716 Jamestown had
only a sorry half-dozen structures, two of which were church and
court-house. Fifteen years later Fredericksburg had, besides the manor
house of Colonel Willis and its belongings, only a store, a tailor shop,
a blacksmith shop, a tavern or "ordinary," and a coffeehouse. Richmond
and Petersburg still existed only on paper, and if we come down to the
middle of the eighteenth century, Williamsburg, the capital of the
province, was nothing but a straggling village of two hundred houses,
without a single paved street. Only the College and the governor's
"palace" were of brick. The county-seats were mostly mere glades in the
woods, containing each its court-house, prison, whipping-post, pillory,
and ducking-stool, besides the wretched tavern where court and
attendants put up, and possibly a church. Hardships and dissensions
marked the whole early history of this infant state. At one time only
forty settlers remained alive, at another meal and water were the sole
diet. Hoping for instant riches in gold, poor gentlemen and vagabonds
had come, too much to the exclusion of mechanics and laborers. For
relief from the turbulence and external dangers of this period, the
colony owed much to Captain John Smith, who, after all allowance for his
boasting, certainly displayed great courage and energy in emergencies.
He, too, it was who did most to explore the country up the James and
upon Chesapeake Bay.

[Illustration: "King Powhatan commands C:Smith to be flayne his daughter
Pokahontas beggs his life his thankfullness and how he subiecled 39 of
their kings reade ye history" Pocahontas saving Captain Smith's
Life. From Smith's "General History."]

[1609-1610]

A new charter was granted in 1609, the council in England being now
appointed by the stockholders instead of the king, and the governor of
the colony being named by this council. Lord Delaware was made Governor
and Captain-General of Virginia, and many more colonists sent out. By a
wreck of two of the vessels there was delay in the arrival of the newly
chosen officers. Smith, then Percy, meantime continued to exercise
authority. This, again, was a critical period. Indians were troublesome.
Tillage having been neglected from the first, provisions became
exhausted, and a crisis long referred to as "the starving time" ensued.
The colony had actually abandoned Jamestown and shipped for England,
when met in James River by Lord Delaware, coming with relief. They at