to America, Pocahontas fell sick and died. There was left of this marriage a son, who came to Jamestown, and was a man of some importance in the colony. To him several families of Virginians still trace their origin. John Randolph of Roanoke was a descendant of Pocahontas.

4. Captain Argall was next sent with an armed vessel to the coast of Maine. The object of the voyage was to protect the English fishermen, and to destroy the colonies of France, if any should be found within the territory claimed by England. The French authorities of Acadia were at this time building a village near the mouth of the Penobscot. This settlement was pillaged and the houses burned; part of the inhabitants were sent to France and the rest carried to the Chesapeake. The French colony at the mouth of the St. Croix was next attacked, and the fort cannonaded and destroyed. At Port Royal, Argall burned the hamlet which Poutrincourt had built there eight years before. On his way back to Virginia he fell upon the Dutch of Manhattan Island, destroyed their huts, and compelled the settlers to acknowledge the king of England. By these outrages, the French settlements in America were confined to the banks of the St. Lawrence.

5. In March of 1614, Sir Thomas Gates returned to England, leaving the government in the hands of Dale. In these times the laws of the colony were much improved, and the colonial industry took a better form. Hitherto the settlers had engaged in planting vineyards and in the manufacture of soap, glass, and tar. The managers of the company had at last learned that these articles could be produced more cheaply in Europe than in America. They had also discovered that the products of the New World might be raised and exported with great profit. The chief of these products was the tobacco-plant, the use of which had become fashionable in Spain, England, and France. This, then, became the leading staple of the colony, and was even used for money. So entirely did the settlers give themselves to the cultivation of the weed that the streets of Jamestown were plowed up and planted with it.

6. In 1617 the unprincipled Captain Argall was elected governor. His administration was marked by fraud and violence. When the

news of his proceedings reached England emigration ceased, and Lord Delaware embarked for Virginia, in the hope of restoring order. But the worthy nobleman died on the voyage, and Argall continued in office. In 1619 he was at last displaced, and Sir George Yeardley appointed to succeed him.

7. Martial law was now abolished. Taxes were repealed, and the people freed from many burdens. Another action was taken of still greater importance. Governor Yeardley divided the plantations into eleven districts, called boroughs, and ordered the citizens of each borough to elect two of their number to take part in the government. The elections were duly held, and on the 30th of July, 1619, the Virginia HOUSE OF BURGESSES was organized— the first popular assembly in the New World. In this body there was freedom of debate but very little political power.

8. The year 1619 was also marked by the introduction of slavery. The servants at Jamestown had hitherto been English or Germans, whose term of service had varied from a few months to many years. No perpetual servitude had thus far been recognized. In the month. of August a Dutch man-of-war sailed up the river to the plantations, and offered by auction twenty Africans. They were purchased by the wealthier class of planters, and made slaves for life.

9. There were now six hundred men in the colony; but they were, for the most part, rovers who intended to return to England. Very few families had emigrated, and society in Virginia was rude and coarse. In this condition of affairs, Sir Thomas Smith was superseded by Sir Edwyn Sandys, a man of prudence and integrity. A reformation of abuses was at once begun and carried out. In the summer of 1620, the new treasurer succeeded in sending to America a company of twelve hundred and sixty-one persons. Among the number were ninety young women of good breeding and modest manners. In the following spring, sixty others of similar good character came over, and received a hearty welcome.

10. When Sandys sent these women to America, he charged the colonists with the expense of the voyage-a measure made necessary by the fact that the company was bankrupt. An assessment was made according to the number who were brought over, and the rate fixed at a hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco for

each passenger-a sum which the settlers cheerfully paid. There were merry marriages at Jamestown, and the social condition of the colony was much improved. When the second shipload came, the cost of transportation was fixed at a hundred and fifty pounds for each passenger, which was also paid without complaint.

11. In July of 1621 the London Company gave to Virginia a code of written laws framed according to the English constitution. The governor of the colony was to be appointed by the company, a council to be chosen by the same body, and a house of burgesses to be elected by the people. In making laws the councilors and burgesses sat together. When a new law was proposed, it was debated, and if passed received the governor's signature, and was then sent to England to be ratified. The constitution acknowledged the right of petition and of trial by jury; and the burgesses were given the power of vetoing the acts of the company.

12. In October, 1621, Sir Francis Wyatt, who had been commissioned as governor, brought the new constitution of Virginia. The colony was found in a flourishing condition. The settlements extended for a hundred and forty miles along the banks of James River, and far into the interior. But the Indians had grown jealous of the colonists, and determined to destroy them before it should be too late. Circumstances favored the savages in their meditated treachery. Pocahontas was dead. The peaceable Powhatan had likewise passed away. Opechancanough, who succeeded him in 1618, had long been plotting the destruction of the English, and the time had come for the tragedy.

13. Until the very day of the massacre the Indians continued on terms of friendship with the colonists. They came into the settlements, ate with their victims, borrowed boats and guns, and gave no token of hostility. On the 22d of March, at midday, the work of butchery began. Every hamlet in Virginia was attacked by the barbarians. Men, women, and children were indiscriminately slaughtered, until three hundred and forty-seven had perished under the hatchets of the savages.

14. But Indian treachery was thwarted by Indian faithfulness. A converted Red man, wishing to save an Englishman who had been his friend, went to him on the night before the massacre and

revealed the plot. The alarm was spread among the settlements, and thus the greater part of the colony escaped destruction. But the outer plantations were entirely destroyed. The people crowded together on the larger farms about Jamestown, until of the eighty settlements there were only eight remaining. Still, there were sixteen hundred brave men in the colony; and sorrow soon gave place to vengeance. Parties of English soldiers scoured the country, burning villages and killing every savage that fell in their way, until the tribes were driven into the wilderness. The colonists, regaining their confidence, returned to their farms, and the next year the population increased to two thousand five hundred.

15. The liberal constitution of Virginia soon proved offensive to King James, and he determined to obtain control of the London Company, or suppress it altogether. A committee was appointed to look into the affairs of the corporation and report on its management. The commissioners performed their duty, and reported that the company was unsound in its principles, that the treasury was bankrupt, and that the government of Virginia was very bad.

16. Legal proceedings were now instituted against the company, and the judges decided that the patent was null and void. The charter of the corporation was accordingly canceled by the king, and in June of 1624 the London Company ceased to exist. But its work had been well done. A torch of liberty had been lighted on the banks of the James, which all the tyranny of after times could not extinguish.

RECAPITULATION.

The London Company receives a third patent.-The colony unprofitable.Argall kidnaps Pocahontas.-Who is married to Rolfe.-They visit England.— And leave descendants in Virginia.-Argall destroys the French settlements in Acadia.-Subdues the Dutch of Manhattan.-Dale becomes governor.-Tobacco is the staple of Jamestown.-Is used for money.-Argall is chosen governor.-Delaware sails for America.-And dies.-Yeardley supersedes Argall.Abolishes martial law.-Establishes the House of Burgesses.-Slavery is introduced. Society is low.-Women are sent over.-And married to the colonists.A constitution is granted.-Wyatt becomes governor.-Settlements spread abroad. The Indians become jealous.-And massacre the people.-But are defeated. The company is opposed by the king.-A commission is appointed.And the company's charter is revoked.-But liberty is planted in Virginia.

A

CHAPTER XII.

VIRGINIA.-THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT.

ROYAL government was now established in Virginia. The new administration consisted of a governor and twelve councilors. The General Assembly of the colony was left undisturbed, and the rights of the colonists remained as before. Governor Wyatt was continued in office; and in making up the new council, the king wisely selected the friends of the colony rather than the untried partisans of his court. The Virginians found in the change of government as much cause of gratitude as of grief.

2. Charles I., the successor of King James, paid but little attention to the affairs of his American colony. By and by the commerce in tobacco attracted his notice, and he attempted to gain a monopoly of the trade, but the colonial authorities defeated the project. It is worthy of note that at this time the king recognized the Virginia assembly as a rightfully constituted body. The reply which was returned to his proposal was signed by the governor and council, and by thirty-one of the burgesses.

3. In 1626 Governor Wyatt retired from office, and Yeardley, the old friend of the colonists, was reäppointed. The young State was never more prosperous than under this administration, which was ended with the governor's death, in 1627. During the preceding summer a thousand new immigrants had come to swell the population of the province.

4. The council of Virginia had a right, in case of an emergency, to elect a governor. In this manner Francis West was chosen by the councilors; but as soon as the death of Yeardley was known in England, King Charles commissioned John Harvey to assume the government. He arrived in the autumn of 1629, and from this time until 1635, the colony was distracted with the presence of a most unpopular chief magistrate. He began his administration by