Old Times in the Colonies. Charles Carleton Coffin
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strange dreams, and heard supernatural voices. He took a vow to be a beggar all his life; thinking, with all other monks and friars, that to be dirty, wear rags, and go barefoot, was a sign of humility. To show that he renounced the world, he stripped off all his clothes, wearing only a mantle around his loins. The people flocked in crowds to his preaching. He was so much of a fanatic that he went out into the fields and preached to the ducks and geese, doves and sparrows. He took the name of St. Francis; and though he called himself a saint, he robbed his father to obtain money to build a church, declaring that, as the object was good, the action was right. Other men went wild with religion, and to show their humility became dirty and wore rags, and, instead of working, begged their living. They went on missions, and spread themselves over all the world.
In May, 1615, Samuel Champlain, with four priests of the Order of St. Francis — Denis Jamet, Jean Dolbean, Joseph le Caron, and Pacific du Plessis — landed at Quebec. The settlers came out and kneeled as they stepped on shore, while the cannon of the ship and fort thundered a salute. They had come to convert the Indians. Jean Dolbean went down the north shore of the St. Lawrence to tell the Indians of that region about Christianity. He slept in their wigwams, which were so full of smoke that he came near losing his sight, and returned to Quebec. Joseph le Caron was to go to the Hurons around the upper lakes.
Samuel Champlain had a great plan; he wanted the Indians converted, but he desired also to build up a great empire in America. He was a statesman, and saw that if he could establish his influence over the various tribes, the vast region could be brought under the dominion of France. Spain had already acquired Mexico, Florida, and South America; and if he could make his influence supreme, he could, in time, drive out the few English at Virginia, and save by far the largest portion of North America for France. Grand and magnificent the ideal.
There was a great gathering of tribes at Montreal to fight the Iroquois. The gun fired by Champlain at Ticonderoga had not ceased to reverberate. The defeat of the Iroquois in that battle had stirred them to fresh endeavors, and every year they had carried home many scalps from Canada. The Indians welcomed Champlain.
“We go to fight our enemies. If our father will go with us, we will beat them,” they said.
There were twenty-five hundred warriors. It was a great opportunity; by going with them and fighting their battles, Champlain would make his influence supreme. He accepted their invitation, and joined them with twelve soldiers. The route was up the Ottawa River to Late Huron, then south through a chain of small lakes to Lake Ontario. They secreted their canoes on the southern shore of the lake, and then marched south to Lake Oneida, capturing seven Iroquois men and four women. The Hurons held a great dance, and then put their prisoners to death.
It was on October 10th when the Hurons reached one of their Iroquois towns on the shore of the lake not far from Syracuse. The Iroquois had built a palisade thirty feet high around it. They came out to tight, but were greatly astonished when they heard the sound of guns, and when the bullets struck them down. They fled inside the palisade. Champlain set the Indians at work building a tower, and in a short time they had one so high that from the top of it he and his companions could pick off the Iroquois, who fought bravely, and wounded Champlain with an arrow. “Set the palisade on fire!” he shouted.
The Hurons built a fire, but the Iroquois dashed water upon the flames. All the while both sides kept up a terrible warwhoop. Champlain tried to direct the Hurons, but they would not hear him, and were finally compelled to retreat, with several killed and wounded.
While this was going on, Hendrick Christiansen was trading with the Mohawk Indians. The other Iroquois heard of it, and hastened to make friends with the Dutch, that they might obtain weapons that would spit fire and kill their enemies. They met the Dutch beneath a great tree. The Iroquois chief held one end of the belt of peace, and the Dutch the other, and so they agreed to be friends. They buried a hatchet, and the Dutch said they would build a church upon the spot, that it might never be dug up.
This agreement never was broken, and the Iroquois became the allies of the settlers of New York, in all the conflicts with the French and Indians, till the English became masters of Canada, one hundred and forty-three years later.
Captain Argall became governor of Virginia in 1618, and issued hard laws. He had one price for goods. The settlers might sell tobacco for three shillings a pound; but if they charged more or took less, they were to be sold into slavery for three years. No man could hunt a deer without permission from the governor. Any person staying away from church in Sunday, or on holy days, was to be tied neck and heels overnight, and be a slave for a week; for the second offence he was to be enslaved for a month; the third, a year.
Many of the settlers were little better than slaves. Men who were in debt in England were sold by their creditors. Although so many of the settlers were scrapegraces and vagabonds, King James thought there was room for more, and sent over one hundred thieves and robbers. He appointed Sir George Yeardly governor, who found things in a sorry condition upon his arrival. The houses in Jamestown were tumbling to the ground. In Richmond there were only three dwellings, and a church that was little better than a hovel. There were only three ministers in the colony, and only one of them had authority from the bishop to preach. The settlers were ground down by the cruel laws. Men were flogged and had their ears cut off for very slight offences.
Sir George Yeardly was humane, and informed the people that they should be governed by the laws of England. The company of planters had all power, and the people none. He proclaimed that the people should have a voice in government; that there should be a general assembly of delegates or burgesses from each borough, who were to be elected by the inhabitants, and the burgesses were to make all needful laws. They assembled at James City; John Pory was chosen speaker. A prayer was read, and the first Legislature that ever assembled in the New World was ready to proceed to business. The burgesses accepted the privileges which Governor Yeardly had given them as their great charter. The Church of England was established as the Church of the colony, and the ministers were to receive the value of two hundred pounds a year, to be paid in tobacco. Laws were passed against idleness, drunkenness and gambling. If people wore costly clothes they were to be taxed for them; everybody was required to attend church twice every Sunday; and everybody who owned a gun was to carry it, to be ready to fight if attacked by the Indians. The price of first quality tobacco was fixed at three shillings per pound; second quality, half-price.
It was the beginning of a new state of affairs. The settlers took heart, and built good houses. Virginia was their home. There were only about six hundred inhabitants; but now that the cruel laws were repealed, and the rights of the people recognized, there were thousands in England ready to emigrate. In twelve months twelve hundred and sixty-one persons crossed the Atlantic to find new homes on the banks of the James.
Sir Edwin Sandys and the Earl of Southampton were members of the London Company. They were large-hearted men, and through their influence the company granted a written constitution to the settlers. The company were to appoint the governor and his council, while the people were to elect the burgesses.
There had been so many wars, and so many men had been killed in battles, that there were far more women than men in England. There were very few women in Virginia; and in order to supply the settlers with wives, the company sent out a ship-load of girls, who were ready to emigrate for the sake of getting husbands. There were ninety of them. The company paid the cost of their going; but each settler must pay one hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco for the girl whom he might select. The tobacco was reckoned at three shillings a pound; so they must pay three hundred and sixty shillings for a wife, which they were ready to do, and in a very short time every girl was provided with a husband. Wives were in such demand that sixty more girls were sent out, and the price raised to one hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco.
While the settlers were purchasing their wives, a Dutch ship sailed up the James with sixteen negroes on board, which were purchased as slaves by the tobacco-raisers of Jamestown. It was the beginning of African slavery in America.
As things are constituted in this world, the innocent suffer for the guilty. In Virginia some of the settlers were hard-working, industrious, and thrifty, doing what they could to build up the colony; but many others were indolent, shiftless, and vicious. Instead of working for a livelihood,