Pocahontas

Preface

This book, like those that have gone before it in this series, is intended for popular use, and especially is it meant to attract young people to the early history of our own country. We have not sought, therefore, to confine our story to a personal biography of Pocahontas, for which the materials are not very abundant. The adventures of Smith in the Turkish wars, as related by himself, and the explorations, trials, and battles of the early settlers at Jamestown, serve to make a romantic passage in history. The story has not often been told so fully before, and we sincerely hope that the book will prove of interest even to those already acquainted with its general features, and that it will stimulate many young readers to go farther in the study of the history of their own country.

While we have sought to be interesting we have tried sincerely to be correct ; at most, whatever romancing there is in the story is the fault

X

PREFACE.

of the early writers. It is not easy to come at the truth about Jamestown. We have usually followed Smith’s “ General History of Virginia,” consulting also the accounts of Newport, Wingfield, Strachey, and Smith’s “True Relation,” with Stith’s “ History of Virginia,” and Neill’s “Letters of the Virginia Company,” besides many other works of less importance as authorities. Where we could preserve the very words of the old chroniclers we have done so, believing that it would add to the interest of the reader to see the quaint but vigorous English in use at that time. We have also reproduced some of the cuts which adorned Smith’s General History.

The most important of the disputed questions we have discussed briefly in the Appendix.

The Authors.

Chapter I. Early Explorers And Gold-seekers

Gold' and a route to the East Indies were the dominant ideas in the minds of the early discoverers and explorers of the American continent. Columbus believed to the day of his death that the islands which he had discovered were but the outskirts of eastern Asia. He valued his discovery only as a means of opening a profitable traffic with the East. English commercial ambition long sought an easy route to the East Indies. John Cabot, a Venetian, undertook the first voyage of discovery sent to the New World from England.

In 1497, only five years after the first West Indian discovery of Columbus, Cabot reached the shores of America, or the territory of the Grand Cham in Asia, as he supposed, and returned home, the first discoverer of the American continent. In the following year, while the aged Columbus sailed to the mainland of South America, and the daring young Vasco da Gama of

POCAHONTAS.

Portugal rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and sailed with streamers flying and trumpets sounding into the harbor of Calcutta, the Venetian discoverer’s son, Sebastian Cabot, a young man barely twenty-one years old, explored the coast of North America from Newfoundland as far south as Chesapeake Bay. Nevertheless he considered his voyage a failure, since he had not discovered the shortest route to Cathay and Japan, which he reasoned would be by way of the far north. For many years after this, while Spain was making rich conquests in Mexico and Central America, England had no connection with the New World except through the fisheries of Newfoundland, which were frequented by her vessels.

In the sixteenth century the world’s work seem to the men of that day almost accomplished. An English navigator, named Martin Frobisher, deemed the discovery of a north-western passage to Asia “ the only thing in the world that was yet left undone by which a notable mind might be made famous and fortunate.” The making of this discovery was the desire of Frobisher’s heart. For fifteen years he solicited help for his project in vain. He was at last aided by Dudley, Earl of Warwick, and in 1576, with a fleet of two small barks and a pinnace, he prepared to cross the ocean. Queen Elizabeth sent a message of approbation to Frobisher, and waved her hand as the little fleet dropped down the Thames. The pinnace of but ten tons burden was soon lost in a storm, and the frightened sailors in one of the other vessels turned homeward, leaving Frobisher to pursue his course alone. In his small bark he discovered Labrador, and reached an inlet north of Hudson’s Bay. He imagined the land on the north to be Asia, that on the south to be America, and that the strait which he had discovered led into the Pacific. Frobisher landed on an arctic island, which he took possession of in the name of Elizabeth, and gathered some stones, with which he returned home. One of these stones was pronounced by the clumsy London refiners of that day to contain gold. Immediately there were men who desired to purchase these northern gold lands from Queen Elizabeth. But Frobisher was provided with a fleet for the purpose of securing the treasure. Volunteers were plenty for this expedition. The queen, who had vouchsafed only royal favor to the voyage of discovery, sent a large ship of her own on the voyage for gold. With “ a merrie wind ” they sailed from England, but they encountered much danger from icebergs before the shores of America were reached.

POCAHONTAS.

H

This great fleet did not penetrate so far as Frobisher had in his little bark. They contented themselves with an island where there were heaps of earth, which to their eyes plainly contained gold. More than this, the island abounded in spiders, and “ spiders were true signs of a great store of gold.” Admiral and men toiled like slaves to lade the vessels with common earth. But the faith of gold-dreamers was unshaken. A colony must be planted in this land of frost in order to secure so rich a country to England. Gentlemen’s sons volunteered, Elizabeth bore part of the expense, and in 1578 fifteen vessels set sail — three to remain with the settlement and twelve to hasten back with the coveted ore. The fleet became entangled among great icebergs melting in the summer’s sun and adorned with waterfalls. One vessel was crushed, though the men were saved. Bewildered among mists and icebergs, Frobisher lost his course and entered Hudson’s strait south of the land of gold. Here the Admiral believed he could sail through to the Pacific. But he pushed on in a search of the golden island, ‘ 4 getting in at one gap and out at another, among many dangers from hidden rocks on an unknown coast. When he reached the Countess of Warwick’s Sound the enthusiastic colonists were discouraged, and the sailors were ready to mutiny. One vessel containing much of the provision of the expedition deserted and returned home. The disheartened gold-seekers discovered an island, however, containing enough of the supposed gold ore “ to suffice all the gold-gluttons of the world/’ but no one proposed to colonize it for the benefit of England. The vessels were freighted and returned home. Neither the projectors of the expedition nor the adventurers who embarked upon it tell us how the lading was disposed of. Thus ended the first attempt of the English to colonize America.

In 1578 Sir Humphrey Gilbert procured from the queen a charter, which made him proprietary lord of whatever land he might discover and colonize within six years. In 1579 he set sail, accompanied by his half brother, Walter Raleigh. The loss of a vessel and various misfortunes defeated this venture. Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s fortune became too much reduced for him to undertake another expedition. He made various grants of land, but none of them resulted in a successful colony.

In 1583, beiore the patent had expired, Gilbert, ass'sted by Raleigh, fitted another fleet for settlement in America. On the eve of his departure i6

POCAHONTAS.

Sir Humphrey Gilbert received from the queen a token in the form of “ a golden anchor guided by a lady ’ ’ — whatever that may mean. Two days after leaving Plymouth, the largest ship of the fleet, which had been furnished by Raleigh, deserted under the excuse of infectious disease. The commander conducted his remaining vessels to the banks of Newfoundland. He took formal possession of the country, summoning the Spanish and Portuguese fishermen to witness the ceremony. The “ mineral-man * ’ of the fleet pronounced a certain ore to contain silver. Some of this was carried on board with great secrecy, in order that the Spanish and Portuguese might not suspect its value. A further voyage of discovery along the coast was undertaken, but Gilbert’s men were unmanageable. Through the carelessness of the sailors the largest vessel struck, and nearly one hundred persons, were lost, with the “ mineral-man” and the ore. It now seemed necessary to return home. Sir Humphrey Gilbert insisted on remaining in the Squirrel, the little bark in which he had sailed, on account of its convenience for exploring the coast. He said he would not desert the little crew with which he had encountered so many dangers. The voyage was rough. “ A more outrageous sea ” had not been seen by

EARLY EXPLORERS AND GOLD-SEEKERS. I jr the oldest sailors. Sir Humphrey was seen from the larger vessel sitting on deck with a book in his hand, and when she would approach within hearing he would call out, “ Be of good cheer, my friends ; it is as near to heaven by sea as by land.” The little vessel labored painfully in the storm, and about midnight her lights suddenly disappeared, never to be seen again.

Raleigh was ambitious to be lord over lands in the New World. He now planned a settlement in a pleasanter climate than that of Newfoundland. From the queen he obtained as ample a patent as that of his half-brother. Two vessels were freighted with men and provisions. Under the command of Philip Amidas and Arthur Barlow they followed the circuitous route of the day — by way of the Canaries and West Indies. When they neared the coast of North Carolina it was in all its midsummer beauty. The odor which reached them was “ as if they had been in the midst of some delicate garden.” The smooth sea, dotted with islands, sparkled in the sun ; the land was covered with noble trees festooned with vines. This land seemed a paradise to the colonists, who knew nothing of the terrors of the coast at a more unfavorable season. A settlement was made on the island of Wocokon, and the t8

POCAHONTAS.

time was occupied with excursions of discovery. The result of their observations of the savages were that “ the people were most gentle, loving, and faithful, void of all guile and treason, and such as lived after the manner of the golden age and yet, strange to say, in their wars they were cruel and bloody, entire tribes being sometimes almost exterminated, and they practised inviting men to a feast and then murdering them — as the English knew, for the Indians had offered them much booty to participate in such a stratagem against their enemies. After a short stay in the pleasant summer months, the expedition returned to England, with glowing accounts of the country. Queen Elizabeth named the new land Virginia, in honor .of herself, “ the Virgin Queen.” A fleet of seven vessels with one hundred and eight colonists was next sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1585, under the command of Sir Richard Grenville. The perils of the North Carolina coast were found to be very great. A settlement was made at Roanoke Island. Almost one of the first acts of the colonists was to destroy an Indian town and standing corn in retaliation for the theft of a silver cup.

Sir Richard Grenville sailed away and the colonists began to explore the country. Lane, the governor, wrote : “ It is the goodliest soil under the cope of heaven ; the most pleasing territory of the world ; the continent is of a huge and unknown greatness, and very well peopled, though savagely.”

The wily Indians soon discovered the white man’s twofold passion for gold and a passage to the “ South Sea.” One of them told the colonists that Roanoke River sprang from a rock so near the Pacific that the waves sometimes dashed into its fountain ; that the people who lived there understood refining gold, of which there was an abundance in the country, and that the walls of their city were made of pearls. This fable coincided with the preconceived notions of Europeans in regard to America. Lane and a band of followers undertook the ascent of the Roanoke in search of its wonderful fountain. Meanwhile the Indians, who were jealous of white settlements, prepared to attack the divided colony. The gold-seekers toiled up the rapid current of the Roanoke. Their provisions were soon exhausted. Still they persevered, killing and eating their dogs. When this resource failed them they returned home, just in time to frustrate the plans of the Indians. The savages now proposed to plant no corn in order to starve out the English, who

POCAHONTAS.

depended upon trade with them for their provisions. An old chief, however, objected to this plan.

The English had been in the New World nearly a year. They grew more and more fearful of the Indians. They believed that they were forming an alliance with intent to massacre them. They desired an audience of the most influential chief, Wingina, and when admitted to his presence they fell upon him and his principal warriors and killed them. The colonists were growing restless and homesick, and they had now indeed good reason to fear the Indians. In hopes of a better harbor they explored toward the north and reached Chesapeake Bay, long after it had been discovered by the Spanish and named Santa Maria Bay. One day many sails were seen on the horizon. It was Sir Francis Drake’s great fleet of twenty-three vessels returning from a long privateering and exploring cruise. It came to anchor in “ the wild road of their bad harbor.” Sir Francis Drake readily supplied all the wants of the colonists, giving them vessels, persuading two experienced seamen to remain with them, and furnishing every means for them to make further explorations. A sudden storm nearly wrecked the fleet, which was only saved by standing off from the dangerous coast. After the storm, nothing was to be seen of the vessels set aside for the colonists’ use. Sir Francis Drake again offered, however, to supply their wants, but with one voice they begged to be taken back to England.

Through these colonists, who had learned to smoke in the New World, the use of tobacco was first introduced into England. Sir Walter Raleigh made the practice fashionable. It is related that a servant of his coming into the room with a tankard of ale saw Sir W alter intent on study, with clouds of smoke issuing from his mouth. The man immediately threw the ale in his master’s face and ran downstairs, crying that Sir Walter was on fire.

A few days after the colonists left Roanoke Island vessels with provisions landed at the settlement to find it deserted. Grenville left fifteen men to hold the land for its lord.

Sir Walter Raleigh now planned to plant an agricultural colony of men with families, to be established at Chesapeake Bay. In 1587 he fitted out a fleet at his own expense, “ Queen Elizabeth, the godmother of Virginia,” refusing to contribute “to its education.” As might have been expected, nothing remained of the little colony at

POCAHONTAS.

Roanoke Island but bones. The settlement was overgrown with weeds. The commander of the vessels refusing to carry them further, the colony was obliged to plant itself on this sad spot. There was naturally trouble with the Indians. The tribe of Manteo, the chief who had visited England, were friendly, and this Indian, according to the commands of Raleigh, was baptized and made a baron, with the title of Lord of Roanoke. It may be doubted whether he fully appreciated the honor. The colony was ill-fated ; a vessel was sent to England to ask for provisions. Raleigh freighted two ships for his colony, but in chasing after prizes, one vessel was boarded and rifled after a bloody battle, and both were forced to return.

England was in a state of intense excitement over the threatened invasion of Spain, and Raleigh, Grenville, Lane, and all those who had been most interested in colonization, were now entirely occupied with the prospect of war. Not until three years after the planting of the colony did the expected supplies arrive at Roanoke, which was then a desert. An inscription directed to the island of Croatan, the home of Manteo and the friendly Indians. No search was made further than the Island of Roanoke by this expedition, and the fate of the colony is unknown. Raleigh sent many expeditions to search for his lost people, but nothing was discovered of them. There is one statement, though not perhaps to be trusted, that after twenty-one years of life among the savages they were murdered by Powhatan, at the instigation of his priests or medicine-men.*

In 1602 a direct voyage across the Atlantic was made by Bartholomew Gosnold in a small bark. He discovered Cape Cod and Buzzard’s Bay, which he called Gosnold’s Hope. On a beautifuL island covered with grand forests, wild fruits, and sweet flowers a settlement was planned. On the island is a pond, in which is a little island. On this romantic spot the colonists built their fort, but the road before them appeared too dangerous ; fearing starvation and dreading the Indians they resolved to return with Gosnold. They brought back from the New World a load of sassafras root, which was highly valued in the pharmacy of the day.

A second expedition was undertaken by Martin Pring in 1603. He explored much of the coast of North Virginia, as New England was then called, and traded trinkets with the Indians for sassafras.

Still another voyage under command of George

* See Appendix, Note 2.

POCAHONTAS.

Weymouth was made to the shores of North Virginia. All the early voyagers agreed in praising the fertility of the soil and the beauty of the scenery in the new land, and it was to the imagination of people in Europe like a land of romance and dreams — a “ new world ” indeed, as they called it.

Chapter II. The Voyage Of The Virginia Colony

It is now nearly three hundred years ago that the first successful colony set out from Blackwall, a suburb of London, to effect a settlement in the “New-found-land of Virginia/ ' as the whole coast of North America was at that time called. The failure of the colony on Roanoke Island had for many years damped the ardor of English adventurers, but the success of the Spaniards, their great rivals and enemies, piqued the pride of the English, as the wealth won by Spanish gold-seekers excited their cupidity. So that at the beginning of the reign of James I. it was resolved to have an English settlement in America, to win territory, and to freight ships with the precious metals. Sir Walter Raleigh, the founder of the unhappy colony on Roanoke Island, and the life-long advocate of colonization, was at this time shut up in a dreary cell in the Tower of London, engaged in writing his History of the World to while away the hours of a long imprisonment. But Gosnold,

POCAHONTAS.

whose voyage to the New England coast is related in the previous chapter, had been very active in promoting the present undertaking. In this he had been joined by John Smith, a soldier of fortune who had voyaged about the world, getting out of one daring adventure into another, and who now, having returned from single combats and captivities among the Saracens, could find nothing to satisfy his appetite for danger and hardship so well as a colony in the wilds of America. A third promoter of the scheme was a London merchant named Wingfield, and a fourth was a clergyman, Mr. Hunt. The latter desired to plant Christianity, Wingfield no doubt represented the commercial desire for gain, while Gosnold and Smith were voyagers and adventurers pure and simple, loving a hard task for the very hardness of it and the honor of overcoming difficulties.

The traveller of our time feels some trepidation when he sails across the ocean in a staunch steamer of several thousand tons burden. But the little colony that left Blackwall and dropped down the Thames in the rough December of 1606 had for their largest ships the Sarah Com stant, of one hundred tons, which ship carried seventy persons, and was commanded by Captain Newport. The second ship, the God-Speed, was commanded by the experienced Captain Gosnold, and was of forty tons, carrying fiftytwo persons, while the smallest vessel of all, the Discovery, was of but twenty tons, a mere sailboat, carrying twenty people on this long voyage, through little known seas, into unknown lands. The seeds of a great nation were here compressed into small space and entrusted to frail craft.

The people of England were very much interested in the little company that left Blackwall on> the 19th of December, 1606. There was a clergyman, the Rev. Richard Hakluyt, who when he was a schoolboy had been shown one day some books of travel and a map of the world, He then and there resolved to devote himself to geographical studies, and he became in time bet ter informed on all such matters than any man iiv England in his day. The great trading compa nies were accustomed to consult him about theii undertakings. He, with other “ hearty lovers of colonization,” had petitioned for permission ta send out this colony, and he was one of the corporators of it.

James I. was a pedantic man, priding himself on his learning, which was not so great as hi&

POCAHONTAS.

vanity. It is said that when George Buchannan, his preceptor, was censured for having made the king a pedant, he answered that it was the best he could make out of such a prince as he. King James was of a meddling disposition, full of over-weening self-confidence, and he unfortunately took great interest in the little colony now setting forth, and had something to do with the mischievous regulations and directions by which the enterprise was well-nigh brought to destruction.

There are still extant poems, sermons, and plays, that show the general interest of all classes of people in the colony on its setting out, and during the early years of its history. Michael Drayton, a famous poet of the time, who wrote abundantly about a great many things, gave utterance to the popular feeling in an ode full of fire. He begins :

* You brave heroic minds,

Worthy our country’s name,

That honor still pursue Whilst loitering hinds Lurk here at home with shame,

Go and subdue.

“ Britons, you stay too long :

Quickly aboard bestow you

THE VOYAGE OF THE VIRGINIA COLONY. 2Q

And with a merry gale Swell your stretch’d sail With vows as strong As the winds that blow you.”

He does not think that these voyagers in little ships need be afraid of shoals :

“ Your course securely steer,

West and by south forth keep,

Rocks, lee shores, nor shoals Where Eolus scowls,

You need not fear,

So absolute the deep.”

The dominant idea of the time was to find gold, and this finds place also in Drayton’s verses :

“ And cheerfully at sea Success you still entice To get the pearl and gold,

And ours to hold Virginia,

Earth’s only paradise.”

He seems to have a premonition that the English race will come to greatness in the New World, for he sings of the heroes that shall be brought forth like “those from whom we came,” and lastly he describes “industrious Hakluyt” as waiting to record their voyages.

But it was especially the finding of gold mines

POCAHONTAS.

that most concerned the English public. In a play, written the year before the colony sailed, while all England was agitated about it, there is a conversation between two characters who bore the significant names of Scapethrift and Seagull. The general expectation of gold from Virginia is shown up in the extravagant speech of the enthusiastic Seagull, who declares that all their dripping-pans are pure gold in Virginia, “and all the chaines with which they chaine up their streets are massie gold ; all the prisoners they take are fetered in gold ; and for rubies and diamonds they goe forth in holy dayes and gather ’hem by the sea-shore, to hang on their children’s coates, and sticke in their children’s caps, as commonly as our children wear saffron gilt brooches, and groates with holes in ’hem.’’

Not only in the poetry and the plays of the time, but in the sermons and prayers of the people, Virginia is remembered. One prayer of a few years later ends with the petition that God “ may vouchsafe to go with us and we with him into Virginia. Amen and Amen. Be thou the Alpha and Omega of England’s plantation in Virginia, O God.’’

The colony was to be governed under a charter, drawn up, no doubt, under* the eye of the fussy and foolish King James. It abounded in all guarantees for loyalty, but neglected many very important matters. There were also explicit directions about the manner of settlement and their mode of dealing with the “ naturals” — • that is, the natives of Virginia. These directions were good enough in their way, but the better policy would have been to have given military authority to some one competent man. This the projectors of the colony failed to do. The authority at sea was vested not in Gosnold, as we would have expected, but in Captain Newport, who was an experienced mariner, and who had had the wisdom the year before to make the king a present of two living young alligators and a wild boar, brought from the West Indies. Such trifles delighted James greatly.

From the beginning the little colony was beset with difficulties. Scarcely were they out of the Thames when they were met by rough weather, and were long beaten upon by the rough seas of the Channel. It was six weeks before they lost sight of the English coast. But something worse than bad weather overtook them in the jealousy and discord which immediately broke out among the leading spirits of the colony.

One would have supposed that while King

POCAHONTAS.

James and the rest were busy over charters and directions, they would have been at some pains to see that the colony should be made up of such as were suitable to the. work in hand. But ot the hundred or more who were first settled in Virginia, fifty-three ranked as “gentlemen,” many of whom were dissipated young men sent off by friends who wished to be rid of them. Smith says they were afterward dissatisfied because they did not find “ any of their accustomed dainties, with feather beds and downe pillows, tavernes and alehouses in every breathing place, neither such plentie of gold and silver and dissolute libertie as they expected.” We do not wonder that “ the country was to them a misery, a ruine, a death, a hell.”

With all these gentlemen there was a small allowance of four carpenters. Twelve men are set down as laborers, but whether they were farm hands or personal servants we are not told. There was one bricklayer, one mason, one blacksmith, and one sailor. But there were also a barber and a tailor and a drummer, while there were four boys, and some others whose manner of life is not set down.

From the beginning, as we have said, this illassorted crowd divided into factions. Such skilful and vigorous spirits as Bartholomew Gosnold and John Smith were no doubt outspoken against the ascendancy of incompetents among the emigrants. Such men the brusque and brave Captain John calls “ meerely projecting,, verball, and idle contemplators. . !

No doubt Smith was himself more of a soldier than a diplomatist, and that he stirred up a good deal of anger by his blunt speeches. But there was one patient and peace-making man in the ships, and that was Mr. Robert Hunt, “ Preacher,” as he is set down in the list. This good clergyman was so sick at the beginning of the voyage that his life was despaired of, and though the vessels lay for weeks off the Downs, in sight of his home, yet he never once proposed to give over his enterprise. “ With the water of patience, and his godly exhortations (but chiefly by his true devoted examples), he quenched those flames of envy and dissension.”

The ships loitered at the Canaries and in the West Indies, consuming their provisions, which were scant at the beginning, and losing the opportunity for spring planting. So high a pitch did their dissensions reach that at one of the islands it was even proposed to hang tne impetuous and restless Captain Smith, who probably

POCAHONTAS.

showed much discontent at this waste of five months in a voyage for which two would have been sufficient. The accounts are conflicting, but there seems no doubt that a mutiny was intended, and that Smith was suspected of a share in it.

After the ships had three days passed their reckoning, without finding land, Captain Ratcliffe, of the smallest vessel, seriously proposed that they should turn about and sail back again, probably on the supposition that the continent was lost. While this proposition was under advisement there came up a lucky storm, which drove the ships to the mouth of the James River, and settled in the minds of the navigators any doubts concerning the whereabouts of Virginia. The first cape which they saw was named, for the Prince of Wales, Cape Henry. The northern cape they named Cape Charles, for the King’s second son, afterward King Charles I. A landing was made on Cape Charles by thirty men, who were suddenly attacked by five Indians. Two of the white men were dangerously wounded in this first encounter with the “ naturals.” The country within the capes the voyagers found to be what they regarded as the pleasantest land known. “ Here are mountains, hills, plains, valleys, rivers, and brooks, all running most pleasantly into a fair bay, compassed but for the mouth with fruitful and delightsome land.” We are assured that “ heaven and earth never agreed better to frame a place for man’s habitation, were it fully manned and inhabited by industrious people. ” And indeed at the season of their arrival the banks of the James River are magnificent with the blossoms of the redbud and dogwood, so that after their tiresome vo}^- age the land must have been indeed delightful to their eyes.