est, far the greater portion having been
purchased by treaty. It may be objected, that the consideration was
often inadequate; but a small consideration may have been sufficient to
compensate for a title which, for the most part, had but little
validity; besides, a larger compensation would oftentimes have been
thrown away upon men so ignorant and indolent. Groping in the dim
twilight of nature, and slaves of a gross idolatry, their lives were
circumscribed within a narrow uniform circle of animal instincts and the
necessities of a precarious subsistence. Cunning, bloody, and
revengeful, engaged in frequent wars, they were strangers to that
Arcadian innocence and the Elysian scenes of a golden age of which
youthful poets so fondly dream. If an occasional exception occurs, it is
but a solitary ray of light shooting across the surrounding gloom. Yet
we cannot be insensible to the many injuries they have suffered, and
cannot but regret that their race could not be united with our own. The
Indian has long since disappeared from Virginia; his cry no longer
echoes in the woods, nor is the dip of his paddle heard on the water.
The exterminating wave still urges them onward to the setting sun, and
their tribes are fading one by one forever from the map of existence.
Geology shows that in the scale of animal life, left impressed on the
earth's strata, the inferior species has still given place to the
superior: so likewise is it with the races of men.

FOOTNOTES:

[166:A] Purchas, iv. 1840.

[168:A] Notes on Va., 102.

CHAPTER XVIII.

1622-1625.

James the First jealous of Virginia Company--Gondomar--The
King takes Measures to annul the Charter--Commissioners
appointed--Assembly Petitions the King--Disputes between
Commissioners and Assembly--Butler's Account of the Colony--
Nicholas Ferrar--Treachery of Sharpless, and his Punishment--
The Charter of Virginia Company dissolved--Causes of this
Proceeding--Character of the Company--Records of the Company--
Death of James the First--Charles the First succeeds him--The
Virginia Company--Earl of Southampton--Sir Edwin Sandys and
Nicholas Ferrar--The Rev. Jonas Stockham's Letter--Injustice
of the Dissolution of the Charter--Beneficial Results--
Assembly of 1624.

THE Court of James the First, already jealous of the growing power
and republican spirit of the Virginia Company, was rendered still
more inimica