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Bad to worse …

There were two opposing groups, with different interests in Jamestown. Newport represented the London Company, which wanted to find a “get rich quick” scheme. John Smith represented the colonists, who needed to be able to survive in the wilderness. In 1608, the two repeatedly clashed, with devastating results for the colonists.

John Smith and Mosco

I mentioned John Smith’s voyage around Masawomeck and Monican territory in the show, and said you could come here and learn some more about what happened.

Here’s a link to John Smith’s account of the voyage.

To summarize, though:

Once again, Smith accompanied Nelson’s vessel to Cape Comfort, and went on to explore. This time, he took fifteen men, including Scrivener, the company’s Doctor Walter Russel and Reed, the Blacksmith whose revelations had led to Kendall’s execution. This time, he was looking for other tribes that may be hostile to the Powhatan, including the Massawomac and Manoan. This trip ends up being a relatively positive one.

When they encountered a village experiencing a deadly illness outbreak, Russel managed to give them medicine that helped alleviate it. This increased goodwill in the area. Soon, they were joined by an Indian named Mosco, whose friendliness and full beard made Smith suspect he was a Frenchman’s son.

When they saw some warriors emerge from the trees, ready to attack, Smith shot his gun into the water to intimidate them, and it worked. The company soon learned that they had been sent by Wahunsenaca at Ratcliffe’s encouragement. Ratcliffe had told Wahunsenaca about the factions among the settlers, and evidently indicated that the Powhatan could benefit more from English relations with Smith out of the way. The attack dispersed, they continued their exploration, and Mosco led them to a mine where they gathered the minerals used to paint some of their “idols.”

Russel’s medicine was useful again when Smith nearly died from a ray sting while trying to catch fish with a sword.

After this encounter, they briefly returned to Jamestown, where colonists begged Smith to depose Ratcliffe, who had been treating them cruelly, and had been putting them to work building a governor’s mansion. Smith did depose Ratcliffe and put Scrivener in charge before heading out to explore again.

It wasn’t long before they reunited with Mosco, who warned them not to visit the Toppahannocs anymore. The Toppahannocs were ready to kill the English for befriending the Moraughtacunds. Hearing this news, John Smith of course headed straight for Toppahannoc. They attacked, he threatened to destroy their village if they didn’t agree to trade corn for beads and metal, they agreed, and Smith returned victorious to the Moraughtacunds.

When a group of warriors appeared ready to attack him and his crew, he bluffed his way out of a confrontation. He ordered each of his men to hold up two helmets and two guns. Confrontation averted, he learned that these were the Maraughtacunds, and that they were on edge because the Rappahannoc chief had stolen three of their women. After trading a little bit, Smith’s company encountered the Massawomeck, who immediately attacked. They fought back and dispersed the fighters, capturing an injured soldier and dressing his wound. When Mosco interrogated him, he said the Massawomec had attacked because they were told that the English were “a people coming from under the world to take their world from them.”

He proceeded to give them the most detailed information yet on the Indians to the South. Entering Rappahannoc, Smith threatened the local chief and demanded his bow and arrow, and his son. The chief responded with an invitation to meet, and brought the three stolen women to the meeting instead of his son. Smith told the chief he had defeated the Massawomacs and taken their weapons, and the Rappahannocs were impressed.

Smith gave each of the women a necklace, and told the Maraughtacund chief to select which one he loved the most, and then the Rappahannoc chief, and finally Mosco.

At this point, Mosco left, promising his people “ever to be their friends, and to plant corn purposefully for them,” and telling the English he would change his name to Otesantesua, which was derived for Otesantesuac, which meant wearer of leg coverings, and which was the term the Powhatan used to refer to Europeans. They never heard from him again.

Transcript

When Newport had left in August, Jamestown seemed to be in relatively good shape. Four and a half months later, he returned to find nearly two thirds of the colonists dead, the deposed president of the council under arrest, one member of the council shot, and one about to be hanged. The leading gentry had decided to desert the colony, and they hadn’t discovered or produced anything remotely valuable.

But, believe it or not, this episode is going to be about how the Virginia Company came in and messed everything up.

Introduction

Newport had brought a hundred men, including Gosnold’s brother, Anthony, and lots of supplies. Even more were on his companion ship, commanded by Francis Nelson, which had been lost in the fog as they’d approached Virginia. He put the settlers to work building a storehouse, kitchen and church.

He also stripped Smith of the title of Cape Merchant and gave it to a newcomer. This weakened Smith’s control over relations with the Indians, which Smith obviously didn’t like, but which some of the colonists did, uncomfortable with some of his rougher tactics. He also put Martin in charge of finding a sample of gold-bearing earth to take back to England.

Newly added to the council was a man named Matthew Scrivner. We don’t know much about him, but he was related to Edward Maria Wingfield by marriage, and had the rare quality of being held in high regard by everyone. He was considered understanding and wise beyond his years, and quickly became a very trusted member of the colony’s leadership. Percy was still excluded, despite the council’s lack of numbers.

There were plenty of spies and saboteurs running around Jamestown, and the colony experienced its fair share of bad luck too. Thanks to one or the other, as they were able to find more of it as soon as everything was built and most of the supplies had been unloaded from the ships, a stray spark burned the entire settlement to the ground. All the buildings, all the clothes, most of the food, and luxuries like Hunt’s books. Virtually the only thing that had escaped was a mattress one colonist had brought that was considered the single lowest priority item to unload from the ships. Ratcliffe’s hand was also badly hurt with the injury similar to auto accident injury in a shooting accident, and he wouldn’t heal for months. He was not in a time and position to claim for injury compensation in Weschester County. It was the first year of January, hope turned to despair, and Smith distracted the company with tales of his adventures.

Fortunately, Wahunsenaca began sending biweekly gifts of food to the colonists, as well as raccoon hides for Newport, which he was told he could share with his son, John Smith. Pocahontas led each envoy as a peace symbol. In part thanks to Smith’s story, the English interpreted this as her defying her father. Just an interesting example of cultural misunderstanding.

It didn’t make a difference, though, and Smith and Newport soon left Jamestown to go visit Wahunsenaca at Werowocomoco. They left Jamestown in the hands of Ratcliffe and Martin, and took Scrivener, Gosnold and Tindall, as well as some others, to the Powhatan capital.

This was a very important meeting that would ultimately mark the end of English/Powhatan relations. Remember that Smith and Wahunsenaca were both playing a game. They both had stuff they wanted from the other – Wahunsenaca wanted guns and Smith wanted corn, and they both saw the other as a potentially dangerous enemy. So, they were both following the same principles: be as nice as you can, be as harsh as you have to, and never show weakness. Like Machiavelli said, if you have to choose, it’s better to be feared than loved.

Newport didn’t adhere to this. He wasn’t looking at the long-term stability of the colony like Smith was. His motivation was getting rich, fast. This was partially self serving, because he did get a portion of whatever was found, unlike Smith and the colonists. Newport also had to answer directly to the London Company. Every time he returned, the first thing he had to do was give an account for the mission, and when he’d returned last time, the lack of gold had caused a panic among the shareholders. No money, no mission. To get money, Newport wanted to present as little of a threat as possible, and do nothing that could possibly irritate the Powhatan. He wasn’t authorized to give them weapons, but short of that, he would submit himself to Wahunsenaca in every way, in hopes of making the leader feel comfortable giving him the information he wanted.

So, Smith went ahead to prevent an ambush, and presented the gifts brought for Wahunsenaca – a red suit, a white greyhound, a hat and some jewels. The leader was pleased, and declared a perpetual league and friendship with the English.

He asked Smith and his men to lay down their arms at his feet, like his subjects did, and Smith refused, saying the English considered that a gesture demanded by enemies, not friends. But, to prove their friendship, he promised to use these weapons in service of the Powhatan, and to give the leader one of Newport’s other children – Thomas Savage, the 13 year old son of an aristocratic family.

Good enough! Wahunsenaca sent Namontoc, Archer’s friend, to live with the English in exchange for Savage, and asked to meet Newport and negotiate trade, so Newport came, and this is where things went wrong.

When Wahunsenaca asked to see the items he’d be trading for, Smith told Newport to refuse. He said the Powhatan leader was trying to lower the price of the items, but Newport didn’t want to do anything to irk him, so Newport agreed to the request. The result was that they ended up with about a fifth of the amount of corn they’d expected and permanently cheapened the value of English copper. He’d also put the English in the position of weakness that Smith had tried so hard to avoid, even as a prisoner.

To make matters worse, Newport’s crew had yet-again stolen the company’s goods for their own profit. This time, they had eaten most of the remaining food raised for the settlers. They were trading the remaining goods directly with the Indians, which caused rampant inflation within the colony. A pound of copper was no longer enough to buy what had previously been bought for an ounce. At this inflated rate, they’d gotten enough corn to last a couple months.

When they returned, Newport also ordered people to look for gold instead of rebuilding the fort, yet again dismaying Smith. He complained that Ratcliffe, Martin and the refiners had turned the men into slaves. Martin specifically excluded Smith from this venture, and accused him of being motivated by the desire to find the gold himself.

On April 10, 1608, Newport’s First Supply left Jamestown. It left the colonists in a worse position than it found them. They had little food, no buildings, not much to keep them warm, a decreased ability to negotiate for the things they needed, and a mattress.

Newport was carrying more supposed ore, demanded by Cecil and the Virginia Company. His ship also carried a request by John Smith for some Poles and Germans to be recruited to the company. Namontoc was on board, heading to England to learn more about their culture. So was Wingfield.

Wingfield would never return to Jamestown. In London, as news of the faction fighting spread, he took the opportunity to put forward his own side of the story with his own accusations. He said that Smith was unfit for the title of a gentleman, that he’d begged in Ireland like a rogue, that Martin was lazy and had used his illness as an excuse to avoid leaving the fort, and that the only two times he had left the fort he’d stayed within a couple hundred yards. He said Smith, Martin and Ratcliffe were trying to overthrow the king’s government and establish a triumvirate for their own greed. Again, the accusations all likely had their roots in truth, and many of the colonists reiterated Wingfield’s complaints about Martin, including a servant he himself had brought to Virginia. The London Company ignored both sets of accusations, but the infighting didn’t look good to investors.

A few weeks after Newport left, Francis Nelson’s ship, that had been lost in the fog, arrived. Unlike Newport’s disastrous visit, Nelson really did bring everything the settlers could have wished for. His sailors were honest, he brought supplies, and he was just a very decent person. Even Smith loved him. He’d also brought enough supplies to get the colonists through the next six months as their crops grew.

Nelson was just a hired captain. He had his commission, and he had his payment. He wasn’t given leadership in the colony, or any incentives to go looking for precious metal, and in fact, when Smith asked Nelson to help him explore the falls, Nelson refused.

Without Newport pushing them to try to find gold, the question arose of what they should actually send back to London on Nelson’s ship. Ratcliffe wanted to send him back with yet-more ore samples.

Smith, on the other hand, realized at this point that the chances of paying off investors with riches like gold or copper were slim. Virginia wasn’t Mexico. It was, however, a land full of lots of commodities that the British found hard to produce. The wooded areas of England had shrunk, so everything that could be produced from timber would be at least moderately valuable, and very reliable. Cedar could be used to build ships, and colonists could also process pitch, tar and potash from wood. Even firewood had become expensive enough in England that many couldn’t afford it. Wood was also necessary to fuel the fires that enabled glass production, so glass was becoming harder to produce in England, too. Virginia’s lush forests could supply those needs. England had been importing most of its wood products from Central Europe, which is one reason Smith had requested some Poles be recruited. Poles also knew how to build decent wood houses, which was a skill the English lacked.

Smith and Scrivener also put the colonists to work rebuilding the town. Things were starting to improve, overall, except for the fact that colonists were repeatedly finding their tools, especially hatchets, going missing. Smith started to worry that this was an act of sedition on behalf of Wahunsenaca, and when the colonists put the thieves in the stocks for a little while to try to deter them, it didn’t work, and Smith’s suspicions intensified.

A few days later, he and Scrivener were confronted outside of the fort by two Indians who threatened to beat them, and who then followed them into the fort, where they were joined by two well-armed companions. Smith and Scrivener took the four prisoners, and when emissaries came to ask for the release of the captives, Smith demanded the return of all weapons that had been stolen. He also learned that two Englishmen had been taken hostage, and launched raids up and down the Chicahominie until the two prisoners were released.

The council asked Smith to interrogate the Indians about the motivation behind the thefts. He moved the four captives into a small room, and brought them out of the room one by one to interrogate them. At the end of each interrogation, he shot off a gun so that the captives thought he was executing them one-by-one.

The tactic worked, and the captives told Smith that the Paspaheigh and Chicahominie hated the English, and had been planning to ambush and rob them, but that Wahunsenaca had stopped them from attacking so blatantly, convincing them to steal by stealth instead of ambush. They also said Wahunsenaca was planning to lure Newport into a trap and attack the settlement. Smith, who had always suspected that the Indians hated the English, was convinced this was true. The other settlers weren’t as sure, and the council also berated Smith for his brutal tactics, worried that he might provoke an all-out attack, from which the settlement was in no position to defend itself.

Pocahontas, however, soon arrived at the fort again, with a companion that reassured the English of the Powhatan’s friendship. He assured the English that the attacks were nothing more than the independent actions of some rash captains, and brought a gift from Opechancanough, as an assurance. Smith responded to the friendly gesture with a friendly gesture, and after having the prisoners attend a sermon in Hunt’s church, he handed them over to Pocahontas. This was one of the last sermons Hunt ever gave, and he died shortly afterward.

The time had come for Nelson to leave, taking a cargo of cedar with him, as well as John Martin. Smith sent his description of Virginia with Nelson, too. This document was intended to help raise interest in the company, and therefore attract investors. It was also this document that inspired Hudson to go on the voyage where he found the river that’s now named after him, as well as Manhattan Island. Ratcliffe also sent along a document, but this one was addressed personally to Cecil, and described the infighting and his attempts to create a separate town. He blamed Smith for the infighting.

Smith accompanied Nelson’s vessel to Cape Comfort, and went on to explore. He took fifteen men, including Scrivener, the company’s Doctor Walter Russel and Reed, the Blacksmith whose revelations had led to Kendall’s execution. This time, he was looking for other tribes that may be hostile to the Powhatan, including the Massawomac and Manoan. The trip ended up being a relatively positive one.

When they saw some warriors emerge from the trees, ready to attack, Smith shot his gun into the water to intimidate them, and it worked. The company soon learned that they had been sent by Wahunsenaca at Ratcliffe’s encouragement. Ratcliffe had told Wahunsenaca about the factions among the settlers, and evidently indicated that the Powhatan could benefit more from English relations with Smith out of the way. The attack was dispersed, though, and they continued their exploration, and Mosco led them to a mine where they gathered the minerals used to paint some of their idols.

Russel’s medicine was useful again when Smith nearly died from a ray sting while trying to catch fish with a sword.

After this encounter, they briefly returned to Jamestown, where colonists begged Smith to depose Ratcliffe, who had been treating them cruelly, and had ordered them to build a governor’s mansion to the exclusion of more productive endeavors. Smith did depose Ratcliff and put Scrivener in charge before heading out to explore again.

This round of exploration is a fascinating one, but I won’t go into too much detail about it. You can read more about it on the website or facebook page, but I don’t want to distract from the overall narrative here with something that could easily be its own episode. They met with Mosco again, and suffice it to say that it was mostly peaceful, and that Smith really engaged, almost as a member of Indian society. He participated in their diplomacy, he bluffed his way out of confrontation. He got the most detailed information yet on the people who inhabited the lands South of the Chesapeake.

The two most noteworthy events, though, were when they dispersed an attempted Massawomeck attack and captured an injured soldier, who said they’d attacked because they had been told the English were “a people coming from under the world to take their world from them.”

Mosco also left, promising that his people would always be the friends of the English, and that they would plant corn purposefully for them, and that he was going to change his name to “Otesantesua,” which meant “wearer of leg coverings,” and was derived from the term the Powhatan used to refer to Europeans. They never heard from him again, though.

When they return, Jamestown, yet again, was on the brink of collapse. Illness had swept through the camp, and many were dead, some were sick, and Scrivener had just recovered. Provisions had been spoiled by rain, and no preparation had been made for the new arrivals they were expecting.

Two newcomers, Thomas Webb and Hugh Price, had joined Ratcliffe at the heart of the conflict. Like Ratcliffe and Kendall, Webb had clearly been sent by Cecil, and was similarly mysterious. Price was also connected to Cecil, having come to know him when he helped put down the Essex rebellion. Interestingly, it was Price who had reported Gosnold’s anti-James talk at the dinner table, the incident that got him removed from the company’s paperwork. We’ll probably never know exactly what Cecil was up to, but the impact of his actions was disfiguring the government at Jamestown and yet again driving the colony to ruin.

Fortunately, Ratcliffe’s tenure expired around this time, and Smith was easily elected president of the council. He abandoned Ratcliffe’s governor’s mansion project, and started work on a storehouse and sprucing up the church, as well as rebuilding the palisade in the recommended five sided design. He sent Percy to trade for corn, and made everyone in the colony do regular military exercises.

Smith can’t have been particularly pleased to see Newport arrive just as he’d started the process he felt would stabilize the colony. Newport had brought seventy more settlers, including the requested Poles and Germans, and the first two women to settle at Jamestown, one the wife and one the maid of a new settler. This new settler was someone at whose house John Sicklemore had preached, and who was fleeing a murder accusation. Also on board were two men named Waldo and Wynn, who were to serve on the council and who were clearly replacements for Kendall, which means they were either spying for Cecil or the Spanish. Wynn’s name had turned up in the Gunpowder Plot investigation at about the same time as Ratcliffe’s. Namontac had also returned. On his English visit, he had visited the king, as well as Percy’s brother, who was still in the Tower, and his cellmate, Walter Raleigh, as well as various other members of London’s intellectual and exploration-minded elite. Finally, there was Francis West, the 22 year old nephew of the Privy Councilor Thomas West, Lord Delaware.

Once again, the Virginia Company had been stingy with its provisions, this time not even sending adequate supplies for the new settlers it had sent. Of the supplies they had sent, many were novelties the settlers had no use for. And once again, Newport took over the colony and ordered people to search for sources of extravagant wealth instead of following Smith’s recommendation of building up reliable commodities like pitch, tar and glass.

In addition, the London Company had started a new experiment, and one which it would toy with on and off through the next few years. To recruit new settlers while building the public reputation of the colony, the Company had gone to various parishes in London and offered to take their less desirable citizens off their hands. So now, instead of just having to deal with political intrigue, faction fighting, native hostility, hunger, disease, heat, cold and yet another batch of inadequate supplies, the colonists also had to take care of the people England just couldn’t wait to get rid of. Some fit in alright, but on the whole they proved to be extremely unruly, disruptive and damaging. At least a couple were members of a Puritan separatist group that produced the Pilgrims, called Brownists.

At this point in time, it probably looks to you like all the Virginia Company really does is come in every few months, wreak havoc and leave, using a captain that steals from the colonists in Virginia and the shareholders in England. It looks to me like that. It looked like that to John Smith. Perhaps the only people who didn’t feel this way were the leaders of the Virginia Company, itself.

They blamed the colonists, and sent a letter with Captain Newport accusing the colonists of infighting, which is undeniably true. They also accused settlers of hiding valuables for themselves and planning to split off from the company so that they could personally profit from anything of value. The accusations led to an ultimatum. Newport was not to return to England without one of the following: 2,000 pounds of pitch and tar, a route to the South Sea, or one of the Roanoke settlers. If Newport returned without one of those items, the company would withdraw all support, and leave the settlers to fend for themselves, not even bringing them back to England.

Smith, as you can guess, wanted to start getting to work producing pitch and tar. Newport, as you can guess, wanted to take a trip inland to explore. The council supported Newport. Smith was furious, and Newport said the reason Smith hadn’t been able to make the discoveries was because he’d been too cruel to the local peoples. He was going to fix that.

The Virginia Company had also decided it was important to win over the Powhatan to the English, and it felt that the way to do this was to coronate Wahunsenaca. The idea behind this was similar to a tactic the English had used in Ireland. They had given local leaders English titles like the “Earl of Tyrone,” to encourage loyalty to the crown. Now, it’s not like the Peerage of Ireland was some brilliant success, but there are a couple of differences here. First, Virginia was not Ireland. There was no real significance to this act, the way the Peerage of Ireland had given the Irish political representation in the House of Lords. Wahunsenaca was already leader of Tsenocomoco. The English were looking to him for help, not trying to pacify a dominated people. Going along with that, they also weren’t talking about making Wahunsenaca an earl or a duke. They were talking about coronating him as a king. It was an absolutely idiotic plan, and Smith said that it would absolutely destroy the ability of the English to trade with the Powhatan. The English had a finite amount of stuff to trade for food with the Indians, and the Virginia Company didn’t send them enough to be stable. If Wahunsenaca developed a lower opinion of the English, it could prove fatal. Newport responded that Smith was just trying to hide how cruelly he’d behaved toward the Indians in his absence.

Newport had the Company and the council behind him, and knowing he couldn’t stop it, Smith decided to take part. He returned to Werowocomoco with Namontac, and after sending him back to live with the Powhatan, they invited Wahunsenaca to Jamestown to receive his gifts. His response was cold, almost hostile. He refused to go to Jamestown and insisted they come to Werowocomoco. The English complied. He told them that there was no saltwater beyond the mountains, as he had originally said there was, and that he didn’t need English help to fight the Monacans. He wouldn’t help the English continue to explore, and wouldn’t give them any guide except Namontoc.

The ceremony was so awkward that Wahunsenaca feared it was an assassination plot, and he was worried through the whole ceremony. He was tall enough that Newport couldn’t put the crown on his head until he stooped over, and then, when they let off a volley of shot in his honor, he was concerned they were preparing to shoot him. Once the ceremony was done, though, Wahunsenaca inverted the meaning and said it was his English subjects paying tribute to him. Actually, no, that didn’t invert the meaning at all. The English did. That summer, while the English were working in their fields, he would occasionally come over wearing his crown and cape. He was a brilliant leader. It was an idiotic plan. Smith saw it coming, but no one in power listened.

With or without Powhatan help, Newport decided to explore Monacan territory, while Smith stayed at Jamestown and put the men to work collecting timber. They built the glass house whose ruins you can see at Jamestown today, and Smith also enforced moral discipline, throwing a cup of water over colonists’ heads for every swear word they uttered. Within a week, the work was getting done swear-free, and Smith started sending groups out in the wilderness to learn how to survive in the forest.

Newport’s venture, on the other hand, was totally fruitless, and once again, his ship was a floating marketplace where sailors traded the settlers’ supplies to the highest bidder – meaning the Indians.

The settlement needed more food, so Smith went to the Chicahominies, and they refused to trade. He replied he was there to avenge the deaths of his people in the last year, and threatened to attack. They filled up two barges with corn, one captained by Smith and the other by Percy, and returned to Jamestown. When Smith returned, some of the leadership was happy to see him, and others said he should be banished for leaving his post without their consent.

Newport returned to England yet again without recouping his costs, and without the demanded items. He did, however, bring back two leaders of the infighting, Ratcliffe and Archer. Smith sent his Map of Virginia, and whatever industrial goods he’d been able to produce – wood, two barrels of stone, possible iron ore and early attempts to create pitch, tar and glass – along with an absolutely scathing letter. He said they had wasted valuable resources, they had confused relations with the Indians. Their claims about settlers exaggerating the land’s resources were unfair, and their demands for more commodities were unrealistic. The threat to cut off supplies was cruel, not least because they were being consumed by the mariners who brought them. The council may have been torn apart by faction fighting, that was true, but the cause of that was the people who the London Company, itself, had appointed to run it. That, Smith said, was why Ratcliffe was being sent back, and if either he or Archer ever returned, they would keep the colony continuously in factions. He said that was the reason the colony hadn’t been more profitable, and why right now, the Company couldn’t expect any returns. Here’s a map, and by the way, I have done all of this for less than the charge of one of Newport’s expeditions.

The company actually listened, but there was still serious fallout from their actions, and we’ll get into that next week.