"As mankind increased in numbers, they naturally protruded one another forward. Wars might be another cause of migrations. No reason appears why the Asiatic north might not be an officina vivorum as well as the European. The overteeming country to the east of the Riphean mountains, must have found it necessary to discharge its inhabitants : the first great increase of people were forced forwards by the next to it : at length reaching the utmost limits of the old world, found a new, with ample space to occupy unmolested for ages; till Columbus, in an evil hour for them, discovered their country; which brought again new sins. and new deaths to both worlds. It is impossible, with the lights which we have so recently received, to admit that America could have received its inhabitants (that is, the bulk of them,) from any other place than Eastern Asia. A few proofs may be added, taken from the customs or dresses, common to the inhabitants of both worlds. Some have been long extinct in the old, others remain in full force in both.

"The custom of scalping was a barbarism in use among the Scythians, who carried about them at all times this savage mark of triumph. A little image found among the Kalmucs,* of a Tartarian deity, mounted on a horse, and sitting on a human skin, with scalps pendant from the breast, fully illustrates the custom of the ancient Scythians, as described by the Greek historian. This usage, we well know by horrid experience, is continued to this day in America. The ferocity of the Scythians to their prisoners, extended to the remotest part of Asia. The Kamtskatkans, even at the time of their discovery by the Russians, put their prisoners to death by the most lingering and excruciating torments; a practice now in full force among the aboriginal Americans. A race of the Scythians. were named Anthropophagi, from their feeding on human flesh: the ple of Nootka sound still make a repast on their fellow creatures.

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"The savages of North America have been known to throw the mangled limbs of their prisoners into the horrible cauldron, and devour them with the same relish as those of a quadrupid. The Kamtskatkans in their marches never went abreast, but followed one another in the same track: the same custom is still observed by the uncultivated natives of North America. The Tungusi, the most numerous nation resident in Siberia, prick their skins with small punctures, in various shapes, with a needle; then rub them with charcoal, so that the marks become indellible: this custom is still observed in several parts of South America. The Tungusi use canoes made of birch bark, distended over ribs of wood, and nicely put together: the Canadian, and many other primitive American nations, use no other sort of boats. In fine, the conjectures of the learned, respecting the vicinity of the old and new world, are now, by the discoveries of late navigators, lost in conviction; and in the place of an imaginary hypothesis, the place of migration is almost incontrovertibly pointed out."

*The Kalmuc Tartars are now subjects of Russia.

SKETCH OF THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA.

Having given the foregoing brief sketch of the probable origin of the Indians in America, the author will now turn his attention to the first settlement of Virginia, a brief history of which he considers will not be unacceptable to the general reader, and as a preliminary introduction to his main object, i. e., the history of the early settlement of the Valley of Shenandoah in Virginia.

On the 10th of April, 1606, James I. King of England, granted charters to two separate companies, called the "London and Plymouth companies," for settling colonies in Virginia.* The London company sent Capt. Christopher Newport to Virginia, December 20, 1606, with a colony of one hundred and five persons, to commence a settlement on the island of Roanoke, now in North Carolina. By stress of weather, however, they were driven north of their place of destination, and entered the Chesapeake Bay. Here, up a river which the called James river, on a beautiful peninsula, they commenced, in May, 1607, the settlement of Jamestown. This was the first permanent settlement in the country.

Several subsequent charters were granted by King James to the company for the better ordering and government of the colony, for the particulars of which the reader is referred to Hening's Statutes at Large.And in the year 1619, the first legislative council was convened at Jamestown, then called 'James citty."" This council was called the General Assembly. "It was to assist the Governor in the administration of justice, to advance christianity among Indians, to erect the colony in obedience to his majesty, and in maintaining the people in justice and christian conversation, and strengthening them against enemies. The said governor, council, and two burgesses out of every town, hundred or plantation, to be chosen by the inhabitants to make up a General Assembly, who are to decide all matters by the greatest number of voices; but the governor is to have a negative voice, to have power to make orders and acts necessary, wherein they are to imitate the policy of the form of government, laws, customs, manner of tryal, and other administration of justice used in England, as the company are required by their letters patents. No law to continue or to be of force till ratified by a quarter court to be held in England, and returned under seal. After the colony is well framed and settled, no order of quarter court in England shall bind till ratified by the General Assembly."-Dated 24th July, 1621.

"INSTRUCTIONS TO GOVERNOR WYATT.

"To keep up religion of the church of England as near as may be;— to be obedient to the king and to do justice after the form of the laws of England; and not to injure the natives; and to forget old quarrels now buried:†

*Hening's Statutes at Large, vol. i., p. 113, 114.

It appears that at a very early period of the colony, they were desirous of cultivating a friendly undertanding with the natives of the country. Unfortunately, however, for our ancestors, and for the Indians themselves, this friendly disposition was never of long duration,

“To be industrious, and suppress drunkenness, gaming, and excess in cloaths; not to permit any but the council and heads of hundreds to wear gold in their cloaths, or to wear silk till they make it themselves:

"Not to offend any foreign princes; to punish piracies; to build fortresses and block-houses at the mouths of the rivers:

"To use means to convert the heathens, viz.: to converse with some ; each town to teach som children fit for the college intended to be built :

"After Sir George Yeardly has gathered the present year's crop, he is to deliver to Sir Francis Wyatt, the hundred tenants belonging to the governor's place: Yeardley's government to expire the 18th November next, and then Wyatt to be published governor; to swear the council:

"George Sandis appointed treasurer, and he is to put in execution all orders of court about staple commodities; to whom is allotted fifteen hundred acres and fifty tenants. To the marshall, sir Williamn Newce, the same. To the physician five hundred acres and twenty tenants; and the same to the secretary:

"To review the commissions to Sir George Yeardley, governor, and the council, dated 18th November, 1618, for dividing the colony into cities, boroughs, &c., and to observe all former instructions (a copy whereof was sent) if they did not contradict the present; and all orders of court (made in England) :

"To make a catalogue of the people in every plantation, and their conditions; and of deaths, marriages and christenings:

"To take care of dead persons' estates for the right owners; to keep a list of all cattle and cause the secretary to return copies of the premises

once a year:

"To take care of every plantation upon the death of their chief; not to plant above one hundred pounds of tobacco per head;* to sow great quantities of corn for their own use, and to support the multitudes to be sent yearly; to inclose lands; to keep cows, swine, poultry, &c., and particularly kyne, which are not to be killed yet?

"Next to corn, plant mulbury trees, and make silk, and take care of the French men and others sent about that work; to try silk grass; to plant abundance of vines, and take care of the vignerors sent:

"To put prentices to trades, and not let them forsake their trades for planting tobacco or any such useless commodity:

"To take care of the Dutch sent to build saw-mills, and seat them at the falls, that they may bring their timber by the current of the water: "To build water-mills and block-houses in every plantation:

"That all contracts in England or Virginia be performed, and the breaches punished according to justice:

"The tenants not to be enticed away; to take care of those sent about an iron work, and especially Mr. John Berkeley, that they dont miscarry again, this being the greatest hope and expectation of the colonies:

"To make salt, pitch, tar, soap, ashes, &c., so often recommended,

*This order strikes the author as one of a singular character. It certainly requires great judgment and experience of the planter to decide what number of plants would nake his 100 lbs. of tobacco, considering the casualties to which his crop was liable.

and for which materials had been sent; to make oyl of walnuts, and employ apothecaries in distilling lees of beer, and searching after minerals, dyes, gums, and drugs, &c., and send small quantities home:*

"To make small quantity of tobacco, and that very good; that the houses appointed for the reception of new comers and public storehouses be built, kept clean, &c.; to send the state of affairs quarterly, and a duplicate next shipping :

"To take care of Captain William Norton, and certain Italians sent to set up a glass house:

"A copy of a treatise of the plantation business and excellent observánces made by a gentleman of capacity is sent to lie among the records, and recommended to the councillors to study:

"Mr. William Clayborne, a surveyor, sent to survey the planters-lands, and make a map of the country:

"To make discoveries along the coast, and find a fishery between James river and Cape Cod:

"As to raising staple commodities, the chief officers ought to set examples, and to aim at the establishment of the colony:

"Chief officers that have tenants reprimanded for taking fees; but require that the clerks have fees set for passes, warrants, copies of orders, &c.: "Governor and council to appoint proper times for administration of justice, and provide for the entertainment of the council during their session; to be together one whole month about state affairs, and law suits; to record plaints of consequence; to keep a register of the acts of quarter sessions, and send home copies :

"If a governor dies, the major part of the council to choose one of themselves within fourteen days; but if voices be divided, the lieutenant governor shall have the place; and next the marshall; next the treasurer; and one of the two deputies next :

"Governor and chief officers not to let out their tenants as usual:

"The governor only to summon the council, and sign warrants, and execute or give authority to execute council orders, except in cases that do belong to the marshall, treasurer, deputies, &c. :

"The governor to have absolute authority to determine and punish all neglects, and contempts of authority, except the councils, who are to be tried at the quarter sessions and censured. Governor to have but the casting voice in council or court, but in the assembly a negative voice: "That care be taken that there be no engrossing commodity, or forestalling of the market:

"All servants to fare alike in the colony, and their punishment for any offences is to serve the colony, in public works:

"To see that the earl of Pembroke's thirty thousand acres be very good : "And lastly, not to let ships stay long, and to freight them with walnut and any leas valuable commodity:

"The governor administered the following oath to the council:

*Sending things to England, was, in the phrase of the times, termed sending things home. This mode of expression, "going home or sending home,” was in use within the recollection of the author. In truth, the term "going or sending home," was never abandoned till after the war of the revolution.

"You shall swear to be a true and faithful servant unto the king's ma"jesty, as one of his council for Virginia: You shall in all things to be "moved, treated, and debated in that council concerning Virginia or any "the territories of America, between the degrees of thirty-four and forty"five from the equinoctial line northward, or the trade thereof, faithfully "and truly declare your mind and opinion, according to your heart and "conscience; and shall keep secret all matters committed and revealed "to you concerning the same, and that shall be treated secretly in that "council, or this council of Virginia, or the more part of them, publication "shall not be made thereof; And of all matters of great importance, or "difficulty, before you resolve thereupon, you shall make his majesty's privy council acquainted therewith, and follow their directions therein: "You shall to your uttermost bear faith and allegiance to the king's ma"jesty, his heirs, and lawful successors, and shall assist and defend all "jurisdictions, preheminences, and authorities, granted unto his majesty "and annext unto the crown, against all foreign princes, persons, prelates "or potentates whatsoever, be it by act of parliament or otherwise: and generally, in all things, you shall do as a faithful and true servant and "subject ought to do. So help you God and the holy contents of this "book."-Hening's Stat. at Large, vol. i. p. 114–118.

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It appears the foregoing instructions were drawn up by the council, and intended as the general principles for the government of the colony. The recommendation "not to injure the natives and forget old quarrels now buried," goes far to prove that hopes were entertained that the Indians were disposed to be at peace. "To use means to convert the heathen," is another evidence of this amicable state of feeling towards the natives. But lo! this state of peace and tranquility, in less than one year after, was changed into one of devastation, blood and mourning. On the 22d of March, 1622, the Indians committed the most bloody massacre on the colonists, recorded in the annals of our country.*

In the following year, to wit, March, 1623, the colonial general assembly, by statute, directed, "that the 22d March be yearly solemnized as holliday." This was done to commemorate the escape of the colony from entire extirpation. This bloody massacre produced, on the part of the whites, a most deadly and irreconcilable hatred towards the natives. Accordingly, we find that a long continued and unabating state of hostility was kept up, and in about one hundred years the Indians were driven from the country east of the Blue Ridge. At the same session, to wit, 1623, the legislature enacted several laws in relation to defending themselves against the savages. In the series are the following:

"That every dwelling house shall be pallizaded in for defence against the Indians:

"That no man go or send abroad without a sufficient partie well armed:

*This year, (1622), says Mr. Gordon in his history of the American revolution, (vol. i. p. 43,) was remarkable for a massacre of the colonists by the Indians, which was executed with the utmost subtilty, and without any regard to age, sect, or dignity. A well concerted attack on all the settlements destroyed in one hour, and almost at the same instant. 347 persons who were defenceless and incapable of making resistance." +Ilening's Statutes at Large, vol. i. p. 123.