The Jamestown Experiment (4 page)

Another critical supporter of the Virginia colony was the extraordinary merchant Sir Thomas Smythe, who had recently been knighted by the king. Smythe had participated in a number of groundbreaking overseas ventures, including the incorporation of the Turkey Company in 1584, the development and activities of the Muscovy Company in 1587, and an expedition to the East Indies in 1591 to explore the opportunities to participate in the lucrative spice trade. He was the first governor of the English East India Company. Smythe also held a number of government positions that helped him build up his connections for global voyages and trade. He was the sheriff of London, the master of customs, an ambassador to Russia, and a member of Parliament. There were few men whose support was so critical for winning the support of the Crown and private investors for a colony. Other powerful and influential men in the government also lent indispensable support for Gosnold’s vision.

Any North American colony needed to have official royal sanction, although James would not provide any financial backing, just as Elizabeth had not. Sir John Popham, lord chief justice of the King’s Bench, and the king’s first minister, Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, were prime movers in winning government permission to settle in American and in assembling the necessary wealthy investors among the merchants of London, Plymouth, and Bristol. Smith would later describe the relationships that were forged and proclaimed, “Nothing could be effected” without “certain of the nobility, gentry, and merchants.” In the summer of 1605 the various interests came together and discussed their purposes and means of achieving them where many other Englishmen had failed.
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On April 10, 1606, Popham and Cecil persuaded the government
to grant a patent, or royal charter, establishing two companies to colonize the territory called Virginia, “which are not now actually possessed by any Christian prince or people.”
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The king did not wish to see any conflict with a European power over contested lands. The Plymouth Colony would settle in the northern part of Virginia from thirty-eight degrees to forty-five degrees latitude. It generally comprised merchants from the West Country cities of Exeter, Bristol, and Plymouth.

The Virginia Company would consist of “certain knights, gentlemen, merchants, and other adventurers of our city of London and elsewhere.”
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They would be allowed to plant a colony between thirty-four and forty-one degrees latitude. Both companies were allowed to settle within a hundred miles of the coast.

A Virginia Council of thirteen important investors appointed by the king was to direct both companies from London. The colonies would have a local council to administer the government locally, but the Virginia Council would manage the general affairs of the companies and instruct them on the proper policies to implement in North America. The patent included protecting the rights of Englishmen “as if they had been abiding and born within this our realm of England,” when they traveled to settle in distant lands.
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The Englishmen were charged with carrying the Protestant faith to the native peoples, who were said to be living “in darkness and miserable ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God.”
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The council directed the settlers to set up their colonies inland and to erect fortifications to defend against competing nations, such as Spain. Most important, the economic grounds of the colonies were laid when the company was granted rights to all the “lands, woods, soil, grounds, havens, ports, rivers, mines, minerals, marshes, water, fishing, [and] commodities.”
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No other subjects would be granted a competing patent that would violate this monopoly. The king also
authorized the colonists to “dig, mine, and search for all manner of mines of gold, silver and copper,” with the only caveat that the Crown was to receive a fifth of the gold and silver and a fifteenth of the copper.
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The king also prohibited the colonists from trading with any other country, thereby enforcing an early expression of the idea of mercantilism: colonies existed solely for the good of the mother country and were limited to providing raw materials and trading with it.

The gentlemen adventurers won the royal patent and organized the complicated venture rather quickly. First, ships and sailors were found to traverse the Atlantic with the colonists. Tons of supplies were bought and loaded for the lengthy four-month voyage and to support the colonists while they planted crops. Prospective hardy adventurers, including many who had seen military service, were persuaded to risk settling in unexplored areas of North America. A variety of tradesmen were hired in London and other cities.

Through the raw days of November, the last-minute preparations moved forward at a rapid pace. Three ships were moored at the docks along the Thames at Ratcliff Cross some four miles upriver from Blackwall and were taking on supplies. The merchant flagship
Susan Constant
was some 120 tons and measured 116 feet. She carried cannon to defend herself against any Spanish marauders on the high seas. The
Godspeed
was half the tonnage of her sister ship but would carry more than fifty men and tons of supplies. The third ship in the small fleet was the
Discovery,
a pinnace that was rightly named, for it was small enough, at 20 tons, to navigate Virginia’s rivers on voyages of discovery.

During the night of November 23 an accident damaged the
Susan Constant
while it lay in its berth, fully loaded with supplies. The
Philip and Frances
was a mostly empty ship of 100 tons, and
some of her young sailors had too much cable out. The more experienced sailors on the
Susan Constant
warned them to correct the problem, but the youths ignored them. The
Philip and Frances
was swept by the ebb tide and crashed into the
Susan Constant.
Four carpenters were hired and worked for three days to make the necessary repairs to the ship. By December 10 the Virginia Council reported that the ships “are now ready, victualed, rigged, and furnished for the said voyage.”
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While the ships were busily readied in late November and early December, the Virginia Council issued a set of formal instructions to the leadership for governing the colony as well as some practical advice. They were prudent measures aimed at preserving law and order in the colony and instituted the English constitutional system of liberty. A colonial council was authorized to govern locally, according to the common law, and had to make laws that were consistent with the laws of England. The president was limited to a one-year term. An additional safeguard against any abuse of power was the empowering of the council “upon any just cause…to remove the president or any other of that council.”
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The constitutional security against tyranny was an English trait and was a wise precaution for the distant settlement. But there was a potential problem with the directive. If there were disputes among the proud and competitive gentlemen adventurers, the power of removal could be used as a weapon to settle personal differences and grievances. The resulting misuse of the instruction and cancerous destruction of the leadership could theoretically cause more trouble for the enterprise than an overbearing president.

In an unwise move that caused much confusion in the highest ranks of the colony, the instructions were sealed with the names of those who were appointed to be leaders with the directive that the packet was not to be opened until “four and twenty hours next
after the said ships shall arrive upon the said coast of Virginia.” For the duration of the voyage, the admiral of the fleet, Christopher Newport, was quite reasonably to have “sole charge and command.” But the members of the colonial council did not have the opportunity to offer their vision of leadership to the settlers or win over their allegiance. The restriction also prohibited any personality conflicts from being settled in the relative calm of the taverns and homes of London under the oversight of the Virginia Council, rather than amid the chaos of erecting the colony. The leadership of such a great undertaking across the Atlantic was startlingly secret to the people who were risking their lives in a largely unknown land.

The Virginia Council additionally laid down a general criminal code and jury system for the colony alternatively regulating behavior and protecting the rights of the settlers. “Tumults, rebellion, conspiracies, mutiny, and seditions…together with murder, manslaughter, incest, rapes, and adulteries” comprised the list of crimes that warranted the death penalty. The English settlers were entitled to having “twelve persons so returned and sworn [who] shall according to their evidence…be given unto them upon oath, and according to the truth in their consciences either convict or acquit ever of the said persons so to be accused and tried by them.” Trial by jury was an ancient right of Englishmen, but whether it would always be applied fairly or merely receive lip service remained to be seen when the colonists were in America.
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The council also enumerated a list of lesser offenses that would receive a milder punishment. The range of penalties included “reasonable corporal punishment and imprisonment, or else by a convenient fine, awarding damages, or other satisfaction to ye party grieved.” The misdemeanors incorporated a number of moral offenses in the attempt to regulate personal behavior for the common good. Drunkenness, idleness, loitering, and
vagrancy were acts contrary to the survival of the colony and would be punished.
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The council also gave some practical instructions on what the settlers were to do once they landed. The commands were guided by the objectives of what the investors and planners were attempting to achieve. Although what they directed made general sense, it also denied the settlers some flexibility in adapting to events as they happened in Virginia.

The first piece of advice was to choose a site for the colony by sailing up a navigable river. The river should offer the most favorable opportunity to find the Northwest Passage to the “other sea” (the Pacific) to control the China trade through a shorter route to the west. It should also be the “most fertile and wholesome place.” Another critically important consideration was that the location must be defensible against the Spanish enemy. The council mentioned the example of the destruction of the French colonies in Florida as proof against settling on the coast and offering an inviting target of plunder.

Once the colonists landed, they were to divide the men into teams to fulfill the mission of settlement. Forty of them were to build a common storehouse for their supplies. Thirty were to be employed in tilling the soil and sowing crops of corn to feed the settlers. There would thus be a communal character to the survival of the colony rather than individual initiative to spur on hard work. “First build your storehouse and those other rooms of public and necessary use before any house be set up for any private person and though the workman may belong to any private persons yet let them all work together first for the company and then for private men,” the instructions noted. Captains Newport and Gosnold were to take another forty on a voyage of discovery armed with pickaxes to “find any mineral,” whether gold, silver, or copper. Besides the search
for great wealth, the hunt for a river stretching across the American continent to the “East India Sea” was part of the quest for unlimited riches, especially if they could find the legendary cities of gold and control the fabled passage.

The individuals of the council were acutely interested in protecting their investment and promoting Virginia among other prospective investors. They desired news of the commodities, soil, woods, and other sources of wealth to “advertise” the English colony in Virginia. But they were not terribly interested in any honest appraisal that might damage the perception of the venture in England, warning the leaders to “suffer no man to…write any letter of anything that may discourage others.” Since their fortunes and the glory of England were invested in the colony, the council only wanted to publicize favorable news about the great successes in North America.

The council addressed the anticipated military and economic aspects of Indian relations. The primary consideration, before friendly relations were established and trust built, was to be wary of the Indians and carefully construct the defenses against possible aggressive actions. The colonists were to clear the trees on the land surrounding their town to deny the local peoples cover to launch an attack. Moreover, the colonists were not to expose their numbers of sick or dead, lest they give the Indians encouragement to attack. Only the best marksmen should handle weapons, “for if they see your learners miss what they aim at they will think the weapons not so terrible and thereby will be bold.”

Once the security of the colony was guaranteed, the settlers were ordered to trade with the Indians, who could also be a great source of local knowledge about the search for gold and the Northwest Passage. The colonists must take “great care not to offend the naturals if you can eschew it,” treating them justly and charitably. The
English believed in their own propaganda about the Spanish lie— the supposed mistreatment and slaughter of millions of Indians by the Spanish—and wished to avoid repeating the crime. Thus, the Indians would be receptive to the Protestant missions to “draw the savages and heathen people…to the true service and knowledge of God.”

Although there were flaws in the planning, the members of the Virginia Council did the best they could to anticipate the conditions the settlers would face and instruct them in the vision of the investors. Now it was up to 107 brave souls to journey across three thousand miles of ocean into a virtually unknown land. Not every problem could be foreseen, nor would the wealthy investors have much to offer to fight the daily struggles to survive. The adventurers would have to adapt to circumstances and find innovative solutions to difficulties. They would also have to cooperate in pursuing their goals if they were to successfully plant a permanent English colony in North America.