第 10 节
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疯狂热线 更新:2021-12-07 09:33 字数:9321
WHERE NONE BEFORE HATH STOOD。〃
* The Virginia Company。
CHAPTER VI。 SIR THOMAS DALE
In a rebuilded Jamestown; Lord De La Warr; of 〃approved courage; temper and
experience;〃 held for a short interval dignified; seigneurial sway; while
his restless associates adventured far and wide。 Sir George Somers sailed
back to the Bermudas to gather a cargo of the wild swine of those woods;
but illness seized him there; and he died among the beautiful islands。 That
Captain Samuel Argall who had traversed for the Company the short road from
the Canaries took up Smith's fallen mantle and carried on the work of
exploration。 It was he who found; and named for the Lord Governor; Delaware
Bay。 He went up the Potomac and traded for corn; rescued an English boy
from the Indians; had brushes with the savages。 In the autumn back to
England with a string of ships went that tried and tested seafarer
Christopher Newport。 Virginia wanted many things; and chiefly that the
Virginia Company should excuse defect and remember promise。 So Gates sailed
with Newport to make true report and guide exertion。 Six months passed; and
the Lord Governor himself fell ill and must home to England。 So away he;
too; went and for seven years until his death ruled from that distance
through a deputy governor。 De La Warr was a man of note and worth; old
privy councilor of Elizabeth and of James; soldier in the Low Countries;
strong Protestant and believer in England…in…America。 Today his name is
borne by a great river; a great bay; and by one of the United States。
In London; the Virginia Company; having listened to Gates; projected a
fourth supply for the colony。 Of those hundreds who had perished in
Virginia; many had been true and intelligent men; and again many perhaps
had been hardly that。 But the Virginia Company was now determined to
exercise for the future a discrimination。 It issued a broadside; making
known that it was sending a new supply of men and all necessary provision
in a fleet of good ships; under the conduct of Sir Thomas Gates and Sir
Thomas Dale; and that it was not intended any more to burden the action
with 〃vagrant and unnecessary persons 。 。 。 but honest and industrious men;
as Carpenters; Smiths; Coopers; Fishermen; Tanners; Shoemakers;
Shipwrights; Brickmen; Gardeners; Husbandmen; and laboring men of all sorts
that 。 。 。 shall be entertained for the Voyage upon such termes as their
qualitie and fitnesse shall deserve。〃 Yet; in spite of precautions; some of
the other sort continued to creep in with the sober and industrious。 Master
William Crashaw; in a sermon upon the Virginia venture; remarks that 〃they
who goe 。 。 。 be like for aught I see) to those who are left behind; even
of all sorts better and worse!〃 This probably hits the mark。
The Virginia Company meant at last to have order in Virginia。 To this
effect; a new office was created and a strong man was found to fill it。
Gates remained De La Warr's deputy governor; but Sir Thomas Dale went as
Marshal of Virginia。 The latter sailed in March; 1611; with 〃three ships;
three hundred people; twelve kine; twenty goats; and all things needful for
the colony。〃 Gates followed in May with other ships; three hundred
colonists; and much cattle。
For the next few years Dale becomes; in effect; ruler of Virginia。 He did
much for the colony; and therefore; in that far past that is not so distant
either; much for the United States … a man of note; and worth considering。
Dale had seen many years of service in the Low Countries。 He was still in
Holland when the summons came to cross the ocean in the service of the
Virginia Company。 On the recommendation of Henry; Prince of Wales; the
States…General of the United Netherlands consented 〃that Captain Thomas
Dale (destined by the King of Great Britain to be employed in Virginia in
his Majesty's service) may absent himself from his company for the space of
three years; and that his said company shall remain meanwhile vacant; to be
resumed by him if he think proper。〃
This man had a soldier's way with him and an iron will。 For five years in
Virginia he exhibited a certain stern efficiency which was perhaps the best
support and medicine that could have been devised。 At the end of that time;
leaving Virginia; he did not return to the Dutch service; but became
Admiral of the fleet of the English East India Company; thus passing from
one huge historic mercantile company to another。 With six ships he sailed
for India。 Near Java; the English and the Dutch having chosen to quarrel;
he had with a Dutch fleet 〃a cruel; bloody fight。〃 Later; when peace was
restored; the East India Company would have given him command of an allied
fleet of English and Dutch ships; the objective being trade along the coast
of Malabar and an attempt to open commerce with …the Chinese。 But Sir
Thomas Dale was opening commerce with a vaster; hidden land; for at
Masulipatam he died。 〃Whose valor;〃 says his epitaph; 〃having shined in the
Westerne; was set in the Easterne India。〃
But now in Maytime of 1611 Dale was in Virginian waters。 By this day;
beside the main settlement of Jamestown; there were at Cape Henry and Point
Comfort small forts garrisoned with meager companies of men。 Dale made
pause at these; setting matters in order; and then; proceeding up the
river; he came to Jamestown and found the people gathered to receive him。
Presently he writes home to the Company a letter that gives a view of the
place and its needs。 Any number of things must be done; requiring
continuous and hard work; 〃as; namely; the reparation of the falling Church
and so of the Store…house; a stable for our horses; a munition house; a
Powder house; a new well for the amending of the most unwholesome water
which the old afforded。 Brick to be made; a sturgion house 。 。 。 a Block
house to be raised on the North side of our back river to prevent the
Indians from killing our cattle; a house to be set up to lodge our cattle
in the winter; and hay to be appointed in his due time to be made; a
smith's forge to be perfected caske for our Sturgions to be made; and
besides private gardens for each man common gardens for hemp and flax and
such other seeds; and lastly a bridge to land our goods dry and safe upon;
for most of which I take present order。〃
Dale would have agreed with Dr。 Watts that
Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do!
If we of the United States today will call to mind certain Western small
towns of some decades agoif we will review them as they are pictured in
poem and novel and playwe may receive; as it were out of the tail of the
eye; an impression of some aspects of these western plantings of the
seventeenth century。 The dare…devil; the bully; the tenderfoot; the
gambler; the gentleman…desperado had their counterparts in Virginia。 So had
the cool; indomitable sheriff and his dependable posse; the friends
generally of law and order。 Dale may be viewed as the picturesque sheriff
of this earlier age。
But it must be remembered that this Virginia was of the seventeenth; not of
the nineteenth century。 And law had cruel and idiot faces as well as faces
just and wise。 Hitherto the colony possessed no written statutes。 The
Company now resolved to impose upon the wayward an iron restraint。 It fell
to Dale to enforce the regulations known as 〃Lawes and Orders; dyvine;
politique; and martiall for the Colonye of Virginia〃not English civil law
simply; but laws 〃chiefly extracted out of the Lawes for governing the army
in the Low Countreys。〃 The first part of this code was compiled by William
Strachey; the latter part is thought to have been the work of Sir Edward
Cecil; Sir Thomas Gates; and Dale himself; approved and accepted by the
Virginia Company。 Ten years afterwards; defending itself before a Committee
of Parliament; the Company through its Treasurer declared 〃the necessity of
such laws; in some cases ad terrorem; and in some to be truly executed。〃
Seventeenth…century English law herself was terrible enough in all
conscience; but 〃Dale's Laws〃 went beyond。 Offences ranged from failure to
attend church and idleness to lese majeste。 The penalties were grosscruel
whippings; imprisonments; barbarous puttings to death。 The High Marshal
held the unruly down with a high hand。
But other factors than this Draconian code worked at last toward order in
this English West。 Dale was no small statesman; and he played ferment
against ferment。 Into Virginia now first came private ownership of land。;;
So much was given to each colonist; and care of this booty became to each a
preoccupation。 The Company at home sent out more and more settlers; and
more and more of the industrious; peace…loving sort。 By 1612 the English in
America numbered about eight hundred。 Dale projected another town; and
chose for its site the great horseshoe bend in the river a few miles below
the Falls of the Far West; at a spot we now call Dutch Gap。 Here Dale laid
out a town which he named Henricus after the Prince of Wales; and for its
citizens he drafted from Jamestown three hundred persons。 To him also are
due Bermuda and Shirley Hundreds and Dale's Gift over on the Eastern Shore。
As the Company