Page:Pocahontas, and Other Poems.djvu/41



To those not familiar with the appearance of the Indian corn, on whose cultivation the aborigines of America relied as a principal article of subsistence, it may be well to say that a silky fibre, sometimes compared to a tassel, is protruded from the extremity of the sheath which envelopes the golden ear or sheaf of that stately and beautiful vegetable.

The ships which bore the Virginian colonists—the founders of our nation—entered the Chesapeake, April 26, 1607; and on the 13th of May, five months from the time of setting sail from England, which was December 19, 1606, a permanent embarkation was effected at Jamestown, fifty miles up that noble river, to which the name of James was given, in honour of the reigning monarch.

"The axe frequently blistered their tender fingers, so that many times, every third blow had a loud oath to drown its echo."—Hillard's Life of Captain Smith.

"Lord, bless England, our sweet native country," was the morning and evening prayer in the church at Jamestown, the first church erected in our western world.