name of the coast from Florida to the 48th degree of North latitude. We have also noticed the adventures of Sir Richard Grenville, who anchored upon the coast the next season, to prosecute the adventures of Sir Walter Raleigh; touched at Wockocken and Roanoke, and left a colony of 108 men under the command of Mr. Ralph Lane. We have also noticed the successive attempts of Sir Walter Raleigh, and Sir Richard Grenville, to support this little colony with recruits and supplies; together with the disasters they sustained from sickness, famine, and the murderous savages, down to the presidency of Capt. John Smith; who succeeded Mr. Ratcliffe in the administration of the colony at Jamestown, 1607. The talents of Capt. Smith were well fitted to take the command of such a colony, in such perilous times; when they were surrounded by hostile savages, who threatened their destruction, from without, whilst sickness, famine, and death, wasted and destroyed them within. Capt. Smith entered with spirit upon the arduous duties of his office, and put forth all his efforts to build up the town, and secure the sinking colony.

In the midst of those exertions which Capt. Smith was bestowing upon the colony, he was seized by some of the warriors of the great Powhatan, and carried in triumph into the presence of the sachem, who received him with all the pomp, majesty, and terror, which a savage sachem could assume. In the midst of this scene, Capt. Smith was laid prostrate upon the ground, with his head placed upon a large flat stone, ready to meet his doom by having his brains knocked out with the war club. The spectators, anxious to enjoy the triumph of death over their English captive, were viewing with impatience the executioner, as he came forward to gratify their wishes, and satiate

*Sir Walter was knighted by the queen as a token of her pleasure; snd elected member of Parliament for Devonshire; his patent was also confirmed by act of Parliament.

their thirst for blood. The victim, bound for the slaughter, with a steady eye surveyed the bloody executioner, as he raised the massy club to dash out his brains; when lo! to the astonishment of the sachem and his assembled warriors, Pocahontas, the daughter of the sachem, and the child of his delight, sprang through the crowd, flung herself upon the ground, and placed her head upon the head of Capt. Smith, thus offering herself a victim to appease the rage of her father, and to release the unfortunate captive. Struck with astonishment at this mark of disinterested benevolence, he raised Pocahontas from the ground, dismissed her with kindness, and ordered Capt. Smith to be unbound, and restored to his liberty. In a short time he sent him back to Jamestown, under a faithful escort, loaded with presents for his family and friends.

Thus relieved from immediate, and impending death, by the hands of a female savage, then only thirteen years of age; by an act of humanity that would have done honour to her sex in the most virtuous and enlightened christian community. Captain Smith returned to his little colony, which he found again, in the utmost possible distress and confusion. Hunger wasted their strength, discontent and mutiny destroyed their energies and their labours, and ruin inevitable stared them in the face. Captain Smith once more restored union, vigour, and effort to the colony; and his little deliverer, with her little female attendants, made him frequent visits, loaded with such presents, as were useful to the sick, and thus succoured and supported the feeble; and in the midst of this scene, a Captain Newport arrived, with supplies for the colony from the London Company; this added to the steady friendship of Powhatan, and the regular supplies hereafter from the London Company, raised the sinking colony from the depths of ruin and despair, and opened a way for their future prosperity. Mr. Hunt, their clergyman, commenced a regular

course of public worship, with the administration of the ordinances of the gospel, in a house which they had erected, and devoted to the purpose; and harmony and order began to arise, upon the solid basis of civil and religious liberty.

Thus we have seen how God often makes use of the feeblest instruments, to produce the greatest events, and has thus given us one more example, that those are the most powerful causes which he delights to own and bless. The world are indebted to woman, in the character of the Queen of Spain, for the discovery of the New-World, and Virginia is indebted to woman, (in the character of a female savage youth,) for the preservation of her infant colony.

The prosperity which the colony now enjoyed, was soon disturbed by the folly of Captain Newport, by his vain and ostentatious visit to Powhatan; his profuse liberality in distributing his presents to Powhatan and his chiefs, which gave them such notions of the wealth of the English, that they became extravagant in the price of their corn, and other supplies, which they had occasion to purchase for their subsistence. These purchases became the more necessary, in consequence of the unnecessary delay which Captain Newport, with his crew, made in the colony. This calamity was followed with another still more severe; their storehouse caught fire, in the heart of winter, and consumed, not only their stores of provisions, but the flames communicated to the town, and destroyed their dwellings, and all that they possessed. The Reverend Mr. Hunt lost both his library and his clothes. They bore these calamities with fortitude, put themselves upon an allowance of meal and water, and braved the inclemency of winter, 1608. When the spring opened, the few that survived, entered again upon the labours of restoring their buildings and their meeting-house, and repairing their fortifications, and of giving new life and energy to the colony. In the midst

of this distress, Captain Nelson arrived from England, by the way of the West-Indies, (where he had been driven in a storm in autumn, and had wintered,) and brought a seasonable supply of provisions, with one hundred and twenty settlers to recruit the colony. Overwhelmed as they had been, with hunger, distress, and despair, through the winter, this arrival gave them new spirits, new energies, and new efforts. They continued their united labours through the summer, rebuilt their town, cultivated their fields, and in September, Captain Smith was chosen president of the colony, and entered upon the arduous duties of his office. Under his administration, the colony began to flourish and become prosperous. President Smith devoted himself to the good of the colony. Beset by the intrigues and crafty machinations of Powhatan, whose hostile disposition sought the ruin of the colony, President Smith baffled all his efforts, and reduced him to peace, and under this peace, they enjoyed a general tranquillity with the natives; but the factious spirit of the colony again revived, with the return of peace, and disturbed the prosperity of the colony. Bred to indolence, many of them were the creatures of a vain and idle speculation, who sought gold without labour, and wealth without industry, and when they realized their mistake, instead of changing their views and habits, they opened a clamour, that not only embarrassed President Smith in the administration of the colony, but reached even to London, and roused the feelings of the company.

Notwithstanding President Smith had explored the principal rivers, and made a general discovery of the coast in South-Virginia, and notwithstanding that through his wonderful preservation by Pocahontas, and the smiles of Divine Providence upon his administration, the colony had been saved from ruin, and restored to its present state of prosperity; yet the London Company, intent on their avarice, and disappointed of their expected gain, petitioned

his majesty, and obtained a new charter, and appointed Sir Thomas West, (Lord Delaware, or De la War,) Capt. General; Sir Thomas Gates, Lieut. General, and Sir George Sommers, Admiral, &c.

Admiral Sommers set sail from England in May, with a fleet of nine ships and five hundred people, to strengthen the colony at Jamestown; but the admiral, with three noblemen, and fifty others, together with a ketch, were cast away on the Bermuda Islands, as has been noticed, where they spent the winter. When this fleet arrived in Virginia, they found the colony under President Smith, although prosperous, when compared to what they had been, yet far below their expectations; and their idle, factious, dissolute babits, when united to the prevailing factions of the colony, then distracted the administration of President Smith, and endangered not only the safety of the colony, but their own lives, and the life of their president, by their vices, corruptions, and licentiousness.

In the midst of these scenes, President Smith was so severely burnt by an explosion of gun-powder, that he was constrained to abandon his government, and return to England, September, 1609. President Smith had served the colony one year in this capacity, and now left them abundantly supplied for the approaching winter, both with corn and provisions; as well as a good supply of hogs, sheep, goats, and fowls, together with nets, boats, &c. for fishing. Jamestown could now boast of about five hundred inhabitants, comfortably accommodated in about sixty houses, well fortified, and defended by three ships, about twentyfour pieces of cannon, together with muskets, ammunition, &c. with necessary tools for labour. Before us is an example, which may well shew how much the happiness or misery of a people, under God, depends upon individual character. When President Smith had gone, all that was valuable to the colony was gone. The government de