There followed upon this horror not a day or a month but years of organized
retaliation and systematic harrying. In the end the great majority of the
Indians either fell or were pushed back toward the upper Pamunkey, the
Rappahannock, the Potomac, and westward upon the great shelf or terrace of
the earth that climbed to the fabled mountains. And with this westward move
there passed away that old vision of wholesale Christianizing.
CHAPTER VIII. ROYAL GOVERNMENT
In November, 1620, there sailed into a quiet harbor on the coast of what is
now Massachusetts a ship named the Mayflower, having on board one hundred
and two English Non-conformists, men and women and with them a few
children. These latest colonists held a patent from the Virginia Company
and have left in writing a statement of their object: "We . . . having
undertaken, for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith,
and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in
the northern parts of Virginia--". The mental reservation is, of course,
"where perchance we may serve God as we will!" In England there obtained in
some quarters a suspicion that "they meant to make a free, popular State
there." Free -- Popular -- Public Good! These are words that began, in the
second quarter of the seventeenth century, to shine and ring. King and
people had reached the verge of a great struggle. The Virginia Company was
divided, as were other groups, into factions. The court party and the
country party found themselves distinctly opposed.
Pages:
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95