The Beginners of a Nation: A History of the Source and Rise of the Earliest English Settlements in America, with Special Reference to the Life and Character of the PeopleEggleston, Edward
History
The Beginners of a Nation: A History of the Source and Rise of the Earliest English Settlements in America, with Special Reference to the Life and Character of the People
Eggleston, Edward
United States -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
But it was not enough to wring from an infant colony the products of
the south; those derived from the north of Europe were straightway to
be got there also. German millwrights--"Dutch carpenters," in the
phrase of the records--were brought from Hamburg by John Ferrar to
build Virginia sawmills; timber was still sawed by hand in England.
Pitch, tar, and potash were to be produced by Poles sent out for the
purpose in the second year of the colony. Patriotism dictated that
England should be relieved of her dependence on foreign countries for
naval stores. Virginia had forests: why should she not produce these
things?
[Sidenote: Glass-making.]
[Sidenote: Note 5.]
[Sidenote: Iron works.]
[Sidenote: Note 6.]
[Sidenote: Result of the massacre.]
It had been found that the savages eagerly received glass beads in
exchange for corn and peltries. Nothing more was required to prove the
profitableness of glass-making. Some Germans were sent to the colony
in 1608, and glass works were established. For some reason no proper
materials were available at first, and it became necessary to request
that sand might be sent from England to make Virginia glass of at the
glass works in the woods near Jamestown. The German glass blowers were
prone to run away to the Indians, among whom work was lighter and food
more abundant. The tribesmen encouraged these desertions by providing
dusky wives for the men whose skill with tools and weapons they valued
highly. In 1621 the glass business was revived, and this time it was
intrusted to Italian workmen. About the same time iron works were
established at Falling Creek, with "forty skilled workmen from Sussex
to carry them forward." Twenty-five ship carpenters were sent to ply
their trade on the James River, and it was also arranged that oil was
to be distilled from walnuts by the "apothecaries." George Sandys was
sent over in July, 1621, to have entire control of all schemes for
staple commodities. There was a certain fitness in intrusting these
creatures of the imagination to a poet. Pineapples, plantains, and
other fruits were to be started forthwith. There was once again great
hope from the "rich commodity of silk," an endowed school for Indians
was founded, and the little Virginia pool became iridescent with many
frail bubbles. The sudden and frightful massacre by the savages in
March, 1622, obliterated instantly all vain and premature projects.
This calamity did not cause the failure of these foredoomed schemes;
it only saved them from a painful and lingering death, and provided
their friends with a decent epitaph for them. The people who survived
the massacre were decimated by an epidemic in the following year. What
strength they could spare from frequent battles with the savages they
spent in growing corn and tobacco, which last, of all the things
tried, proved to be the only commodity profitable for export.
V.
[Sidenote: Tobacco.]
[Sidenote: A Covnter-Blaste to Tobacco, 1604.]
[Sidenote: Note 7.]
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