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due Bermuda and Shirley Hundreds and Dale's Gift over on the Eastern Shore。
As the Company sent over more colonists; there began to show; up and down
the James though at far intervals; cabins and clearings made by white men;
set about with a stockade; and at the river edge a rude landing and a
fastened boat。 The restless search for mines of gold and silver now
slackened。 Instead eyes turned for wealth to the kingdom of the Dlant and
tree; and to fur trade and fisheries。

* Hitherto there had been no trading or landholding by individuals。 All the
colonists contributed the products of their toil to the common store and
received their supplies from the Company。 The adventurers (stockholders)
contributed money to the enterprise; the colonists; themselves and their
labor。


Those ships that brought colonists were in every instance expected to
return to England laden with the commodities of Virginia。 At first cargoes
of precious ores were looked for。 These failing; the Company must take from
Virginia what lay at hand and what might be suited to English needs。 In
1610 the Company issued a paper of instructions upon this subject of
Virginia commodities。 The daughter was expected to; send to the mother
country sassafras root; bay berries; puccoon; sarsaparilla; walnut;
chestnut; and chinquapin oil; wine; silk grass; beaver cod; beaver and
otter skins; clapboard of oak and walnut; tar; pitch; turpentine; and
powdered sturgeon。

It might seem that Virginia was headed to become a land of fishers; of
foresters; and vine dressers; perhaps even; when the gold should be at last
discovered; of miners。 At home; the colonizing merchants and statesmen
looked for some such thing。 In return for what she laded into ships;
Virginia was to receive English…made goods; and to an especial degree
woolen goods; 〃a very liberall utterance of our English cloths into a maine
country described to be bigger than all Europe。〃 There was to be direct
trade; country kind for country kind; and no specie to be taken out of
England。 The promoters at home doubtless conceived a hardy and simple
trans…Atlantic folk of their own kindred; planters for their own needs;
steady consumers of the plainer sort of English wares; steady gatherers; in
return; of necessaries for which England otherwise must trade after a
costly fashion with lands which were not always friendly。 A simple; sturdy;
laborious Virginia; white men and Indians if this was their dream; reality
was soon to modify it。


A new commodity of unsuspected commercial value began now to be grown in
garden…plots along the James the 〃weed〃 par excellence; tobacco。 That John
Rolfe who had been shipwrecked on the Sea Adventure was now a planter in
Virginia。 His child Bermuda had died in infancy; and his wife soon after
their coming to Jamestown。 Rolfe remained; a young man; a good citizen; and
a Christian。 And he loved tobacco。 On that trivial fact hinges an important
chapter in the economic history of America。 In 1612 Rolfe planted tobacco
in his own garden; experimented with its culture; and prophesied that the
Virginian weed would rank with the best Spanish。 It was now a shorter
plant; smaller…leafed and smaller…flowered; but time and skilful gardening
would improve it。

England had known tobacco for thirty years; owing its introduction to
Raleigh。 At first merely amused by the New World rarity; England was now by
general use turning a luxury into a necessity。 More and more she received
through Dutch and Spanish ships tobacco from the Indies。 Among the English
adventurers to Virginia some already knew the uses of the weed; others soon
learned from the Indians。 Tobacco was perhaps not indigenous to Virginia;
but had probably come through southern tribes who in turn had gained it
from those who knew it in its tropic habitat。 Now; however; tobacco was
grown by all Virginia Indians; and was regarded as the Great Spirit's best
gift。 In the final happy hunting…ground; kings; werowances; and priests
enjoyed it forever。 When; in the time after the first landing; the Indians
brought gifts to the adventurers as to beings from a superior sphere; they
offered tobacco as well as comestibles like deer…meat and mulberries。
Later; in England and in Virginia; there was some suggestion that it might
be cultivated among other commodities。 But the Company; not to be diverted
from the path to profits; demanded from Virginia necessities and not
new…fangled luxuries。 Nevertheless; a little tobacco was sent over to
England; and then a little more; and then a larger quantity。 In less than
five years it had become a main export; and from that time to this
profoundly has it affected the life of Virginia and; indeed; of the United
States。

This then is the wide and general event with which John Rolfe is connected。
But there is also a narrower; personal happening that has pleased all these
centuries。 Indian difficulties yet abounded; but Dale; administrator as
well as man of Mars; wound his way skilfully through them all。 Powhatan
brooded to one side; over there at Werowocomoco。 Captain Samuel Argall was
again in Virginia; having brought over sixty…two colonists in his ship; the
Treasurer。 A bold and restless man; explorer no less than mariner; he again
went trading up the Potomac; and visited upon its banks the village of
Japazaws; kinsman of Powhatan。 Here he found no less a personage than
Powhatan's daughter Pocahontas。 An idea came into Argall's active and
somewhat unscrupulous brain。 He bribed Japazaws with a mighty gleaming
copper kettle; and by that chief's connivance took Pocahontas from the
village above the Potomac。 He brought her captive in his boat down the
Chesapeake to the mouth of the James and so up the river to Jamestown; here
to be held hostage for an Indian peace。 This was in 1613。

Pocahontas stayed by the James; in the rude settlers' town; which may have
seemed to the Indian girl stately and wonderful enough。 Here Rolfe made her
acquaintance; here they talked together; and here; after some scruples on
his part as to 〃heathennesse;〃 they were married。 He writes of 〃her desire
to be taught and instructed in the knowledge of God; her capableness of
understanding; her aptnesse and willingnesse to recieve anie good
impression; and also the spiritual; besides her owne incitements stirring
me up hereunto。〃 First she was baptized; receiving the name Rebecca; and
then she was married to Rolfe in the flower…decked church at Jamestown。
Powhatan was not there; but he sent young chiefs; her brothers; in his
place。 Rolfe had lands and cabins thereupon up the river near Henricus。 He
called this place Varina; the best Spanish tobacco being Varinas。 Here he
and Pocahontas dwelled together 〃civilly and lovingly。〃 When two years had
passed the couple went with their infant son upon a visit to England。 There
court and town and country flocked to see the Indian 〃princess。〃 After a
time she and Rolfe would go back to Virginia。 But at Gravesend; before
their ship sailed; she was stricken with smallpox and died; making 〃a
religious and godly end;〃 and there at Gravesend she is buried。 Her son;
Thomas Rolfe; who was brought up in England; returned at last to Virginia
and lived out his life there with his wife and children。 Today no small
host of Americans have for ancestress the daughter of Powhatan。 In
England…in…America the immediate effect of the marriage was really to
procure an Indian peace outlasting Pocahontas's brief life。

In Dale's years there rises above the English horizon the cloud of New
France。 The old; disaster…haunted Huguenot colony in Florida was a thing of
the past; to be mourned for when the Spaniard wiped it outfor at that
time England herself was not in America。 But now that she was established
there; with some hundreds of men in a Virginia that stretched from Spanish
Florida to Nova Scotia; the French shadow seemed ominous。 And just in
this farther region; amid fir…trees and snow; upon the desolate Bay of
Fundy; the French for some years had been keeping the breath of life in a
huddle of cabins named Port Royal。 More than this; and later than the Port
Royal building; FrenchmenJesuits that!were trying a settlement on an
island now called Mount Desert; off a coast now named Maine。 The Virginia
Company…doubtless with some reference back to the King and Privy
CouncilDe La Warr; Gates; the deputy governor; and Dale; the High
Marshal; appear to have been of one mind as to these French settlements。 Up
north there was still Virginiain effect; England! Hands off; therefore;
all European peoples speaking with an un…English tongue!

Now it happened about this time that Captain Samuel Argall received a
commission 〃to go fishing;〃 and that he fished off that coast that is now
the coast of Maine; and brought his ship to anchor by Mount Desert。 Argall;
a swift and high…handed person; fished on dry land。 He swept into his net
the Jesuits on Mount Desert; set half of them in an open boat to meet with
what ship they might; and brought the other half captive to Jamestown。
Later; he appeared before Port Royal; where he burned the cabins; slew the
cattle; and drove into the forest the settler Frenchmen。 But Port Royal a

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