1606] The Virginia Company 61 intervening region, stretching from the thirty-eighth to the forty-first degree of north latitude, was left open to whichever of the two companies should first colonize it; but it was provided that neither company could plant a colony within one hundred miles of a settlement already made by the other. This singular arrangement was devised, to use the words of the charter, "for the more speedy accomplishment of their said intended plantation." It was thought that both companies would compete for this intervening tract; but the provision led to nothing of the kind. The charter further provided for a complicated system of government, in which a great deal of power was reserved to the king. On May 31, 39. The Popham Colony, 1607. — Sir John Popham, Chief Justice of England, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and the Gilberts were the leading members of the Plymouth Company, or subcompany, to be more accurate. 1607, a fleet under George Popham, brother of the Chief Justice, and Ralegh Gilbert sailed for the coast of what is now the state of Maine. They landed at the mouth of the Kennebec, built a fort, and explored the country. They found no gold; the natives proved unfriendly; and the winter was severe beyond anything they had ever conceived. They seized the first opportunity to abandon the enterprise and returned home in the following spring (1608). Of late years an attempt has been made to exalt the achievements of these men to the disparagement of Gosnold and of the Pilgrims. On the other hand, Mr. Winsor has pointed out that ". no genealogical tree has been produced which connects our present life with a single one of the Sabino [Popham] colonists"; and some students are disposed to think that the failure of this settlement deferred for years the colonization of northern Virginia. 40. The Jamestown Colony, 1607. - The London Com- The London pany had promptly made preparations to colonize the Company. southern portion of Virginia. Its treasurer or chief executive officer was an energetic business man, Sir Thomas Founding of Virginia, 1607. Winsor's America, III, 127 137; *Hart's Contemporaries, 1, Nos. 62, 63; Hig ginson's Explorers, 231-265. Smith; among its leading members were Sir Thomas Gates and Lord de la Warr. The first colonists left the Thames in midwinter, 1606-7; in the following spring they reached the capes of the Chesapeake, which they named for the two sons of King James, Cape Henry and Cape Charles. They began their settlement on the southernmost of the rivers which flow into the bay, calling it the James River, while to their village they gave the name of Jamestown. Their trials and adventures, and the heroism displayed by Relation in History Leaf the members of this little band, can be best understood by a perusal of the quaint account of the most capable Smith's True man amongst them, Captain John Smith. His veracity has been called in question by two competent critics, Charles Deane and Henry Adams; their remarks apply more particularly to a later work, the Generall Historie; the True Relation, printed in 1608, may be read with confidence, if one bears in mind the inordinate conceit of its author. The site of the settlement proved to be unhealthful; of the 1607] The Virginia Charters 63 one hundred and five original settlers, fifty were dead within six months. The colonists were generally of an undesirable class for such an arduous enterprise; they were unused to manual labor and mutinous in disposition. The company also expected immediate profit; this led to ceaseless explorations for gold, to the neglect of agriculture. Furthermore, the colony was on a military basis, each man's labor was for the common benefit, and each man was fed out of a common store. There was no incentive to laborious exertion, and discipline, which alone could. take the place of self-interest, was almost entirely lacking. Starvation and disease more than once threatened to break up the settlement. Limits under this charter. Hinsdale's American lets, No. 16, p. 5. 41. The Virginia Charters of 1609 and 1612. In 1609 New charter, the king granted a new charter to the London group of the 1609. original Virginia Company; the new corporation was given more authority over its colonists, and the limits of its territory were defined, though vaguely. These were now to be two hundred miles from Point Comfort (the Old Point Comfort of the present day) in either direction along the coast, "and all that space and circuit of land, lying from the seacoast of the precinct aforesaid, up into the land west, 73–78; throughout from sea to sea, west and northwest." The interpretation of this latter provision gave much trouble in later days: which line should be run westward and which northwestward? If the northern line were run westward and the southern line northwestward, Virginia would be triangular in shape (a). As the northern limit and the western direction were first mentioned in the respective clauses of the charter, it might easily be argued that this was the intention of the king; but on the other side it could be urged that in case the lines were drawn in this way Virginia would not extend from "sea to sea," as the charter expressly provided. To accomplish that object, the southern line must be drawn westward and the northern line northwestward (b). In 1612 the king granted the Virginia Company still Charter of 1612. Dale's administration. Winsor's 137-141. "Dale's Laws," 1611. another charter extending the limits of Virginia eastward to include the Bermudas, or Somers Isles, as they were then called. The company also received nearly complete governing powers and was authorized to hold general meetings of all the freemen or shareholders of the company, the General Courts, as they were termed. These courts were held at London. 42. Dale's Administration. - In 1611 Sir Thomas Dale came to Virginia as ruler of the colony. He was a strict America, III, disciplinarian and at once introduced vigor and order into the affairs of the plantation. It is reported that as he sailed into the James River, he saw two men reclining by the river's bank and promptly set them to work. He soon discerned that one of the causes of the ill success of the enterprise was the lack of an incentive to personal exertion. To arouse the needful self-interest, he granted to each of the old planters three acres of land for his own, and in this way began the destruction of the system of communism which had so far hampered the colony's prosperity. Dale's rule in Virginia is chiefly remembered, however, in connection with a severe system of laws which he established. This code was entitled "Articles, Lawes, and Orders, Divine, Politique, and Martiall for the Colony in Virginea," and was said to be based on the military systems of the Netherlands. Many of its clauses, however, have a character one usually associates with the so-called "blue-laws" of the New England colonies. For instance, Article vi provides that "every man and woman duly twice a day upon the first towling of the Bell shall upon working daies repaire unto the church, to hear divine Service upon pain of losing his or her dayes allowance for the first omission, for the second to be whipped, and for the third to be condemned to the Gallies for six moneths." The thirty-third article further prescribes that all persons shall satisfy the minister of their religious soundness or place themselves under his instruction; for neglecting this duty a third time the offender should "be Religious observances. 1611] Representative Institutions 65 whipt every day until he hath made the same acknowledgement, and asked forgiveness, and shall repaire unto the Minister to be further instructed by him." Article iii provided that no man should "speak against God's name" or "the known articles of the Christian faith,"—namely, those of the Church of England,- under pain of death. A second conviction of "cursing" was punished by having a bodkin thrust through the tongue, and for the third offence the culprit suffered death. Other articles provided penalties for neglect of work (three years in the galleys), and no person could sell anything to be transported out of the Virginia colony under pain of death. That the colonists of Virginia settlers. required or endured such legislation shows clearly the poor character of the early settlers; of this we have the further evidence of the early historians of the colony. Character of the early *Hart's Con temporaries, 1, 206. culture. I, No. 83. Puritans That Virginia enjoys the distinction of being the first permanent English colony to be founded in America is due mainly to the rapidity with which mankind adopted the practice of using tobacco in one form or another. The Tobacco Czar of Russia decreed that smokers should have their noses cut off, but this and other prohibitions were in vain, and the tobacco habit spread throughout Christendom faster than Hart's Conany religion or language has ever spread. From the temporaries, moment that the production of this commodity became commercially profitable, the future of Virginia was assured. 43. Introduction of Representative Institutions. - Be- The tween 1614 and 1618, the Virginia Company fell into the hands of the Puritans, and its character was radically colonists. changed. In 1618 Sir Edwin Sandys, one of the leaders of that party in the House of Commons, displaced Sir Thomas Smith as treasurer of the company. The Puritans believed in the civil equality of man; it mattered not to them whether he were a dweller in the home land or in the colonies. The old autocratic government of the colonists by the company in England ceased. Sir George Yeardley came out as governor in 1619. His instructions directed him to summon two burgesses to be freely elected by the F and the |