ia can cease to deplore the change which
robbed this graceful stream of a title pregnant with all the associations
of Indian valor and of the departed glory of their empire, and bestowed a
name that can only recall a royal pedant and a timid despot!

Seventeen days were employed in searching for a spot suited to a
settlement (May 13th). At length they selected a peninsula, on the north
side of the river, about forty miles from its mouth, and immediately
commenced the well-known city of Jamestown.

A commendable industry seems at first to have prevailed. The council
contrived a fort, the settlers felled the trees, pitched their tents,
prepared gardens, made nets for the fish which abounded in the river, and
already began to provide clapboards to freight the ships on their return
to England.

But these fair promises of good were destined to a speedy betrayal.
Already discord prevailed in their counsels, and a flagrant act of
injustice had been committed, which soon recoiled upon the heads of its
authors. We have heretofore mentioned the name of John Smith among the
persons nominated for the council, and have spoken of the violent
imprisonment to which he was subjected during the outward voyage.
Jealousy of his merit and commanding talents did not stop at this point.
He was excluded from his place in the council, and an entry was made in
their records detailing the alleged reason for this act.

John Smith is the hero of the romantic destinies that attended the early
life of Virginia; and the historian who would attempt to tell of her
fortunes and yet neglect his story would be recreant to his trust.
Nations have generally owed their brightest days of power or of happiness
to the genius of a single person--directing their energies, subduing
their follies, enlightening their seasons of early ignorance. Assyria has
had her Semiramis, China her Confucius, Arabia her Mahomet, England her
Alfred; and were we required to point to the man to whom America is
principally indebted for the care of her infant years, we would not
hesitate to name the heroic spirit who now appears before us.

His talent for command excited the mean jealousy of inferior souls, only
that his merit might appear brighter by contrast. If we have aught to
urge against him, it is that he met the treachery of the Indians with a
severe spirit, but too much akin to that of the Spaniards in the South.
Yet we cannot reproach him with undeserved cruelty or with d