who were on the spot were the best judges of the time and the occasion of using those means; but they were not permitted to judge for themselves. The company of adventurers undertook to prescribe rules, to insist on a rigorous execution of them, and to form various projects which never could be carried into effect. In short, they expected more from their colony than it was able to produce in so short a time, with such people as they sent to reside there, and in the face of so many dangers and difficulties which were continually presented to them.

After the arrival of Captain NEWPORT in England from his third voyage, the Company of South Virginia, disappointed and vexed at the small returns which the ships brought home, determined on a change of system. They solicited and obtained of the crown a new charter (May 23, 1609), and took into the company a much greater number of adventurers than before.*

Not less than six hun

* [The following account of the terms and expectations on which men then adventured in this distant enterprise may not be uninteresting. It is taken from a contemporary publication (1609), NOVA BRITANNIA, p. 23, 4. "We call those Planters that goe in their persons to dwell there, and those Adventurers that adventure their money and goe not in person; and both doe make the members of one Colonie. We doe account twelve VOL. II.-I

dred and fifty-seven names of persons are inserted in the charter, many of whom were noblemen, and gentlemen of fortune, and merchants, besides fifty-six incorporated companies of mechanics in the City of London ;* and room was left for the admission of more. The government at home was vested in a council of fifty-two persons, named in the charter, at the head of which was Sir THOMAS SMITH, the former treasurer; and all vacancies which might happen in the council were to be filled by the vote of a majority pound tenne shillings to be a single share adventured. Every ordinary man or woman, if they will goe and dwell there, and every childe above tenne yeares that shall be carried thither to remaine, shall be allowed for each of their persons a single share. . . . . All charges of settling and maintaining the Plantation, and of making supplies, shall be borne in a joint stock of the adventurers for seven yeares after the date of our new enlargement: . . . . at which time wee propose to make a division by Commissioners appointed of all the lands granted unto us by his majestie, to every of the Colonie, according to each man's severall adventure, which wee doubt not will bee for every share of twelve pound tenne shillings five hundred acres at the least. The stock is also (as the land) to be divided equally at seven yeares end, or sooner, or so often as the company shall thinke fit for the greatness of it to make a Divident." Among the inducements offered in this book to encourage adventurers, it is said, p. 22, "And in searching the land, there is undoubted hope of finding Cochinell, the plant of rich Indico, Graine-berries, Beaver Hydes, Pearles, rich Treasure, and the South-sea leading to China, with many other benefites which our daylight will discover."-H.] * Stith and Hazard.

This

of the company legally assembled. council in England had the power of appointing governors and other officers to reside in Virginia, and of making laws and giving instructions for the government of the colony. In consequence of this power, the treasurer and council constituted the following officers. Sir THOMAS WEST, LORD DELAWARE, captain-general; Sir THOMAS GATES, lieutenant-general; Sir GEORGE SOMERS, admiral; Captain CHRISTOPHER NEWPORT, Viceadmiral; Sir THOMAS DALE, high-marshal; Sir FERDINANDO WAINMAN, general of horse.

Several other gentlemen, whose names are not mentioned, were appointed to other offices, all of which were to be holden during life. This may seem a strange way of appointing officers in a new colony, especially when the charter gave the council power to revoke and discharge them. But it is probable that these gentlemen had friends in the company who were persons of wealth and influence, and who thought the offices not worthy of their acceptance unless they could hold them long enough to make their fortunes. The example of COLUMBUS might have served as a precedent, who had the office of admiral of the West Indies not only for life, but as an inheritance to his posterity.

XII. SIR THOMAS SMITH.

ALL which is known with certainty of this gentleman is, that he was a London merchant, of great wealth and influence, governor of the East India and Muscovy* Companies, and of the company associated for the discovery of the Northwest Passage; that he had been sent (1604) ambassador from King James to the Emperor of Russia; that he was one of the assignees of Sir Walter Raleigh's patent, and thus became interested in the colony of Virginia. He had been treasurer of the company under their first charter, and presided in all the meetings of the council and of the company in England, but he never came to America.

It is unfortunate for the memory of Sir Thomas Smith that both the company and colony of South Virginia were distracted by a malevolent party spirit, and that he was equally the object of reproach on the one hand and of panegyric on the other. To

* [The Muscovy or Russia Company received a charter Feb. 6, 1554, which was confirmed by act of Parliament in 1568.-Anderson's History of Commerce, i., 388, 404.-H.]

decide on the merit or demerit of his character at this distance of time, would perhaps require more evidence than can be produced; but candour is due to the dead as well as to the living.

He was a warm friend of Captain John Smith, who, in his account of Virginia, speaks of him with respect as a diligent and careful overseer, especially in sending supplies to the colony during his residence there; and after his return to England, he depended on Sir Thomas and the council for those accounts of the colony which he has inserted in his history subsequent to that period.

In a dedication prefixed to a narrative of the shipwreck of Sir George Somers on the Island of Bermuda,* Sir Thomas is compli mented in the following manner: "Worthy sir, if other men were like you, if all as able as you were as willing, we should soon see a flourishing Christian Church and commonwealth in Virginia. But let this be your consolation: there is one that is more able and more willing than you, even the God of heaven

* This narrative was written by Sylvester Jordan, one of the passengers. The dedication was by another person, who subscribes it with the initials W. C. It was printed with the black English letter, 1613.