Dale took Rolfe and his wife to England, and with them went several other young Indians, men and women, and one Tamocomo, the husband of another of Powhatan's daughters. The young people were under the guardianship of the Council, and to be educated as Christians; but Tamocomo was an emissary of his father-in-law, under orders to gather information in regard to the English people. His observations may have been valuable, but he soon gave over an attempt to take a census of the population by notches on a stick. The whole Pocahontas party excited the liveliest curiosity. The Lady Rebecca was in England. received at court with great favor, though grave doubts were entertained, suggested it was supposed by James, who was never unmindful of the divine right of kings, whether Rolfe had not been guilty of treason in presuming to make an alliance with a royal family. The princess appeared at the theatres and other public places, everywhere attracting great attraction as the daughter of the Virginian emperor, and as one to whom the colonists had sometimes been indebted for 1619.] SANDYS AND YEARDLEY. 305 signal services; and every where exciting admiration for her personal graces, and the propriety and good sense with which she always conducted herself. She remained in England for nearly a year, and died as she was about to sail for her native country. Her only child, a son, is claimed as the ancestor of some of the most respectable families of Virginia. Argall's ad tion. Alliances by marriage between the whites and Indians were encouraged and were not infrequent, as it was hoped to establish by such connections more friendly relations with the savages. They had, no doubt, some influence, the marriage of Pocahontas especially leading to a treaty with Powhatan which he faithfully observed so long as he lived, and which was renewed after his death, in 1618, by his successor. Meanwhile Dale was succeeded in the government of the colony, first by George Yeardley, then by Captain Argall, and again by Yeardley. During Dale's administration, Argall, who was of an adventurous and unscrupulous disposition, had won notoriety, if not distinction, by the destruction of a little colony of French at Port ministra Royal in the Bay of Fundy. As governor he was more diligent in the pursuit of his own interests, than in any care for the welfare of the colony. The complaints against him were so loud and bitter as to demand reparation at the hands of the Council in London, while he was also called to account for the neglect and ruin which had fallen upon those plantations which it was his duty to have worked on behalf of the Company. Lord De la Warre was sent out to displace him and correct these abuses, but died on the way, somewhere, it is supposed, near the mouth of the bay since known as the Delaware. Yeardley, who meanwhile had returned to England, was made captain-general and ordered to Virginia. Sir George Yeardley apernor, and Sandys pointed gov Sir Edwin treasurer. The appointment in 1619 of Sir George Yeardley for he was now knighted as president, was the beginning of a new era in the history of Virginia. Others had been as honest, energetic, and clear-sighted as he, and as earnest in their efforts on behalf of the "action." But he reaped the benefit of all that they had done and had, besides, the advantage, which they often wanted, of being sustained by a wise conduct of affairs in England. Sir Thomas Smith, who from the beginning had been the treasurer of the company in London with almost plenary powers, retired from office this same year, and his place was supplied by Sir Edwin Sandys. Smith had been accused of mismanagement, and his accounts were in some disorder, but his reputation at the time evidently suffered no serious injury, as on his retiring, a grant of two thousand acres of land in Virginia was made him by the London Council. He had had many obstacles to encounter in the raising and disbursements of means to found a distant colony in an unknown region, and had done, perhaps, all that could be done in the first twelve years. The earlier difficulties were overcome when affairs came into the hands of Sandys and Yeardley, and to achieve success was a much easier task. When Yeardley arrived in Virginia the colony numbered about six hundred persons. They had become discouraged and discontented under the arbitrary and dishonest rule of Argall, were suffering from a scarcity of food, having neglected the cultivation of maize, that they might raise the more tobacco and acquire the means to return to England. To induce and even to compel them to raise more to eat and less to sell, was the governor's first object, and he observed his own laws by planting corn on the Company's lands, and writing the treasurer in London that he must not expect remittances in tobacco for at least a year. To restore confidence among the colonists and to assure them of a guaranty for the future, he gave to them the power of selfgovernment, to a certain extent, by calling upon them to send representatives from each of the towns, hundreds, or plantations to meet with the governor and council and decide upon all matters relating to the colony. The governor was to have a veto upon their legislation, and no laws were valid till approved by the Company at home. With this power of government came the sense of possession and permanency, undoubtedly exercising a strong influence over the minds of the colonists. Sir Edwin Sandys proposed to create a more complicated form of government, but this germ of the future commonwealth, in a house of representative burgesses, was left for a time to a natural growth. The first legislative assembly met in the church at Jamestown, on the 30th of July, 1619, and consisted of twenty-two representatives and the governor and council. One of the acts passed at this meeting was for the punishment of drunkenness. Progress of In this first year of Yeardley's administration, the loss by death to the colony was three hundred. By the special order of the the colony. king, its number was increased by the transportation of one hundred felons gathered from the jails of England. These misfortunes were offset by the wisdom of Sandys. Ten thousand acres of land were set apart at Henrico, for the foundation of a university, where both Indians and whites were to be educated, and within two years a hundred men were settled upon these lands, to cultivate them on half shares. A measure of more immediate benefit, was the transportation, with their own consent, of a hundred "maids, young and uncorrupt,' as wives for young men, who, from being only temporary settlers, would thus be made, by domestic ties, permanent inhabitants and good citizens. The young women met with the heartiest welcome, and none 1619.] PROGRESS OF THE COLONY. 307 remained long without a husband, though the price of a wife was the cost of her transportation, payable in tobacco, except to those who were tenants of the Company's lands. Many poor children, both boys and girls, were sent out as apprentices. The system was sometimes. taken advantage of by private persons, and young women and children kidnapped and sold as slaves to the planters; but the purpose of the Council was benevolent and its results beneficial to the colony. Provision was made for the religious instruction of the people; the principal seats of the colony were more securely fortified; a lasting peace with the Indians was thought to be secured by treaties. Within a twelvemonth eight ships were sent out to the colony by the treasurer, Sir Edwin Sandys, and four more by private adventurers, carrying an aggregate of twelve hundred and sixty-one persons, to be about equally divided between the plantations of the Company and those belonging to individuals. The new English nation had at length taken firm root on the shores of America. James B Signature of James I. CHAPTER XII. COLONIZATION UNDER THE NORTHERN COMPANY. THE SEA-COAST OF MAINE. -THE EARLY FISHERMEN.-FRENCH TRADERS. - PONTGRAVÉ AND POUTRINCOURT. GEORGE WEYMOUTH'S VOYAGE. - COLONY OF CHIEF JUSTICE POPHAM. SAMUEL CHAMPLAIN IN NEW YORK.-SETTLEMENT ON Mr. DESERT. ARGALL'S DESTRUCTION OF THE FRENCH COLONY.-JOHN SMITH IN NEW ENGLAND. EXPEDITIONS OF FERDINANDO GORGES. SECOND CHARTER OF THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY. NOVA SCOTIA GIVEN TO SIR WILLIAM ALEXANDER. GRANT OF THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY TO GORGES. FIRST TOWNS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE AND MAINE. THE BREAKING UP OF THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY. - CHARACTER OF GORGES. ON a map of the State of Maine, its rivers and lakes appear to be the over of water, just as when it Maine. Its munication fed by lakes that are strung upon rivulets, with branches to explore and drain every nook of the land, were highways which the birch |