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The History of Virginia, in Four Parts

Chapter 5: THE TABLE.
By Robert Beverley
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The work offers a chronological account of the colony’s founding and development, opening with early voyages and failed settlements and progressing to the establishment of a permanent plantation, changes in governance, and episodes of scarcity and resupply. It examines relations with Indigenous nations, describing their customs, beliefs, warfare, and diplomacy; surveys the colony’s natural resources and commercial prospects, including tobacco cultivation and early salt and iron works; and outlines legal and political institutions, land distribution, assemblies, and the introduction of enslaved Africans, concluding with an assessment of the polity and material condition of the colony in the early eighteenth century.

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Title: The History of Virginia, in Four Parts

Author: Robert Beverley

Release date: June 6, 2010 [eBook #32721]

Language: English

Credits: E-text prepared by Julia Miller, Christine Aldridge, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries (http://www.archive.org/details/americana)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF VIRGINIA, IN FOUR PARTS ***

 

E-text prepared by Julia Miller, Christine Aldridge,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net)
from page images generously made available by
Internet Archive/American Libraries
(http://www.archive.org/details/americana)

 

Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/American Libraries. See http://www.archive.org/details/historyofvirgini00beve

 

Transcriber's Notes:

1. Minor punctuation irregularities have been made consistent.

2. Numerous corrections have been made. A complete list is located at the end of the text together with word use variations.

 

 

THE

HISTORY OF VIRGINIA,

IN FOUR PARTS.

I. The History of the first settlement of Virginia, and the government thereof, to the year 1706.
II. The natural productions and conveniences of the country, suited to trade and improvement.
III. The native Indians, their religion, laws and customs, in war and peace.
IV. The present state of the country, as to the polity of the government, and the improvements of the land the 10th of June 1720.

BY ROBERT BEVERLEY,

A native and inhabitant of the place.

REPRINTED FROM THE AUTHOR'S SECOND REVISED EDITION, LONDON, 1722.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION

BY CHARLES CAMPBELL,

Author of the Colonial History of Virginia.

J. W. RANDOLPH,

121 MAIN STREET, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA.

1855.

Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1855, by
J. W. RANDOLPH,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court in and for the Eastern District of Virginia.

H. K. ELLYSON'S STEAM PRESSES, RICHMOND, VA.

THE TABLE.

BOOK I.

CHAPTER I.

History of the first attempts to settle Virginia, before the discovery of Chesapeake bay.

PAGE.
§1. Sir Walter Raleigh obtains letters patent, for making discoveries in America, 8
2. Two ships set out on the discovery, and arrive at Roanoke inlet, 9
Their account of the country, 9
thier account of the natives, 9
3. Queen Elizabeth names the country of Virginia, 10
4. Sir Richard Greenvile's voyage, 10
He plans the first colony, under command of Mr. Ralph Lane, 11
5. The discoveries and accidents of the first colony, 11
6. Their distress by want of provisions, 12
Sir Francis Drake visits them, 12
He gives them a ship and necessaries, 12
He takes them away with him, 12
7. Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Richard Greenvile, their voyages, 13
The second settlement made, 13
8. Mr. John White's expedition, 13
The first Indian made a Christian there, 14
The first child born there of Christian parentage, 14
Third settlement, incorporated by the name of the city of Raleigh, in Virginia, 14
Mr. White, their governor, sent home to solicit for supplies, 14
9. John White's second voyage; last attempts to carry them recruits, 14
His disappointment, 15
10. Capt. Gosnell's voyage to the coast of Cape Cod, 15
11. The Bristol voyages, 16
12. A London voyage, which discovered New York, 16

CHAPTER II.

Discovery of Chesapeake bay by the corporation of London adventurers; their colony at Jamestown, and proceedings during the government by an elective president and council.

§13. The companies of London and Plymouth obtain charters, 18
14. Captain Smith first discovers the capes of Virginia, 19
15. He plants his first colony at Jamestown, 20
An account of Jamestown island, 20
16. He sends the ships home, retaining one hundred and eight men to keep possession, 20
17. That colony's mismanagement, 21
Their misfortunes upon discovery of a supposed gold mine, 21
18. Their first supplies after settlement, 22
Their discoveries, and experiments in English grain, 22
An attempt of some to desert the colony, 22
19. The first Christian marriage in that colony, 23
They make three plantations more, 23

CHAPTER III.

History of the colony after the change of their government, from an elective president to a commissionated governor, until the dissolution of the company.

§20. The company get a new grant, and the nomination of the governors in themselves, 24
They send three governors in equal degree, 24
All three going in one ship, are shipwrecked at Bermudas, 24
They build there two small cedar vessels, 24
21. Captain Smith's return to England, 25
Mismanagements ruin the colony, 25
The first massacre and starving time, 25
The first occasion of the ill character of Virginia, 26
The five hundred men left by Captain Smith reduced to sixty in six months time, 26
22. The three governors sail from Bermudas, and arrive at Virginia, 26
23. They take off the Christians that remained there, and design, by way of Newfoundland, to return to England, 27
Lord Delaware arrives and turns them back, 27
24. Sir Thomas Dale arrives governor, with supplies, 27
25. Sir Thomas Gates arrives governor, 28
He plants out a new plantation, 28
26. Pocahontas made prisoner, and married to Mr. Rolfe, 28
27. Peace with the Indians, 28
28. Pocahontas brought to England by Sir Thomas Dale, 29
29. Captain Smith's petition to the queen in her behalf, 29
30. His visit to Pocahontas, 32
An Indian's account of the people of England, 32
31. Pocahontas' reception at court, and death, 33
32. Captain Yardley's government, 34
33. Governor Argall's good administration, 34
34. Powhatan's death, and successors, 34
Peace renewed by the successors, 34
35. Captain Argall's voyage from Virginia to New England, 35
36. He defeats the French northward of New England, 35
37. An account of those French, 36
38. He also defeats the French in Acadia, 36
39. His return to England, 36
Sir George Yardley, governor, 36
40. He resettles the deserted plantation, and held the first assembly, 36
The method of that assembly, 37
41. The first negroes carried to Virginia, 37
42. Land apportioned to adventurers, 37
43. A salt work and iron work in Virginia, 38
44. Sir Francis Wyat made governor, 38
King James, his instructions in care of tobacco, 38
Captain Newport's plantation, 38
45. Inferior courts in each plantation, 39
Too much familiarity with the Indians, 39
46. The massacre by the Indians, anno 1622, 39
47. The discovery and prevention of it at Jamestown, 40
48. The occasion of the massacre, 41
49. A plot to destroy the Indians, 42
50. The discouraging effects of the massacre, 43
51. The corporation in England are the chief cause of misfortunes in Virginia, 43
52. The company dissolved, and the colony taken into the king's hands, 44

CHAPTER IV.

History of the government, from the dissolution of the company to the year 1707.

§53. King Charles First establishes the constitution of government, in the methods appointed by the first assembly, 45
54. The ground of the ill settlement of Virginia, 45
55. Lord Baltimore in Virginia, 46
56. Lord Baltimore, proprietor of Maryland, 46
Maryland named from the queen, 46
57. Young Lord Baltimore seats Maryland, 46
Misfortune to Virginia, by making Maryland a distinct government, 47
58. Great grants and defalcations from Virginia, 47
59. Governor Harvey sent prisoner to England, and by the king remanded back governor again, 47
60. The last Indian massacre, 48
61. A character and account of Oppechancanough, the Indian emperor, 48
62. Sir William Berkeley made governor, 49
63. He takes Oppechancanough prisoner, 49
Oppechancanough's death, 50
64. A new peace with the Indians, but the country disturbed by the troubles in England, 50
65. Virginia subdued by the protector, Cromwell, 50
66. He binds the plantations by an act of navigation, 51
67. His jealousy and change of governors in Virginia, 51
68. Upon the death of Matthews, the protector's governor, Sir William Berkeley is chosen by the people, 52
69. He proclaims King Charles II before he was proclaimed in England, 52
70. King Charles II renews Sir William Berkeley's commission, 52
71. Sir William Berkeley makes Colonel Morrison deputy governor, and goes to England, 53
The king renews the act concerning the plantation, 53
72. The laws revised, 53
The church of England established by law, 53
73. Clergy provided for by law, 53
74. The public charge of the government sustained by law, 53
75. Encouragement of particular manufactures by law, 54
76. The instruction for all ships to enter at Jamestown, used by law, 54
77. Indian affairs settled by law, 54
78. Jamestown encouraged by law, 54
79. Restraints upon sectaries in religion, 55
80. A plot to subvert the government, 55
81. The defeat of the plot, 55
82. An anniversary feast upon that occasion, 56
83. The king commands the building a fort at Jamestown, 56
84. A new restraint on the plantations by act of parliament, 56
85. Endeavors for a stint in planting tobacco, 56
86. Another endeavor at a stint defeated, 57
87. The king sent instructions to build forts, and confine the trade to certain ports, 57
88. The disappointment of those ports, 58
89. Encouragement of manufactures enlarged, 58
90. An attempt to discovery the country backward, 59
Captain Batt's relation of that discovery, 59
91. Sir William Berkeley intends to prosecute that discovery in person, 60
92. The grounds of Bacon's rebellion, 60
Four ingredients thereto, 61
93. First, the low price of tobacco, 61
Second, splitting the country into proprieties, 61
The country send agents, to complain of the propriety grants, 61
94. Third, new duties by act in England on the plantations, 62
95. Fourth, disturbances on the land frontiers by the Indians, 62
First, by the Indians on the head of the bay, 62
Second, by the Indians on their own frontiers, 63
96. The people rise against the Indians, 63
They choose Nathan Bacon, Jr., for their leader, 63
97. He heads them, and sends to the governor for a commission, 64
98. He begins his march without a commission, 64
The governor sends for him, 65
99. Bacon goes down in a sloop with forty of his men to the governor, 65
100. Goes away in a huff, is pursued and brought back by governor, 65
101. Bacon steals privately out of town, and marches down to the assembly with six hundred of his volunteers, 65
102. The governor, by advice of assembly, signs a commission to Mr. Bacon to be general, 66
103. Bacon being marched away with his men is proclaimed rebel, 66
104. Bacon returns with his forces to Jamestown, 66
105. The governor flies to Accomac, 66
The people there begin to make terms with him, 67
106. Bacon holds a convention of gentlemen, 67
They propose to take an oath to him, 67
107. The forms of the oath, 67
108. The governor makes head against him, 69
General Bacon's death, 69
109. Bacon's followers surrender upon articles, 69
110. The agents compound with the proprietors, 69
111. A new charter to Virginia, 70
112. Soldiers arrive from England, 70
113. The dissolution by Bacon's rebellion, 70
114. Commissioners arrive in Virginia, and Sir William Berkeley returns to England, 71
115. Herbert Jeffreys, esq., governor, concludes peace with Indians, 71
116. Sir Henry Chicheley, deputy governor, builds forts against Indians, 71
The assembly prohibited the importation of tobacco, 72
117. Lord Colepepper, governor, 72
118. Lord Colepepper's first assembly, 72
He passes several obliging acts to the country, 72
119. He doubles the governor's salary, 72
120. He imposes the perquisite of ship money, 73
121. He, by proclamation, raises the value of Spanish coins, and lowers it again, 73
122. Sir Henry Chicheley, deputy governor, 74
The plant cutting, 74
123. Lord Colepepper's second assembly, 75
He takes away appeals to the assembly, 75
124. His advantage thereby in the propriety of the Northern Neck, 76
125. He retrenches the new methods of court proceedings, 77
126. He dismantled the forts on the heads of rivers, and appointed rangers in their stead, 77
127. Secretary Spencer, president, 77
128. Lord Effingham, governor, 77
Some of his extraordinary methods of getting money, 77
Complaints against him, 78
129. Duty on liquors first raised, 78
130. Court of Chancery by Lord Effingham, 78
131. Colonel Bacon, president, 79
The college designed, 79
132. Francis Nicholson, lieutenant governor, 79
He studies popularity, 79
The college proposed to him, 79
He refuses to call an assembly, 79
133. He grants a brief to the college, 79
134. The assembly address King William and Queen Mary for a college charter, 80
The education intended by this college, 80
The assembly present the lieutenant governor, 80
His method of securing this present, 80
135. Their majesties grant the charter, 80
They grant liberally towards the building and endowing of it, 80
136. The lieutenant governor encourages towns and manufactures, 80
Gentlemen of the council complain of him and are misused, 81
He falls off from the encouragement of the towns and trade, 81
137. Edmund Andros, governor, 81
The town law suspended, 81
138. The project of a post office, 81
139. The college charter arrived, 81
The college further endowed, and the foundation laid, 82
140. Sir Edmund Andros encourages manufactures, and regulates the secretary's office, 82
141. A child born in the old age of the parents, 83
142. Francis Nicholson, governor, 83
His and Colonel Quarrey's memorials against plantations, 84
143. His zeal for the church and college, 84
144. He removes the general court from Jamestown, 84
145. The taking of the pirate, 84
146. The sham bills of nine hundred pounds for New York, 86
147. Colonel Quarrey's unjust memorials, 87
148. Governor Nott arrived, 88
149. Revisal of the law finished, 88
150. Ports and towns again set on foot, 88
151. Slaves a real estate, 88
152. A house built for the governor, 88
Governor dies, and the college burnt, 88
153. Edmond Jennings, esq., president, 89
154. Alexander Spotswood, lieutenant governor, 89

BOOK II.

Natural Productions and Conveniences of Virginia in its unimproved state, before the English went thither.

CHAPTER I.

Bounds and Coast of Virginia.

§1. Present bounds of Virginia, 90
2. Chesapeake bay, and the sea coast of Virginia, 91
3. What is meant by the word Virginia in this book, 91

CHAPTER II.

Of the Waters.

§4. Conveniency of the bay and rivers, 93
5. Springs and fountains descending to the rivers, 93
6. Damage to vessels by the worm, 94
Ways of avoiding that damage, 94

CHAPTER III.

Earths, and Soils.

§7. The soil in general, 96
River lands—lower, middle and upper, 96
8. Earths and clays, 98
Coal, slate and stone, and why not used, 98
9. Minerals therein, and iron mine formerly wrought upon, 98
Supposed gold mines lately discovered, 99
That this gold mine was the supreme seat of the Indian temples formerly, 99
That their chief altar was there also, 99
Mr. Whitaker's account of a silver mine, 99
10. Hills in Virginia, 100
Springs in the high lands, 101

CHAPTER IV.

Wild Fruits.

§11. Spontaneous fruits in general, 102
12. Stoned fruits, viz: cherries, plums and persimmons, 102
13. Berries, viz: mulberries, currants, hurts, cranberries, raspberries and strawberries, 103
14. Of nuts, 104
15. Of grapes, 105
The report of some French vignerons formerly sent in thither, 107
16. Honey, and the sugar trees, 107
17. Myrtle tree, and myrtle wax, 108
Hops growing wild, 109
18. Great variety of seeds, plants and flowers, 109
Two snake roots, 109
Jamestown weed, 110
Some curious flowers, 111
19. Creeping vines bearing fruits, viz: melons, pompions, macocks, gourds, maracocks, and cushaws, 112
20. Other fruits, roots and plants of the Indians, 114
Several sorts of Indian corn, 114
Of potatoes, 115
Tobacco, as it was ordered by the Indians, 116

CHAPTER V.

Fish.

§21. Great plenty and variety of fish, 117
Vast shoals of herrings, shad, &c., 117
22. Continuality of the fishery, 118
The names of some of the best edible fish, 118
The names of some that are not eaten, 118
23. Indian children catching fish, 118
Several inventions of the Indians to take fish, 119
24. Fishing hawks and bald eagles, 121
Fish dropped in the orchard, 121

CHAPTER VI.

Wild Fowl and Hunted Game.

§25. Wild Water Fowl, 123
26. Game in the marshes and watery grounds, 123
27. Game in the highlands and frontiers, 123
Of the Opossum, 124
28. Some Indian ways of hunting, 124
Fire hunting, 124
Their hunting quarters, 125
29. Conclusion, 126

BOOK III.

Indians, their Religion, Laws and Customs, in War and Peace.

CHAPTER I.

Persons of the Indians, and their Dress.

§1. Persons of the Indians, their color and shape, 127
2. The cut of their hair, and ornament of their head, 128
3. Of their vesture, 128
4. Garb peculiar to their priests and conjurors, 130
5. Of the women's dress, 131

CHAPTER II.

Matrimony of the Indians, and Management of their Children.

§6. Conditions of their marriage, 133
7. Maidens, and the story of their prostitution, 133
8. Management of the young children, 134

CHAPTER III.

Towns, Building and Fortification of the Indians.

§9. Towns and kingdoms of the Indians, 135
10. Manner of their building, 135
11. Their fuel, or firewood, 136
12. Their seats and lodging, 136
13. Their fortifications, 136

CHAPTER IV.

Cookery and Food of the Indians.

§14. Their cookery, 138
15. Their several sorts of food, 139
16. Their times of eating, 140
17. Their drink, 140
18. Their ways of dining, 141