1618 DEATH OF COBHAM. 155 to continue his journey. In this condition he lingered for more than a year, and it was not till January 24, 1619, that he died. The feeling of detestation with which his memory was regarded, found expression in the fable that he died in complete destitution. For this fable there was no foundation whatever. But it was inconsistent with the popular idea of justice, that any man who had contributed to Raleigh's misfortunes, should die in ordinary comfort.2 ' Council Register, May 14, Sept. 28, 1617. 2 He was allowed by the King 100l. a year, besides 87. a week for his diet. The payments were made with tolerable regularity to the last, a few weeks after they were due, as appears from the Order Book of the Exchequer, Nov. 7, Dec. 7, 1618, Feb. 6, 1619. The only support I have found for the ordinary story is a letter, in which it is said that Cobham lay unburied for want of money. Wynn to Carleton, Jan. 28. S. P. Dom. cv. 67. This, however, is easily accounted for. The Crown would refuse to pay the funeral expenses, and his relations may have hung back, as wishing to throw the burden upon the King. I cannot close this chapter without again expressing my deep obligation to Mr. Spedding's discussion of Raleigh's conduct. I do not suppose that my story, as it now stands, would have secured his complete approbation, but he would, at all events, have perceived how considerably it had been modified in consequence of his argument 156 Dale's administration CHAPTER XXVI. VIRGINIA, AND THE EAST INDIES. THE Colonial and maritime enterprise of England did not die with Raleigh. The Colony of Virginia which, before the dream 1614. of the golden mine had led him astray, he had striven to found, was at last on the way to prosperity. in Virginia. Sir Thomas Dale, who succeeded Gates as governor in 1614,1 ruled with firmness and ability. The land which had hitherto been held in common was divided into private holdings, a measure which was attended with the best effects. If the settlers did not acquire wealth rapidly, they were 1616. at least contented and prosperous. After two years, Dale returned to England well satisfied with the results of his administration. was Visit of Pocahontas to England. On board the vessel on which Dale re-crossed the Atlantic a passenger likely to attract far more attention than himself. Pocahontas, the daughter of the Indian chief Powhattan, who in the early days of the colony had served as a friendly messenger between her father and the settlers, was in the ship. She was now the wife of an Englishman, and was eagerly looking forward to the first sight of the land which, in her childhood, had so powerfully attracted her imagination. Her previous The history of her marriage was a strange one. In history. 1612, a vessel came out to the colony, under the command of a daring and unscrupulous adventurer, named See Vol. II. p. 62. 1612 STORY OF POCAHONTAS. 157 Argall. Finding that hostilities prevailed between the colonists and the natives, he formed the design of seizing as a hostage the daughter of the principal chief in the neighbourhood. By the bribe of a copper tea-kettle he induced an Indian to entice Pocahontas on board his vessel, and sailed away with his prize to Jamestown. For some months it seemed that the outrage had been committed in vain. Powhattan still refused to submit to the terms demanded of him. At last, however, he was informed that one of the settlers, named Thomas Rolfe, wished to marry his daughter. The intelligence pleased him, and a general pacification was the result. Pocahontas was instructed in the religion of her husband, and was baptized by the name of Rebecca.1 Sanguine men believed that in this marriage they saw the commencement of a union between the two races, from which a great Christian nation would arise in America under the protection of the English Crown. It was not so to be. The story of Pocahontas herself was too sure an indication of the fate which awaited her race. At first everything smiled upon her. Captain Smith, who had known her well in Virginia, presented her to the Queen. Anne received her kindly, and invited her to be present at the Twelfth Night masque. So delighted was the Indian girl with the brilliancy of the scenes which opened before her, that she could hardly be brought to consent to accompany her hus 1617. Her presentation at Court. Her death. band on his return to America. She never saw her Virginian home again. Her imagination had been excited and her brain overtasked by the throng of new sights and associations which had pressed upon her. She died at Gravesend before she set foot on board the vessel which was to have carried her back. She left one child, a little boy. Sir Lewis Stukely, who was not as yet under the ban of popular disfavour, asked to be allowed to care for his education. After Stukely's death young Thomas Rolfe was transferred to the care of an uncle. He afterwards emigrated to his mother's country, and through Smith's History of Virginia, 112. Stith's History of Virginia, 127. him many of the foremost families of Virginia have been proud to trace their lineage to the Indian Pocahontas.' Invention romance. In England, but for her connection with the romantic adventures of Captain Smith, the name of Pocahontas would probably soon have been forgotten, along with those of Smith's of so many of her race who have from time to time visited our shores. The touching story of the pardon granted to the captive Englishman through the intercession of the daughter of the Indian chief who was about to sacrifice him, won its way into all hearts, and has, for two centuries and a half, charmed readers of all ages. At one time, the criticism which has swept away so many legends seemed to have doomed the story of Smith and Pocahontas to the fate which has befallen so many legends. Later inquiry has, however, turned the scale in favour of Smith's veracity, and it seems possible that in this case, at least, the critical historian may accept the tale which is embalmed in the popular imagination.2 1616. of the culti The short administration of Yeardley, who had been left behind as Dale's deputy in Virginia, was marked by the introduction into the colony of the cultivation of the tobacco Introduction plant, to which the whole of its subsequent prosperity vation of was owing. Hitherto the settlers had been engaged tobacco. in a struggle for existence; they had now at last before them an opportunity of acquiring wealth. Yet the change was not of unmixed advantage. Everyone was in haste to grow rich, and everyone forgot that tobacco would not prove a substitute for bread. Every inch of ground which had been cleared was devoted to tobacco. The very streets of Jamestown were dug up to make room for the precious leaf. Men had no time to speak of anything but tobacco. The church, the bridge, the palisades, were allowed to fall into decay, whilst every available hand was engaged upon the crop which was preparing for exportation. Smith's History of Virginia, 121. Chamberlain to Carleton, June 22, 1616; Jan. 28; March 29, 1617, S. P. Dom. lxxxvii. 67 ; xc. 25, 146. 2 Smith's True Relation of Virginia (ed. Deane), 38, note 3; 72, note I; Wingfield's Discourse of Virginia (ed. Deane), 32, note 8. Mr. Deane's arguments are strongly put against the truth of the story. Professor Arber, however, who is at present editing the various narratives of Smith's adventures, and who has minutely examined such of his statements as are capable of verification, takes a very favourable view of Smith's veracity. 1616 Yeardley's administra tion. GROWTH OF THE COLONY. 159 The natural result followed. Starvation once more stared the settlers in the face. There was not corn enough in Jamestown to last till another harvest. Yeardley, a kindly, inefficient man, had not foreseen the danger, or had been unable to make head against it; and the only remedy which he could devise was an attack upon the Chickahominies for the purpose of enforcing the payment of a corn tribute, which had been for some time in abeyance. The expedition was successful, and was, doubtless, applauded at the time. But it did not promise well for the union between the races which was to have sprung from the marriage of Rolfe and Pocahontas. 1617. Argall arrives as Governor. Yeardley had held office for little more than a year when he was succeeded by Argall. The new Governor was not the man to imitate the remissness of his predecessor; and the colonists soon found that he was determined to be obeyed. The defences of Jamestown were repaired. Harsh remedies were applied to the recent disorders. Every act of the colonists was now to be fenced about with prohibitions. The trader was to content himself with a profit of twenty-five per cent. No intercourse was to be held with the Indians excepting through the medium of the constituted authorities. Whoever wasted his powder by firing a gun, excepting in self-defence, was to be condemned to penal servitude for a year. Whoever taught the use of firearms to an Indian was to be put to death.1 His tyranny. Even such regulations as these might have been endured if Argall had been a man of integrity. But when it came to be known that in the eyes of the Governor he was himself the one man in Virginia who was above the law, the whole colony broke out into open discontent. Every homeward-bound vessel carried across the Atlantic complaints of his tyrannical conduct to individuals, and of his shameless robbery of the public stores. 1618. and death of As soon as these complaints reached London, the Appointment Company requested Lord De la Warr to return tc America, and to save the colony once more from ruin. In the spring of 1618 he left England, acStith's History of Virginia, Lord De la Warr. 1 Smith's History of Virginia, 120-123. [40-147. |