Gold Seekers.

First European women in Virginia.

everything in disorder on his return. Only forty men were living, and a greater portion of these were on the point of escaping to the West Indies.'

11. Newport returned to Virginia early in 1608, with provisions and immigrants. These were no better than the first adventurers, and instead of planting, nearly all of them engaged in gold-hunting. They could think and talk of nothing else. Even Newport was employed in the business, and carried a shipload of worthless yellow earth to England, under the impression that it contained a vast amount of the precious metal.

12. Smith vainly remonstrated against the idleness and folly around him. It increased rather than diminished. He turned in disgust from Jamestown, and with a few followers in an open boat, he traveled, during ninety days, in the summer of 1608, three thousand miles, exploring the country northward, on land and water, as far as the interior of Pennsylvania. He constructed a pretty accurate map of the region he traveled over.

13. It was now the autumn of 1608. On the 13th of September, Newport arrived with seventy immigrants. Among them were two women, the first of European birth ever seen in Virginia. These immigrants were similar to the others; and after the most strenuous efforts of Captain Smith for two years to induce the settlers to become planters, only forty acres of land were under cultivation. They depended upon the Indians for most of their food.

14. In 1609 the London Company obtained a new charter, and Lord De la Warr (Delaware), an enlightened peer, was appointed governor of Virginia for life. Toward the middle of June, Newport was sent over with a squadron of nine ships and

1. Smith wrote an earnest letter to the supreme council, saying: "I entreat you rather send but thirty carpenters, husbandmen, gardeners, blacksmiths, masons, and diggers of trees' roots, well provided, than a thousand such as we have."

2. The terms emigrant and immigrant may be applied to the same person, but under different circumstances. We use the word emigrant when a person leaves our country to settle in another. We use the word immigrant when a person comes to settle in our country.

QUESTIONS.-11. What can you tell about Newport and the immigrants who came with him? 12. What did Smith do? Give an account of his grand exploration of the country northward? 13. What can you tell about another arrival of immigrants? What were their characters? What showed their improvidence? 14. Whom did the London Company send as governor? What can you tell about Newport and other immigrants? Name the commissioners sent? What happened?

29

Arrival of commissioners.

five hundred emigrants,' accompanied by Lieutenant-Governor Sir Thomas Gates, and George Somers. These two, with Newport, were appointed commissioners to rule the colony until De la Warr's arrival. A storm dispersed the squadron, and the vessel bearing the three commissioners was wrecked on one of the Bermuda islands.

15. Seven vessels reached Jamestown in safety, and from them were landed a more vicious company of immigrants than had yet been seen there. They regarded Virginia as a paradise for bad men. In the absence of the commissioners they acknowledged no ruler. But Smith boldly asserted and maintained his authority, until an accident compelled him to go to England for surgical aid.

16. Now was a season of carelessness and suffering. Provisions were soon exhausted. The Indians withheld supplies, and resolved to destroy the intruders. Famine was quicker than they. The winter and spring of 1610 was remembered as "the starving time." Within six months after Smith left, only sixty of the five hundred settlers were alive. These would have been destroyed but for the interposition of Pocahontas. The time for the massacre was fixed. The loving Indian maiden' hastened to Jamestown on a stormy night, revealed the plot, made the suffering people watchful, and saved their lives.

17. The commissioners' reached Jamestown in June, 1610, and found the remnant of settlers on the verge of starvation. Gates determined to abandon the place, sail to Newfoundland,3 and distribute the sufferers among the English fishermen there. They all left in four small vessels called pinnaces, but on the very next day they met English ships, with Lord de la Warr's provisions and immigrants, ascending the James river. That night

1. See note 2, page 28.

2. Domestic animals were now first taken to Virginia. They consisted of six mares, one horse, six hundred swine, a few sheep and goats, and five hundred domestic fowls. Two years later one hundred cows and some other cattle were brought over.

8. Verse 10, page 27.

4. Gates, Somers, and Newport.

5. Verse 3, page 16.

QUESTIONS.-15. What can you tell about the arrival of vessels and emigrants at Jamestown? How did they behave? What did Captain Smith do? 16. Relate what occurred to the settlers after Smith left them. How was the colony saved from entire destruction? 17. Relate what happened on the arrival of the commissioners. How was the colony saved from dispersion? What did the colonists do?

Change of policy.

Marriage of Pocahontas.

A want.

hymns of joy and thanksgiving for a great deliverance were heard in Jamestown.

18. From this time prosperity attended the settlement. In September, 1611, Gates, who had returned to England, came with six ships and three hundred immigrants, most of whom were sober and industrious men. A radical change in the domestic policy was made. Hitherto the land had been worked in common for the benefit of the whole community, and the industrious provided food for the lazy. Now a few acres of land were assigned to each man for his exclusive use. The community system was abandoned, and industry, on private account, created an ample supply of food for all.

The

19. At the beginning of 1613, there were one thousand Englishmen in Virginia. They had planted new settlements in the neighborhood of Jamestown, and but little seemed wanting to insure permanent success but the friendship of the Indians. emperor, Powhatan,' was sullen and unfriendly; but his feelings were now changed by a remarkable event. Captain Argall, a sort of buccaneer, at the head of a foraging party, stole Pocahontas and carried her on board of his vessel, under the pretense of extorting a treaty of peace and friendship from her father. There a mutual attachment grew up between her and John Rolfe, a young Englishman of good family. He instructed her in letters and religion; and with the consent of Powhatan, she received the rite of Christian baptism, and became the wife of Rolfe, in 1613. The emperor was ever afterward the warm friend of the English.

20. Yet another element of success in founding a state was wanting. There were no families in Virginia, and few settlers expected to spend their lives there. This want was afterward supplied, and meanwhile the settlers prospered greatly. They cultivated the tobacco plant, as well as grain and vegetables for

1. Verse 10, page 27.

QUESTIONS.-18. What can you say of the Virginia colony at this time? What did Gates do? What change took place in Virginia? 19. How many Englishmen were in Virginia in 1613? What had they done? What was the disposition of Powhatan? What did Captain Argall do? What can you tell about Rolfe and Pocahontas? 20. What was lacking for the founding of a state? What can you tell about the cultivation of tobacco?

A change in public affairs.

food; and so rapidly did the former gain in favor that it soon became, not only an article for export, but the currency of the country.'

21. A happy change took place in public affairs in Virginia in 1619, when George Yeardly became governor of the colony. He abolished martial law, released the planters from feudal ser

1. This plant, yet very extensively cultivated in Virginia and adjoining States, was first discovered by Sir Francis Drake, near Tabaco, in Yucatan hence its name. Drake and Raleigh first introduced it into England. King James conceived a great hatred of it, and wrote a treatise against its use. He forbade its cultivation in England, but could not prevent its importation from Virginia. It became a very profitable article of commerce, and the streets of Jamestown were planted with it. Other agricultural productions were neglected, and at times, while cargoes of tobacco were preparing for England, the necessaries of life were wanting. The money valuation of tobacco was about sixty-six cents a pound.

Virginia commonwealth founded.

Dutch adventurers.

vice to the colony,' and established a representative government, by which the people had a voice in the public councils. On the 28th of June, 1619, the first representative assembly ever convened in America met at Jamestown, and then and there the foundations of the commonwealth were laid. Within two years afterward, one hundred and fifty reputable young women were sent over to become wives for the planters; and homes, the most adhesive materials for the foundation of a state, were created.

SECTION II.

NEW YORK.

1. We have observed that Henry Hudson's discoveries set in motion important commercial enterprises by the Dutch.' So early as 1610, Amsterdam directors of the Dutch

3

East India Company sent a ship from the Texel, to traffic with the Indians on the Mauritius or Hudson river, in furs and peltries. During the same year the Half-Moon was also sent on a similar errand, and a trading station was soon established on Manhattan island, on which the city of New York now stands.

2. Some of these adventurers cruised along the New England coast and opened the way for trappers and traders as far east as Narragansett bay. Others went up the Hudson and traded with Indians two hundred miles from the sea. They built Fort Nassau

1. Verse 3, page 25.

3 Verse 20, page 22.

5. Nained in honor of the popular prince of Nassau.

2. Verse 21, page 22.
4. Note 2, page 10.

QUESTIONS.-21. What change now occurred in the public affairs of Virginia? What did Governor Yeardley do? How were the foundations of the commonwealth of Virginia laid? What happy event for the colony occurred in 1619?-1. What did Hudson's discoveries do? What did some of the directors of the Dutch East India Company do in 1610? you tell about the Half-Moon and Manhattan Island? 2. What did Dutch adventurers do eastward, and up the Hudson river?

What can