Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/59

] foolish enough to carry back to England a cargo of worthless earth which covetous and greedy eyes had magnified into sands full of gold. Little satisfied with such egregious folly, Smith now undertook, in an open barge of three tons' burden, the exploration of the vast Bay of the Chesapeake. The event was more answerable to his anticipations, than to the very limited means at his command. During three months he visited all the countries on the eastern and western shores, explored the Patapsco, the Potomac, and others of the great tributaries that swell that magnificent basin, trading with friendly tribes, fighting with those hostile, observing the nature and productions of their territories, and leaving behind him, by the exercise of ready fact and dauntless intrepidity, unstained by a single act of cruelty, a high impression of the valor and nobleness of the English character. After sailing in two successive cruises above three thousand miles, in contending with hardship and peril, and the discouragement of his companions, whose complaints he humorously silenced by a reference to the expedition of Lane, and the "dogge's porridge" to which he had been reduced, he succeeded in bringing back to Jamestown an account of the regions bordering on the Chesapeake, with a map that long served as the basis of subsequent delineations.

A few days after his return, Smith was made president of the council, and speedily infused vigor and activity into the whole administration of the colony. Seventy new emigrants, two of them females, arrived, but as before, they were quite unsuitable in character for the benefit of the settlement: "When you send again," Smith wrote home, "I entreat you rather send but thirty carpenters, husbandmen, gardeners, fishermen, blacksmiths, masons, and diggers up of trees' roots, well provided, than a thousand of such as we have." But he was equal to the emergency, and his firmness never gave way; despite all difficulties, he enforced order and industry among the colonists.

The London Company, chagrined at its failure of acquiring sudden wealth, readily agreed to a change in its constitution. The king made over to the Company the powers which he had reserved to himself; the supreme council was to be chosen by the stockholders themselves, and in the exercise of the powers of legislation and government was independent of the king. The limits of the colony were extended, and many of the nobility and gentry, as well as tradesmen of London, became associates in the Company. The Council thus empowered to establish what laws they deemed best for the colony, and to send out a governor to execute them, obtained absolute control over the lives, liberty, and fortunes of the colonists. There seemed now reasonable hope of at least a firm and effective administration of the affairs of the colony. The first act of the new council was to. appoint Lord Delaware, whose virtues adorned his rank, as Governor and Captain-general of the colony. Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers were authorized to administer its affairs until his arrival.