Without entering at all into the consideration of the character ofthe early settlers of Virginia and of Massachusetts, one contrastforces itself upon the mind as we read the narratives1 of thedifferent plantations2. In Massachusetts there was from the beginninga steady purpose to make a permanent settlement and colony, andnearly all those who came over worked, with more or less friction,with this end before them. The attempt in Virginia partook more ofthe character of a temporary adventure. In Massachusetts from thebeginning a commonwealth3 was in view. In Virginia, although theLondon promoters desired a colony to be fixed4 that would beprofitable to themselves, and many of the adventurers, Captain Smithamong them, desired a permanent planting, a great majority of thosewho went thither5 had only in mind the advantages of trade, theexcitement of a free and licentious6 life, and the adventure ofsomething new and startling. It was long before the movers in itgave up the notion of discovering precious metals or a short way tothe South Sea. The troubles the primitive8 colony endured resultedquite as much from its own instability of purpose, recklessness, andinsubordination as from the hostility9 of the Indians. The majorityspent their time in idleness, quarreling, and plotting mutiny.
The ships departed for England in December, 1608. When Smithreturned from his expedition for food in the winter of 1609, he foundthat all the provision except what he had gathered was so rotted fromthe rain, and eaten by rats and worms, that the hogs10 would scarcelyeat it. Yet this had been the diet of the soldiers, who had consumedthe victuals12 and accomplished13 nothing except to let the savages15 havethe most of the tools and a good part of the arms.
Taking stock of what he brought in, Smith found food enough to lasttill the next harvest, and at once organized the company into bandsof ten or fifteen, and compelled them to go to work. Six hours a daywere devoted16 to labor17, and the remainder to rest and merry exercises.
Even with this liberal allowance of pastime a great part of thecolony still sulked. Smith made them a short address, exhibiting hispower in the letters-patent, and assuring them that he would enforcediscipline and punish the idle and froward; telling them that thosethat did not work should not eat, and that the labor of forty orfifty industrious18 men should not be consumed to maintain a hundredand fifty idle loiterers. He made a public table of good and badconduct; but even with this inducement the worst had to be driven towork by punishment or the fear of it.
The Dutchmen with Powhatan continued to make trouble, andconfederates in the camp supplied them with powder and shot, swordsand tools. Powhatan kept the whites who were with him to instructthe Indians in the art of war. They expected other whites to jointhem, and those not coming, they sent Francis, their companion,disguised as an Indian, to find out the cause. He came to the Glasshouse in the woods a mile from Jamestown, which was the rendezvousfor all their villainy. Here they laid an ambush19 of forty men forSmith, who hearing of the Dutchman, went thither to apprehend20 him.
The rascal21 had gone, and Smith, sending twenty soldiers to follow andcapture him, started alone from the Glass house to return to thefort. And now occurred another of those personal adventures whichmade Smith famous by his own narration22.
On his way he encountered the King of Paspahegh, "a most strong,stout savage14," who, seeing that Smith had only his falchion,attempted to shoot him. Smith grappled him; the savage prevented hisdrawing his blade, and bore him into the river to drown him. Longthey struggled in the water, when the President got the savage by thethroat and nearly strangled him, and drawing his weapon, was about tocut off his head, when the King begged his life so pitifully, thatSmith led him prisoner to the fort and put him in chains.
In the pictures of this achievement, the savage is represented asabout twice the size and stature23 of Smith; another illustration thatthis heroic soul was never contented24 to take one of his size.
The Dutchman was captured, who, notwithstanding his excuses that hehad escaped from Powhatan and did not intend to return, but was onlywalking in the woods to gather walnuts25, on the testimony26 of Paspaheghof his treachery, was also "laid by the heels." Smith now proposedto Paspahegh to spare his life if he would induce Powhatan to sendback the renegade Dutchmen. The messengers for this purpose reportedthat the Dutchmen, though not detained by Powhatan, would not come,and the Indians said they could not bring them on their backs fiftymiles through the woods. Daily the King's wives, children, andpeople came to visit him, and brought presents to procure27 peace andhis release. While this was going on, the King, though fettered28,escaped. A pursuit only resulted in a vain fight with the Indians.
Smith then made prisoners of two Indians who seemed to be hangingaround the camp, Kemps and Tussore, "the two most exact villains29 inall the country," who would betray their own king and kindred for apiece of copper30, and sent them with a force of soldiers, under Percy,against Paspahegh. The expedition burned his house, but did notcapture the fugitive31. Smith then went against them himself, killedsix or seven, burned their houses, and took their boats and fishingwires. Thereupon the savages sued for peace, and an amnesty wasestablished that lasted as long as Smith remained in the country.
Another incident occurred about this time which greatly raisedSmith's credit in all that country. The Chicahomanians, who alwayswere friendly traders, were great thieves. One of them stole aPistol, and two proper young fellows, brothers, known to be hisconfederates, were apprehended32. One of them was put in the dungeonand the other sent to recover the pistol within twelve hours, indefault of which his brother would be hanged. The President, pityingthe wretched savage in the dungeon33, sent him some victuals andcharcoal for a fire. "Ere midnight his brother returned with thepistol, but the poor savage in the dungeon was so smothered34 with thesmoke he had made, and so piteously burnt, that we found him dead.
The other most lamentably35 bewailed his death, and broke forth36 in suchbitter agonies, that the President, to quiet him, told him that ifhereafter they would not steal, he would make him alive again; but he(Smith) little thought he could be recovered." Nevertheless, by aliberal use of aqua vitae and vinegar the Indian was brought again tolife, but "so drunk and affrighted that he seemed lunatic, the whichas much tormented37 and grieved the other as before to see him dead."Upon further promise of good behavior Smith promised to bring theIndian out of this malady38 also, and so laid him by a fire to sleep.
In the morning the savage had recovered his perfect senses, hiswounds were dressed, and the brothers with presents of copper weresent away well contented. This was spread among the savages for amiracle, that Smith could make a man alive that was dead. Henarrates a second incident which served to give the Indians awholesome fear of the whites: "Another ingenious savage of Powhatanhaving gotten a great bag of powder and the back of an armour39 atWerowocomoco, amongst a many of his companions, to show hisextraordinary skill, he did dry it on the back as he had seen thesoldiers at Jamestown. But he dried it so long, they peeping over itto see his skill, it took fire, and blew him to death, and one or twomore, and the rest so scorched40 they had little pleasure any more tomeddle with gunpowder41.""These and many other such pretty incidents," says Smith, "so amazedand affrighted Powhatan and his people that from all parts theydesired peace;" stolen articles were returned, thieves sent toJamestown for punishment, and the whole country became as free forthe whites as for the Indians.
And now ensued, in the spring of 1609, a prosperous period of threemonths, the longest season of quiet the colony had enjoyed, but onlya respite42 from greater disasters. The friendship of the Indians andthe temporary subordination of the settlers we must attribute toSmith's vigor43, shrewdness, and spirit of industry. It was mucheasier to manage the Indian's than the idle and vicious men thatcomposed the majority of the settlement.
In these three months they manufactured three or four lasts (fourteenbarrels in a last) of tar7, pitch, and soap-ashes, produced somespecimens of glass, dug a well of excellent sweet water in the fort,which they had wanted for two years, built twenty houses, repairedthe church, planted thirty or forty acres of ground, and erected44 ablock-house on the neck of the island, where a garrison45 was stationedto trade with the savages and permit neither whites nor Indians topass except on the President's order. Even the domestic animalspartook the industrious spirit: "of three sowes in eighteen monthsincreased 60 and od Pigs; and neare 500 chickings brought upthemselves without having any meat given them." The hogs weretransferred to Hog11 Isle46, where another block house was built andgarrisoned, and the garrison were permitted to take "exercise" incutting down trees and making clapboards and wainscot. They werebuilding a fort on high ground, intended for an easily defendedretreat, when a woful discovery put an end to their thriving plans.
Upon examination of the corn stored in casks, it was found half-rotten, and the rest consumed by rats, which had bred in thousandsfrom the few which came over in the ships. The colony was now at itswits end, for there was nothing to eat except the wild products ofthe country. In this prospect47 of famine, the two Indians, Kemps andTussore, who had been kept fettered while showing the whites how toplant the fields, were turned loose; but they were unwilling48 todepart from such congenial company. The savages in the neighborhoodshowed their love by bringing to camp, for sixteen days, each day atleast a hundred squirrels, turkeys, deer, and other wild beasts. Butwithout corn, the work of fortifying49 and building had to beabandoned, and the settlers dispersed50 to provide victuals. A partyof sixty or eighty men under Ensign Laxon were sent down the river tolive on oysters51; some twenty went with Lieutenant52 Percy to tryfishing at Point Comfort, where for six weeks not a net was cast,owing to the sickness of Percy, who had been burnt with gunpowder;and another party, going to the Falls with Master West, found nothingto eat but a few acorns53.
Up to this time the whole colony was fed by the labors54 of thirty orforty men: there was more sturgeon than could be devoured55 by dog andman; it was dried, pounded, and mixed with caviare, sorrel, and otherherbs, to make bread; bread was also made of the "Tockwhogh" root,and with the fish and these wild fruits they lived very well. Butthere were one hundred and fifty of the colony who would ratherstarve or eat each other than help gather food. These "distracted,gluttonous loiterers" would have sold anything they had--tools, arms,and their houses--for anything the savages would bring them to eat.
Hearing that there was a basket of corn at Powhatan's, fifty milesaway, they would have exchanged all their property for it. Tosatisfy their factious56 humors, Smith succeeded in getting half of it:
"they would have sold their souls," he says, for the other half,though not sufficient to last them a week.
The clamors became so loud that Smith punished the ringleader, oneDyer, a crafty57 fellow, and his ancient maligner58, and then made one ofhis conciliatory addresses. Having shown them how impossible it wasto get corn, and reminded them of his own exertions59, and that he hadalways shared with them anything he had, he told them that he shouldstand their nonsense no longer; he should force the idle to work, andpunish them if they railed; if any attempted to escape toNewfoundland in the pinnace they would arrive at the gallows60; thesick should not starve; every man able must work, and every man whodid not gather as much in a day as he did should be put out of thefort as a drone.
Such was the effect of this speech that of the two hundred only sevendied in this pinching time, except those who were drowned; no mandied of want. Captain Winne and Master Leigh had died before thisfamine occurred. Many of the men were billeted among the savages,who used them well, and stood in such awe61 of the power at the fortthat they dared not wrong the whites out of a pin. The Indianscaught Smith's humor, and some of the men who ran away to seek Kempsand Tussore were mocked and ridiculed62, and had applied63 to them--Smith's law of "who cannot work must not eat;" they were almoststarved and beaten nearly to death. After amusing himself with them,Kemps returned the fugitives64, whom Smith punished until they werecontent to labor at home, rather than adventure to live idly amongthe savages, "of whom," says our shrewd chronicler, "there was morehope to make better christians65 and good subjects than the one half ofthem that counterfeited66 themselves both." The Indians were in suchsubjection that any who were punished at the fort would beg thePresident not to tell their chief, for they would be again punishedat home and sent back for another round.
We hear now of the last efforts to find traces of the lost colony ofSir Walter Raleigh. Master Sicklemore returned from the Chawwonoke(Chowan River) with no tidings of them; and Master Powell, and AnasTodkill who had been conducted to the Mangoags, in the regions southof the James, could learn nothing but that they were all dead. Theking of this country was a very proper, devout67, and friendly man; heacknowledged that our God exceeded his as much as our guns did hisbows and arrows, and asked the President to pray his God for him, forall the gods of the Mangoags were angry.
The Dutchmen and one Bentley, another fugitive, who were withPowhatan, continued to plot against the colony, and the Presidentemployed a Swiss, named William Volday, to go and regain68 them withpromises of pardon. Volday turned out to be a hypocrite, and agreater rascal than the others. Many of the discontented in the fortwere brought into the scheme, which was, with Powhatan's aid, tosurprise and destroy Jamestown. News of this getting about in thefort, there was a demand that the President should cut off theseDutchmen. Percy and Cuderington, two gentlemen, volunteered to doit; but Smith sent instead Master Wiffin and Jeffrey Abbot, to go andstab them or shoot them. But the Dutchmen were too shrewd to becaught, and Powhatan sent a conciliatory message that he did notdetain the Dutchmen, nor hinder the slaying69 of them.
While this plot was simmering, and Smith was surrounded by treacheryinside the fort and outside, and the savages were being taught thatKing James would kill Smith because he had used the Indians sounkindly, Captain Argall and Master Thomas Sedan arrived out in awell-furnished vessel70, sent by Master Cornelius to trade and fish forsturgeon. The wine and other good provision of the ship were soopportune to the necessities of the colony that the President seizedthem. Argall lost his voyage; his ship was revictualed and sent backto England, but one may be sure that this event was so represented asto increase the fostered dissatisfaction with Smith in London. Forone reason or another, most of the persons who returned had probablycarried a bad report of him. Argall brought to Jamestown from Londona report of great complaints of him for his dealings with the savagesand not returning ships freighted with the products of the country.
Misrepresented in London, and unsupported and conspired72 against inVirginia, Smith felt his fall near at hand. On the face of it he wasthe victim of envy and the rascality73 of incompetent74 and bad men; butwhatever his capacity for dealing71 with savages, it must be confessedthat he lacked something which conciliates success with one's ownpeople. A new commission was about to be issued, and a great supplywas in preparation under Lord De La Ware75.
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narratives
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| 记叙文( narrative的名词复数 )； 故事； 叙述； 叙述部分 | |
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plantations
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| n.种植园，大农场( plantation的名词复数 ) | |
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commonwealth
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| n.共和国，联邦，共同体 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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licentious
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| adj.放纵的，淫乱的 | |
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tar
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| n.柏油，焦油；vt.涂或浇柏油/焦油于 | |
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primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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hostility
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| n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争 | |
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hogs
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| n.（尤指喂肥供食用的）猪( hog的名词复数 )；（供食用的）阉公猪；彻底地做某事；自私的或贪婪的人 | |
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hog
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| n.猪；馋嘴贪吃的人；vt.把…占为己有，独占 | |
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victuals
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| n.食物；食品 | |
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accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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industrious
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| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
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ambush
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| n.埋伏(地点)；伏兵；v.埋伏；伏击 | |
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apprehend
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| vt.理解，领悟，逮捕，拘捕，忧虑 | |
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rascal
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| n.流氓；不诚实的人 | |
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narration
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| n.讲述，叙述；故事；记叙体 | |
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stature
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| n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材 | |
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contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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walnuts
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| 胡桃（树）( walnut的名词复数 )； 胡桃木 | |
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testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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fettered
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| v.给…上脚镣，束缚( fetter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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villains
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| n.恶棍( villain的名词复数 )；罪犯；（小说、戏剧等中的）反面人物；淘气鬼 | |
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copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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fugitive
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| adj.逃亡的，易逝的；n.逃犯，逃亡者 | |
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apprehended
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| 逮捕，拘押( apprehend的过去式和过去分词 )； 理解 | |
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dungeon
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| n.地牢，土牢 | |
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smothered
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| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
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lamentably
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| adv.哀伤地，拙劣地 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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tormented
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| 饱受折磨的 | |
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malady
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| n.病，疾病(通常做比喻) | |
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armour
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| （=armor）n.盔甲；装甲部队 | |
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scorched
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| 烧焦，烤焦( scorch的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（植物）枯萎，把…晒枯； 高速行驶； 枯焦 | |
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gunpowder
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| n.火药 | |
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respite
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| n.休息，中止，暂缓 | |
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vigor
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| n.活力，精力，元气 | |
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ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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garrison
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| n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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isle
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| n.小岛，岛 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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fortifying
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| 筑防御工事于( fortify的现在分词 )； 筑堡于； 增强； 强化（食品） | |
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dispersed
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| adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的 | |
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oysters
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| 牡蛎( oyster的名词复数 ) | |
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lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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acorns
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| n.橡子，栎实( acorn的名词复数 ) | |
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labors
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| v.努力争取(for)( labor的第三人称单数 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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devoured
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| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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factious
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| adj.好搞宗派活动的，派系的，好争论的 | |
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crafty
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| adj.狡猾的，诡诈的 | |
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maligner
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| n.诽谤者，中伤者 | |
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exertions
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| n.努力( exertion的名词复数 )；费力；（能力、权力等的）运用；行使 | |
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gallows
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| n.绞刑架，绞台 | |
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awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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ridiculed
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| v.嘲笑，嘲弄，奚落( ridicule的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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fugitives
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| n.亡命者，逃命者( fugitive的名词复数 ) | |
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Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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counterfeited
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| v.仿制，造假( counterfeit的过去分词 ) | |
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devout
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| adj.虔诚的，虔敬的，衷心的 (n.devoutness) | |
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68
regain
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| vt.重新获得，收复，恢复 | |
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69
slaying
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| 杀戮。 | |
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70
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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71
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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72
conspired
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| 密谋( conspire的过去式和过去分词 )； 搞阴谋； （事件等）巧合； 共同导致 | |
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73
rascality
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| 流氓性，流氓集团 | |
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74
incompetent
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| adj.无能力的，不能胜任的 | |
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75
ware
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| n.(常用复数)商品，货物 | |
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