of thirteen persons, to be appointed by the CHAP. I. king, and who were invested with the superior direction of the affairs of the colonies.

The adventurers were allowed to search for, and open mines of gold, silver, and copper; yielding one fifth of the two former metals, and one fifteenth of the latter, to the king; and to make a coin which should be current, as well among the colonists, as the natives.

The president and council, within the colonies, were authorized to repel those who should, without their authority, attempt to settle, or trade within their jurisdiction, and to seize and detain their persons, and effects, until they should pay a duty of two and one half per centum, ad valorem, if subjects, but of five per centum, if aliens.

These taxes were to be applied, for twentyone years, to the use of the adventurers, and afterwards, to be paid into the royal exchequer.

1606.

drawn up for

colony by

While the council for the patentees were Code of laws employed, in making preparations, to secure the proposed the benefits of their grant, James was no less king jamies. assiduously engaged in the new, and, to his vanity, the flattering, task of framing a code of laws, for the government of the colonies about to be planted. Having at length prepared it, the code was issued under the sign manual, and privy seal of England, on the 20th of November. He invested, by these regulations, the general superintendence of the colonies in

1606.

CHAP. I. a council in England, " composed of a few persons of consideration and talents." He ordered that the word, and service of God should be preached, and used, according to the rites, and doctrines of the church of England. Both the legislative, and executive, powers within the colonies, were vested in the president and councils. To their legislative power, however, was annexed a proviso, that their ordinances should not touch any man's life, or member; should only continue in force, until made void by the king, or his council in England, for Virginia; and should be, in substance, consonant to the laws of England. He also enjoined them, to permit none to withdraw the people from their allegiance, to himself, and his successors; and to cause all persons so offending to be apprehended, and imprisoned until reformation; or, in cases highly offensive, to be sent to England to receive punishment. And no person should be permitted to remain in the colony, without taking the oath of obedience. Tumults, mutiny, and rebellion, murder and incest, were to be punished with death; and for these offences the criminal was to be tried by a jury. Inferior crimes were to be punished, in a summary way, at the discretion of the president and council.

Lands were to be holden within the colony, as the same estates were enjoyed in England. Kindness towards the heathen was enjoined; and a power reserved to the king, and his suc

cessors, to ordain further laws, so that they were consonant to the jurisprudence of England.

Under this charter, and these laws, which manifest, at the same time, a total disregard of all political liberty, and a total ignorance of the real advantages which may be drawn from colonies by a parent state; which vest the higher powers of legislation in persons residing out of the country; not chosen by the people; and unaffected by the laws they make; while commerce remains unconfined; the patentees proceeded to execute the arduous, and almost untried task, of peopling a strange, distant and uncultivated land, covered with woods and marshes, and inhabited only by a few savages, easily irritated, and when irritated, more fierce than the beasts they hunted.

Stith....Robertson.... Chalmers.

CHAP. I.

1606.

CHAPTER II.

Voyage of captain Newport....Colony settled at Jamestown ....Distress of the colonists.... Influence and activity of captain Smith....He is captured by the Indians....Condemned to death by Powhatan...Saved by Pocahontas.... Returns to Jamestown....Newport arrives with an additional supply of settlers....Smith explores the Chessapeake....Is chosen president....New charter... Third voyage of Newport...Smith sails for Europe....Condition of the colony...Determination to abandon the colony...Stopped by the arrival of lord Delawar, the governor general....Sir Thomas Dale....New charter....Captain Argal seizes Pocahontas....She marries Mr. Rolfe....Separate property in lands and labour in some degree established ....Expedition of captain Argal against the French colony at Port Royal....Against the Dutch at Manhadoes.... Fifty acres of land laid off for each settler....Tobacco.... Sir Thomas Dale....Mr. Yeardly....First colonial assembly....First arrival of females in the colony....And of convicts....First importation of African slaves....Two councils established....Prosperity of the colony....Attempt of the Indians to massacre all the whites....General war....Dissension and dissolution of the company....Colony taken into the hands of the king....Arbitrary measures of the crown....Sir John Harvey....Sir William Berkeley....Províncial assembly restored....Virginia declares in favour of Charles II....Grant to lord Baltimore ....Arrival of a colony in Maryland under Calvert.... Assembly composed of all the freemen.... William Clayborne....Assembly composed of representatives.... Divided into two branches....Tyranical proceedings.

ALTHOUGH several men of rank, and fortune, were concerned in the companies which had been formed in England, for colonizing

America, their funds appear to have been very CHAP. II. limited, and their first efforts were certainly 1606. extremely feeble.

The first expedition for the southern colony consisted of one vessel, of a hundred tons, and two barks, with a hundred and five men, destined to remain in the country.

Captain

The command of this small embarkation voyage of was given to captain Newport, who sailed Newport therewith from the Thames, the 19th of December. At the same time that his instructions were received, three packets sealed with the seal of the council, were delivered, one to captain Newport, a second to captain Bartholomew Gosnald, and a third to captain John Ratcliffe, containing the names of the council for the colony. These packets were accompanied with instructions, directing that they should be opened, within twenty-four hours, after their arrival on the coast of Virginia, and not before; and that the names of his majesty's council should then be proclaimed. The council were then to proceed to the choice of a president, who should have two votes. To this singular, and unaccountable conceal. ment have been, in a great degree, attributed the dissensions which distracted the colonists on their passage, and which afterwards considerably impeded the progress of their infant

settlement.