the colony. It must be acknowledged that rigorous
measures were necessary, and it was fortunate for the colony that the
cruel and despotic code of laws, to which it was now subjected, was
administered by so discreet and upright a governor as Dale.

Early in August, 1611, Sir Thomas Gates, commissioned to take charge of
the government of the colony, came over with six vessels, three hundred
men, and abundant supplies. He was accompanied by the Rev. Mr. Glover,
an approved preacher in Bedford and Huntingdonshire, a graduate of
Cambridge, in easy circumstances, and somewhat advanced in years.
Arriving at Jamestown early in August, during the sickly season, he soon
after died.

Dale, relieved from the cares of the chief post, cheerfully occupied a
subordinate position, and now turned his attention to the establishment
of new settlements on the banks of the James, at some distance above
Jamestown. Furnished by Gates with three hundred and fifty men, he
sailed up the river early in September, and on the spot selected before,
he founded the town of Henrico, so called in honor of the heir-apparent,
Prince Henry, eldest son of James the First. The peninsula on which it
was built is formed by a remarkable bend, styled the "Dutch Gap," where
the river, after sweeping a circuit of seven miles, returns within one
hundred and twenty yards from the point of departure. The site commands
an extensive and picturesque view of the winding river, which in this
part of it is called the "Corkscrew." The fertile tract of land there
produced tobacco nearly resembling the Spanish Varinas, and hence
received the appellation of Varina, the name of a well-known plantation.
This was afterwards the residence of the Rev. William Stith, the best of
our early historians, who dates the preface of his History of Virginia
there, in 1746.

The peninsula, surrounded on three sides by the river, was impaled
across the isthmus from water to water. There were three streets of
well-framed houses, a handsome church of wood completed, and the
foundation laid of a better one to be built of brick, besides
store-houses, watch-houses, etc. Upon the river edge there were five
houses, in which lived "the honester sort of people," as farmers in
England, and they kept continual watch for the town's security. About
two miles back from the town was a second palisade, near two miles in
length, from river to river, guarded by several commanders, with a good
quantity of cor