The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1915-06-24
The Virginia Company.

Lord Delaware had gone home
stricken with a fever. The new policy
u needed was one which should give
L expansion and a natural vitality OF
its own. Il was necessary that new
towns should be built upon the river
which should not Be, like jamestown, 4
mere stations where men worked AZ .
tasks for the company, but veritabie .
communities In which men should Be .
allowed 70 have land Of their own, <
and should be given leave 70 work for 4
themselves as well as for the incor- 4
porators In London. For FIVE years
l6li-i6i6) Sir Thomas Dale and Sir
Thomas Gates pushed this new policy
forward; ard Ii was their new and
better way Of doing things that really
made and established Virginia.
Dale and Gates both belonged to
that capable race which had been
bred under Elizabeth, willing TO be
soldiers BY turns II only they could
be always in the thick Of action. Dale
was the more capable and masterful
Of the twoi a terror TO men who would
not work or were slow to obey; a
leader after their own letters for
men who meant to do their tasks and
aucceed-and his stay in Virginia,
was, fortunately, longer by three
years than Gates. He was but Gates
deputy 50 long IS Gates was in Vir-
ginia (t6i1-16t3); but be was master
when Gates was gone--prevailed even
when Gates was there-and Il was his
rough and soldiery energy which
made the little group Of plantations"
az least ready 20 last and to expand
into q lusty piece Of England over sea.
When he had finished his five years
work, the colony, though small and
primitive still, was yet strong and
spirited enough 20 survive being de-
spoiled by an adventurer. For q year
Dale quit the colony il was left under
the government Of Captain George
Yeardley, the commandant Of one Of
the new settlements. But in 1917
Samuel ArRall came out 70 take his
place, and proved himself no lover
Of the people he had come 70 govern,
but a man chiefly bent upon serving
his own fortunes.
In 1919 Captain Yeardley, now be-
come Sir George, returned out Of
/ England commissioned 70 take
Argall's place and govern the planta-
tions under a new and better charter.
/ Sir George brought with him q dOeu-
ment, bearing date IS November,
1913, which Virgiaians were always
thenecforth 20 look back 70 a. their
Great Charter Of rights and liberties
IA document which made Of their
colony q little commonwealth,
The new Virgiuian assembly met in
the chancelo I the church at James
town, on the 80th day Of July, 1919
We look back with some emotion upon
IL, as 20 the first representative as
sembly in Americas 10 the begin
ming Of liberty and self-Rovernment
in the English colonies; but the
colonists themselves seem 20 have
taken Il very quietly, as II they had
eNpected IL and looked upon II almost
a. a matter Of course in Tire eircum-
stances
/ In 1919. the year Sir George Yeard-
ley came % set up an assembly,, an
other very notable thing happened.
| A Dutch man-of-war came into thc
river and sold twenty negroes TO the
/ colonists as slaves.
BY 1922 70 seemed as n the chief
difficulties of settlement were safely
passed and the plantations secure Of
/ their growth and permauence. But
in The very moment Of assurance a
great calamity came upon them, sud-
den, overwhelming. like a bolt out q
a clear sky. On The same day and
az the same hour (22d q March,
1927 the Indians fell upon every set
element from the falls 81 the river 70
the bay, all the tribes Of al the region
round mastering In concert r. strike
single exteruinating blow. No
/ place escaped the carnage. But the
. colony, though stunned. was not Kill
cd. The Indians courage had mt
held out - finish the bloody work
There was henceforth an endless
reckoning in store FOR them-no
longer any friendship vouehsafed or
any consideration. Steadily. relent-
lcssly, and by a maEterful advance
from settlement % settlement which
they could in no wise withstand they
were pushed back into the forests
The very year which followed the
massacre found nearly two thousand
white men still IN the scattered vii
lagos and plantations Of indomitable
English, and their quiet way q
growth had been resumed.
! Bot the great company which had
founded the settlements and seen