of the colony depended on the prompt arrival, every few months, of a "supply"; and the colonists measured time by dating from "the First Supply," or "the Third Supply." The system of "industry in common" has frequently been called an experiment in communism. In reality it was no more communism than was a Virginia slave plantation in 1850. The London Company would have been the last men to approve any theory of communism. The common industry and undivided profits were simply clumsy features of management by a distant proprietary company. The opening days of the colony promised an endless summer idyl to the inexperienced adventurers. "That very Honorable Gentleman, Master George Percy," as John Smith afterward calls him, has left us a record of his first impressions: Early expectations The six and twentieth day of Aprill about foure a clocke in the morning, wee descried the Land of Virginia: the same day wee enterd into the Bay of Chesupioc without any let or hinderance; there wee landed and discovered a little way, but we could find nothing worth the speaking of but faire meddowes and goodly tall Trees, with such Fresh-waters runninge through the woods as I was almost ravished at the first sight thereof. The [28th] day . . . we went further into the Bay, and saw a plaine [level] plot of ground where we went on Land . . . we saw nothing there but a Cannow, which was made out of the whole tree, which was five and fortie foot long, by the Rule. Upon this plot of ground we got good store of Mussels and Oysters, which lay upon the ground as thicke as stones: wee opened some and found in many of them Pearles [!] . . . We passed through excellent ground full of Flowers of divers kinds and colours, and as goodly trees as I have seene, as cedar, cipresse, and other kindes. Going a little farther, we came into a little plot full of fine and beautifull strawberries, foure times bigger and better than ours in England. But the location of Jamestown was low and unhealthful; the committee government was not suited to vigorous action; and only the stern school of experience could teach DISAPPOINTMENT AND SUFFERING Years of 27 men in that day how to colonize an unknown continent. The early years were a time of cruel suffering. The first summer saw two thirds of the settlers perish, while much of the time the rest were helpless with cruel fever. The closing pages of Captain Percy's Discourse tell the story: suffering Our men were destroyed by cruell diseases . . . and by warres [with the Indians]; and some departed suddenly, but for the most part they died of meere famine. There were never Englishmen left in a forreigne Country in such miserie as wee were. Our feed was but a small can of Barlie, sod in Water, to five men a day; our drinke, cold Water taken out of the River, which was at flood verie Salt, at a low tide full of slime and filth ... Thus we lived for the space of five months in this miserable distresse, not having five able men to man our Bulwarkes . . . our men night and day groaning in every corner of the Fort most pittiful to heare... some departing out of the World, many times three or four in a night, in the morning their bodies trailed out of their Cabines, like Dogges, to be burried. The First Supply, in the fall of 1607, found only 38 survivors, and for 20 years each new immigration lost, on an average, half its members the first season. From one peril the colony was saved by its very misery. Spain watched jealously this intrusion into a region which she claimed as her own, and the government con- The Spanish templated an attack upon Jamestown. In partic- peril ular, the Spanish ambassador at London urged his king repeatedly to have "those insolent people in Virginia annihilated." "It will be serving God," he wrote, "to drive these villains out and hang them." But the Spanish spies in the colony reported that it must fall of itself; and the dilatory Spanish government, already slipping into decay and unwilling needlessly to make King James an enemy, failed to act. The most interesting figure during the first three years was the burly, bustling, bragging, efficient Captain John Captain Smith. Smith finally became President of the in- John Smith effective Council. Then he quickly usurped all the power of government, and his beneficent tyranny saved the colony from ruin. In 1609, however, he was injured by an explosion of gunpowder, and went back to England. The next winter was "The Starving Time." A special effort had been made, the summer before, to reinforce the colony; and in the fall the number of settlers had risen to more than three hundred. Spring found only sixty gaunt survivors. These had embarked to abandon the colony, with slight chance of life whether The colony saved by The charters of 1609 and 1612 able outburst of enthusiasm in England in behalf of the sinking colony. Sermons and pamphlets appealed to the patriotism of the nation not to let this new England perish. The list of the Company's stockholders was greatly multiplied, and came to include the most famous names in England, along with good men from all classes of society; 1 and this enlarged London Company received enlarged powers CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. From the woodcut by Smith in the corner of his map of New England in his Generall Historie. Smith's rhyming inscription below the picture refers to his "deeds more fair" than his face. 1 Cf. p. 19. Each of the 650 subscribers bought from one to ten shares of stock, at £12 10 s. a share, or about $400 a share in our values. THE TIME OF SLAVERY through two new charters in 1609 and 1612. were accomplished by these grants: 29 Three things 1. The territory of the Company was extended. It was made to reach along the coast each way 200 miles from Point Comfort, and "up into the land throughout from sea to sea, west and northwest." 2. The authority before kept by the king was now turned over to the Company; and that body received a democratic organization. It was to elect its Own "Treasurer" and Council (President and Directors, in modern phrase), and to rule the colony in all respects. 3. A more efficient government was provided in the colony. There was no hint yet of self-government. The Company in England made all laws and appointed all officers for the colony. But the inefficient plural head in the colony, with its divisions and jealousies, was replaced by one "principal governor with a Council to assist him. 1616 its chief officer in Virginia was Sir Thomas Dale. This stern soldier put in force a military government, with a savage set of laws known as Dale's Code. Among other provisions, these laws compelled attendance at divine worship daily, under penalty of six months in the galleys, and on Sundays on pain of death for repeated absence. Death was the penalty also for repeated blasphemy, for "speaking evil of any known article of the Christian faith," for refusing to answer the catechism of a clergyman, and for neglecting work. The military courts, too, made use of ingeniously atrocious punishments, such as burning at the stake, breaking on the wheel, or leaving bound to a tree to starve, with a bodkin thrust through the tongue. These years of tyranny were long remembered as "the time of slavery," with a government "very bloody and severe . . . in no wise agreeable to a free people or to the British constitution." Dale, however, was conscientious and efficient, and full of enthusiasm for Virginia. "Take the best four kingdoms of Europe," he wrote home, "and put them all together, and they may no way compare with this country for commodity and goodness of soil." Moreover, he kept order and protected the colony from the Indians, and in 1614 he made 81 three-acre allotments of land to private holders a small garden to each free settler. At his departure, in 1616, the colonists numbered 351. Of these, 65 were women or children, and some 200 were "servants." A revolution now took place in the London Company. That body had split into factions. The part so far in control was conservative, and belonged to the "court party" in English politics; but toward the close of 1618, control passed to a liberal and Puritan faction, led by the Earl of Southampton and Sir Edwin Sandys. Since these patriots were struggling gallantly in parliament against King James' arbitrary rule, it was not unnatural Yeardley in that they should at once grant a large measure of self-government to the Englishmen across the Atlantic, over whom they themselves ruled. Sir George Yeardley was sent out as governor, and a new era began in Virginia. Sandys in And Virginia With Yeardley's arrival, in April, 1619, the number of colonists was raised to about a thousand. They were still, mainly, indentured servants (p. 19), and were distributed among eleven petty "plantations," mere patches on the wilderness, scattered along a narrow ribbon of territory, |