composed of "certain knights, gentlemen, merchants and other adventurers" of London, and the other of "sundry knights, gentlemen, merchants, and other adventurers" in and near Plymouth. The charter provided for two colonies in "that part of America, commonly called Virginia," lying between the thirty-fourth and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude.

The London Company was authorized to plant a colony at some point between the thirty-fourth and forty-first degrees, and the Plymouth Company at some point between the thirty-eighth and forty-fifth degrees, with the provision that neither one was to settle within a hundred miles of the other. The overlapping of the two zones was evidently designed to stimulate rivalry. The grant to each colony was to extend along the coast fifty miles north and fifty miles south of the point selected for settlement and one hundred miles inland. The entire region including the two grants was placed by the charter under the general management and direction of a council of thirteen members appointed by the king, to be known as the Council of Virginia, and the government of each colony was placed in the hands of a local council of thirteen appointed by the council in England and subject to its control.

The Plymouth Company undertook to form a settlement on the coast of Maine, and one hundred and twenty settlers landed at the mouth of the Kennebec River August 18, 1607, under the leadership of George Popham and Raleigh Gilbert, but those who survived the hardships of the winter returned to England in the spring. The Plymouth Company was unwilling to sink any more money in the enterprise, but in 1620 it was reorganized by Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Sir Francis Popham, and Raleigh Gilbert as the Council for New England, and under this name we shall come across it again in connection with the grants to the settlers of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay.

Fol

Meanwhile the London Company had founded the first permanent English settlement in America. On December The colony 20, 1606, one hundred colonists, all men, emof Virginia barked from London in three ships, the Susan Constant, commanded by Captain Christopher Newport, the Good-speed, commanded by Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, and the Discovery, commanded by Captain John Ratcliffe. lowing the usual route by the Canary Islands and the West Indies they were four months on the voyage and on April 26, 1607, sighted the Virginia capes, which they named Charles and Henry after the sons of King James. After exploring the waters of Hampton Roads they proceeded about thirty miles up the James and landed May 14 (May 24, new style) on a low island or peninsula, where they erected a fort and began a town, named like the river in honor of the king. Jamestown was an unfortunate location, malarial, destitute of fresh-water springs, and covered with trees and tall grass, exposing the little colony to sudden attack from the Indians.

POCAHONTAS.

After exploring the James as far as the falls, Newport departed for England, leaving one hundred and four settlers surrounded by hostile Indians and provided with very scant supplies. So great was the suffering and consequent mortality that by September only forty-six survived. Furthermore, the little colony was split into factions. Of the six members

of the council left by Newport one had died, another had been shot for attempted desertion, and now the president, Edward Maria Wingfield, was cast into prison by the remaining three and John Ratcliffe elected in his stead.

One of these three was Captain John Smith, who soon became the leading spirit of the colony. Smith was one of those men who seek and find romance and Captain adventure wherever they go. Although only John Smith thirty years old he had encountered dangers and performed exploits that few men experience in a lifetime. He was now put in charge of the stores and managed in some way to allay the hostility of the Indians and to procure corn. In December, while on

an exploring expedition up the Chickahominy, two of his companions were killed by the Indians, and he was captured and taken before Powhatan, the war chief of an extensive confederacy. He was condemned to death, and his head placed on a stone ready for execution. From this predicament he was unexpectedly rescued by

Pocahontas, the twelve

year-old daughter of the

chief, and shortly after allowed to return to Jamestown. In January, 1608, Newport returned with supplies and seventy new settlers. The following summer was but a repetition of the preceding one. Of ninety- acter and five settlers only fifty survived. In September,

His char

services

Smith, who had spent the summer exploring Chesapeake

Bay, was made president of the council; Newport arrived with a "second supply" of men and provisions, and conditions were temporarily improved. During the next year Smith ruled with a high hand and kept the colony in order, but made himself unpopular and was finally deposed by the

LORD DELAWARE.

remaining members of the council, George Percy succeeding him as president.

In October, 1609, while suffering from a gunpowder wound, Smith took passage for England. In 1614 he explored the coasts of New England and made an excellent map of that region. His of Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries was not supplanted for one hundred and fifty

map

years. The credibility of his writings has been bitterly assailed, especially the story of the three Turks whom he slew in single combat earlier in his career, and the Pocahontas incident, but he has not failed of able champions to uphold his veracity. He was the most conspicuous figure in the early history of Virginia, and without his native wit and resourcefulness the colony would not have survived.

New charter (1609), Lord Delaware appointed governor

In 1609 the London Company secured a separate charter greatly enlarging its grant and authorizing it to place a governor over the colony. The bounds of the colony were extended along the coast two hundred miles north and two hundred miles south of Point Comfort and "up into the land,

throughout from sea to sea, West and Northwest," a clause which later gave rise to much contention. Thomas West, Lord Delaware, a peer of the realm, was selected as governor, but as he was not ready to go at once Sir Thomas Gates was sent out as deputy.

The winter of 1609-1610 is known in Virginia history as the "Starving Time." When Gates, who had been forced by shipwreck to spend the winter in the Bermudas, finally reached Jamestown May 23, 1610, he promptly decided to abandon the settlement. He had embarked the entire company and was proceeding down the river when he met a messenger from Lord Delaware announcing his arrival at Point Comfort. All returned to Jamestown and began anew the painful process of founding a colony.

Rule of

Sir Thomas
Dale, 1611-

1616

In less than a year Lord Delaware fell sick and returned to England. He continued to hold the governorship until his death in 1618, but during this period he was represented in Virginia by a succession of deputies: Dale, Yeardley, and Argall. So far the settlers had failed utterly to adapt themselves to the conditions of life in their new home and had depended on supplies of food from England. During the five years of Sir Thomas Dale's rule, 1611-1616, the colonists were under martial law and mechanics and gentlemen alike were forced to labor under pain of the severest penalties. New settlements were formed, the colonists protected from the Indians, and, most important of all, the common store was abolished and every man made to depend on his own labor.

The first

The last traces of communism and martial law were done away with when Sir George Yeardley arrived in Virginia as governor and captain-general April 19, representa1619. He announced that lands were to be distributed among the settlers in tracts of one hundred acres and that the people were to share in

tive as

sembly in America, 1619

the making of laws. On July 30, 1619, the first legislative