Stories from Virginia history, for the young

Front matter

Stories from

iJ^Histor?

J, P. Bell Company. Publishers

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I— The Start, December, 1606 9

II — Jamestown, 1607 14

Chapter I The Start, December, 1 606

Nearly three hundred years ago, in the month of December, in the city of London, when English children were be^innine to think of Christmas gifts, and the boys were snowballing and sliding in the streets, just as children do now-a-days, a great excitement might have been observed among the older people. Men and women were hurrying to and fro, or ^atherincr a t the corners of the streets, talking earnestly, and the word " Virginia" was often heard. If you had been there, you would, probably, have asked what it all meant, and would have been told that King James the First was that day to send three vessels full of

IO STORIES FROM VIRGINIA HISTORY

men to Virginia to found a colony which he was to plant in the New World discovered by Columbus more than a hundred years before.

These vessels had been launched in the River Thames, near Blackwall, a short distance below

London, and were named the " Susan Constance," the " Godspeed," and the little pinnace " Discovery." Three tiny ships to bear across the stormy Atlantic the beginners of a new nation. There were a hundred and five men in the party : among them were Captain Newport, the commander ; Captain John Smith ; and others, with whom you will become well acquainted when you study the History of Virginia.

Try and realize the scene when the boats started

STORIES FROM VIRGINIA HISTORY II

on their voyage. The shouts of the men ; the tears of the wives left behind, for no woman was allowed to go with them ; and then, as the boats disappeared in the distance, the sad turning homeward of those on shore, who knew that the chance was, that the men from whom they had parted would never come back. The reason for their starting at this season of the year was, that they might be in time to sow their seed in the spring. They had a long, stormy, tedious voyage. The trip across the Atlantic, which now is made in six days, took them five months. There was no steam, no machinery, such as we have now.- They did not know the path as it is known now-a-days, and lost a great deal of time going round about un-nec-essa-ri-ly. They had to depend upon the winds, which were often con-tra-ry, and the crew was a very dis-or-der-ly one. There was no one of the party who had any con-trol. The only man who might have managed them, Captain Smith, had no au-thor-i-ty, and was hated by the others. They even quarrelled with old Preacher Hunt because he did not pray hard enough to keep away the storms out of their path.

Their intention had been to land at Roanoke Island, where an attempt had been made to plant an English colony years before. But they encountered a violent storm, which blew them farther north, and they found themselves between two capes, and at the entrance of a wide bay. They called the capes Henry and Charles after the two sons of the king. They landed on Cape Henry ; and only one year ago I went with a party of Virginians to plant a cross on the spot where they first moored their boats.

The next day they sailed on through the beautiful Ches-a-peake Bay, which you all know so well. The next point of land at which they touched, they called Point Hope, which must have been somewhere about Norfolk, as visitors to that part of the State are shown places, spoken of in Captain Smith's book, where they picked straw-ber-ries, the largest they had ever seen, and where the ground was spread with many " sweet and delicate flowers of divers colors and kinds," until the weary voyagers said that "heaven and earth had never agreed better to make a place for man's habitation." They were like children in a fairy-land, everything was so new and strange.

It was here that they first met with the Indians, who came creeping around in the darkness of the night, and two of their number were very seriously hurt by the arrows of the Indians; but the guns of the English soon drove them away, and they had a friendly visit from the chief of the Rap-pa-hannock Indians, who, they say, was dressed like an Indian dandy. His body was stained crimson, and his face was painted blue, and smeared with something that looked like silver to the greedy eyes of the Eno-lish.

The next point at which they touched they called Point Comfort, which we know as Old Point Comfort, where the schools for the Indians and freedmen are ; and on the 13th of May they landed on a low pen-in-su-la, beautiful at that season with flowers of dog-wood and red-bud, and here they determined to make their settlement. They called this place Jamestown.

QUESTIONS TO CHAPTER I

Tell of the expedition from Blackwall, England, in December, 1606.

How long did the journey take which is now made in six days ?

Who was King of England at that time ?

After whom did they name the two capes between which they entered Chesapeake Bay ?

Tell of their first landing.

Where do we suppose Point Hope was ? Describe it.

Where did they next land ?

Tell what you know of this place.

Where did they make their final settlement ? Describe it.

Chapter II Jamestown, 1607

After passing Point Comfort, they had entered the wide mouth of a beautiful river, which they called James in honor of their king. The Indians had called it Pow-hat-tan, which was the name of their king, who ruled over all the tribes in that part of the country. The peninsula they chose was about twenty miles from the mouth of this river. It seems strange to us that they should have chosen this low place for their home ; they might have known, as we do now, that it was unhealthy ; but I suppose they were attracted by the beauty of the country and the ease with which they could moor their boats in the deep water and tie them to the trees on the shore.

When you study the History of Virginia, you will learn many stories of this colony which it Avould be useless to tell here.

It had been very unfortunate for the colony that King James had not been more particular in choosing the men who were to compose it. If he had made choice of hard-working countrymen, who were accustomed to tilling' the ground, or of carpenters and builders, the fate of the settlement at Jamestown would have been very different. But although James was King of England, he was not a very wise man ; so he chose for his colony broken-down gentlemen who, through ex-trav-agance and in-do-lence, had lost their fortunes, and hoped to grow rich in the New World by digging away a little earth and picking up gold. They had no idea of working.

I must tell you that the company who supplied the money to send out these colonists was called the London Company, and the greatest difficulties which the colonists met with were due to the fact that this company wanted, while in England, to rule over the colony in America, about which they knew little or nothing. They made many mistakes, and at last found that the only man who could help in the matter was Captain John Smith, whose story I will tell you in a few words, as you will learn it more fully when you come to study the History of Virginia.

He was born in England, and lost his parents when he was very young. His father left him enough money for his support, but his guardians were very dishonest men. As they found he was of a roving temper, they gave him enough of his own money to tempt him to travel, and they i8 took the rest; while he went from one country to another, fought under various flags, meeting with many wonderful ad-ven-tures. At last he went back to England, determined to train himself fully for a soldier's life, and lived in the woods with his books, his horse, his eun and sword. He had seen men practise riding in tour-na-ments, so he

used to fasten a rinof to the bouofh of a tree, then go to some rr^"

distance, m o u n t his horse, and 5^^ ride at full

gallop, with pointed lance, which he aimed to put through the ring. When he became very expert in this, he knew that he could strike his enemy on horseback. He then practised with his sword until his wrist became strong and his eye keen, and he hunted in the woods until he became an expert marks-man, and then he knew he was ready for the game of war, and started out for new ad-ven-tures. It was after this that he determined to go to the New World with the ex-pe-di-tion which started from Blackwall on that wintry day in December, 1606.

The London Company did not like Captain Smith, and it was only after they had made trial of others, and the colony had been reduced by bad man-age-ment, sickness, famine, and the massa-cres by the Indians, to a very small number of men, that they chose him for its head. In the mean-time Smith had been travelling up and down the country, meeting with adventures. Many times was he taken prisoner by the Indians, and a pretty story is told of how he first became acquainted with the Indian maiden Po-ca-hon-tas, the daughter of King Pow-hat-tan, who was afterwards to be the pro-tec-tress of the colony at Jamestown.

Smith and a party of men had gone in a boat up the Chick-a-hom-i-ny River, which empties into the James, to get corn and other food for the colony, when they were set upon by the Indians, his companions killed, and he himself taken prisoner to King Powhattan, where he was kept some days. Pocahontas was about twelve years old,

and used to spend a great deal of time \\ r i t h her father's prisoner, and he was very much amused with his little companion. He made toys for her — doll-babies, perhaps, and other oddities which please little girls — until they became fast friends ; and more than once afterwards she saved his life when it was threatened by her father.

QUESTIONS TO CHAPTER II

What did they call the river they passed, and after whom?

What had been its name?

Tell about the king of the Indians.

What was the London Company?

What mistake did they make?

Who was Captain Smith?

How was he treated by his guardians?

Tell of his adventures when he left England.

Tell of his return to England, and how he prepared himself to be a soldier.

Where did he go when he left England the second time?

What made the London Company choose Captain Smith for the head of the colony ?

How did he employ himself?

Who took him prisoner ?

What acquaintance did he make while a prisoner ?

How did he amuse Pocahontas ?

Chapter III Hiawatha

Longfellow the poet has written a beautiful poem which is full of Indian legends, or stories, very much like fairy tales. In one of them he tells of the " Master of Life," which was, of course, their god, who, gathering the tribes together, promises them that he will send them a prophet who will teach them everything that it is good for them to know. You will see that this is like the promise which was given so long ago, that Christ would come into the world to teach the people. After a while a little child was born, and his grandmother, old No-ko-mis,

Nursed the little Hiawatha ; Rocked him in his linden cradle, Bedded soft in moss and rushes, Lulled him into slumber, singing, "Ewa-yea! My little owlet!"

Many things Nokomis taught him Of the stars that shine in heaven ; Flaring far away to northward.

At the door on summer evenings Sat the little Hiawatha ; Heard the whispering of the pine-trees, Heard the lapping of the water.

Saw the firefly, . . .

Flitting through the dusk of evening, With the twinkle of its candle Lighting up the brakes and bushes, And he sang the song of children,

Sang the song Nokomis taught him : "Pretty little firefly, Little, flitting, white-fire insect, Light me with your little candle, Ere in sleep I close my eyelids ! "

Saw the moon rise from the water Rippling, rounding from the water, Saw the flecks and shadows on it, Whispered, "What is that, Nokomis?" And the good Nokomis answered : " Once a warrior, very angry, Seized his grandmother, and threw her Up into the sky at midnight ; Right against the moon he threw her ; Tis her body that you see there."

Saw the rainbow in the heaven,

Whispered, " What is that, Nokomis ? " And the good Nokomis answered : " 'Tis the heaven of flowers you see there All the wild-flowers of the forest, All the lilies of the prairie, When on earth they fade and perish, Blossom in the heaven above us." When he heard the owl at midnight,

Hooting, laughing in the forest, "What is that?" he cried in terror; And the good Nokomis answered : " That is but the owl and owlet, Talking in their native language, Talking, scolding to each other."

Then the little Hiawatha Learned of every bird its language, Learned their names and all their secrets, How they built their nests in summer, Where they hid themselves in winter,

Called them " Hiawatha's chickens."

Of all beasts he learned the language, Learned their names and all their secrets, How the beavers built their lodges, Where the squirrels hid their acorns, How the reindeer ran so swiftly, Why the rabbit was so timid, Talked with them where'er he met them, Called them " Hiawatha's brothers."

The whole story of Hiawatha is too long to tell you ; but he became, under the teachings of the Master of Life, a great, powerful, and good man, who was born to be a teacher of the people. He

prepared for his work by fasting and praying.

He married a beautiful Indian maiden, named

When you are

older, I hope

you will read

the whole

story.

The Indians believed in a god of their own, whose n a m e w a s Okee, and they kept an image of him, which in war they ^ often carried with them, and thought it would preserve them from danger. They thought that the thunder was his voice, and the lightning the flashing of his eyes. They also believed in a future world of happiness and misery, and, as they loved hunting better than any other employment, their heaven they called " The Happy Hunting Ground," to which they believed they would go if they lived according to their idea of right. They also believed in a great fire in which they would burn eternally as a punishment.

The Indians were very savage and cruel to their prisoners. They would pile wood around them, tie them to a stake, and dance about them as they saw their tortures. Even the little children were taught to torture prisoners.

They were very brave, and would not allow any one to rule over them who was not brave. The reason they obeyed and respected Powhattan was because he was a man of great courage. Powhattan was a remarkable old man ; although he was a savage, he had a oreat idea of what was due to him as a king. He was very dignified, and insisted on having great respect paid to him. He had several homes where he lived at different seasons of the year. One was at the falls of the

James River, where Richmond now stands, and the bower in which he lived was opposite three islands, and the spot is still called Powhattan after him. He was a tall, strong old man, clad in the skins of animals, moc-ca-sins on his feet, and feathers on his head. His throne was shaped somewhat like a bedstead. He had a great many wives, and a hundred bow-men, who kept guard over him when the white men came to see him. I once saw an Indian dance, which I will tell you about. The Indians were all painted until they looked horrible, with black and red splotches of paint all over their faces. The dances were called the Eao-le dance and the Raven dance. We were in a lone Indian house where the Indians had promised to dance for us. First came in about fifty women, with their "papooses" (babies) bound to boards, which they carried on their backs by means of straps which passed under their chins. When they came into the room, each one took her board and set it up against the wall; and it was very amusing to see the little dark babies in a row, laughing and crowing, and doing just as white babies do, only none of them cried; while the mothers squatted on the floor, and -each beat on something very like a tambourine,*singing at the top of her voice, " Hi-yai-ya, Hi-yai-ya ! " The painted warriors came tipping down the room, waving their arms like birds' wings, and singing "Hiyaiya!" with the women. They became more and more excited as they danced, rushing at one another in imitation of birds fighting, and leaping in the air in imitation of birds flying. The little babies on the boards winked and blinked at them, and laughed and crowed to show how pleased they were with the entertainment.

It has been impossible to fit questions to this chapter, so I suggest that the teachers make the children commit the poetry to memory, and each take a portion to recite, then tell of the Indian belief and the history of the bird dance. — The Author.

Chapter IV Pocahontas

The colony grew at Jamestown, in spite of the Indians. I cannot follow Captain Smith through all of his adventures. He and Powhattan had many dealings with each other.

Pocahontas often came to Jamestown " with her wild train of Indian boys and girls," as we are told, and they played about the market-place, like other children. She was devotedly attached to the English, and once, when she overheard her father laying a plan for the massacre of the colony at Jamestown, she started off in the night, alone, and making her way "through the dark woods, with the tears rolling down her sorrowful cheeks," as Captain Smith relates, she told him of the plot, and begged him not to send her back to her father, as he would kill her if he knew what she had done. The Indians came, as she had told him they would, but the colony were prepared, and so were saved.

This lovely child, who was so often the guardian angel of the colony, must always be interesting to Virginians, and I will tell you in a few words the rest of her story. Captain Smith met with an accident which obliged him to return to England, and Pocahontas never was as much at Jamestown after he left. She went to a friend on the Potomac River, who was named Jap-a-zaws. At this time Powhattan gave the colony so much trouble that the English thought if they could get Pocahontas in their possession, they could force him to keep peace with them. So they gave Japazaws a brass kettle to pay him for delivering her into their hands. He did so, and she was taken back to Jamestown, where a young Englishman named Rolfe fell in love with her and she with him. The Indians were considered such an inferior people that Rolfe scarcely knew what to do, as such a marriage would be regarded as a sin in England. He wrote to the governor, Sir Thomas Dale, that he knew the Bible said that Christians must not marry " strange wives " who were heathen, but Pocahontas was willing to become a Christian. He said he loved her with all his heart, as she did him, and they wanted to marry each other.

Sir Thomas gave his consent, and they were married in the old church at Jamestown. Before their marriage, Pocahontas was baptized under the name of Rebecca. Rolfe then took her to England, where she was called the Lady Rebecca, and treated like a princess.

At the court of King James she met Captain

Smith. She was then twenty-one years old, and he thirty-seven. It had been about six years since they parted, and they had a great deal to talk about ; but Captain Smith thought it would not be best for her to treat him as she used to do in Virginia, so he was very dignified, and called her

Lady Rebecca, upon which she put her hands before her face and began to cry, and said it was unkind in him to treat her so coldly ; that she had called him father when he was in her country, and she would call him father. This was their last meeting. She had one child born in England. A year after her interview with Captain Smith, she and her husband were returning" to Virginia, and had gone down to take ship for the purpose, when she became suddenly ill and died. Her son returned to Virginia, and among his descendants are some of the best-known families in the State.

Powhattan lived until after the death of Pocahontas. He never would go to Jamestown after her marriage, but he preserved the peace between the Indians and the white men. In his last interview with Captain Smith, he said, " I have seen two generations of my people die ; not a man of them is alive now, except myself. I know the difference between peace and war better than any man in my country. I have now grown old and must soon die. Why will you take by force what you may have quietly by love ? Why will you destroy us, who supply you with food ? What can you get by war ? I am not so simple as not to know that it is much better to eat good meat, live quietly with my wives and children, and be merry with the English, than to run away from them, and to lie cold in the woods, and feed on acorns, roots,

%jr* and such trash, and be so hunted that I can neither eat nor sleep. In these wars my people sit up watching, and if a twig breaks, they cry, 'Here comes Captain Smith!' So I must end my miserable life. Take away your guns and swords, the cause of all our jealousy, or you may all die in the same manner."

QUESTIONS TO CHAPTER IV

Did the colony at Jamestown grow ?

Who amongst the Indians was the best friend of the colony ?

Tell how Pocahontas saved the colony.

What happened to Captain Smith ?

What effect did this have on Pocahontas ?

Why did the English want to get possession of her ?

How did they manage it ?

Tell of Pocahontas' marriage. Finish her story.

How did Powhattan behave to the colonists after this ?

What did he say to Smith ?

Chapter V What The Colonists Found In Virginia

I do not suppose that Captain Smith had any great confidence in Powhattan's fine speeches, and probably watched him as closely after as before he made them. The secret of the whole matter was, that Powhattan, seeing that he could not conquer the English, thought it better to make peace with them. Powhattan died soon after.

One day Captain Smith was out in his boat,

and he saw some strangelooking fish with long

CAPTAIN SMITH STUNG BY THE FISH qpmi, ^*m tails. He stuck his sword through one, and drawing it to him, took it in his hand. The fish twisted its long tail around, and stung him in the wrist. The whole arm immediately swelled and turned purple, and Captain Smith was so certain that he was going to die, that he picked out the place on the shore where he told his men to bury him ; but the swelling gradually disappeared and left no bad results. The fish was called a stingray, and in memory of the incident Smith called the place Stingray Point, the name it still bears.

Captain Smith thoroughly explored the Chesapeake Bay and all the rivers emptying into it. He went at least three thousand miles in an open boat, and made a map of the whole country. A bag of gun-powder exploded in his boat one day, which injured him so that he returned to England, where he was honored and esteemed.

The king made him Admiral of Virginia, and he died in 1 63 1 , at the age of fifty-two. He was buried in St. Sepulchre's Church, London, and his crrave is under the church, in front of the chancel, and above it are two flat stones.

On one of them is carved his coat-of-arms, three Turks' heads, in memory of his fight with the Turks, in which he killed three of them ; and on the other stone these words are cut : " Here lies one conquered, that hath conquered kings."

When the English came to this country, they saw for the first time corn growing, with which you are so familiar. It is called Indian corn, because it was first cultivated by the Indians. They also saw tobacco growing. When Columbus landed in the island of Cuba, he saw the Cuban Indians, each with a pipe in his mouth, smoking something which they afterwards knew to be tobacco. Sir Walter Raleigh came over here

CAPTAIN SMITH and learned to smoke, and one day his manser-vant came in and found him with a fire coming out of his mouth, and threw a bucket of water over him, thinking he was on fire. Now the whole world smokes tobacco. I don't believe it has ever done any good to the world, however, and perhaps it is a pity it was ever discovered, for it has certainly done harm to some. The Virginians cultivated it in great quantities in Jamestown, and it grew so much finer and larger in ground in which nothing 1 had ever been planted, that they used to cut down the trees to make new ground for the tobacco ; so the island was cleared.

I must explain to you here, that at the time the English first went to Jamestown, it was a pen-in-su-la, but the water has washed away a part of it, and separated it from the main land, so it is now an island. There are no houses left there now, only a part of the wall of the old church where Pocahontas was married. A few years ago a lady, Mrs. Barney, bought the whole island, and presented that part of it where the Jamestown church stood, and the walls still stand, to the State of Virginia.

Every year, on the 13th of May, which was the day that the colonists first landed at Jamestown, great numbers of Virginians, from all parts of the State, meet there in memory of that occasion. I was with them once, and found it very interesting ; and I hope you too, my little readers, will be able to go there some day and think of Captain Smith and Pocahontas, and the scenes which passed there three hundred years ago.

QUESTIONS TO CHAPTER V

Did Captain Smith believe Powhattan ?

What was the real reason that Powhattan wanted peace ?

How did Stingray Point get its name ?

What made Captain Smith return to England ?

What honor did the king bestow upon him ?

When did he die, and where was he buried ?

What was carved on the two stones above his grave ?

What new crops did the English find growing in America ?

What did Columbus find where he first landed ?

Tell the story about Sir Walter Raleigh.

Has tobacco ever done any good in the world ?

How was the island cleared ?

What made Jamestown an island instead of a peninsula ?

What is the present condition of Jamestown ?

To whom does it belong?

What happens every year on the 13th of May.

Chapter VI

bacon's rebellion

For a great many years after the death of Captain Smith, everything progressed well at Jamestown, but the Indians were still the great trouble. There were those among them who remembered that the whole country was once their own, and we can scarcely wonder that they did not feel kindly to the people who had come amongst them and were gradually driving them from their hunting grounds. Every now and then there would be massacres of the English by the Indians, and wrongs of the Indians by the English, until feeling grew more and more bitter between the two races.

There were some efforts made to preserve the peace and do what was right to the Indians. A large tract of land was set apart for them on the Chick-a-hom-i-ny and other rivers, and a part of this is still owned by a remnant of the tribe, who have never sold the land owned by their forefathers. But most of them sold their lands to the English and moved farther west, where they could get land for nothing.

In the year 1676, Sir William Berkeley had been appointed Governor of Virginia by the King of England. He had already ruled over the colony for about thirty-three years. Most of that time he had been very popular, but he was a hottempered old man and devoted to the King of England. The Virginians, living in the great free country over here, began to feel that it was not right that they should have to obey a king three thousand miles away, and they rebelled against the orders that came through the governor. Governor Berkeley had a beautiful estate, called " Greenspring," near Jamestown, where he lived in great luxury. The Virginians did not object to that. They liked fine living themselves, and respected their governor all the more because he ate off a silver plate, and rode in fine carriages, and gave great dinners ; but they did not like his habit of forcing them to obey the King of England in everything. They complained, too, that he would not protect the families living up the river from the Indians, and so they determined that they would protect themselves.