Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1907-07-12

tnat no maiden should be engaged 10
more than one sutton at time. With
the women came the love of home. the
men were allowed so many acres OF
land for demonstrating, and soon the
colony spread out across the river into
the forests and plains beyond. Times
were so prosperous for awhile that 1t
is said the town cowkeeper was "ac-
coutred In fresh flaming silk" Dale's
law required each man to labor from
6 to 10 in the morning, from 2 to in
the afternoon, and to attend church
twice daily.
But the early colonists had much
trouble. All the while the king and
the London Company complained be-
cause greater returns were not COM
ing in from the new dominions. Once
while the crops wasted, the settlers
mined shipload of yellow sand and
sent 1t to England, but they were
doomed to disappointment, for 1t was
worthless. In the spring of 1910 came
the Starving Time. Of the five hundred
that September had seen on the island,
May found only sixty felt. Hunger and
fever had taken heavy toll, the Indians
had given trouble and thirty of the
colonists had stolen ship and turned
buccaneers. Those left ate all the
animals, and even the skins of the
horses. The ship from England was
long overdue. How could they know
that it had gone ashore on the Ber-
mudas and that the survivors were
building other vessels from the wreck
and still trying to reach them?
When they had eaten their last ra-
ton the white sails of these two
roughly made ships showed in the riv-
er, and the starving people crawled to
the landing to welcome them. But on
board the Patience and the Deliverance
there were only provisions enough to
last fourteen days so it was agreed that
they all leave for England by way Of
Newfoundland and the fishing fields
No one can tell whether these things
be coincidence or Providence, but as
the four ships with the disheartened
colonists left the abandoned settlement
and sailed down the river, they met
the vessels of Lord de la Ware coming
upstream and returning to James
Cittie" they disembarked and offered
a service of thanksgiving in the little
log church. And thus our nation was
saved.
The governors who came and went
through the little town left varying
imprints on history. There was the
CT no1o nv OF hndIxin0
through the tongues of the profane
and set a poor devil to starve because
he had stolen a small bowl of oatmeal.
Captain John Smith stayed five years
to plant the colony, and then at thirty
returned to England, where he lived
twenty-five years. Lord Delaware was
a promoter of enterprises, and it was
he who set up viceroyal court In the
wilderness.
In 1876 Bacon and his people arose
against the too great tyranny of the
royal governor, foreshadowing the
Revolution by one hundred years. 1t
was Bacon who fired the town and de-
stroyed almost all the buildings, in
Guiding the church. After that the
council met in the taverns for ten
years until a new state house was
built. After various vicissitudes the
capital was moved to the Middle Plant
alton, or Williamsburg, and jamestown
went into decline. Decay fell upon the
ruins of the village, and the settlers
gradually drifted to the higher and
healthier localities beyond the river
banks. Today there is only the brick
tower of the church, with its portfolios,
the graves of the dead, the foundations
of few old houses, and the old pear
and mulberry trees to show where
Smith and his soldiers of fortune three
hundred years ago, amid much danger
and loneliness, laid the cornerstone of
the nation.-From the New York Trib-
une.