colony, for mal-administration. Justice, in this instance, halted with both legs; Argall got a hint of the order, and made his escape, and the governor and the people, through their want of vigilance and energy, robbed justice of her rights, and Argall remained unhung.

During all this period, the planters had endured all their fatigues and distresses, as single men, and had settled, or attempted to settle, only six or seven towns; but this year the London Company sent out a new recruit of about twelve hundred and sixteen persons, and a colony of one hundred and forty women, who had a tract of land assigned to them, and who formed the settlement called Maids' Town. Woman pawned her jewels to furnish Columbus for the expedition to discover America. Woman saved Virginia, by rescuing Captain Smith at the hazard of her life ; and by the powers of virtuous affection, gave to the colony some of her best citizens-and woman, in the settlement of Maids' Town, gave to the colony new spirits, efforts, and energies. The planters, true to their interests and happiness, as well as the best good of the colony, selected them wives from the new setltement of Maids' Town, which, (although it changed that settlement,) soon gave new life to all parts of the colony; and new scenes, new amusements, new habits of industry, and enterprise, as well as enjoyment, became universal. This was an eventful year to Virginia.

In June 1621, the governor summoned the first General Assembly, and as the election of the representation was made from towns, which held the rights and forms of boroughs, the lower house of assembly were termed the House of Burgesses, which continues to this day. This assembly. dissolved martial law, in due form, and gave freedom, and the rights of the civil law to the planters of Virginia. The legislature of the colony forwarded an address to King James I. in which they recounted the distressing calamities

the colony had endured, from their first settlement down to that time; a catalouge black indeed; but as these distresses have been generally noticed, I shall wave a general summary, and proceed to notice the rising prosperity of Virginia.

This year King James ordered the bishops of England to make a general collection in their several dioceses, for the purpose of laying the foundation of a college in Virginia, for the promotion of literature, and the diffusion of the knowledge of God amongst the people. The order was carried into effect, and fifteen hundred pounds sterling were raised, and much more,was expected to be raised; this added to a grant of ten thousand acres of wild lands, laid the foundation of the first college in Virginia, and Mr. George Thorpe, one of the privy council of the king, as well as one of the London Company, was sent out as deputy to the company, and superintendant of the college. This school was designed not only to teach and christianize the colony, but also the Indians, and was calculated to be open equally for the children of both. Under all this apparent prosperity in the colony, God was pleased again, in the midst of plenty, to visit them with a mortal sickness, that swept off about three hundred of the people. This was a calamity severely felt; but important as it was in itself, yet it may be considered as small, when compared with the order of King James to the London Company, to transport, at their own expence, one hundred convicts into the colony of Virginia. The licentiousness and corrup tions of the colony, had hitherto subjected them to every degree of hardship and distress; but this addition, by the order of the king, subjected them to a reflection from Mr. Styth, their historian, in which he is pleased to pass the severest reflections upon one of the finest portions of. British America.

In 1622, private adventurers in England fitted out twenty-one ships, which conveyed thirteen hundred passengers to Virginia, and Sir Francis Wyat was sent out as governor to the colony. Those early attempts that had been made to introduce some form of religious worship into the colony, had long since been destroyed through the licentiousness of the planters; and the new addition of convicts to their numbers had increased the evils, but the London Company had now made one grand effort, through the instumentality of Sir Francis Wyat, to give a christian form to the colony, and lay the foundation of such institutions, as might train up the rising generation, to the knowledge and worship of the one true God.

In the midst of these efforts and labours, Powhatan had died, and was succeeded by the Sachem Opecancanoaugh. This prince was of a haughty imperious temper, who hated the English, and sought their destruction. He took advantage of that familiarity with which the Indians visited the English settlements, to become acquainted with their manner of life, and learn the security into which they had fallen. Opecancanoaugh entered into a general conspiracy with the neighbouring Indians, to exterminate the English, and destroy their settlements. On the 22d of May, the whole confederacy entered the settlements of the English at mid day, and at a signal given, the work of butchery and of death was begun; and in less than one hour, about three hundred and forty, of all ages and sexes, fell victims to the bloodthirsty rage of these merciless savages. In the midst of this carnage, a friendly Indian disclosed the plot, to a Mr. Pace, whom he was destined to kill; and Mr. Pace gave seasonable warning to Jamestown, and elsewhere. The people stood to their arms, and collecting from the scattered plantations which had not been attacked, they assembled in the principal towns, and thus secured themselves from the further destruction of the savages; but

their cattle were driven off, their mills, iron-works, and even their houses upon their plantations, were burnt, pillaged, and destroyed. In this distressing calamity, Mr. Thorpe, the superintendant of the college, was killed, the college lands abandoned, and the institution thus destroyed in its infancy. Great was the distress of the colony, a distress which many never recovered, and which as a colony they did not for a long time recover.

At this time the Plymouth Colony in New England would have been lost with famine, had they not been relieved by Captain Henry Hudson, who had made a settlement at the mouth of the river that bears his name.

Roused to a sense of their folly as well as their wrongs, the colony, armed for the combat, entered the villages of the savages, and in their turn laid waste their dwellings, put the inhabitants to an indiscriminate butchery, carried off large quantities of corn, and returned in triumph to their settlements. This gave a severe blow to the Indains, which wasted them with famine and distress the next winter; but when added to the plentiful crops of the English, gave them peace and plenty, 1623.

This year, 1624, King James I. issued writs of Que Warranto against the London Company, and in July the colony was dissolved; their records, books, and papers were all seized and removed, by the ministers of the king. Thus this little colony, which had expended so much blood and treasure, and endured such incredible hardships, to plant the colony of Virginia, were broken up, thrown into a state of nature and ruined, by the act of that sovereign who had never expended a cent for the planting, or promoting this infant settlement. Such, so fickle, and so dangerous are the wills of monarchs.

We have noticed the establishment of a regular government, under the General Assembly of Virginia, in 1621 | this government decreed that the colony should hereafter VOL. II.

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be governed by two supreme councils; the one called the Council of State, subject to the controul of the council in England; and the other called the General Assembly, to be convened annually by the governor, or oftener, as circumstances may require. The General Assembly was to consist of the Council of State, and two Burgesses to be chosen out of every town, hundred or plantation, which assembly thus formed, should make all their decisions by a majority of votes, reserving to the governor a casting vote. The powers of this assembly to be strictly legislative, and all laws by them enacted, to be in strict conformity to the laws of England. No laws were to become binding, until approved by the company in England, and returned under the ratification of their seal. It was also provided, that no laws of the company in England should bind the colony, unless ratified by the Colonial Assembly. The settlement of this colony down to the year 1621, had cost the company more than 150,000l. sterling; besides the expences of private adventurers; and more than 4000 lives had been lost; but all was now absorded in the prerogative of the

crown.

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