Fortunes of the colony. times at peace, sometimes at war * with the natives, sometimes contented, sometimes despairing amongst themselves, the colonists went through great vicissitudes. One cause of feebleness is plain enough; it is the entire dependence of the colony upon the company and the company's representatives. Another cause of equal moment was the variety of rank and of character in the colony. The gentleman and the felon, the ardent seeker after adventure and the patient toiler for subsistence, the freeman, the apprentice, and the slave,† made up a community too mixed to possess any steadiness of growth. The three first years, (1607–9,) the colonists hung upon John Smith, who had become their president in the year following the settlement of Jamestown. It is curious to see how he led, rebuked, supported them; he, as the strong man, guiding them, as feeble children. One year, (1610,) the colony is all but abandoned; another, (1613,) it is strong enough to make the attack already mentioned upon the French settlements in the north. But the tendency to increase, though interrupted, continues, and not without support from the company in England. Institu- The first step to raise the colonists from a state tions. of mere vassalage was the grant of an estate to each settler, (1615.) The progress from the landholder to the freeman followed. The colony had been bound, as has been stated, to maintain the church of England. Its civil authorities consisted, first of the English crown and Parliament, then of the English council, then of the English company, by which, according to the various charters, the local officers were appointed. These were, in the beginning, a council, with a president; but in a year or two from the beginning, a governor and suite, at first with *The Indian wars are related in Part II. Chapter IV. † A Dutch man of war brought the first negro slaves, in 1619. out and afterwards with a council. At length, under the government of Sir George Yeardley, the freemen of the colony, representing eleven corporations or plantations, were called, as burgesses, to a General Assembly, to take the matter of taxes, besides other affairs of importance, into their own hands, (1619.) This was the system of the colonial constitution granted by the company two years afterwards, (1621.) In other words, the executive authority was in the hands of a governor, the judicial in those of a governor and a council, with an appeal to an Assembly, and the legislative in that of a governor, a council, and an Assembly, all subject to the company, which, of course, was subject to the laws and the authorities of England. An in fant colony. We are apt to exaggerate the importance of the English settlements, in comparison with those of the French or the Spanish, or any other nation in our country. The truth is, that Virginia, like most of the settlements which we shall find in the north, was but an infant colony, unable to regulate its trade or its education, its habits of life or of thought, except in submission to external authorities. One or two examples, occurring under the company's jurisdiction, illustrate the dependence of the colony during the entire period of which we are now treating. A design of a college for native as well as English youth, started in England with large subscriptions, found no fulfilment in Virginia, (1619-21.) Even the want of wives was met, not by individual devotion, but by a company speculation; a large number of young women of good character being transported to be sold for a hundred and twenty, or even a hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco (at three shillings a pound) to the lonely settlers, (1620-21.) Fall of Nothing, however, marks the utter dependence the com- of the colony so plainly as its inactivity during the pany. troubles in which the company became involved. Dissensions amongst the members, and jealousies amongst those who were not members, led to the royal interference; the result being the fall of the company, with all its expenditures* heavy on its head, (1624.) The colony at this time numbered about two thousand, the relics of nine thousand who had been sent out. Yet for all the two thousand did to prove their existence or their independence, the colony might have been supposed to be the company's shadow, too unsubstantial to support or to oppose the power to which it owed its being. Virginia province. Virginia became a royal province. The governor a royal and the council received their appointment from the king, the freemen continuing to elect their Assembly. It was a national government, instead of a corporation system, and as such it seemed to relieve the Virginians. At any rate, they grew so much in spirit as to make a stand against the royal grant of what they considered their territory to the proprietor of Maryland. Their governor, John Harvey, not taking part with them as they wished, they deposed him, and sent him virtually a prisoner to England, (1635.) The king, of course, restored the governor, but without reducing the colony to silence or to retribution, (1636-37.) The spirit of dependence, however, lingered. Growth But the principles of growth and of independence of the were at work. Among the earliest settlers were colony. men of culture and of earnestness, men who, like Alexander Whitaker, "a scholar, a graduate, and a preacher," devoted themselves to the elevation of the colony. Among the earliest governors were Lord De la Ware, (1611,) and Sir George Yeardley, (1619–21,) both of strong character and of strong influence. Around such individuals as these there would naturally gather an in * From £100,000 to £150,000. creasing number and a higher stamp of colonists. The interest of the mother country in the colony would naturally be extended when the dissolution of the company opened the way to general emigration and general enterprise. The development of Virginia seemed sure. Mem THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY. Among the members of the Plymouth Company bers. were many personages of distinction. The lord chief justice of England, Sir John Popham, the governor of Plymouth, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and two Gilberts, kinsmen and successors of Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh, all engaged in the enterprise. The higher the rank, however, of individual members in any association, the more likely, in most cases, are clashing pretensions and menacing divisions. The Plymouth Company never held together in such a way as to carry out any effective operations. Coloniza A few members made the first move by sending tion at- out a colony of forty-five persons, who encamped tempted. for one brief year upon an island at the mouth of the Kennebec, (1607-8.) Some time elapsed before any new expedition was undertaken. Nor would any, it is probable, have been undertaken then, but for the active agency of John Smith, who, four or five years after his return from Virginia, entered the service of the Plymouth Company. A careful voyage from the Penobscot to Cape Cod impressed him so favorably, that he gave the country the name of New England, obtaining for himself the title of its admiral, (1614.) But his persevering exertions to discharge his office and to colonize his chosen land were in vain; nor was any thing more attempted by the company until it was transformed by a new charter into the Council of Plymouth for New England, with the right to all the territory from the latitude of Philadelphia to that of Chaleur Bay, (1620.) Various Even then, the Council for New England set on proprie foot no colonization of its own. Its energies seemed to be spent in making grants to individuals, tors and compa nies. some of them its members, or to associations, by whom the settlement of New England was to be accomplished. Singular enough, considering that it was New England, a large proportion of these subordinate agencies was directed to the establishment of what may be called a number of lordly domains upon the soil. In following this succession of proprietors and of companies, we lose sight of the Council for New England. ment of Plymouth. One settlement, originally made without a grant Settle- from the council, was by much the most important for many years. It was on no large scale. One hundred and two passengers in the Mayflower landed at a place already called New Plymouth, (December 11, 1620.) They were a band of Puritans, whose extreme principles had led to their exile, first from England to Holland, (1608,) and then from Holland to America. Obtaining a grant from the London Company, they set sail for Virginia, but landed to the north of that province, in the limits of New England. The year following, they procured a patent from the Council for New England, (1621.) But not in their own name; the grant being made to one of a company of London merchants, with whom they had formed a partnership before sailing to the west. The Londoners, holding their title under the council, thus constituted a sort of company within a company. Nor was it until after six years, marked by many troubles and by many injuries, that the colonists extricated themselves from this twofold dependence by the payment |