into and redress their wrongs. He arrived in April, 1619, and immediately, to the great joy of the inhabitants, called a general assembly of the colony. It met at Jamestown, on the 19th of June, and was composed of delegates from the boroughs, then amounting to seven. They, the governor, and the council, sat and deliberated in the same apartment, and acted as one body. 33. Emigrants continued to arrive frequently from England, but nearly all were men, who came for the purpose of obtaining wealth, and intended eventually to return. With such views, they were evidently less useful to the colony than if they should be induced to regard it as their home, and as the abode of their posterity. To produce this desirable attachment to the country, ninety girls, young and uncorrupt, were sent over in the year 1620, and sixty more in the subsequent year, and immediately sold to the young planters as wives. The price was, at first, one hundred, and afterwards, one hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco, then selling at three shillings the pound: and it was ordained, that debts, contracted for wives, should be paid in preference to

all others.

34. About the same time, another measure, of a different character, was adopted. The company were ordered by the king to transport to Virginia one hundred idle and dissolute persons, then in custody for their offences. They were distributed through the colony, and employed as laborers.

35. A Dutch vessel also brought into James river twenty Africans, who were immediately purchased as slaves. This was the commencement, in the English American colonies, of a traffic abhorrent to humanity, disgraceful to civilization, and fixing the foulest stain upon the character of the age and people.

36. The colony was now in the full tide of prosperity. Its numbers had greatly increased, and its settlements were widely extended. At peace with the Indians, it reposed in perfect security, and enjoyed without alloy all the happiness which its fortunate situation and favorable prospects afforded. It was dcomed to experience a reverse of fortune, sudden, distressing, and terrible.

37. Powhatan, the friend of the English, was dead. Opecan canough, a chief endowed with all those qualities which give rank and reputation to an Indian warrior, had succeeded him in his influence and power, but he was the secret and implacable enemy of the whites. By his art and eloquence, he united all the neighboring tribes in the horrible design of destroying every man, woman, and child in the English settlements.

38. The plan was concerted and matured, with all the secrecy and dissimulation which characterize the savages. While intent

on their plot, they vited the settlements, lodged in the houses, bought arms of the English, and even borrowed their boats to enable them to accomplish their barbarous purpose.

39. On the evening before the fatal day, they brought them presents of game; and the next morning came freely among them, behaving as usual. Suddenly, precisely at mid-day, the blow fell, at the same instant, upon the unsuspecting settlers; and three hundred and forty-seven men, women, and children, were victims to savage treachery and cruelty. The massacre would have been more extensive had not a domesticated Indian, residing in one of the villages, revealed the plot to his master, whom he had been solicited to murder. Information was instantly given to some of the nearest settlements, and just in time to save them from the calamity which fell upon the others.

40. The horrid spectacle before them roused the English from repose to vengeance. A vindictive and exterminating war succeeded. The whites were victorious, destroying many of their enemies, and obliging the remainder to retire far into the wilderness. But their own number melted away before the miseries of war; their settlements were reduced from eighty to eight, and famine again visited them with its afflicting scourge. In 1624, out of nine thousand persons, who had been sent from England, but eighteen hundred existed in the colony.

41. These continual misfortunes attracted the attention of king James. He revoked the charter which he had granted, and committed the management of all the affairs of the colony to a governor and twelve counsellors, who were to be appointed by the king and to be guided by his instructions. Of these instructions, those concerning tobacco, the principal article exported from the colony, may be taken as a sample. It was ordained that those who raised it should not themselves be permitted to dispose of it, but should export it to England, and deliver it to certain designated agents; and they alone were authorized to sell it.

42. Under such arbitrary regulations, the people lived and suffered, until the year 1636, when sir John Harvey held the office of governor. He was haughty, rapacious, unfeeling, and fitted, by his disposition, to exercise power in the true spirit of his instructions. Inflamed to madness by his oppressions, the Virginians, in a fit of popular rage, seized and sent him a prisoner to England. At the same time, they despatched two deputies charged to represent the grievances of the colony and the governor's misconduct.

43. Charles the first, who was then king, indignant at the violent proceeding, received the deputies sternly, and sent back the

governor, invested with all his former powers. He was, however, in 1639, succeeded by Sir William Berkeley, who was instructed again to allow the Virginians to elect representatives. Such was their gratitude to the king for this favor, that during the civil wars between him and his parliament, they were faithful to the royal cause, and continued faithful even after he was dethroned and his son driven into exile.

44. The parliament, irritated by this conduct of the Virginians, sent sir George Ayscue, in 1652, with a powerful fleet, to reduce them to submission. Berkeley, with more spirit than prudence, opposed this force; but after making a gallant resistance, he was obliged to yield. He obtained the most favorable terms for the colony, but asked no stipulations in his own favor. Withdrawing to a retired situation, he lived beloved and respected by the people.

45. For nine years afterwards, governors appointed by Cromwell, continued to preside over the colony. But the predilection for royalty, which the inhabitants had displayed, was remembered, and they were less favored than those of New-England, who, like the predominant party in Great Britain, were republicans in politics, and puritans in religion. Arbitrary restrictions upon the commerce of Virginia checked its prosperity, and produced discontent. At length, the sudden death of governor Matthews afforded, to the adherents of the royal cause, a favorable opportunity, which they gladly seized, to proclaim Charles the second, and to invite Berkeley to resume the authority of governor. He consented, requiring only their solemn promise to hazard their lives and fortunes in supporting the cause they had espoused.

46. At this period, no intelligence had been received of the death of Cromwell. Fortunately for the colony, that event happened soon after; the king whom they had proclaimed was restored to the throne; and Virginia for a long time boasted, that she was the last of the British dominions that submitted to Cromwell, and the first that returned to her allegiance.

47. Charles the second confirmed sir William Berkeley in the office of governor; but, with characteristic ingratitude, he neglected the interests of the colony, and even imposed additional restrictions upon its commerce. He also granted to his favorites large tracts of land which belonged to the colony. These injuries, inflicted by a hand which ought to have bestowed favors, wounded the feelings of the Virginians, and produced murmurs and complaints. No relief being granted, an open and turbulent insurrection was the consequence.

48. At the head of the insurgents, was Nathaniel Bacon. He was a lawyer, educated in London, and was appointed a member

of the council, a short time after his emigration to Virginia, He was young, bold, ambitious; his person engaging, and his elocution commanding. He harangued the citizens upon their grievances; inflamed their resentment against their rulers; declaimed particularly against the languor with which the war, then existing with the Indians, had been conducted; and such was the effect of his representations, that he was elected general by the people.

49. He applied to the governor for a commission confirming this election, and offered instantly to march, at the head of the citizens, against the savages. Sir William indignantly refused, and issued a proclamation commanding the insurgents to disperse. Bacon had advanced too far to recede with honor or safety. He hastened, at the head of six hundred armed followers, to Jamestown, surrounded the house where the governor and council were assembled, and repeated his demand.

50. The council, intimidated by the threats of the enraged multitude, hastily prepared a commission, and, by their entreaties, prevailed on the governor to sign it. Bacon and his troops, then began their march against the Indians. But the council, when

relieved from their fears, declared the commission void, and proclaimed him a rebel. Enraged at this conduct, he instantly returned, with all his forces, to Jamestown. The governor fled, the council dispersed, and he found himself in possession of supreme power. To give it some show of legality, he called together the most considerable gentlemen in the colony, who bound themselves by oath to support his authority.

51. Some districts remained faithful to Berkeley, who collected forces, and made inroads into those sections where Bacon's authority was recognised. The latter retaliated, and for some months, a civil war, with all its peculiar horrors, raged in Virginia. Jamestown was burned, and some of the finest and best cultivated districts were laid waste.

52. King Charles, informed of the situation of affairs, despatched a body of troops to the assistance of Berkeley. Bacon and his followers, unintimidated by their approach, determined to oppose them; but when prepared to take the field, this daring and successful leader, having exercised the supreme power for seven months, sickened and died; and no person being found among the insurgents qualified to supply his place, as the general of an army or as a popular leader, they laid down their arms and dispersed.

53. Governor Berkeley again assumed the supreme authority, and finding the rebels in his power, pursued them with unsparing rigor. Many were tried by courts martial, and executed. The

assembly interfered, praying him to stop the work of death, and enacted laws which gradually restored tranquillity. Soon after, Sir William returned to England, and his authority devolved on colonel Jeffreys, the lieutenant-governor. Under his adininistration, peace was concluded with the Indians; and notwithstanding the tyrannical regulations of the king, and the oppressive restrictions upon commerce, the colony increased in wealth and population. In the year 1688, the number of inhabitants exceeded 60,000.

54. Between this period and the commencement of the French war of 1756, an account of which will be found in a subsequent chapter, but few events occurred in the colony of sufficient importance to find a place in history. Its position, remote from the settlements of the French in Canada, and of the Spaniards in Florida, was favourable to its quiet. New-England and NewYork, on the one hand, Georgia and the Carolinas on the other, protected it from savage incursions. Its affairs were administered by governors appointed by the king, and representatives chosen by the people.

55. The laudable efforts of these representatives, to arrest the progress of slavery in the colony, ought not to be passed over in silence. Convinced of its inhumanity, and foreseeing the dreadful evils which it must produce, they often passed laws prohibiting the importation of slaves; but those who were higher in authority, yielding to the wishes of merchants engaged in the abomina ble traffic, persisted, with criminal obstinacy, in withholding their assent. England, not America, is responsible for the wretched ness, which her kings and her officers were often importuned, but refused, to avert.

CHAPTER II.

MASSACHUSETTS

OF the two companies incorporated by king James, an account of the proceedings and dissolution of one, and a history of the colony it founded, have been given in the preceding chapter. To the other, or Plymouth company, was assigned a portion of the

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