ll, _Virginia Company_, 98.]

[Footnote 48: Smith, _Works_ (Arber's ed.), 533.]

[Footnote 49: Rolfe, _Relation_, in _Va. Historical Register_, I.,
108.]

[Footnote 50: _Breife Declaration_.]

[Illustration: CHART OF VIRGINIA SHOWING INDIAN AND EARLY ENGLISH
SETTLEMENTS IN 1632]

CHAPTER V

TRANSITION OF VIRGINIA

(1617-1640)

During the period of Dale's administration the constitution of the
London Company underwent a change, because the stockholders grew
restless under the powers of the treasurer and council and applied for
a third charter, limiting all important business to a quarterly
meeting of the whole body.

As they made the inclusion of the Bermuda Islands the ostensible
object, the king without difficulty signed the paper, March 12, 1612;
and thus the company at last became a self-governing body.[1] On the
question of governing the colony it soon divided, however, into the
court party, in favor of continuing martial law, at the head of which
was Sir Robert Rich, afterwards earl of Warwick; and the "country," or
"patriot party," in favor of ending the system of servitude. The
latter party was led by Sir Thomas Smith, who had been treasurer ever
since 1607, Sir Edwin Sandys, the earl of Southampton, Sir John
Danvers, and John and Nicholas Ferrar.[2] Of the two, the country
party was more numerous, and when the joint stock partnership expired,
November 30, 1616, they appointed Captain Samuel Argall, a kinsman of
Treasurer Smith, to be deputy governor of Virginia, with instructions
to give every settler his own private dividend of fifty acres and to
permit him to visit in England if he chose.[3]

Argall sailed to Virginia about the first part of April, 1617, taking
with him Pocahontas's husband, John Rolfe, as secretary of state.
Pocahontas was to go with him, but she sickened and died, and was
buried at Gravesend March 21, 1617. She left one son named Thomas, who
afterwards resided in Virginia, where he has many descendants at this
day.[4] Argall, though in a subordinate capacity he had been very
useful to the settlers, proved wholly unscrupulous as deputy governor.
Instead of obeying his instructions he continued the common slavery
under one pretence or another, and even plundered the company of all
the servants and livestock belonging to the "common garden." He
censured Yardley for permitting the settlers to grow tobacco, yet
brought a commission for himself to establish a private tobacco