government over all the tribes of the same great family, and often there was war between them. The most noted union or confederacy among the Indians was made up of five tribes of the Iroquois family known as the Five Nations. Their strength was feared by the other tribes and respected by the white man.

Although the Indian tribes were the original occupants of the soil of America, it is now clear why they had to fight to continue to live in the land of their fathers, and why in that struggle they were defeated.

The Period of Colonization

THE COLONY OF VIRGINIA

PERIOD OF EXPERIMENT

Even

27. The London and Plymouth Companies. after Raleigh's failure English vessels sailed almost every year to make explorations and to trade with the Indians. Finally two great companies of merchants were formed in London and Plymouth (1606). They obtained a charter from King James by which the Plymouth Company could plant colonies between Nova Scotia and Long Island and the London Company from the Potomac to Cape Fear. The region from Long Island to the Potomac was open to both companies. (See map, page 26.)

The charter promised the colonists and their children that they should still be Englishmen with the rights of Englishmen, "as if they had been abiding and born within the realm of England." But the king took care that all power should be in his own hands, by appointing a council to remain in England, which should appoint another council to reside in Virginia. Although the latter council could elect their own president, the settlers were allowed to take no part whatever in governing themselves. One-fifth of all gold and silver found was

to go into the king's treasury, and the products of labor were to be placed in a common storehouse. The king

1696

LANTI

OCEAN

LONDON AND PLYMOUTH COMPANIES

The charter of these companies allowed them to plant settlements one hundred miles inland

ments.

28. Jamestown, the First Permanent English Settlement in America (1607). The London Company was the first to occupy Virginia, as the entire region from Cape Fear to Nova Scotia was then called. All classes of people were interested in send

ing out the colony. Sermons were preached, and books, pamphlets, and poems were written in praise of Virginia. It was looked upon as a "promised land," and was called "Earth's only paradise." The stories of its gold, silver, and precious stones were readily believed. It was expected that Virginia would rival Mexico and Peru.

An English play of that time shows what the people liked to hear about Virginia. One of the characters, Scapethrift, says, “But is there such treasure there, Captain, as I have heard?"

To which another character, Captain Seagull, replies, "I tell thee gold is more plentiful there than copper is

with us. Why, man, all their dripping pans are pure gold; and all the chains with which they chain up their streets are massy gold; all the prisoners they take are fettered in gold; and for rubies and diamonds, they go forth on holidays and gather them by the seashore to hang on their children's coats and stick in their children's caps."

29. Character of the Settlers. The natural result of such talk was seen in the character of the one hundred and five emigrants who set sail in 1607 under the command of Captain Newport. About half of them were English "gentlemen," who belonged to a class which did no work. The rest were mechanics and laborers, who, attracted by the hope of riches, were no more willing to work than the gentlemen. There were no farmers among them to till the soil, nor

women and children to make homes.

Most of the settlers hoped soon to return to England to enjoy their new-found wealth. This was not good material with which to establish the first permanent English colony in America. Even the leaders quarreled among themselves, and threw their ablest man, John Smith, into prison before the long voyage was ended.

JOHN SMITH

From an engraving made by

Simon van Pass, in 1614, on the

margin of Smith's map of "New England" in "A Description of

New England." This shows him

at the age of thirty-seven

In May, when all nature in Virginia was at its best, the three ships which carried the settlers sailed into Chesapeake Bay. A low, marshy peninsula, about thirty-five miles above the mouth of the James River, was the place selected for the landing. A rude fort was soon built and cannon

were mounted as a protection against their most danger. ous enemies, the Indians and Spaniards.

If the settlers had been ever so sober and industrious they would have found many things more interesting than hard labor. They were in a new land in the midst of strange sights and sounds; about them were vast forests peopled with birds and beasts of unknown kinds; a new race of men was here with strange manners and customs. What wonders their imaginations pictured! A few miles inland might be another nation like the Mexicans, or just over the mountains the Pacific Ocean; among the hills, mines like those of Peru; or deeper in the forests, streams whose sands were pure gold. The idleness which this dreaming led to, together with the poor food and the hot climate, destroyed more than half the settlers before fall.

30. John Smith Saves Jamestown. In 1608 Captain Newport brought over more settlers, and when John Smith was made president of the council- the first two presidents had proved to be failures—the little group became hopeful. Smith had already explored the rivers near at hand, had visited the Indians and traded for corn. On one of these expeditions he was captured by them and taken to Powhatan, the chief. He became interested in Powhatan's daughter, Pocahontas,1 who afterward married John Rolfe and became a sort of good angel to the settlers by keeping peace between them and the Indians.

John Smith permitted no idleness among the settlers. Each man had to bear his share in repairing the fort,

The story of how John Smith was tried, condemned to death, and rescued at the last moment by this Indian maiden is seriously doubted. Pocahontas afterward visited England, and was received by the king and queen. The able but eccentric John Randolph of Roanoke, once a leader in the House of Representatives, was a descendant of John Rolfe and Pocahontas.