Chapter V: Beginnings of a Commonwealth

To the first English settlers in America a supply of Indian corn was of vital consequence, as illustrated at Jamestown and Plymouth 156 Alliance with the Powhatan confederacy was of the first importance to the infant colony 157 [Pg xvi] Smith was a natural leader of men 157 With much nobility of nature 158 And but for him the colony would probably have perished 159 Characteristic features of Lord Delaware's administration 160 Death of Somers and cruise of Argall in 1610 161 Kind of craftsmen desired for Virginia 162 Sir Thomas Dale comes to govern Virginia in the capacity of High Marshal 163 A Draconian code of laws 164 Cruel punishments 165 How communism worked in practice 166 How Dale abolished communism 167 And founded the "City of Henricus" 167, 168 How Captain Argall seized Pocahontas 168 Her marriage with John Rolfe 169 How Captain Argall extinguished the Jesuit settlement at Mount Desert and burned Port Royal 170 But left the Dutch at New Amsterdam with a warning 171 How Pocahontas, "La Belle Sauvage," visited London and was entertained there like a princess 171, 172 Her last interview with Captain Smith 172 Her sudden death at Gravesend 173 How Tomocomo tried to take a census of the English 173 How the English in Virginia began to cultivate tobacco in spite of King James and his Counterblast 174 Dialogue between Silenus and Kawasha 175 Effects of tobacco culture upon the young colony 176, 177 The London Company's Third Charter, 1612 177, 178 How money was raised by lotteries 178 How this new remodelling of the Company made it an important force in politics 179 Middleton's speech in opposition to the charter 180 Richard Martin in the course of a brilliant speech forgets himself and has to apologize 181 How factions began to be developed within the London Company 182 Sudden death of Lord Delaware 183 Quarrel between Lord Rich and Sir Thomas Smith, resulting in the election of Sir Edwin Sandys as treasurer of the Company 184 Sir George Yeardley is appointed governor of Virginia while Argall is knighted 185 How Sir Edwin Sandys introduced into Virginia the first American legislature, 1619 186 [Pg xvii] How this legislative assembly, like those afterwards constituted in America, were formed after the type of the old English county court 187 How negro slaves were first introduced into Virginia, 1619. 188 How cargoes of spinsters were sent out by the Company in quest of husbands 189 The great Indian massacre of 1622 189, 190