During her stay at Jamestown, her beauty, her artless simplicity, and those graces of manner which ever accompany dignity of mind and innocence of heart, won the affections of Mr. Rolfe, a young and respectable planter. He succeeded in producing a reciprocal attachment. They were married with the consent of Powhatan. The consequence of this marriage was peace with her father, and with all the tribes that stood in awe of his power.

Rolfe and his princess made a voyage to England, where she was received by the king and queen with the attention due to her rank. For her virtues, and her disinterested services, she was universally beloved and respected. She died when about to return to America, leaving one son, from whom are descended some of the most respectable families in Virginia.

In 1613, Captain Argal was sent, with a naval force, to drive the French from the settlements they had begun in Acadia, which were considered to be within the limits of North Virginia. He accomplished the object of the expedition, and, when returning, visited a Dutch trading establishment on Hudson's river, which was also within the same limits. The governor, too feeble to resist, acknowledged himself subject to the king of England.

The king, in his instructions given at the time of the first emigration to Jamestown, directed that all the land should be owned in common, and that the produce of the labour of all should be deposited in the public stores. In such circumstances no one would labour with the same steadiness and animation as if he, and he alone, was to pos

sess and enjoy the fruit of his industry. A different regulation was now adopted. To each inha

bitant, three acres of land were assigned in full property, and he was permitted to employ, in the cultivation of it, a certain portion of his time. The effects of this alteration were immediately visible, and demonstrated so clearly its wisdom, that soon after another assignment of fifty acres was made; and the plan of working in a common field, to fill the public stores, was entirely abandoned.

Since the year 1611, the colony had been governed by martial law, which was administered, by Deputy Governor Argal, with so much rigour as to excite universal discontent. The council in England, listening to the complaints of the Virginians, appointed Mr. Yeardly governor, and instructed him to inquire into and redress their wrongs.

He arrived in April, 1619, and immediately, to the great joy of the inhabitants, called a general assembly of the colony. It met at Jamestown, on the 19th of June, and was composed of delegates from the boroughs, then amounting to seven. They, the governor and the council, sat and deliberated in the same apartments, and acted as one body.

Emigrants continued to arrive frequently from England, but nearly all were men, who came for the purpose of obtaining wealth, and intended eventually to return. With such views, they were evidently less useful to the colony than if they should be induced to regard it as their home, and as the abode of their posterity. To produce this desirable attachment to the country, ninety girls,

young and uncorrupt, were sent over in the year 1620, and sixty more in the subsequent year, and immediately sold to the young planters as wives. The price was at first one hundred, and afterwards one hundred and fifty, pounds of tobacco, then selling at three shillings the pound: and it was ordained, that debts contracted for wives, should be paid in preference to all others.

About the same time, another measure, of a different character, was adopted. The company were ordered by the king to transport to Virginia one hundred idle and dissolute persons, then in custody for their offences. They were distributed through the colony, and employed as labourers.

A Dutch vessel also brought into James river twenty Africans, who were immediately purchased as slaves. This was the commencement, in the English American colonies, of a traffic abhorrent to humanity, disgraceful to civilization, and fixing the foulest stain upon the character of the age and people.

The colony was now in the full tide of prosperity. Its numbers had greatly increased, and its settlements were widely extended. At peace with the Indians, it reposed in perfect security, and enjoyed without alloy all the happiness which its fortunate situation and favourable prospects afforded. It was doomed to experience a reverse of fortune, sudden, distressing, and terrible.

Powhatan, the friend of the English, was dead. Opecancanough, a chief endowed with all those qualities which give rank and reputation to an Indian warrior, had succeeded him in his influence and power; but he was the secret and implacable

enemy of the whites. By his art and eloquence he united all the neighbouring tribes in the horrible design of destroying every man, woman, and child in the English settlements.

The plan was concerted and matured with all the secrecy and dissimulation which characterize the savages. While intent on their plot, they visited the settlements, lodged in the houses, bought arms of the English, and even borrowed their boats to enable them to accomplish their barbarous purpose.

On the evening before the fatal day they brought them presents of game; and the next morning came freely among them, behaving as usual. Suddenly, precisely at mid-day, the blow fell, at the same instant, upon the unsuspecting settlers and three hundred and forty-seven men, women, and children, were victims to savage treachery and cruelty.

The massacre would have been more extensive had not a domestic Indian, residing in one of the villages, revealed the plot to his master, whom he had been solicited to murder. Information was instantly given to some of the nearest settlements, and just in time to save them from the calamity which fell upon the others.

The horrid spectacle before them roused the English from repose to vengeance. A vindictive and exterminating war succeeded. The whites were victorious, destroying many of their enemies, and obliging the remainder to retire far into the wilderness. But their own number melted away before the miseries of war; their settlements

were reduced from eighty to eight, and famine again visited them with its afflicting scourge. In 1624, out of nine thousand persons who had been sent from England, but eighteen hundred existed in the colony.

These continual misfortunes attracted the attention of King James. He revoked the charter which he had granted, and committed the management of all the affairs of the colony to a governor and twelve counsellors, who were to be appointed by the king, and to be guided by his instructions. Of these instructions, those concerning tobacco, the principal article exported from the colony, may be taken as a sample; it was ordained that those who raised it should not themselves be permitted to dispose of it, but should export it to England, and deliver it to certain designated agents; and they alone were authorized to sell it.

Under such arbitrary regulations, the people lived and suffered until the year 1636, when Sir John Harvey held the office of governor. He was haughty, rapacious, unfeeling, and fitted by his disposition to exercise power in the true spirit of his instructions. Inflamed to madness by his oppressions, the Virginians in a fit of popular rage seized and sent him a prisoner to England. At the same time they despatched two deputies, charged to represent the grievances of the colony and the governor's misconduct.

Charles the First, who was then king, indignant at the violent proceeding, received the deputies sternly, and sent back the governor, invested with all his former powers. He was, however, in