from it; a challenge which the queen readily accepted. Raleigh then weighed the tobacco, and after smoking it, weighed the ashes, arguing that the difference between the two quantities must be the amount of the smoke. The queen admitted his reasoning, and remarked that she had often seen gold turned into smoke, but never, till then, smoke turned into gold.

Among the vicissitudes and disasters which befel the colony, there is one deserving of especial notice for its tragical character. Opecancanough, the successor of Powhatan, had adopted with ardor all the early enmity of that prince against the English. This hostile feeling was more and more embittered, as he observed the manner in which the hated strangers multiplied and spread over the country. Instigated by these feelings, he formed one of those dreadful schemes, so characteristic of the Indians, of exterminating the whole race of his enemies at a single blow. Such was the fidelity of his people, and so deep the power of savage dissimulation, that this bloody scheme was arranged and matured during four years, without the slightest hint being conveyed to the English. Down to the fatal moment of its execution the most studied semblance of friendship and cordiality was maintained. The king sent a message that "the sky would sooner fall than the peace between them should be dissolved." Several of the English, who had strayed into the woods and fallen into the power of the savages, were carefully and kindly guided back.

On the fatal morning of the 22d of March, 1622, the Indians flocked to the English settlements in great numbers, with numerous presents, and many of them breakfasted in the English houses. On a signal given, they began a general massacre, without distinction of age or sex. The weapons of the English themselves, or any instruments of destruction which lay nearest at hand, were used against them. Many of the savage murderers had received from their victims particular kindness and marks of favor. In a space of time which may be called momentary, three hundred and forty-seven of the English fell, without knowing how or by what weapon. Only one disclosure was made, and that by Chumo, an Indian convert living with a Mr. Pace, who treated him as his own son. One of his companions, the night before, acquainted him with the design, and urged him to kill his master, as he intended to kill his own. Instead of following this diabolical advice, Chumo discovered the plot to Pace, by whom the intelligence was despatched to Jamestown, and that settlement was saved. Meantime, the colony proceeded with much vicissitude of forThe materials composing it were by no means of a promSmith describes them as "poor gentlemen,

ising description.

DISSOLUTION OF THE LONDON COMPANY.

349

tradesmen, servingmen, libertines, and such like; ten times more fit to spoil a commonwealth than either to begin or maintain one." As they went out from England usually with extravagant hopes of sudden and brilliant wealth, they paid little regard to any regular or substantial pursuit, and scorned even the slight labor which was necessary to draw subsistence from this fertile soil. Hostilities with the Indians cut off their supplies of provisions, and a period of scarcity and suffering ensued which is known in the history of Virginia as the "starving time." Once more the inhabitants resolved to abandon the country. "No one dropped a tear," says the contemporary narrator, "for none had enjoyed one day of happiness." They embarked and sailed down James river, but the next morning they met the long-boat of Lord Delaware, who had just arrived on the coast with emigrants and supplies. The vessel was put about, and the colonists returned to Jamestown.

Much as the colony had been reduced in its inhabitants and possessions by their calamities, its losses were soon counterbalanced by supplies from the parent country. From May, 1621, to May, 1622, twenty ships conveyed thirteen hundred persons and eighty head of cattle from England to Virginia. King James made the colonists a present of arms out of the tower, and sent them twenty barrels of powder. Lord St. John, of Basing, gave them sixty coats of mail. The city of London, and many private persons, made them generous presents. Specimens of wine, made in Virginia about this time, were sent to England. French laborers, who had been imported to cultivate vineyards, wrote to the English Company, that the climate and soil of Virginia surpassed that of the province of Languedoc, for the culture of grapes.

In 1624, the London Company, which had hitherto held the government of the colony, was dissolved by a legal process, and all the rights and privileges conferred upon it returned to the king, from whom they flowed. Whatever may be thought of the manner in which the dissolution of the company was effected, the change was for the better. There is not, perhaps, any mode of governing an infant colony, less friendly to its liberty, than the dominion of an exclusive corporation, possessed of all the powers which James had conferred upon the company of adventurers in Virginia. During several years the colonists can hardly be considered in any other light than as servants to the company; nourished out of its stores, bound implicitly to obey its orders, and subjected to the most rigorous of all forms of government, that of martial law. Nor was the power of the company more favorable to the prosperity of the colony than to its freedom. A numerous body of merchants, as long as its operations are purely commercial, may

carry them on with discernment and success; but the mercantile spirit is badly adapted to conduct an enlarged and liberal plan of civil policy. Colonies have seldom grown up to maturity and vigor, under its narrow and interested regulations. Unacquainted with the climate and soil of America, and ignorant of the productions best suited to them, they seem to have had no settled plan of improvement, and their schemes were continually varying Their system of government was equally fluctuating. In the course of eighteen years, ten different persons presided over the province, as chief governors. No wonder that, under such administration, all the efforts to give stability should prove abortive, or produce but slender effects!

Above an hundred and fifty thousand pounds were expended in this first attempt to plant an English colony in America; and more than nine thousand persons were sent out from the mother country to people this new settlement. The nation, in return for this waste of treasure and of people, did not receive from Virginia an annual importation of commodities exceeding twenty thousand pounds in value; and the colony was so far from having added strength to the state, by an increase of population, that in the year 1624, scarcely two thousand persons survived.

The company, like all unprosperous societies, fell unpitied. The violent hand with which royal prerogative had invaded its rights was forgotten, and new prospects of success opened under a projected constitution, supposed to be exempt from all the defects to which past disasters were imputed. But the death of king James prevented him from completing his intended plan of colonial government. It was under the administration of the London Company that slavery was first introduced into the United States. In 1620, a Dutch ship of war entered James's river, and landed twenty negroes for sale. This is the first mention of negre slavery in the history of Virginia.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

VIRGINIA CONTINUED.-Arbitrary government of Charles I. in Virginia.-Administration of Sir William Berkeley-Opposition of the Virginians to the English Parliament.-Policy of Cromwell toward the Virginians.-They rebel in favor of the king.--Ingratitude of Charles II.-Effects of the navigation act in the colonies.-Bacon's rebellion.-Civil war in Virginia.-The royal government overthrown.-Death of Bacon and suppression of the rebellion.-Prosperity of the colony.

CHARLES I., on his accession to the throne, in 1625, adopted all his father's maxims with respect to the colony in Virginia. He declared it to be a part of the empire annexed to the crown, and immediately subordinate to its jurisdiction. He conferred the title of governor on Sir George Yeardly; empowered him, in conjunction with a council of twelve and a secretary, to exercise supreme authority; and enjoined them to conform in every point to such instructions as, from time to time, he might send them. From the tenor of the king's commission, as well as from the known spirit of his policy, it is apparent that he intended to vest every power of government, both legislative and executive, in the governor and council, without recourse to the representatives of the people. Virginia knew no other law than the will of the sovereign. Statutes were published and taxes imposed, without

once calling upon the representatives of the people to sanction them. At the same time that the colonists were bereaved of political rights, which they deemed essential to freedom, their private property was violently invaded. A proclamation was issued, by which, under pretexts equally absurd and frivolous, they were prevented from selling tobacco to any person but to certain commissioners appointed by the king to purchase it on his account. Thus they had the cruel mortification to behold their sovereign engross all the profits of their industry, by seizing the only valuable commodity which they had to vend, and retaining the monopoly of it in his own hands. While the staple of the colony of Virginia sunk in value, under the oppression and restraints of a monopoly, property in land was rendered insecure, by various and conflicting grants which Charles inconsiderately bestowed upon his favorites. These were not only of such exorbitant extent as to be unfavorable to the progress of cultivation, but, from inattention or imperfect acquaintance with the geography of the country, their boundaries were so inaccurately defined, that large tracts already occupied and planted, were often included in new grants.

The murmurs and complaints which such a system of administration excited, were augmented by the rigor with which Sir John Harvey, who succeeded Yeardley in the government of the colony, enforced every act of power. Rapacious, unfeeling and haughty, he added insolence to oppression; and neither regarded the sentiments nor listened to the remonstrances of the people under his administration. The colonists, far from the seat of government, and overawed by authority, submitted long to his tyranny and exactions. Their patience was at last exhausted; and in a transport of popular rage and indignation, they seized their governor and sent him a prisoner to England, accompanied by two of their number, whom they deputed to prefer their accusations against him to the king. But this attempt to redress their wrongs was altogether repugnant to every idea which Charles entertained, with respect to the obedience due by subjects to their sovereign. To him, the conduct of the colonists appeared to be, not only an usurpation of his right, but an open and audacious act of rebellion. Without deigning to admit their deputies into his presence, or to hear one article of their charges against Harvey, the king instantly sent him back to his former station, with an ample renewal of all the powers belonging to it. Though Charles deemed this vigorous step necessary to assert his own authority, and to testify his displeasure against those who had presumed to offer such an insult to it, he seems to have been so sen