fire, to a communication between them. The other zones, from their intense cold, they deemed alike incapable of supporting life.

It is said, indeed, that Pythagoras, Eratosthenes, Po lybius, and Ptolemy, entertained a more rational opinion on this subject ; but whatever stress may Le laid on the express opinion of the three first, and on the silence of the last of those philoso phers, in his treatise on geography, it cannot be doubted that the former was the prevailing opinion, and w*as embraced by the most illustrious sages of anticjuity. But however this matter may stand, as it respects the ancients, there is no doubt, that it was the prevailing opinion in Europe, among the philosophers and navigators, so late as the fourteenth century : And w-heii we consider, that the at tention of mathematicians and geographers, in of Iberia; but to the interior part ofthe country we are ut ter .strangers. As for the interior of Afric, we have heard of a route that entirely crosses it from the city of Thebes, in Egypt, to the pillars of Hercules.

It is asserted likewise, that several great nations exist in that part of the earth, but we are not told their names ; and you will naturally imagine, after what I have said, that they do not inhabit the torrid zone. Anacharsis, vol. 2, fi. 210 — 2 11. His authorities are the best in all antiquity. Strabo, Ari stotle, Diog-jnes, Anaxagoras, Herodotus, and Ctesias. VIRGINIA. 9 CHAP, I. their closets, in all parts of Europe, was irresisti bly drawn to this subject, by the first discoveries of the Portuguese, and that they were impelled, as well by interest, as curiosity, to throw light on this subject : When we reflect, that learned men were actually engaged to consult with or accompany the first navigators, it cannot be doubted, that the ignorance of the true figure of our globe, was alike common to the theoretical and practi cal scholars of those times.

Th e awe with which successive navigators made their gradual advances to the equator, and the un conquerable horror excited by their approaches to a zone, which was considered on fire, speak more forcibly than volumes on this head. This notion of an uninhabitable zone, was long cherished by a sort of mysterious dread, to which superstition was not backward in lending her as sistance ; so unwilling is man to renounce the prejudices, which afford him only misery and ter ror.... and it w*as not finally *abandoned, even af ter the adventurous spirit of navigation had pass ed and repassed this imaginary barrier of fire. Many learned men, educated in the gloom of monastic or academic retirement, and enthusias tically attached, from the very nature of their studies, to the ancient writers, whose superiority* over the moderns, they passionately contend for on all Occasions, are unwilling to admit this gross ignorance in their favorites ; and even some, who had enlarged their views, by mixing with the world, * The Spaniards, who had never ventured so far to the south, were afraid that the ships would take fire, and began to apprehend the reality of what the ancients had taught concerning the destructive qualities of that torrid region of the earth.

Rob. Amer. lib. 2.fi. 193. C are unwilling to lay down the prejudices of their youth. Dr. Robertson, a name of -high authori ty, has been at some pains to rescue from this ge neral imputation, the ancient sages. FIc admits, how*ever, that Cicero, the most accomplished scho lar ofthe very learned age in which he lived, and a student, moreover, for a considerable time, at Athens, where he had an opportunity of being ac quainted with the opinions ofthe Greek philosophers, did absolutely *teach, as the popular, or, rather, as the only opinion, the intolerable heat of* the torrid zone, and the utter impracticability of passing the equator. Cicero must be presumed to have known at least the opinions of his cotempora ries ; and it cannot be, that so great a master, was ignorant ofthe existence of an opposite opinion, if such an one existed.

Without suffering ourselves to be engaged in a contest, which has already fruitlessly em ployed so much time, it may not be amiss to suggest a few observations, which will make the is: norance of ancient geographers easy to be credited ; not that it is deemed essential to an liistory of this state.. ..but the historians, who be fore treated this subject, having given it import ance by their speculations, it may be supposed that my silence gave sanction to their opinions. The science of geography, although, (as its name implies) it peculiarly relates to the globe on which we live, and, therefore, may be presumed most accessible to our observation; is, per haps, more dependant on the other branches of knowledge, than any other subject. Unassisted by astronomy, it isa dark and trackless desart, without a single star to direct us.

Again.... As- * Somn'w.m Scijiionis, c. 6. If CHAP I. VIRGINIA; tronomy is nothing more than the incessant ap plication of geometry to the bodies composing our system. It is necessary, too, that this application be not merely inarithmetical calculation, or that the results *accord in the truest harmony of numbers. Observation must confirm them; they must be tested by experience : Until they have passed this ordeal, they are at bestbutvague and floating theories, buoyed up for a season by analogy ; but unable to establish themselves, for the want of the solid foundation of facts. If these positions be correct, it will follow*, that the ancients had no correct knowledge of geography. Their scheme of mathematics, on paper, was, indeed, magnificent ; but it does not appear that Euclid extended his views beyond the propositi on to be demonstrated, the corrollaries it embra ced, and the deduciblcs which obviously sprang from it.

Historians speak wilhrapture, of Archimedes' tremendous array of mechanic powers in defence of Syracuse ; yet, their utmost labors were unable to give to this branch, the form and method of a science : They could not agree on the principles, and they disputed eternally about the definitions of its common and most familiar terms. f The lever and the balance, whose uses obviously pre sent themselves, were indeed well understood ; and with those simple contrivances, it was that Archimedes atchieved real miracles. * See the arithmetical and astronomic rely of Pythago ras, by the number of whose strings, and the division of its tones, he attempted to explain the planetary system* f Witness the various definitions of motion. The celebrated proposition* of Pythagoras, for ascertaining the figures and dimensions of bodies, which cannot be placed in juxta position, afforded the antients the means of an easy communica tion with the sun and the fixed stars ; but they were utterly ignorant of the telescope ; and this divine invention became consequently almost use less in their hands.

Aristotle treated ofthe sympathies and an tipathies of bodies, and it is not even impossible that he annexed to those terms, a meaning not widely different from what we give to attraction and repulsion : bnt there is not the slightest circumstance to justify the belief, that he considered his sympathy as a grand general law, regulat ing, like the principle of Newton, the motion, dis tances, and times of the heavenly bodies ; acting at the same moment, throughout the universe, and preserving its order, beauty, and harmony. With experimental knowledge, they were en tirely unacquainted. They discovered the electric properties of Amber, and here their knowledge of electricity rested. With the nature and properties of light : With our atmosphere and its phenome na, and the innumerable wonders of natural philosophy ; with the polarity and variation of the needle, they were utterly unacquainted.

They started ingenious theories; they fortun ately glanced by conjecture on some detached parts of science : sometimes by analogy, but oftener by accident, they caught a glimpse of the truth, which they* as speedily abandoned in pursuit of some new meteoric refulgence ; but as an harmonized whole, depending on unalterable prin ciples, and regulated by imperishable laws, they * Euclid, lib. 1. Prop. 47. ✓ VIRGINIA. 13 CHAP I. Commerce ofthe Egyp tians. Ofthe Phœ mcians. were utterly unacquainted with the system of the universe. What madness then to prolong the dis pute.... Let them seize or divide the palm in epic _c dramatic poetry* ; in ode, epigram, and elegy: Let history be conceded to them, and the province of criticism thrown into the bargain ; let them insist on their superiority in eloquence, and if it must be so, in painting andstatuary; and how then will stand the account.

The one is the sonofAlc mena in his cradle ; the other is Hercules armed with his club, and clad in the skin ofthe Nemæ aii lion. But although the ancients possessed not that just and correct know-ledge of geography, which is essential to navigation ; and were moreover un assisted by that mysterious power, which com municates a constant polarity to the needle, a taste for the rich productions of distant countries, added to the restless spirit of conquest, had ena bled them to extend their commerce far beyond what Avas to be expected from their very limited knowledge. Without any other lights than some vague conjectures of their philosophers, they had cir cumnavigated the African continent. Thule and the Canaries, places very distant from each other, and situated in the midst of the ocean, were suc cessively discovered ; their commerce flowed in channels which have long since been dried up.