Читать книгу The Beginners of a Nation - Eggleston Edward - Страница 19

The arrival of Gates and Somers, 1610. Relief came to the little remnant from a quarter whence it was least expected. The emigrants of the preceding year had been sent out under the authority of Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers. The two leaders were jealous of each other, and for fear either should gain advantage by prior arrival they embarked in the same ship. A True Declaration of the Estate of the Colony of Virginia, 1619, p.23. This ship became separated from the rest of the fleet and went ashore on the Bermudas, then uninhabited, and "accounted as an inchaunted pile of rockes and a desert inhabitation for Divels," in the words of a writer of the time; "but all the fairies of the rocks were but flocks of birds, and all the Divels that haunted the woods were but herds of swine." 14 Here old Sir George Somers, a veteran seaman, constructed two little cedar vessels, and provisioning them for the voyage with what the islands afforded – live turtles, and the flesh of wild hogs and waterfowl salted – the company set sail for Virginia in the spring of 1610, arriving barely in time to save the colony from extinction. Finding that their provisions would not last more than two or three weeks, they abandoned the wreck of Jamestown, crowding all the people into four pinnaces, including the two improvised cedar boats built on the Bermudas. They sailed down the river in the desperate hope of surviving until they could reach Newfoundland and get supplies from fishing vessels. The four little craft were turned back on encountering Lord De la Warr, the new governor, ascending the James to take charge of the colony. The meeting with De la Warr was bitterly regretted by the old settlers, who preferred the desperate chance of a voyage in pinnaces on a shipless sea with but a fortnight's provision to facing again the horrors of life at Jamestown.

De la Warr's arrival, 1610. With all the formalities thought necessary at that time, De la Warr took possession of Jamestown, now become a forlorn ruin full of dead men's bones. Gates was sent to England for a new stock of cattle, while the brave old Sir George Somers once more embarked for the Bermudas in the Patience, the little cedar pinnace which he had built wholly of the wood of that island without a particle of iron except one bolt in the keel. Smith's Oxford Tract, so called. In this boat he sailed up and down until he found again "the still vexed Bermoothes," where he hoped to secure provisions. He died in the islands. Argall was also sent to the Bermudas, but missed them, and went north to the fishing banks in search of food.

15 Jamestown was cleansed, and with a piety characteristic of that age the deserted little church was enlarged and reoccupied and daily decorated with Virginia wild flowers. De la Warr's government, 1610. All the bitter experience of the first three years had not taught the true method of settling a new country. 16 The colony was still but a camp of men without families, and the old common stock system was retained. To escape from the anarchy which resulted from a system that sank the interest of the individual in that of the community, it had been needful to arm De la Warr with the sharp sword of martial law. British Museum, MS. 21,993, ff. 174, 178. Instr. to Gates and De la Warr. Some of the instructions given him were unwise, some impossible of execution. To convert the Indians out of hand, as he was told to do, by shutting up their medicine men or sending them to England to be Christianized by the methods then in use, did not seem a task easy of accomplishment, for Indian priests are not to be caught in time of war. But De la Warr undertook another part of his instructions. Gold-hunting. A hundred men under two captains were sent on a wild-goose chase up the James River to find gold or silver in the mountains, whither the phantom of mines had now betaken itself. This plan originated with the London managers of Virginia affairs, and men had been sent with De la Warr who were supposed to be skillful in "finding out mines." But being especially unskillful in dealing with the Indians, they were tempted ashore by savages, who offered them food and slew them "while the meate was in theire mouthes." Briefe Declaration, MS., Pub. Rec. Off. The expedition thereupon turned back at a point about forty miles above the present site of Richmond.

Flight of De la Warr. A new town was begun at the falls, in the fond belief that two mines were near, and De la Warr took up his residence there. Jamestown, drawing its water from a shallow and probably polluted well, became the seat of a fresh epidemic. In the month of March following his arrival the governor fled from the colony to save his own life, leaving Virginia more than ever discredited.