very soon after the beginning of the settlement, but it cost only fifty pounds, and therefore must have been but a small and perishable building. The edifice of which the remains are now to be seen, must have been of a later date, and may have been the second which, as we learn from Smith's journal, was in ruins in 1617. If so, the venerable remains represented in the cut must be two hundred and thirty years old. This vicinity is also remarkable for the invasion of Arnold, January 3, 1781, and for two actions fought here between General La Fayette and the troops of Cornwallis, June 25 and July 8, 1781. But to return to the narrative of early events. While on his journey of discovery, Smith penetrated to the falls of the river, and found a native tribe seated near the present site of Richmond, under the command of the chief Powhatan, by whom he was kindly received. But during his absence, the colonists, while at work, had been assailed by the neighboring savages, who wounded seventeen men and killed a boy. The interference of the crews of the vessels alone saved them all from destruction. From that time watch was kept by day and night, and preparation made for defence by erecting a fort and otherwise. Newport prepared to depart at the end of six weeks; but before he left the colony, Smith was tried by the council at his own request; and although great exertions were made to procure his condemnation, he received an award of two hundred pounds as damages for injurious treatment; but this he threw into the common stock. The vessels now sailed, leaving a feeble colony of about one hundred men, about one half of whom were "gentlemen," unaccustomed to labor, and ill qualified to endure privations and hardships; and so powerful were the effect of the climate and the circumstances around them, that at the end of a week hardly ten of the company were able to stand upon their feet. Fifty died between the months of May and September; yet the president felt so little sympathy with his companions, that he enjoyed every luxury within his reach, while they were living miserably on such food as they were able to procure, chiefly sturgeon and crabs taken from the water. Newport, however, being at length arrested, in an attempt to abandon the sufferers by sailing away in the pinnace, was deposed, and Ratcliffe was appointed president in his place. Find He, however, proved so unpopular and so incompetent, that he was glad to place Smith in fact at the bead of affairs; and by the energy of the latter, the colony was saved from starvation. ing all other means to obtain provisions unsuccessful, he managed to terrify the Indian tribe dwelling at Hampton (then called Keochtan), so much that they furnished them with food. Soon after this, Smith was made prisoner by the sav ages, and after being sentenced to die, and led out for execution, was rescued by the celebrated princess Pocahontas; with the history of whom, and this singular act of humanity performed by her, we presume our readers are familiar. In 1609, a new charter was granted by the king to the company, entitled "The Treasurer and Company of Adventurers of the City of London, for the First Colony in Virginia;" the pow ers and territory being enlarged, and a new council being formed in England, while the old president and council were abolished. Lord Delaware, or De la War, was appointed governor, and five hundred emigrants were collected, who embarked in nine ships, under the command of Captain Newport, who, with Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers, was to exercise the government until the arrival of the governor. The vessel in which the three governors sailed was separated from the rest by a storm, and driven to Bermuda; and, when the others arrived at Jamestown, the emigrants proved so wild and insubordinate, and so unsuccessful in their attempts to form a government, that Smith, finding the colony exposed to an attack from the Indians, resumed his authority, imprisoned the most turbulent, and soon reduced things to a state of order. He then sent a band of settlers into the country, who began a new town; but, being alarmed at the hostile aspect of the natives, they soon sent to him for | pany were hardly persuaded, by Delaprotection. ware's representations of the fertility of the soil and the prospect of success in agriculture, to sustain the settlement they had begun. Successive fluctuations in the political condition of the colony continued to retard its improvement for several years. Smith, a short time after this, was shockingly mangled by the explosion of some gunpowder, and was compelled to go to England for surgical aid, whence he never returned. The colony suffered severely from his loss. Being left under the government of Mr. Percy, a man of less energy than goodness of heart, the motley band of colonists, consisting chiefly of broken-down tradesmen and profligate young men, soon fell into confusion and anarchy; and the Indians, emboldened by their weakness, threatened them so much that the settlement was abandoned, and the people were proceeding to sea, when, at the mouth of James river, they met Lord Delaware, and were encouraged to return. By remonstrances, threats, and promises, he reduced them to a state of order, and formed a council, consisting of Sir Thomas Gates, his lieutenantgeneral; Sir George Somers, his admiral; the honorable George Percy, one of his captains; Sir Fernando Weinman, his master of ordnance; and Christopher Newport, his vice-admiral. In 1613 the land was divided among the people, having before that been held in common, by which practice general idleness had been fostered. The following year, Argal was sent against the French colony of L'Acadie, and he took Port Royal, and also seized New York, on his way home, in the name of England. Tobacco began to be extensively cultivated in 1615. In Captain Argal was appointed governor in 1616, after the return of Governor Yeardly to England; but, in consequence of tyrannical conduct, he was superseded by Yeardly in 1619. that year the first colonial assembly in America was convoked, and consisted of the governor, the council, and two burgesses, elected by each of the boroughs, which then numbered eleven. They assembled in one room at JamesBut the state of things was very alarm-town, and the laws they adopted were ing; though the ships had brought out clothing and biscuit, they had not supplies of meat; the five hundred hogs left by Smith were all gone, and the Indians had driven away the deer from the forest on purpose to distress the foreigners; while the fish, though abundaut, could not be taken for the want of good nets. The governor had found plenty of hogs at Bermuda, though there were no inhabitants, and sent there for a supply; while he took other means to procure provisions, though with little success, as most of the Indians refused all assistance, and Powhatan was openly hostile. sent to England for the approbation of the company, who soon after sanctioned the acts of the Virginia legislature, but reserved the power of appointing a council of state. The laws passed by the legislature were to be ratified by the court of proprietors, and the orders of that court were to be approved by the assembly, before they could be carried into effect. The first slaves were brought into the colony in 1620, by a Dutch trading-vessel from Africa, which sailed up James river, and sold part of her cargo to the planters. Finding the climate more favorable to blacks, importations increased, and the traffic soon became extensive. To terrify this chief, Delaware cut off the hand of one of his Indians, and During the civil wars in England unsent him to threaten similar treatment der the reign of Charles I., many of his to all who should attempt to injure the opposers, after falling into his hands as colonists; and this awed the savages in-prisoners, were transported to Virginia to peace. The first exports were soon after made from the colony to England; and being only cedar and black-walnut wood and iron, instead of gold, the com and sold as slaves. This was the fact with many of the captives taken in the battles of Dunbar and Worcester, and the leaders of the insurrection of Pen ruddoc. Besides, many poor persons were induced to emigrate from England, under promises to pay their passage by subsequent labor; and these were sold to the highest bidders after their arrival, and set to work for the benefit of their purchasers. In 1620, ninety young women were sent from England to be sold for wives; and in the following year sixty more. The first sales were made for one hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco, and the last for one hundred and fifty. Measures were soon after taken for the establishment of an institution for education, which at length resulted in the foundation of William and Mary college. A dispute arose, under Sir Geo. Yeardley's government, with the king about the exportation of tobacco; and great and imminent dangers were threat ened by an Indian plot to extirpate the colonists, which was so far successful that three hundred and forty-seven persons' lives were sacrificed, and the number of settlements reduced from eighty to six. A war ensued, in which the savages suffered severely. After a prolonged contest between King James and the colony, a new charter was exchanged for the old, while he prohibited the cultivation of tobacco in England, and gave the exclusive trade in it to Virginia and the Somers islands. Charles I., on the other hand, claimed the government to himself, and forbade the vending of tobacco to any but his own agents, appointing Yeardley governor, and twelve councillors to make laws and exercise other high powers, which led to new difficulties. The authority of Cromwell was disputed as long as possible, and the majority of the people, being episcopalians and loyalists, ever remained attached to the royal party, and received from Charles II., while in exile, Sir William Berkeley as their governor. After the restoration, Berkeley introduced several aristocratic features into the government, establishing the church of England by law, pro hibiting the preaching of dissenters, depriving the poorer people of the right of suffrage, raising the salaries of officers, &c. The navigation-act was passed by parliament, by which new restrictions were laid on commerce; and Bacon's rebellion soon after broke out, which continued seven months, until the death of its ringleader, who had already succeeded in reducing Jamestown to ashes, and sustaining a rebellious government. Berkeley, with great humanity, soon reduced the colony again to quiet; but a variety of changes afterward followed, which may be passed by in a brief sketch of the history of this colony. Virginia continued attached to the royal party in England through the struggles of the following generations. The French war, in the middle of the last century, had disastrous effects on the new western settlements, which were the scenes of massacres and of several military expeditions, especially the illfated one under General Braddock. In that war, George Washington commenced that career which he pursued through the revolution with such unrivalled splendor, and with such great and beneficial effects to his country and to mankind. Says a late writer: "I look upon Washington as the peculiar gift of God to the American people: I regard him as specially raised up as our political Joshua, to guide these people across the swellings of a war-vexed revolution to the fair inheritance of freedom which lay beyond. I behold in him the devel opment of a character that has no equal in the annals of man; and I feel, therefore, that it is true, as has been stated by a distinguished nobleman of England (Lord Brougham), that, until time shall be no more, the progress of our race in wisdom and virtue will be tested by the veneration paid to the immortal name of Washington. "A review of the many dangers to which Washington was exposed from childhood, makes it clear that nothing but the watchful providence of Godkeeping him for some great end-could have protected him amid the dangers of youth, the vicissitudes of manhood, the perils of the wilderness, and the fortunes of a bloody war. "It was God who so ordered the anxious fear of his mother, as to prevent 320 DESCRIPTION OF THE STATE OF VIRGINIA. THE STATE OF NIRGINIA. Then it him out in that battle for the aim of mission, ungird his sword, and return a their sharpshooters, not a ball touched private citizen to his farms on the Pohim, and they felt that he was the par- tomac. ticular favorite of Heaven, who could never die in battle. "Indeed, in all his exposures by land and sea-in open war and covered ambush-in the masked treachery of pretended friends, and the hireling assaults of pensioned murderers, it was God who covered his head in the day of battle'-who preserved him from danger-and who checked the hands and bridled the power of those who had vowed his destruction. "The French war, which called out so large a share of his youthful prowess, and in which his military abilities shone so pre-eminent, he saw honorably closed by the defeat of his enemies and the possession of their lands. The revolution, which began in the oppressions of the British parliament, and the war which he conducted from its beginning to its end, he beheld terminated in peace; his enemies were driven from our shores; and the red cross of old England gave place to Freedom's banner, with its stars for glory and its stripes for foes. "Others had often begun to battle for the rights of their country, but ended by fighting for themselves. Others had frequently unsheathed their swords for freedom, but soon had even cloven down freedom in their march to dominion. Others had attempted to guide a nation from monarchy to republicanism; but, having once grasped the reins of power, they soon became the charioteers of their own glory, and drove with scythearmed wheels through the land they covenanted to redeem. "But Washington accepted military authority with reluctance-used it with prudence-freed a nation from its oppression-drove from it its foes-established for it perfect freedom; and then, when an admiring army and his native state would have taken him and made him their king-when applause rang loudest, and fame shone brightest, and Power threw herself a willing captive in his arms-when he was confessedly first and supreme, did he resign his com "Robertson, speaking of the abdication of Diocletian and of Charles V., remarks: To descend voluntarily from the supreme to a subordinate station, and to relinquish the possession of pow er in order to attain the enjoyment of happiness, seems to be an effort too great for the human mind.' But it was not too great an act for Washingtonhe did it but not, like the abdicating emperors, with an impaired constitution, and the infirmities of age crumbling his heart within him. He did it in the prime and vigor of life and health, resolving, in his own manly language, 'to pass the remainder of his days in honorable repose, and place his glory beyond the reach of fortune.' The Birthplace of Washington.-The house which formerly occupied this spot, and in which the hero of America was born and spent his earliest years, was destroyed before the revolution. The place is in Westmoreland, in the county of Westmoreland, half a mile from the mouth of Pope's creek. This spot, though marked only by a simple monument, must ever possess an unspeakable degree of interest to every person who loves his country and the principles of that most exalted character which was here formed and matured, under the instructions of a pure and noble-minded mother. How strongly must every visiter to that spot feel that His name is his own best monument." The plain stone, placed here by his relative, G. W. P. Custis, bears the expressive inscription: Here, on the 11th of February (O. S.), 1732, George Washington was born." The scenery around the place is very fine. The Maryland shore is in sight for a considerable distance, with the river Potomac, which flows along under the eye for many miles, on its way toward the capital. The house was of the old-fashioned kind, of wood, and twotwo stories high, with four rooms on the first floor. The following memorandum of the birth of Washington is copied from the |