Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/66

 had not proved profitable to the Company; although it had taken deep root, and promised great results in the future. Sir Francis Wyatt superseded Yeardley as governor, and was "instructed, beside restricting the amount of tobacco which each planter might raise, to cultivate the good will of the natives. But unhappily it was too late, and a fearful visitation fell upon the colony in consequence.

The aged Powhatan was dead. Opechancanough, his successor, a bold and cunning chief, had bided his time, and in profound secrecy he arranged and matured a scheme for an universal massacre of the whites. The Indians had been treated with contempt, as enemies of no moment; military exercises had gone into desuetude; and the Indians had gradually become as dexterous as the colonists in the use of fire-arms. On the 22d of March, at a given signal, in the midst of apparent security, they fell upon every settlement; men, women, and children were slaughtered without mercy; and had not a converted Indian, named Chanco, given warning the night before, the extent of the massacre must have been nearly universal. As it was, three hundred and fifty persons perished, including six of the Council. "And thus," says a contemporary, quoted by old Purchas, "the rest of the colony, that had warning given them, by this means was saved. Such was—God be thanked for it—the good fruit of an infidel converted to Christianity; for though three hundred and more of ours died by many of these pagan infidels, yet thousands of our were saved by the means of one of them alone, which was made a Christian."

A savage war of retaliation and extermination ensued. Sickness and famine, too, came upon them, and within a brief period the colonists were reduced from four thousand to twenty-five hundred. But the white men soon regained their wonted superiority over the red race, and the Indians, entrapped by lying promises of security and immunity, were slain without mercy: this state of warfare continued for about fourteen years.

The colonists, by the terms of the charter, were not much better than indented servants to the Company, who, notwithstanding the privileges they had granted, still retained the supreme direction of affairs. Their policy was narrow, timid, and fluctuating; and its unfortunate result led to dissensions, in which political, even more than commercial, questions, soon became the subject of eager dispute. In England the ministerial faction eagerly endeavored to fortify itself by gaining adherents among the Virginia Company, but the great majority were determined to assert the rights and liberties of the subject at home, as well as of the colonists abroad. A freedom of discussion on political matters in general was thus generated, which was regarded by the asserters of royal prerogative, as being of highly dangerous