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UNIVERSITY  OF   PITTSBURGH 

Dar. 

^17; 


PROCEEDINGS 


AMERICAN    ANTIQUARIAN   SOCIETY, 


ANNUAL  MEETING,   HELD   IN   WOECESTER, 


October  21,  1664. 


BOSTON: 

PKINTED   BY  JOHN   WILSON  AND   SON. 

15,  Watek  Strekt. 

1864. 


n 


,bf 


PROCEEDINGS 


AMERICAN    ANTIQUARIAN    SOCIETY, 


ANNUAL  MEETING,  HELD  IN  WORCESTER, 


BOSTON: 

PRINTED- BY  JOHN  WILSOST  AND   SON, 

15,  Water  Street. 

1864. 


PHOCEEDINGS. 


ANNUAL   MEETING,  OCT.  21,   1864,   AT   THE   HALL   OF   THE    SOCIETY, 
IN    WORCESTER. 


Hon.    Levi   Lincoln,    the    second   Vice-President, 
■called  the  members  to  order,  and  remarked   that   a 


sudden  and  most  heavy  affliction  to  our    respected 


President,  which  we  all  greatly  deplored,  and  in  which 

^  he  has  our  hearts'  deepest  sympathy,  prevented  his 

0  presence  with  us  on  this  occasion  ;  and,  in  the  absence 

^  of  the  first  Vice-President  also,  it  devolved  upon  him 

to  assume  the  chair. 
^      The  Recording  Secretary  read  the  record  of  the 
■%/last  meeting.      He  also  read  from  the  record   of  a 

meeting  of  the  Council,  held  on  the  twenty-sixth  day 

of  September  last,  the  following  expression  of  sym- 
^  pathy  with  the  President,  on  his  recent  domestic  af- 
;,^   fiiction,  offered  by  Hon.  Levi  Lincoln. 
I 

From  the  Records  of  the  Council. 

"  The  members  of  the  Council  of  the  American  Antiquarian 
Society,  present  at  this  meeting,  cannot  but  notice  this  first  in- 
stance of  the  absence  of  their  respected  President ;  and,  learning 


its.  most  afflictive  occasion,  they  beg  leave  to  offer  him  assurances 
of  their  deepest  and  most  affectionate  sympathy  under  his  great 
bereavement. 

"  Remembering,  with  tender  and  grateful  sensibilit}-,  the  pleas- 
ant social  intercourse  and  elegant  hospitalities,  which,  in  times 
past,  they  so  frequently  have  enjoyed  under  his  roof,  and  the 
graceful  manners  and  amiable  qualities  of  her  who  so  cordially 
welcomed  them  there,  they  find,  in  the  startling  announcement  of 
Tier  sudden  death,  cause  alike  for  their  own  sorrowing  regrets,  and 
the  expression  of  their  deepest  condolence,  nnder  the  overwhelm- 
ing affliction,  to  their  respected  and  beloved  friend  and  associate, 
the  honored  President  of  the  Society. 

"  May  the  heart's  loving  reverence  for  the  virtues  of  the  de- 
ceased, and  the  earnest,  best  wishes  of  many  friends  for  his  con- 
solation, and  future  health  and  happiness,  assuage  and  solace  the 
bitterness  of  his  grief ! 

"  Voted,  That  the  foregoing  expressions  of  sympathy  and  con- 
dolence be  entered  on  the  records,  and  a  copy  thereof  respectfully 
certified  to  the  President  of  the  Society;  and  that  they  also  be 
read  at  the  approaching  meeting  of  the  Society. 

"  On  motion  of  Hon.  Ira  M.  Barton,  voted.  That,  in  token  of 
respect  for  Mrs.  Salisbury,  and  sympathy  with  the  President,  the 
Council  will  offlcially  attend  the  funeral." 

George  Livermore,  Esq.,  read  the  Report  of  the 
Council. 

The  Librarian  read  his  Report. 

The  Treasurer  read  his  Report. 

On  motion  of  Charles  Deane,  Esq.,  it  was  voted 
to  refer  these  Reports  to  the  Committee  of  Pubhca- 
tion,  to  be  printed  at  their  discretion. 

Hon.  Levi  Lincoln  then  called  Dr.  N.  B.  Shurt- 
LEFF  to  the  chair,  and  addressed  the  Society  as  fol- 
lows :  — 


'Mi:  President,  —  The  Report  of  the  Council,  as  is 
visual  and  becoming  such  occasions,  makes  mention 
of  those  melancholy  providences,  which,  in  the  inter- 
val between  our  meetings,  are  continually  removing 
from  our  association  honored  and  beloved  members  of 
this  Society  by  death.  We  are  now  reminded,  in 
touching  and  appropriate  terms,  of  the  decease,  since 
the  last  meSting,  of  one  of  the  most  distinguished  of 
our  number.  The  late  Hon.  Josiah  Quincy  was  of 
the  earliest,  and,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  was  the 
oldest,,  of  our  associates.  He  was,  eminently,  a  great 
and  good  man ;  and,  I  think,  having  regard  to  all 
considerations,  the  most  marked  man  of  the  century 
among  us.  I  should  be  ungrateful,  indeed,  if  I  failed, 
in  connection  with  the  proceedings  of  this  meeting, 
to  express  my  entire  sympathy  in  the  notice  of  his 
death,  and  my  most  hearty  concurrence  in  the  tribute 
of  respect  paid  to  his  memory,  by  the  impressive  lan- 
guage of  the  Report. 

The  courtesy  and  kindness  of  this  venerable  man 
placed  me,  personally,  under  many  obligations.  More 
than  a  half  century  since,  I  entered  the  Senate  of 
Massachusetts,  the  youngest  of  its  members.  Mr. 
Quincy  was  among  the  seniors  at  tlie  Board.  It  was  • 
at  the  period  of  the  embargo  and  other  obnoxious, 
restrictive  measures  of  the  Government,  and  on  the 
very  eve  of  the  declaration  of  war  against  England. 
The  spirit  of  party  ran  high  ;  and  there  was  bitterness 
of  feeling,  and  often  much  acerbity  of  language,  in 


debate.  Diflfering  widely,  as  we  did,  in  political 
opinions,  and  opposed  to  each  other  in  regard  to 
public  measures,  I  recollect  from  him,  in  my  unprac- 
tised position,  no  instance  of  unfriendliness,  no  one 
word  of  unkindness.  Through  subsequent,  successive 
years,  in  the  discharge  of  arduous  public  duties,  I 
was  sustained  and  greatly  cheered  by  expressions  of 
his  favorable  regard,  and  not  unfrequently  became 
a  delighted  listener  to  his  sagacious  counsels,  and  a 
partaker  of  his  elegant  hospitalities.  He  will  long 
be  remembered  by  others,  also,  for  the  kindness  of  his 
heart ;  and  his  name  be  held  in  honor,  by  the  country, 
for  the  brightness  of  its  fame. 

I  beg  leave  to  offer,  for  the  considei'ation  of  this 
meeting,  the  following  resolutions :  — 

"  The  impressive  event  of  the  decease  of  the  late  Hon.  Josiah 
Quincy,  LL.D.,  having  occurred  since  the  last  meeting  of  this 
Society,  it  becomes  his  associates,  on  this  first  subsequent  opportu- 
nity of  their  assembling,  to  give  expression  to  their  admiration  of 
his  elevated  character,  —  their  high  appreciation  of  his  eminent 
public  services,  —  their  testimonial  to  his  protracted  years  of 
virtuous  living,  and  to  his  active,  enduring,  and  unceasing  labors 
of  distinguished  usefulness  to  extreme  old  age.     Therefore,  — 

"  Besolved,  That  the  American  Antiquarian  Society  will  ever 
hold  the  memory  of  their  late  associate,  the  Hon.  Josiah  Quincy, 
LL.D.,  in  affectionate  and  honored  regard,  as  the  erudite  scholar 
and  liberal  patron  of  science,  the  upright  jurist,  the  patriotic 
statesman,  the  pure-minded  and  exemplary  citizen,  and  the  unsel- 
fish, enlightened,  faithful,  and  devoted  public  servant ;  alike  in 
all  the  relations  of  civil,  social,  and  private  life,  firm  in  purpose, 
and  true  to  principle  and  the  loftiest  conceptions  of  personal 
duty. 


"  Resolved,  That  in  the  decatli  of  President  Qnincy,  while  we 
lament  that  we  shall  niaet  him  no  more  as  an  associate  in  our 
councils,  whose  mere  presence  would  be  a  benediction,  we  bow, 
in  reverent  submission  and  gratitude,  to  that  gracious  Providence, 
which  released  him  from  the  pains  and  infirmities  of  exhausted 
nature,  and  leaves  his  name  and  example  as  a  precious  memory  in 
the  hearts  of  contemporaries  and  posterity. 

"Resolved,  That  the  foregoing  resolutions  be  entered  upon  the 
Records  of  the  Society,  and  that  the  President  be  respectfully 
requested  to  transmit  a  certified  copy  thereof  to  the  family  of  the 
deceased." 


The  resolutions  were  adopted  unanimously,  and 
Governor  Lincoln  resumed  the  chair. 

S.  F.  Haven,  Esq.,  mentioned  the  death  of  Samuel 
Wells,  Esq.,  of  Northampton,  a  member  of  the  So- 
ciety, at  the  age  of  seventy-one.  He  was  killed  on 
the  4th  instant  by  the  accidental  discharge  of  a  pistol 
in  the  hand  of  another  person.  Mr.  Wells  had  been 
clerk  of  the  Courts  of  Hampshire  County  for  the  last 
twenty-seven  years,  and  was  greatly  respected. 

"  Voted,  To  proceed  to  the  election  of  a  President 
for  the  ensuing  year." 

Nathaniel  Paine,  Esq.,  was  appointed  by  the  chair 
to  collect  and  count  the  votes. 

The  votes  having  been  collected,  Mr.  Paine  report- 
ed that  all  were  for  Hon.  Stephen  Salisbury;  and 
he  was  accordingly  declared  by  the  chair  to  have 
been  elected  President  of  the  Society  for  the  ensuing 
year. 

"  Voted,   That  a  Committee  be  appointed  by  the 


chair  to  report  a  nomiuatiou  of  the  other  officers  of 
the  Society,  upon  a  list,  to  be  voted  for  together  by 
yea  and  nay. 

Hon.  DwiGHT  Foster,  Hon.  Charles  Hudson,  and 
Hon.  George  F.  Hoar,  were  appointed  to  that  ser\ice. 

While  this  Committee  were  attending  to  the  duty 
assigned  them.  Rev.  Edward  E.  Hale  read  some  very 
curious  additional  notes  to  the  "  Original  Documents, 
illustrating  the  History  of  Sir  Walter  Ealeigh's  First 
American  Colony,  and  the  Colony  at  Jamestown," 
edited  by  him  in  the  fourth  volume  of  the  Archteo-  _ 
logia ;  these  notes  being  the  result  of  his  recent 
personal  observations  on  the  James  River,  and  in  its 
vicinity. 

The  paper  of  Mr.  Hale  was  followed  by  remarks 
from  Charles  Deane,  Esq.,  Avith  statements  illustrat- 
ing the  historical  interest  possessed  by  many  of  the 
localities  in  Eastern  Virginia,  which  have  been  occu- 
pied by  oiu"  armies.  Mr.  Deane  was  requested  to 
reduce  the  valuable  and  interesting  information  con- 
tained in  his  remarks  to  writing,  for  the  use  of  the 
Society.  Mr.  Hale's  notes,  and  those  to  be  prepared 
by  Mr.  Deane,  were  referred  to  the  Committee  of 
Publication,  to  be  printed  with  the  proceedings  of  the 
meeting. 

The  Committee  of  Nomination  reported  the  names 
of  the  following  gentlemen,  recommended  for  election 
as  officers  of  tlae  Society  for  the  year  ensuing,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  President  already  chosen  :  — 


l^ce-Presidents. 

Rev.   WILLIAM  JENKS,  D.D Boston. 

Hon.  LEVI   LINCOLN,  LL.D Worcester. 

Council. 

Hon.  ISAAC   DAVLS,  LL.D Worcester. 

GEORGE   LIVERMORE,  Esq Cambridge. 

NATHANIEL   B.   SHURTLEFF,  M.D Boston. 

CHARLES   FOLSOM,  Esq Cambridge. 

Hon.   IRA   M.   BARTON Worckster. 

Hon.   PLINY   MERRICK,   LL.D Boston. 

Hon.  JOHN   P.   BIGELOW Boston. 

SAMUEL   F.   HAVEN,   Esq Worcester. 

Rev.   EDWARD   E.   HALE Boston. 

JOSEPH   SARGENT,   M.D Worcester. 


Secretary  of  Foreign  Correspondence. 
JARED   SPARKS,   LL.D Cambridge. 

Secretary  of  Domestic  Correspondence. 
Hon.   BENJAMIN   F.   THOMAS,   LL.D Boston. 

Recording  Secretary. 
Hon.   EDWARD   MELLEN,   LL.D Worcester. 

Treasurer. 
NATHANIEL   PAINE,   Esq Worcester. 

Committee  of  Publication. 

SAMUEL  F.   HAVEN,   Esq Worcester. 

Rev.   EDWARD   E.   HALE Boston. 

CHARLES   DEANE,  Esq Cambridge. 

A  vote  was  then  taken  on  these  nommations,  and 
all  were  unanimously  elected  to  the  offices  for  which 
their  names  had  been  presented. 

Judge  Barton  suggested  the  expediency  of  revising 
the  catalogue  of  members  of  the  Society,  with  refer- 
ence to  a  new  publication. 

Ou  motion  of  Rev.  Dr.  Ellis,  it  was  voted,  That  a 


10 


Committee  of  three  be  appointed  by  the  chair  for 
that  pm-pose. 

The  chair  accordingly  appointed  Hon.  Ira  M.  Bar- 
ton, Charles  Deane,  Esq.,  Hon.  George  F.  Hoar. 

Charles  Folsom,  Esq.,  laid  on  the  table  a  collection 
of  tracts  by  Professor  Daniel  Tread  well,  on  the  con- 
struction of  cannon,  which  he  presented  to  the  Society 
on  behalf  of  the  author. 

The  meeting  was  then  dissolved. 

EDWARD   MELLEN, 

Recording  Secretary. 


NOTE. 
The  President,  as  requested  by  the  Society,  transmitted  a  copy  of  the 
resolutions,  relating  to  the  late  Hon.  Josiah  Quikct,  LL.D.,  to  his  son,  Hon. 
Josiah  Quincy,  with  the  following  letter  :  — 

Hall  of  the  American  Antiouarian  Society, 
Worcester,  Oct.  26,  1864. 
My  Dear  Sik,  —  I  have  the  highest  satisfaction  in  performing  the  hono- 
rable duty  imposed  on  me  by  the  American  Antiquarian  Society  in  that  part 
of  the  proceedings  of  their  meeting  on  the  21st  instant,  copied  below,  which 
I  beg  that  you  will  present  to  your  family  as  an  expression  of  affectionate 
and  profound  respect  for  your  honored  father,  Josiah  Qcincy,  LL.D.,  and  of 
just  appreciation  of  his  services  and  virtues,  and  of  deep  regret  that  the  bles- 
sing of  his  life,  made  more  precious  by  every  added  year,  will  be  hereafter 
only  enjoyed  in  its  revered  and  instructive  remembrance. 

I  also  tender  to  your  family  the  assurance  of  my  personal  sympathy  in 
the  private  grief  for  which  pubhc  honors  are  a  cold  alleviation,  and  into  which 
a  stranger  may  not  intrude. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be  most  respectfully  yours, 

Stephen  Salisbury,  President. 
UoQ.  JosLAH  QuiNCT,  Boston,  Masa. 

Replu  of  Mr.  Quincy. 

Boston,  Not.  9, 1864. 

Mt  Dear  Sir,  — In  behalf  of  the  family  of  the  late  Josiah  Quincy,  I 
would  gratefully  acknowledge  the  gratification  they  have  received  from  the 
votes  passed  by  your  Society,  for  the  kind  manner  in  which  they  were  moved 
by  their  venerable  friend,  and  in  which  they  were  communicated  by  you. 
I  have  honor  to  be  very  truly, 

Josiah  Qcincy. 


11 


REPORT  OF  THE  COUNCIL. 


Meeting,  as  we  now  do,  at  a  time  when  our  country 
is  still  engaged  in  the  great  work  of  defending  its 
national  existence,  when  the  Government  needs  the 
best  services  of  its  citizens,  and  when  all  true  patriots 
are  willing  to  postpone  the  indulgence  of  their  private 
tastes,  that  they  may  the  better  perform  their  public 
duties,  it  becomes  us,  in  the  fii-st  place,  to  consider  care- 
fully the  character  and  influence  of  such  pursuits  as 
it  is  the  purpose  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society 
to  promote,  and  to  determine  whether  these  are  consist- 
ent with  the  present  demands  of  true  patriotism. 

The  Antiquary,  by  those  whose  tastes  have  drawn 
them  in  a  diff'erent  direction  from  his,  is  too  frequently 
classed  with  the  virtuoso  and  the  bibliomaniac ;  and 
they  are  all  alike  regarded  as  merely  eccentric  persons, 
mounting  theh  respective  hobbies  for  the  selfish  pur- 
suit of  those  objects  only  which  are  of  special  interest 
to  themselves,  and  are  wholly  useless  beyond  the  grati- 
fication of  their  peculiar  fancies. 


12 

If  this  popular  opinion  were  well  founded,  if  our 
pursuits  were  thus  selfish  and  narrowing  in  their  ten- 
dency, it  would  be  unwise  and  unpatriotic  in  us  to 
keep  up  our  meetings,  and  continue  our  researches, 
while  the  life  of  the  nation  is  in  peril.  The  de- 
mands of  our  country  %r  self-sacrifice,  and  entire  devo- 
tion to  her  service,  are  imperative,  —  paramount  to 
all  other  calls.  In  such  a  time,  she  needs  the  indirect, 
but  not  therefore  less  potent,  support  of  the  man  of 
letters  and  the  man  of  business,  as  well  as  the  ser- 
vice of  the  soldier  who  jeopards  his  life  on  the 
battle-field. 

AVhen  the  controversy  began  between  the  King 
and  the  Parliament,  which  led  to  the  great  civil  war 
in  England,  John  Milton,  who  was  indulging  his  classic 
tastes  in  Italy,  hastened  home  at  once,  that  he  might 
do  his  part  in  the  great  struggle  for  civil  and  religious 
liberty.  His  first  act  is  to  open  a  small  school  for 
young  men,  where  he  may  inculcate  those  principles 
which,  in  due  time,  would  bear  fruit  to  bless  the  na- 
tion. With  his  pen  he  asserts  the  rights  of  the  peo- 
ple as  boldly  and  efficiently  as  Cromwell  is  doing  with 
the  sword.     MUton  writes 

"In  liberty's  defence,  —  his  noble  task, 
Of  which  all  Europe  rings  from  side  to  side." 

Cannot  we,  too,  the  members  of  the  American  Antiqua- 
rian Society,  unqualified  for,  or  exempt  from,  military 
duty,  as  most  of  us  are,  yet  do  something  for  our  suf- 
fering country]      May  not  our  studies  and  employ- 


13 


ments  be  so  directed  that  we  may  aid  her  in  her  hour 
of  greatest  need  ?  Has  not  each  of  us  something  to  do 
in  the  cause  of  Liberty  and  Union  1 

It  would  be  well  for  us  to  recur  (and  we  cannot  do 
so  too  often)  to  the  avowed  objects,  and-  the  early 
doings,  of  the  founders  of  om*  association.  When- 
ever we  review  then-  purposes  and  proceedings,  we 
are  impressed  with  a  sense  of  their  liberal,  unselfish, 
and  patriotic  intentions  and  efforts  ;  and  we  feel  more 
deeply  our  obligation  to  administer  its  affairs  with  the 
same  high  regard  to  the  welfare  of  the  country. 

The  American  Antiquarian  Society  was  founded  on 
that  principle  of  Christian  philosophy  which  assumes, 
that  all  things  are  valuable  according  to,  and  only  for, 
their  uses,  —  and  these  uses  for  the  benefit  of  others, 
no  less  than  for  our  own;  that  institutions  as  well 
as  individuals  are  rich,  not  as  they  retain,  for  their 
own  honor  or  interest,  the  treasures  they  acquire,  but 
only  so  far  as  they  impart  them  to  others.  Acquisi- 
tiveness in  matters  of  literature,  art,  and  antiquity, 
when  unaccompanied  by  a  liberal  spirit  of  diffusion 
for  the  public  good,  is  even  more  to  be  deprecated 
than  the  miserly  hoarding  of  pecuniary  treasure. 

Our  Society  was  truly  described,  at  the  opening  of 
our  first  Antiquarian  Hall  in  1820,  as  "  an  association 
founded  in  individual  patriotism,  and  fostered  by  na- 
tional supplies  of  generosity, —  a  body  united  from  no 
motives  of  ordinary  ambition,  nor  calculated  to  gratify 
any  selfish  views  of  personal  aggrandizement." 


14 


The  preamble  to  the  charter  embodies  the  same 
idea : — 

"  Whereas  the  collection  and  preservation  of  the 
antiquities  of  our  country,  and  of  curious  and  valua- 
ble productions  of  art  and  nature,  have  a  tendency  to 
enlarge  the  sphere  of  human  knowledge,  and  the 
progress  of  science,  to  perpetuate  the  history  of  moral 
and  political  events,  and  to  improve  and  interest  pos- 
terity :  therefore  be  it  enacted,"  &c. 

That  the  chief  objects  of  the  Society  might  not  be 
lost  sight  of  or  neglected,  a  committee  was  appointed 
in  1819  to  prepare  and  publish  an  address  to  the 
members,  urging  on  them  the  importance  of  securing 
the  means  "  to  pursue  those  researches,  so  desirable, 
into  the  antiquities  of  this  New  World,  and  to  rescue 
them  from  the  ravages  of  time,  for  the  use  and  im- 
provement of  the  historian,  the  philosopher,  and  all 
scientific  men  of  our  country  of  the  present  age,  and 
of  posterity." 

The  boundless  scope  of  its  investigations  was  else- 
where declared  to  be  —  in  the  Avords  of  Su-  William 
Jones  —  "  Man  and  Nature,  —  whatever  is  or  has  been 
performed  by  the  one,  or  produced  by  the  other." 

Founded  on  such  broad  and  liberal  principles,  and 
for  such  noble  purposes,  the  Society  readily  secured 
the  sympathy  and  co-operation  of  the  wise,  the 
learned,  and  the  public-spirited,  throughout  the  coun- 
try. The  most  eminent  names  in  science,  letters,  and 
art,  have  adorned   our    cataloajue    of  members  ;    and 


15 


some  of  the  most  distinguished  citizens  in  every  call- 
ing have  given  efficient  aid  in  furthering  the  objects 
for  which  we  are  associated. 

Of  primary  importance  to  every  institution  estab- 
lished for  archaeological,  literary,  or  scientific  purposes, 
is  a  library  of  manuscript  and  printed  works.  From 
these  may  be  gathered  the  results  of  the  labors  of 
others,  up  to  the  present  time.  By  availing  himself 
of  these,  the  new  explorer  may  be  saved  a  vast  deal 
of  time  and  trouble,  and  be  thus  enabled  more  fully 
to  devote  his  energies  to  the  continuing  of  researches 
in  the  same  direction. 

An  excellent  foundation  for  such  a  library  —  the 
private  collection  of  Mr.  Thomas,  —  was  generously 
given  by  the  owner  to  the  American  Antiquarian  So- 
ciety soon  after  it  was  incorporated  ;  and,  a  few  years 
afterward,  the  first  Antiquarian  Hall  was  erected  by 
the  same  munificent  liberality,  to  become  the  deposi- 
tory of  these,  and  of  such  other  treasures  of  literature, 
science,  and  art,  as  should  be  collected  for  the  Society. 
Until  18"20,  when  the  Hall  was  first  occupied,  the  re- 
ceiving agents  of  the  Society  in  various  places  retained 
in  their  personal  custody  the  works  they  had  gath- 
ered, for  the  future  use  of  the  public.  Mr.  Thomas's 
library  remained  till  that  time  in  his  own  house, 
where  he  was  continually  enlarging  its  numbers,  and 
increasing  its  value.  His  liberality  was  seconded  in  a 
gratifying  maimer  in  various  quarters  :  other  valuable 
private  libraries  were  given,  and  smaller  contributions 


16 

came  in  from  many  sources.  The  National  and  many 
of  the  State  Governments  sent  their  public  docu- 
ments regularly ;  and  most  of  the  learned  associations 
in  the  country  included  this  Society  in  the  number  of 
those  to  which  their  publications  were  to  be  pre- 
sented. So  that  now,  after  little  more  than  half  a 
century,  we  have  a  library  of  thirty-five  thousand  vol- 
umes, —  larger,  it  is  believed,  than  any  library  in  the 
United  States  at  the  time  when  our  Society  was 
formed,  —  with  a  good  printed  catalogue,  of  nearly 
six  hundred  octavo  pages ;  and  we  have  for  years  en- 
joyed the  services  of  an  accomplished  librarian,  ever 
ready  to  aid  all  who  have  occasion  to  use  the  books. 

The  portraits  and  busts,  which  from  time  to  time 
have  been  presented  to  the  Society,  and  now  adorn  the 
Library,  are  of  much  value  and  interest.  Though 
their  number  is  not  yet  large,  they  form  a  respectable 
beginning  of  an  historical  gallery  which  we  hope  at 
some  time  to  see  increased  ;  at  the  head  of  which 
may  appropriately  stand  those  portraits  of  Columbus 
and  Vespucius,  copied  for  the  Library  from  paintings 
in  the  Bourbon  Gallery  at  Naples,  and  presented  by 
Judge  Barton. 

And  here  we  cannot  refrain  from  alluding  to  the 
recent  valuable  gift  by  Mr.  Salisbury,  our  honored 
President,  of  casts  of  Michael  Angelo's  ce.lebrated 
statues  of  the  great  Hebrew  Lawgiver,  and  of  Him 
"  who  was  counted  worthy  of  more  glory  than  Moses." 
These  works  of  high  art,  unique  on  this  continent. 


17 

well  deserve  a  pilgrimage  to  the  city  which  is  fixvored 
with  their  possession. 

The  Society  has  not  been  unmindful  of  its  duty  to 
diffuse,  as  well  as  to  gather,  the  means  of  knowledge. 
Within  eight  years  from  its  incorporation,  and  as 
soon  as  the  library  was  placed  in  the  earlier  Antiqua- 
rian Hall,  the  first  volume  of  the  "  Transactions  and 
Collections  "  was  published  in  an  octavo  volume  of  more 
than  four  hundred  pages.  This  has  been  followed  at 
irregular  intervals  by  three  other  similar  volumes,  con- 
taining elaborate  and  valuable  contributions  to  the 
archaeological  and  historical  literature  of  the  country. 
Besides  these  larger  publications,  the  reports  and 
papers  presented  at  the  semi-annual  meetings,  contain- 
mg  interesting  and  important  essays  and  discussions  on 
a  great  variety  of  subjects,  have  for  many  years  been 
regularly  printed  and  distributed. 

The  past  history  and  the  present  condition  and 
prospects  of  the  Society  are  as  favorable  as  its  most 
ardent  friends  could  have  expected.  For  this  success 
and  prosperity  we  are  mainly  indebted  to  our  prede- 
cessors ;  and  especially  should  we  acknowledge  our 
obligations,  for  his  foresight,  industry,  and  liberality, 
to  Isaiah  Thomas,  to  whom,,  more  than  to  any  other 
person,  belongs  the  honor  of  originatmg,  establishing, 
and  endowing  the  institution. 

Besides  giving  his  own  library,  erecting  an  Antiqua- 
rian Hall,  and  presenting  it  to  the  Society,  and  also 


18 


publishing,  at  his  own  expense,  the  fii-st  volume  of 
"Transactions,"  in  his  last  will  he  added  to  his  previous 
benefactions,  so  that  the  aggregate  of  his  gifts  does 
not  fall  short  of  forty  thousand  dollars.  The  Society 
which  he  founded  will  be  his  enduring  monument. 

Nor  was  his  liberality  confined  to  the  Society  which 
was  so  dear  to  hira.  Harvard  and  Alleghany  Colleges, 
the  New-York  Historical  Society,  and  other  pubhc  in- 
stitutions, were  also  recipients  of  his  bounty. 

The  celebrated  Brissot  de  Warville,  who  visited 
this  country  in  1788,  "not,"  he  says,  "to  study  an- 
tiques, or  to  search  for  unknown  plants,  but  to  study 
men  who  had  just  acquired  then-  liberty,"  remarks  of 
Worcester :  "  This  town  is  elegant  and  well-peopled  : 
the  printer,  Isaiah  Thomas,  has  rendered  it  famous 
through  all  the  continent.  He  prints  most  of  the 
works  which  appear  ;  and  it  must  be  granted,  that  his 
editions  are  correct.  Thomas  is  the  Didot  of  the 
United  States." 

Few  men  in  New  England,  at  the  close  of  the  last 
century,  had  access  to  a  larger  audience  than  he. 
Happily  the  influence  he  exerted  was  as  salutary 
as  it  was  extensive.  His  patriotism  was  manifested 
as  truly,  while  he  was  employed  in  his  business,  by  a 
constant  endeavor  to  enlighten  his  feUow-citizens  on 
the  subject  of  their  civil  and  political  duties,  as  when 
he  was  engaged  in  the  military  service  of  his  country 
on  the  battle-field  at  Lexington.  The  columns  of  the 
newspaper  which  he  published  aff"orded  him  an  easy 


19 

method  of  reaching  the  public  ear.  From  his  press, 
also,  the  families  of  the  land  were  supplied  Avith  the 
works  of  approved  authors,  and  the  schools  with  their 
text-books.  The  books  he  published,  from  a  penny 
picture-book  to  a  folio  Bible,  received  the  most  care- 
ful editorial  supervision ;  and  he  made  many  of  them 
the  medium  of  conveying  patriotic  sentiments. 

The  text  of  "  The  New-England  Primer,"  that  little 
book  so  powerful  in  formiiig  the  minds  of  several 
generations  of  New-England  children,  had  been  cor- 
rupted, before  the  Colonies  became  inde])endent,  by 
some  royahst  printer ;  and  one  of  the  alphabetical 
couplets  had  been  changed,  in  order  to  commemorate 
the  preservation  of  a  tyrannical  and  unprincipled 
monarch.  In  the  Worcester  edition,  the  publisher 
discarded  these  lines,  and  substituted  others,  more 
in  accordance  with  Republican  sentiments. 

Isaiah  Thomas's  Almanac  made  its  way  into  almost 
every  dwelling  in  New  England.  The  editor,  instead 
of  filling  the  last  pages  with  silly  stories  and  rhymes, 
such  as  generally  are  to  be  found  there,  made  this  little 
annual  the  means  of  conveying  important  political 
and  general  knowledge.  One  year  we  find  him  print- 
ing in  his  Almanac  "  the  Substance  of  the  Constitution 
of  Massachusetts  ;  "  and,  at  another  time,  he  inserts 
"the  Whole  of  the  Bill  of  Rights  prefixed  to  the 
Constitution."  In  1788  he  gives  an  account  of  the 
"Proceedings  of  the  Federal  Convention;"  in  1797 
he  publishes  Washington's  "  Farewell  Address,"  and 


20 

in  1801  a  biograpliical  sketch  of  tlie  Father  of  his 
Country. 

From  the  publisher's  Advertisement,  prefixed  to 
his  edition  of  Perry's  "  Only  Sure  Guide  to  the  English 
Tongue,"  we  learn  how  carefully  he  edited  that  popu- 
lar spelling-book.  Mr.  Thomas  says  he  "was  the  first 
person  who  ventured  to  print  this  work  in  America." 
He  carefully  exammed  all  the  British  editions  that 
had  been  published,  and  Selected  from  each  what  he 
judged  to  be  truly  useful. 

But  the  greatest  achievement  of  the  Worcester 
press,  that  which  would  of  itself  make  the  name  of  its 
proprietor  for  ever  famous,  even  if  he  had  no  other 
claims  to  the  regard  of  his  countrymen,  was  the  pub- 
lication of  the  English  Bible,  in  folio,  quarto,  and 
smaller  forms,  before  any  other  printer  in  New  Eng- 
land engaged  in  such  an  enterprise. 

Nearly  a  century  earlier,  Cotton  Mather,  by  fifteen 
years  of  study  and  labor,  had  prepared  for  publication 
his  Bihlia  Americana,  —  the  common  version  of  the 
English  Bible,  with  his  comments.  But  no  publisher 
has  ever  yet  responded  to  the  earnest  appeals  of  that 
learned  divine  by  offering  to  print  his  work ;  and  it  is 
likely  to  repose  indefinitely,  where  it  has  long  been  in 
manuscript,  in  the  library  of  the  Massachusetts  His- 
torical Society. 

Mr.  Thomas  has  given  us  an  account  of  one  unau- 
thorized, and  of  course,  in  those  Colonial  days,  sur- 
reptitious edition  of  the  Bible,  and  two  of  the  New 


21 


Testament,  printed  in  Boston  near  the  middle  of  the 
last  century.  No  copy  of  either  of  them  is  known  to 
be  extant. 

In  1770,  an  attempt  was  made  to  publish  by  sub- 
scription a  folio  edition  of  the  English  Bible,  with 
the  Rev.  Samuel  Clarke's  notes ;  but  the  project  was 
abandoned  for  want  of  patronage. 

In  1782,  the  Eev.  Dr.  Lyman  of  Hatfield,  in  this 
State,  sent  a  letter  to  the  Association  of  Congrega- 
tional jVIiuisters  in  Boston,  setting  forth  the  importance 
of  publishing  tlie  Bible  here.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Chauncy, 
in  replying  to  that  letter  on  behalf  of  the  Association, 
gives  three  conclusive  reasons  why  the  work  could- 
not  be  undertaken  at  that  time :  — 

"  First,  All  the  printers  in  town  have  not  type  suffi- 
cient for  such  an  impression. 

"  Second,  If  they  had,  proper  paper,  in  quantity,  is 
not  to  be  found  except  by  sending  to  Europe. 

"Third,  If  there  was  a  sufficiency  of  type  and 
paper,  the  Bibles  could  not  possibly  be  sold  so  cheap 
as  those  that  are  imported  from  abroad." 

In  the  autumn  of  1789,  Mr.  Thomas  issued  pro- 
posals for  "  publishing  by  subscription  an  American 
edition,  in  large  royal  quarto  (ornamented  with  an 
elegant  copperplate  frontispiece),  of  the  Holy  Bible, 
containing  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  with  the 
Apocrypha,  an  index,  marginal  notes,  and  references.' 
It  was  a  hazardous  undertaking  ;  but  the  enterprise 
and  courage  of  the  printer  were  equal  to  the  emer- 


22 


gency.  Among  the  conditions  of  subscription  we 
find  the  following :  "  To  make  payment  easy  to  those 
who  Avish  to  be  encouragers  of  this  laudable  under- 
taking, and  to  be  in  possession  of  so  valuable  property 
as  a  royal  quarto  Bible,  and  who  are  not  able  to  pay 
for  one  all  in  cash,  —  from  such,  the  pubHsher  will 
receive  one-half  of  the  sum,  or  twenty-one  shillings, 
in  the  following  articles,  viz.  wheat,  rye,  Indian  corn, 
butter,  or  pork,  if  delivered  at  his  store  in  Worcester, 
or  at  the  store  of  himself  and  Company  in  Boston, 
by  the  twentieth  day  of  December,  1790  ;  the  remain- 
ing sum  of  twenty-one  shillings  to  be  paid  in  cash  as 
soon  as  the  books  are  ready  for  delivery.  This  pro- 
posal is  made  to  accommodate  all,  notwithstanding  the 
sum  of  twenty-one  shillings  will  by  no  means  be  the 
proportion  of  cash  that  each  Biljle  bound  will  cost 
the  publisher." 

An  address  "  to  the  Reverend  Clergy,"  one  "  to 
Christians  of  all  denominations,"  and  another  '•  to  the 
public  at  large,"  follow  the  conditions  stated  in  the 
Prospectus. 

It  was  nearly  a  year  before  a  sufficient  number  of 
subscribers  was  obtained,  and  the  work  put  to  press. 
In  1791,  the  quarto,  and  at  the  same  time  a  large 
folio  Bible  with  fifty  copperplate  engravings,  were 
published. 

These  were  followed  by  an  octavo  Bible  in  1793, 
and  by  one  in  duodecimo  form  in  1797.  That  the 
smaller  Bibles,  intended  to  be  used  in  the  common 


23 


schools,  might  be  sold  at  the  lowest  possible  price, 
the  types  were  left  standing,  and  kept  ready  at  all 
times  for  the  press.  "  This  work,"  Mr.  Thomas  says, 
"  employed  a  larger  capital  than  any  work  issned  from 
an  American  press." 

The  publisher  had  good  cause  to  felicitate  himself 
on  the  successful  completion  of  his  great  undertaking. 
In  the  introductory  address  prefixed  to  his  folio  and 
quarto  Bibles,  he  manifests  in  glowing  terms  his  joy 
at  the  general  prosperity  of  the  new  Republic.  He 
had  done  his  part  towards  promoting  its  welfare. 
He  believed,  that  it  was  from  the  sacred  Scriptures 
that  "  motives  to  the  faithful  performance  of  every 
patriotic,  civil,  and  social  duty"  were  to  be  drawn; 
and  that  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  ought  to 
be  "  supplied  with  copies,  independently  of  foreign 
aid."  He  spared  no  pains  or  expense  to  make  his 
editions  "  correct,  neat,  and  elegant ; "  and  it  is  no 
small  honor  to  him  to  have  his  name  for  ever  asso- 
ciated with  such  a  patriotic  and  Christian  enterprise. 

After  Mr.  Thomas  had  retired  from  business,  his 
leisure  was  not  idleness.  The  art,  to  the  highest  prac- 
tice of  which  he  had  devoted  his  life,  was  still  the 
object  of  his  fond  contemplation.  For  years,  he  em- 
ployed himself  in  compiling  the  History  of  its  mtro- 
duction  and  progress  in  the  New  World.  When  we 
consider  that  this  was  a  theme  hitherto  untouched, 
what  laborious  diligence  was  required  to  amass  the 
widely  scattered  materials  for  his  Avork,  and  what  skill 


24 


to  mould  them  into  a  connected  form  that  should 
endure  as  a  portion  of  the  history  of  his  country  in  an 
important  department,  we  cannot  hesitate  to  assign  to 
him  a  place  among  the  principal  writers  who  have 
contributed  to  the  bibliography  of  the  whole  world. 

The  intelligence,  the  untiring  industry,  and  the 
patriotic  ardor  of  Isaiah  Thomas  will  always  entitle 
him  to  a  high  place  on  the  catalogue  of  those,  who, 
by  their  personal  efforts  and  pecuniary  contributions, 
have  increased  the  means  of  knowledge  and  happi- 
ness, and  thus  become  public  benefactors. 

The  By-laws  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society 
require  of  the  Council  semi-annual  reports  of  the 
investment  of  the  funds,  and  the  condition  of  the  Li- 
brary, Cabinet,  &c.  The  Keports  of  the  Treasurer 
and  the  Librarian,  which  accompany  this,  and  are 
submitted  as  a  part  of  the  Eeport  of  the  Council, 
contain  gratifying  evidences  of  the  continued  pros- 
perity of  the  Society. 

When  we  assembled,  a  year  ago,  to  commemorate 
the  completion  of  the  first  half-century  of  our  existence 
as  an  association,  we  all  listened  with  rare  gratification 
to  the  letter  of  a  venerable  founder  of  the  Society, 
whose  interest  in  its  welfare  had  continued  from  the 
first,  and  who  had,  during  his  life  of  more  than  ninety 
years,  in  various  ways  promoted  the  objects  for  which 
it  was  foi'med. 


25 

His  great  age,  so  far  beyond  the  ordinary  period  of 
hnraan  life,  forbade  us  to  hope  for-  a  much  longer 
continuance  of  his  presence  among  us.  When,  there- 
fore, on  the  first  day  of « July  last,  the  announcement 
of  the  decease  of  Josiah  Quincy  was  made,  it  created 
no  surprise.  The  measure  of  his  days,  of  his  use- 
fulness, and  of  his  honors,  was  full.  His  life  was 
completed. 

The  numerous  other  institutions  with  which  he  was 
connected  have  already  paid  their  tribute  to  his  worth; 
but,  however  they  may  have  anticipated  what  might 
otherwise  have  been  a  fitting  eulogium  from  the  Amer- 
ican Antiquarian  Society,  this  does  not  deprive  us  of 
the  pleasure,  or  absolve  us  from  the  duty,  of  recog- 
nizing his  claims  to  honor  as  an  Antiquary  in  the 
noblest  sense. 

The  historical  writings  of  Mr.  Quincy  entitle  him  to 
a  high  rank  among  the  authors  who  have  enriched 
this  class  of  American  literature.  If  he  had  left  no 
other  record  of  service  to  his  country,  his  published 
works,  from  the  importgince  of  the  subjects  to  which 
they  relate,  and  the  ability  with  which  these  are 
treated,  and  from  the  lofty  principles  those  works 
illustrate  and  inculcate,  would  cause  his  name  to  be 
held  in  honorable  remembrance. 

That  one  whose  time  was  so  nearly  engrossed  by 
official  duties  should  have  been  able  to  do  so  much 
and  so  Avell  as  an  historian  and  a  biographer,  would 
surprise  us,  if  we  did  not  know  that  most  of  his  lit- 


26 


erary  productions  were  the  natural  outgrowth  of  his 
active  life.  Whenever  called  to  any  public  service, 
he,  like  a  true  antiquarian,  began  by  reverting  to  the 
past,  and  making  himself  thoroughly  acquainted  with 
whatever  had  preceded  that  had  relation  to  the  posi- 
tion he  was  to  hold ;  and  the  investigations  which  he 
made  primarily  for  his  own  informatid^i  and  guidance, 
he  published  for  the  benefit  of  others. 

His  largest  and  most  elaborate  work,  the  History  of 
"  that  University  which  was  the  very  cradle  of  learning 
in  these  parts  of  the  earth,"  is  in  its  nature  almost  a 
treatise  on  the  literary,  ecclesiastical,  and  civil  anti- 
quities of  New  England.  In  that  institution,  founded 
amidst  the  toils  and  suiferings  of  the  first  settlers, 
were  reflected,  more  clearly  than  almost  anywhere 
else,  their  principles  and  purposes  as  well  as  their 
manners  and  customs.  The  minute  details  of  their 
contributions  and  sacrifices  for  its  support,  in  view  of 
their  cu-cumstances  and  object,  are  full  of  moral  dig- 
nity; and  the  antiquary,  in  bringing  to  light  such 
examples,  becomes  a  most  eloquent  moral  teacher. 

Mr.  Quincy  was  called  to  the  Presidency  of  the  Uni- 
versity in  1829.  There  was  hardly  an  institution  in 
the  country  of  greater  interest  than  Harvard  College, 
whose  history  from  its  beginning  had  been  blended 
with  whatever  concerned  the  maintenance  and  ad- 
vancement of  sound  learning  and  civil  liberty  in  the 
American  Colonies  and  the  United  States.  But 
hitherto  there  were  to  be  found  only  scattered  notices 


27 


of  its  origin,  action,  and  influence,  which  awakened, 
bnt  could  not  satisfy,  the  curiosity  even  of  those  who 
knew  it  best  from  having  been  nurtured  in  its  bosom. 

In  1833,  was  published  the  excellent,  summary, 
though  uncompleted  and  posthumous,  volume  of  Mr. 
Peirce,  the  librarian  of  the  University.  But  a  full 
History  was  still  a  desideratum.  For  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  a  vote  of  the  Corporation,  re- 
questing the  President  to  prepare  a  History  of  the 
University,  had  stood  upon  the  records  of  that  Board. 
Mr.  Quincy  was  not  the  man  to  shrink  from  any  duty 
which  his  official  position  devolved  upon  him :  and, 
having  been  specially  invited  by  the  Corporation  to 
prepare  a  discourse  to  be  delivered  on  the  8th  of 
September,  1836,  the  second  centennial  anniversary 
of  the  foundation  of  the  University,  "  in  commemora- 
tion of  that  event,  and  of  the  founders  and  patrons  of 
the  Seminary,"  he  not  only  performed  the  task  then 
assigned  him,  but  announced  his  purpose  of  preparing, 
as  soon  as  it  was  practicable,  the  long-desired  History 
of  the  institution. 

What  he  began  from  a  sense  of  duty,  he  con- 
tinued with  affectionate  zeal  till  he  completed  the 
work,  —  an  enduring  monument  to  the  founders  and 
benefactors  of  his  venerable  Alnia  Mater. 

When  a  new  chajjter  shall  be  added  by  another 
hand,  the  history  of  the  administration  of  President 
Quincy  will  not  suffer  by  a  comparison  with  that  of 
any  of  his  distinguished  predecessors. 


28 


Before  his  removal  to  Cambridge,  Mr.  Quincy  had 
already  begun  his  "  Municipal  History  of  the  Town 
and  City  of  Boston  during  Two  Centuries."  This, 
like  the  History  of  the  University,  originated  in  his 
official  position.  His  natural  attachment  \o  the  town 
in  which  he  was  born  had  been  strengthened  by 
repeated  evidences  of  confidence  and  respect  on  the 
part  of  his  fellow-citizens.  He  had  been  invested  by 
them  with  the  most  important  offices  in  then  gift ;  he 
had  been  their  representative  in  both  branches  of  the 
State  I-egislature  ;  and,  for  four  successive  terms  of 
service,  he  had  represented  them  in  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States.  It  was  as  Judge  of  the  Munici- 
pal Court  of  Boston,  that  he  made  the  memorable  de- 
cision, that  the  publication  of  truth  with  good  intent 
is  not  a  libel,  — a  decision  which,  though  questioned 
and  gravely  censured  at  the  time,  has  since  become 
the  settled  rule  of  law. 

Called  from  the  bench  to  the  chief  magistracy  of 
the  City,  he  entered  upon  the  administration  of  its 
affairs  Avith  that  indomitable  energy  which  ever  dis 
tinguished  his  public  life.  The  recent  transition  from 
a  town  to  a  city  government  had  brought  with  it  the 
necessity  of  important  changes  in  old  modes  of  pro- 
ceeding, and  of  the  establishment  of  new  institutions. 
Here  the  wisdom  and  foresight,  as  well  as  energy,  of 
Mr.  Quincy  were  fully  exercised ;  and  he  lived  to  see 
even  those  of  his  measures  Avhich  at  the  time  met  with 
only  partial  approval,  and  others  which  encountered 


29 


the  strongest  opposition,  fully  justified  by  a  later  pub- 
lic opinion. 

At  the  request  of  the  municipal  authorities,  he 
delivered  "  An  Address  to  the  Citizens  of  Boston  on 
the  17th  of  September,  1830,  the  Close  of  the  Second 
Century  from  the  first  Settlement  of  the  City;"  an  elo- 
quent commentary  on  its  history,  full  of  noble  senti- 
ments, and  a  model  production  of  its  kind.  He  gave, 
in  a  condensed  form,  the  result  of  much  antiquarian 
research  into  the  manners  and  customs,  laAvs  and 
principles,  of  former  generations ;  and  he  did  not  fail 
to  enforce  in  the  strongest  terms  the  lessons  they  sug- 
gested.. 

The  larger  History  of  Boston,  which,  after  a  lapse 
of  twenty  years,  was  resumed,  and  was  finished  in 
February,  1852,  at  the  close  of  the  author's  eightieth 
year,  is  mainly  devoted  to  an  account  of  the  City  gov- 
ernment during  the  period  of  his  mayoralty.  In  the 
preface  he  says  :  "  It  appeared  to  the  author,  that  a  mu- 
nicipal history  of  the  Town,  and  an  accurate  account 
of  the  transactions  in  the  first  years  of  the  City  gov- 
ernment, would  be  useful  and  interesting  to  the  pubhc 
in  future  times,  and  was  due  to  the  wisdom,  fidelity, 
and  disinterested  services  of  his  associates."  In  the 
naked  record  of  his  administration,  we  find  the  best 
eulogy  on  his  own  ability  and  his  devotion  to  duty. 

The  "  History  of  the  Boston  Athenaeum,"  also,  grew 
out  of  Mr.  Quincy's  relation  to  the  institution  and  its 
founders  and  early  patrons.     They  were  his  cherished 


30 


friends.  He  was  himself  one  of  the  original  contrib- 
utors to  its  fund.  For  several  years  he  was  its  Presi- 
dent. 

When,  in  1847,  the  corner-stone  of  the  spacious 
and  elegant  edifice  in  Beacon  Street  was  laid,  he  was 
requested  to  deliver  an  address  on  the  occasion ;  and 
was  afterwards  solicited  to  write  out  and  extend  his 
remarks  for  publication.  The  result  was  a  volume  of 
between  three  and  four  hundred  pages,  containing  a 
documentary  history  of  the  Athenaeum,  followed  by 
admirable  biographical  notices  of  its  deceased  found- 
ers. It  was  a  labor  of  love  to  commemorate  the 
services  of  that  little  band  of  "  ingenuous  scholars " 
who  originated  and  established  this  institution,  "  dedi- 
cated to  letters  and  the  arts." 

The  biographical  Avorks  of  Mr.  Quincy,  no  less  than 
his  Histories,  were  produced  in  response  to  some  call 
of  obvious  duty. 

Believing,  to  use  his  own  words,  that,  "  of  all  monu- 
ments raised  to  the  memory  of  distinguished  men,  the 
most  appropriate  and  least  exceptionable  are  those 
whose  foundations  are  laid  in  their  own  works,  and 
which  are  constructed  of  materials  supplied  and 
wrought  by  their  own  labors,"  he  prepared,  from  the 
papers  bequeathed  to  him  by  his  father,  a  Memoir  of 
that  illustrious  patriot,  which  will  continue  to  be  read 
with  the  greatest  interest  and  admiration,  as  long  as 
the  love  of  liberty  is  cherished,  and  the  story  of  its 
apostles,  defenders,  and  martyrs  is  welcomed. 


31 


The  "  Life  of  Major  Samuel  Shaw,"  prefixed  to  his 
Journals,  and  prepared,  at  the  request  of  the  proprie- 
tor of  them,  by  Mr.  Quincy,  the  only  sm-viving  friend 
who  could  do  him  justice  as  a  benefactor  of  his  coun- 
try, was  undertaken,  the  author  says,  from  no  other 
motive  than  the  gratification  afforded  by  being  in- 
strumental in  perpetuating  the  memory  of  one  whom 
he  had  known  in  his  early  youth,  and  of  whom,  after 
the  lapse  of  fifty  years,  he  "  could  truly  say,  that,  in 
the  course  of  a  long  life,  he  had  never  known  an 
individual  of  a  character  more  elevated  and  chivalric, 
acting  according  to  a  purer  standard  of  morals,  im- 
bued with  a  higher  sense  of  honor,  and  uniting  more 
intimately  the  qualities  of  the  gentleman,  the  soldier, 
the  scholar,  and  the  Christian." 

Two  of  Mr.  Quincy's  biographical  productions  were 
written  at  the  special  request  of  the  Massachusetts 
Historical  Society.  The  brief  but  excellent  "  Memoir 
of  James  Grahame,"  author  of  the  "  History  of  the 
United  States  of  North  America,"  contains  all  that  we 
know  of  that  worthy  man  and  faithful  historian.  ]\Ir. 
Quincy  had  great  respect  for  the  moral  purity  and  in- 
tellectual elevation  of  Mr.  Grahame's  character,  and 
held  his  great  work  in  high  estimation.  He  felt  that 
it  was  "  incumbent  upon  some  American  to  do  justice 
to  the  memory  of  a  foreigner  who  had  devoted  the 
chief  and  choicest  years  of  his  life  to  writing  a  history 
of  our  country,  with  a  labor,  fidelity,  and  affectionate 
zeal  for  the  American  people  and  their  institutions. 


32 


which  any  native  citizen  may  be  proud  to  equal,  and 
will  find  it  difficult  to  sm-pass."  This  Memoir  was 
first  printed  in  the  Collections  of  the  Massachusetts 
Historical  Society ;  and  was  afterwards  prefixed  to 
a  new  edition  of  Mr.  Grahame's  History,  as  revised 
and  enlarged  by  the  author,  and  published,  in  this 
country,  after  his  death,  under  the,  auspices  of  his 
biographer. 

In  the  eighty-seventh  year  of  his  age,  Mr.  Quincy 
completed  and  published  his  "  Memoir  of  the  Life  of 
John  Quincy  Adams,"  —  a  fair  volume  of  over  four 
hundred  pages. 

Connected  by  family  ties,  nearly  his  co-eval,  and 
intimately  acquainted  with  his  private  life  as  well  as 
his  public  career,  Mr.  Quincy  was  peculiarly  fitted  to 
perform  the  task  assigned  him.  It  was,  however,  to 
Mr.  Adams's  public  life  that  the  biographer  princi- 
pally addressed  himself.  Besides  the  advantages  de- 
rived from  personal  knowledge,  and  a  recourse  to  his 
printed  works,  he  was  favored  with  a-ccess  to  copious 
authentic  unpublished  materials. 

His  "  chief  endeavor,"  as  he  says,  was  "  to  render 
him  the  expositor  of  his  own  motives,  principles,  and 
character,  without  fear  or  favor,  in  the  sphit  neither 
of  criticism  nor  eulogy."  He  has  thus  produced  a 
work,  which,  whilst  it  partakes  largely  of  the  nature 
of  an  autobiography,  constitutes  also  a  most  important 
chapter  in  the  general  history  of  the  Republic. 

If,  at  any  time,  a  diff'erence  of  opinion  may  have 


33 


existed  between  the  biographer  and  his  subject  on 
minor  matters,  they  were  indissohibly  united  in  the 
sentiment  of  the  grand  avowal  of  Mr.  Adams,  inscribed 
under  the  portrait  that  adorns  the  volume  :  "  I  live  in 
the  faith  and  hope  of  the  progressive  advancement  of 
Christian  liberty,  and  expect  to  abide  by  the  same  in 
death." 

The  key-note  of  Mr.  Quincy's  public  life,  and  of 
most  of  his  writings,  is  found  in  that  invocation  which, 
in  his  father's  last  will  and  testament,  follows  a  be- 
quest to  the  son,  of  the  works  of  the  great  writers  on 
free  government.  "  May  the  spirit  of  liberty  rest 
upon  him ! " 

Inheriting  the  principles  of  this  illustrious  patriot, 
he  consecrated  his  life,  and  all  his  powers,  to  their 
maintenance.  Born  when  the  sentiments  of  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence  were  ripening  into  action, 
and  living  as  a  young  man  with  those  who  made  good 
the  Declaration,  and  founded  this  Republic,  he  un- 
derstood the  difficulties  that  beset  their  path  when 
they  were  called  on  to  for-m  a  Constitution  for  the 
government  of  all  the  States.  In  common  with  the 
great  body  of  the  statesmen  of  that  day.  South  as  well 
as  North,  he  felt  that  there  must  ever  be  an  irrepressi- 
ble conflict  between  freedom  and  slavery. 

An  unfortunate  delusion,  fostered  by  the  specious 
declarations  and  promises  of  a  few  members  of  the 
Federal  Convention,  who  only  ventured  to  ask  for  a 
temporary  toleration  of  slavery,  and  averred,  that,  if 


34 


let  alone,  tliey  would  willingly,  in  a  short  time,  rid 
themselves  of  it,  induced  the  framers  of  the  Constitu- 
tion to  commit  to  the  several  States  the  general  power 
of  peaceful  emancipation.  Mr.  Quincy  ahvays  dis- 
trusted the  sincerity  of  those  members  who  seemed 
to  him  faithless  to  the  principles  of  the  Constitution  in 
insisting  upon  this  as  a  condition  of  its  acceptance. 
He  knew  that  any  compromise  by  which  eternal  prin- 
ciples are  postponed  to  .temporary  policy,  sooner  or 
later,  fails. 

When,  at  last,  this  essential  antagonism  resulted  in 
open  violence  that  aimed  to  destroy  the  nation  itself, 
and  thus  the  Government  became  invested  with  the 
right,  and  placed  under  the  obligation,  to  preserve  the 
life  of  the  nation  at  the  expense  of  its  mortal  foe, 
Mr.  Quincy  thought  he  saw  the  hand  of  Providence 
opening  a  way,  as  righteous  as  it  was  necessary,  for 
the  extirpation  of  the  evil. 

His  fliith  in  the  permanency  of  the  Republic  never 
faltered.  He  had  none  of  the  timidity  or  of  the  des- 
pondency which  often  accompanies  extreme  old  age. 
"The  victory  of  the  United  States  in  this  war  is  inevi- 
table," were  his  words  but  a  few  months  before  he  died, 
addressed  to  the  President  of  the  United  States,  in  a 
letter  remarkable  for  its  vigor  and  its  clearness  of 
statement.  He  looked  for  a  speedy  suppression  of 
the  Rebellion.  He  believed  that  his  country  would 
come  out  of  this  terrible  conflict,  purified  and  justified 
in  the  eyes  of  the  world. 


35 

"With  devout  gratitude  for  all  the  blessings  which  at- 
tended his  long  and  eventful  life,  and  with  a  firm  fixith 
in  the  goodness  and  mercy  of  his  heavenly  Father, 
our  venerated  associate  passed  to  his  eternal  home. 

Our  chief  purpose,  on  the  present  occasion,  has  been 
less  to  speak  his  eulogy,  already  elsewhere  pronounced 
in  a  classic  as  well  as  in  the  vernacular  tongue,  than 
to  enrich  our  records  with  the  enumeration  of  some  of 
his  merits  as  they  are  shown  in  those  of  his  works 
that  are  intimately  connected  with  our  own  objects  as 
members  of  an  American  Antiquarian  Society. 

Ere  long  the  marble  statue  and  the  granite  column 
will  arise  to  perpetuate  his  memory.  But  the  erec- 
tion of  a  still  more  enduring  monument  will  be  the 
noble  task  of  the  historian,  who,  to  illustrate  the 
spirit  of  the  free  institutions  of  our  country,  as  exhib- 
ited in  the  character  of  one  of  her  greatest  citizens, 
shall  portray  the  Life  and  Times  of  Josiah  Qumcy. 

For  the  Council. 

GEOEGE   LIVERMORE. 


36 


REPORT   OF  THE  LIBRARIAN. 


The  Librarian  has  to  report  that  donations  have 
been  received  from  the  following  sources:  — 

Nathaniel  B.  Shurtleff,  M.D.,  Boston.  —  2  pamphlets. 

Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  Boston.  —  Cards  and  notices. 

Trustees  of  the  Free  Public  Library,  New  Bedford.  —  1  pam- 
phlet. 

WiNSLOw  Lewis,  M.D.,  Bostoa.  —  His  Address  before  Hist.  Gen. 
Society,  1864. 

Prof.  Edward  Tuckerman,  Amherst.  —  MS.  Letter-book  of 
Thomas  Fitch,  merchant  of  Boston,  1702-11. 

Mrs.  John  Davis,  Worcester.  — 14  books.  In  excess  of  a  dona- 
tion referred  to  in  a  previous  Report. 

I.  A.  Lapham,  Esq.,  Milwaukee,  Wis.  —  The  Lapham-Family 
Records,  on  a  Broadside. 

Dr.  Edward  Jarvis,  Dorchester.  —  35  pamphlets.  Also  various 
miscellaneous  papers. 

Edmund  M.  Barton,  Worcester.  —  2  pamphlets. 

Miss  Mary  C.  Gay,  Suffield,  Conn.  —  3  pamphlets.  Also  the 
Connecticut  "Courant"  for  1863,  and  Supplements  of  "  Cou- 
rant"  back  to  1828. 

William  A.  Sshth,  Esq.,  Worcester.  — 15  Spiritualist  publica- 
tions. 

Hon.  William  Willis,  Portland,  Me.  —  His  History  of  the  Law, 
Courts,  and  Lawyers  of  Maine  ;  and  the  Journals'  of  Rev. 
Thomas  Smith  and  Rev.  Samuel  Deane. 


37 


Henry  P.  Stuegis,  Esq.  Boston.  —  Tlie  "  Avesta  "  of  the  Pursees, 

Black's  translation. 
Rev.  John  L.  Sibley,  Cambridtre.  —  2  pamphlets. 
George  Livermore,  Esq.,  Cambridge. — Dr.  Kohl's  descriptive 

and  analytical  publication  of  the  two  oldest  General  Charts  of 

America,  1527  and  29,  fol.,  18G0  ;  and  1  pamphlet. 
The  American  Unitarian  Association. — Their  Monthly  Journal. 
The  Essex  Institute.  —  Proceedings  and  Historical  Collections. 
S.  E.  Baldwin,  Esq.,  New  Haven,  Conn.  —  1  pamphlet. 
Hon.  George  W.  Richardson.  —  3  pamphlets. 
The  American  Philosophical  Society.  —  Proceedings. 
The  American  Oriental  Society.  —  Journal  and  Proceedings. 
J.   Henky   Hill,   Esq.,  Worcester.  —  Elzevir  edition  of  Pliny's 

Natural  History,  1635.     3  vols. 
Joseph  Sarin,  Philadelphia,  Pa.  —  1  pamphlet. 
William  Faxon,  Esq.,  Navy  Department,  Washington,  D.  C.  — 

1  book. 
Hon.   John  D.  Baldwin,  Worcester.  —  1  book  and  1   pamphlet. 

Also  a  collection  of  Sandwich-Island  Newspapers. 
Hon.  Ebenezer  Torrey,  Fitchburg.  —  10  books,  and  9  pamphlets. 

Also  a  deed  from  the   State  of  South   Carolina,  in  1794,  with 

State  seal  attached. 
Henry  Woodward,  Esq.,  Worcester.  —  7  books,  and  3  pamphlets. 
F.  W.  Paine,  Esq.,   Worcester.  —  21   books,   and   2    pamphlets. 

Also  many  miscellanies,  tokens,   &c. 
Mrs.  Calvin  Willard,  Worcester.  —  1  pamphlet. 
Stanley  C.  Bagg,  Esq.,  Montreal,  C.  E.  —  1  pamphlet. 
The  Canadian  Institute.  —  Their  Monthly  Journal. 
The  Mercantile  Library  Association  of  San  Francisco  Cal.  — 

1  pamphlet. 
The  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  Philadelphia,  Pa.  —  Pro- 
ceedings. 
William  M.  Avtl,  Esq.,  Columbus,  O.  —  1  pamphlet. 
Edwin  M.  Snow,  M.D.,  Providence,  R.  I.  —  1  pamphlet. 
The  American    Geographical    and    Statistical    Society.  — 

Proceedings. 
The  Commissioners  of  Ohio  State  Library.  —  1  pamphlet. 


38 


The  Connecticut  Historical  Society.  —  1  pamphlet. 

Hon.    Stephen    Salisbost,    Worcester.  —  The    "  Bibliotheque 

Universelle"  of  Le  Clerc,  1702-30,  in  83  vols.,  newly  bound; 

and  4  pamphlets. 
The  State  of  Vermont.  —  State  docuniL-nts. 

E.  A.  Denny,  Esq.,  "Worcester.  —  Two  lithographed  maps  of 
Canton,  China. 

Henry  B.  Dawson,  Esq.,  New  York,  N.  Y.  —  His  Gleanings 
from  the  Harvest-fields  of  American  History.     Part  XI. 

Joel  Munsell,  Esq.,  Albany,  N.Y.  —  37  pamphlets. 

Messrs.  Little,  Brown,  &  Co.,  Boston. —  1  pamphlet. 

The  Smithsonian  Institution.  —  Publications  of  the  Institution. 
Also  New-York  Shipping  and  Commercial  List. 

F.  W.  Seward,  Esq.,  Department  of  State,  Washington,  D.  C. — 
4  books. 

W.  Hunter,  Esq.,  Department  of  State,  Washington,  D.  C  — 
2  books. 

Miss  Anna  C.  Bkackett,  St.  Louis,  Mo.  —  Documents  of  Missis- 
sippi Valley  Sanitary  Fair,  1664. 

Rev.  William  R.  Hi-ntington,  Worcester.  —  1  pamphlet. 

Rev.  Caleb  Davis  Bradley,  Eoxbury.  —  1  pamphlet.  Also  two 
MS.  deeds  from  Virginia,  1726,  1727,  and  various  papers. 

John  Swett,  Esq.,  San  Francisco,  Cal.  —  1  pamphlet. 

The  New- Jersey  Historical  Society. — Proceedings. 

The  State  of  New  Hampshire.  —  1  pamphlet. 

The  Library  Company  of  Philadelphia.  —  1  pamphlet. 

Clement  Hugh  Hill,  Esq.,  Boston.  —  The  Geography  of  Michel 
Coignet,  1587,  and  50  pamphlets. 

The  New-England  Historic  Geneological  Society.  —  1  pam- 
phlet. 

The  State  of  Rhode  Isl.\nd.  —  State  documents. 

Stephen  Shepley,  Esq.,  Fitchburg.  —  2  books. 

Pliny  E.  Chase,  Esq.,  Philadelphia,  Penn.  —  His  remarks  on  the 
mathematical  probability  of  accidental  linguistic  resemblances, 
and  on  the  comparative  etymology  of  the  Yoruba  Language ; 
and  6  other  pamphlets. 


39 


The  New-Hampshire  Historical  Society.  —  Collections,  vol. 
vii.,  and  1  pamphlet. 

Hon.  E.  B.  Stoddard,  Worcester.  —  1  book. 

William  R.  Hooper,  Esq.,  Washhigtou,  D.C.  —  6  vols,  of  the 
"  Worcester  Transcript,"  bound. 

Hon.  Chaeles  Somner,  Boston.  —  16  pamphlets. 

The  Albany  Institute. — Transactions,  vol.  iv. 

The  Long-Island  Historical  Society.  —  1  pamphlet. 

Tiie  American  Anti-Slavery  Society.  —  2  pamphlets. 

Rev.  Bernice  D.  Ames,  Pawtucket,  R.  I.  —  1  pamphlet. 

The  New-York  Mercantile  Library  Association.  —  2  pam- 
phlets. 

The  American  Philosophical  Society.  —  Proceedings. 

The  Rensselaer  Polytechnic  Institute,  Troy,  N.  Y.  —  1  pam- 
phlet. 

Mrs.  Henry  P.  Stukgis,  Boston.  —  85  pamphlets.  Also  the 
"Boston  Daily  Courier"  and  the  ''China  Telegraph,"  18C4; 
and  the  "  Spirit  of  the  Fair." 

Rev.  Samuel  May,  jun.,  Leicester.  —  29  pamphlets.     Selected. 

Joseph  Tuckerman,  Esq.,  New  York,  N.Y.  —  The  tracts  of  the 
Loyal  Publication  Society  of  N.  Y. 

Charles  Ansorge,  Chicago,  111.  —  1  pamphlet. 

Andrew  M'F.  Davis,  New  York,  N.Y.  —  Copies  of  Com.  Far- 
ragut's  orders  in  Mobile  Bay,  dated  July  12,  July  29,  Aug.  G 
and  Aug.  7,  18G4,  at  the  period  of  his  great  victory.  Also 
Mobile  papers  of  Aug.  3d  and  4th. 

William  Cross,  Esq.,  Worcester.  —  14  pamphlets.  Also  various 
banking  documents. 

Com.  George  S.  Blake,  Newport,  R.I.  —  Two  drawings  of 
Dighton  Rock,  with  its  inscription,  taken  by  his  direction  for 
the  Society. 

The  Society  of  Antiquaeies  of  London,  G.  B.  —  Proceedings. 

Mrs.  Mary  G.  Salisbury.  —  Saratoga  Newspapers  of  July,  1864. 

Andrew  H.  Green,  Esq.,  New  York,  N.Y.  —  1  book. 

The  American  Institute  of  New  York.  —  Transactions. 

William  H.  Whitmore,  Esq.,  Boston.  —  His  Hand-book  of 
American  Genealogy. 


40 


The  Literary  and  Historical  Societt  of  Quebec.  —  1  pcam- 
phlet. 

Prof.  Edwaed  North,  Hamilton  College,  N.Y.  —  1  pamphlet. 

Hon.  Emory  "Washburn,  Camhridge.  —  His  tract  on  the  extinc- 
tion of  villenage  and  slavery  in  England. 

Hentiy  F.  Bishop,  M.D.,  Worcester.  —  3  pamphlets. 

Alumni  of  Yale  College.  —  1  pamphlet. 

The  City  of  Roxbury,  by  J.  W.  Tucker,  Esq.,  City  Clerk. — 
City  documents  of  1863. 

J.  Hasimond  Trumbull,  Esq.,  Hartford,  Conn.  —  His  Narra- 
tive of  the  Defence  of  Stonington. 

Col.  William  S.  Lincoln,  Worcester.  —  A  rebel  newspaper  from 
Harrisburg,  Va.,  June  24,  1864. 

E.  Peterson,  Esq.  —  38  pamphlets. 

Dr.  Joseph  Sargent,  Worcester.  —  Four  autograph-letters  of 
Thomas  Jefferson. 

Rev.  Seth  Sweetser,  D.D.,  Worcester.  — 17  pamphlets.    Selected. 

Hon.  Pliny  Merrick,  Boston.  —  Putnam's  Rebellion  Record, 
vol.  V. 

The  Royal  Geographical  Society  of  London,  G.  B.  —  Pro- 
ceedings. 

Nelson  N.  Barrett,  Collinsville,  Conn.  —  Newspapers. 

James  Lenox,  Esq.,  New  York,  N.  Y.  —  1  book.  In  continua- 
tion of  the  Jesuit  Relations. 

Charles  Deane,  Esq.,  Cambridge.  —  His  "  Letters  of  Phillis 
Wheatley." 

J.  W.  Thornton,  Esq.,  Boston.  —  52  pamphlets.  Also  various 
papers  and  miscellanies  relating  to  the  war. 

George  H.  Williams,  Pomfret,  Conn.  —  28  books  and  14  pam- 
phlets. 

Henky  C.  Bowen,  Esq.,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. — The  first  ten  volumes 
of  the  "  New- York  Independent,"  unbound. 

George  F.  Houghton,  Esq.,  St  Albans,  Vt.  —  2  pamphlets. 

Hon.  DwiGHT  Foster,  Worcester.  —  257  pamphlets. 

Nathaniel  Paine,  Esq.,  Worcester.  — 12  books  and  110  pam- 
phlets. Also  many  valuable  miscellaneous  papers  and  newspa- 
pers. 


41 


Eev.  George  Allen,  "Worcester.  —  18  books  and  3  pamphlets. 
The  Sanitary  Commission.  —  13  pamphlets.    Also  the  "  Sanitary 

Reporter,"  newspaper. 
Charles   M.    Miles,    Esq.  —  A   collection   of  autograph-letters 

resulting  from  correspondence  in  reference  to  the  meeting  of 

the  A.  B.  C.  F.  M.  in  Worcester. 

From  the  offices  of  the  Worcester  "  Weekly  Spy," 
the  Boston  "  Semi-weekly  Advertiser,"  the  "  Christian 
Watchman  and  Reflector,"  and  the  Fitchburg  "  Senti- 
nel," their  several  papers  have  long  been  transmitted 
for  preservation  in  the  library,  and  are  renewedly 
acknowledged. 

Including  accessions  incidentally  gathered  by  the 
Librarian,  the  number  of  additions  in  books  is  two 
hundred  and  forty  five,  and  in  pamphlets,  one  thou- 
sand. 

The  drawings  presented  by  Commodore  Blake  were 
accompanied  by  a  letter,  from  which  the  following  is 
an  extract :  — 

"Naval  Academy,  Newport,  R.l.,  Aug.  17,  1864. 

"  Dear  Sir,  —  I  have  recently  examined  with  care  various 
copies  of  the  inscription  upon  the  Dightou  Rock,  which  is  an 
object  of  considerable  interest  to  antiquarians  ;  some  having  even 
supposed  it  to  be  Scandinavian. 

"  Observing  that  the  copies  differ  very  materially,  I  requested 
Prof.  Seager,  the  professor  of  drawing  of  the  Naval  Academy, 
and  the  Rev.  Chaplain  Hale  of  the  navy,  who  is  also  attached  to 
the  institution,  and  much  interested  in  hieroglyphical  research, 
to  visit  the  rock,  and  make  correct  drawings  of  it,  —  which  they 
have  done  ;  and,  as  these  may  perhaps  be  considered  worthy  of 
preservation,  I  beg  to  send  them  to  the  Antiquarian  Society. 

"  It  will  be  seen  that  one  drawing  embraces  the  rock  and  the 


42 


surrounding  scenery ;  and  the  other  is  the  rock  alone,  upon  a 
larger  scale. 

"  Owing  to  a  change  of  the  bed  of  the  river,  the  rock  is  now 
submerged  at  high  tide  ;  and  the  inscription  will  therefore,  before 
many  years,  be  lost. 

"  I  will  add,  that  the  gentlemen  made  several  sketches  indepen- 
dently of  each  other;  and  that  the  finished  drawing,  being  the 
result  of  them  all,  is  certainly  correct." 

There  is  no  way,  perhaps,  in  which  the  Society's 
appreciation  of  Commodore  Blake's  appropriate  gift 
can  be  better  expressed  than  by  a  brief  reference  to 
the  degree  of  interest  that  the  Dighton  Rock  has  from 
time  to  time  attracted,  abroad  as  well  as  at  home,  and 
a  statement  of  the  conclusion  to  which  the  most  com- 
petent observers  have  at  length  arrived  respecting  its 
character  and  purpose. 

No  single  monument  in  this  country  has  received  so 
much  attention  from  learned  men  and  scientific  bodies 
as  this ;  and  om-  Society  should  feel  under  special 
obligations  to  Commodore  Blake  for  the  pains  he  has 
taken  to  procure,  through  the  agency  of  the  professor 
of  drawing,  and  the  chaplain  of  the  Naval  School,  at 
Newport,  a  spirited  representation  of  the  rock  in  its 
present  condition,  and  a  delineation  of  the  figures  upon 
it,  as  they  now  appear  to  fresh  and  unprejudiced  eyes. 

Long  before  the  Society  of  Northern  Antiquaries  at 
Copenhagen  had  adopted  this  rude  stone  as  a  monu- 
mental relic  of  the  Northmen,  and  given  to  its  in- 
scription a  corresponding  date  and  interpretation,  it 
had  been  discussed  by  many  distinguished  philoso- 


43 

pliers  and  scholars,  and  described  and  represented  in 
the  pages  of  various  learned  Transactions. 

The  earliest  remembered  attempt  to  form  a  delinea- 
tion of  the  characters  Avas  made  nearly  two  hundi'ed 
years  ago,  in  1680,  by  Rev.  Dr.  Danforth,  —  probably 
the  Rev.  Samuel  Danforth  of  Taunton,  though  he 
must  at  that  time  have  been  quite  a  young  man. 

Thirty-two  years  later,  in  1712,  Cotton  Mather  sent 
to  the  Royal  Society  of  Great  Britain  a  rude  wood-cut 
of  what  he  called  "  two  lines  of  the  inscription," 
though  no  such  lines  have  been  noticed  by  other 
observers.  This,  with  his  account  of  the  rock,  was 
published  by  that  Society. 

In  1732,  the  Society  of  Antiquaries  of  London  had 
before  them  the  drawing  of  Dr.  Danforth,  and  another 
made  in  1730  by  Dr.  Isaac  Greenwood,  the  Hollisian 
professor  at  Cambridge  ;  both  having  been  sent  over 
by  Dr.  Greenwood. 

In  1768,  Professor  Stephen  Sewall,  of  Cambridge, 
took  a  copy  from  the  stone  as  large  as  the  original, 
which  was  sent  to  the  Ro}al  Society  by  Professor 
"Winthrop  in  1774;  and,  in  1788,  Professor  Winthrop 
himself  made  a  careful  copy  by  an  elaborate  process, 
and  with  the  assistance  of  several  clergymen  and  other 
prominent  gentlemen  from  the  neighborhood.  This 
was  made  the  subject  of  a  commiuiication  from  him 
to  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  and 
appears  in  their  second  volume  of  publications  printed 
in  1804. 


44 


In  1790  a  copy  was  made  under  the  superintend- 
ence of  Judge  Baylies  of  Dighton,  by  a  young  man 
named  Joseph  Gooding,  after  first  chalking  the 
lines.* 

In  1807,  Mr.  Edward  A.  Kendall,  the  traveller, 
writing  from  Hallowell,  Me.,  contributed  to  the  Amer- 
ican Academy  a  long  and  well-considered  article  on. 
the  Dighton  Rock,  accompanied  by  a  painting  in  oils, 
executed,  he  says,  with  the  assistance  of  Mrs.  Gard- 
ner, to  represent  the  exact  appearance  of  the  rock  as 
well  as  the  inscription.  Whether  this  painting  is  still 
in  existence,  I  cannot  say.  I  am  told  that  it  is  not  in 
possession  of  the  Academy. 

Mr.  Kendall's  communication  was  addressed  to 
Hon.  John  Davis,  the  Recording  Secretary  of  the 
Academy ;  and  the  paper  was  followed  by  one  from 
Judge  Davis  himself,  in  which  he  advanced  the  theo- 
retical explanation  that  the  figures  on  the  rock  repre- 
sented an  Indian  deer-hunt,  the  triangular  forms  ex- 
hibiting the  enclosm'es  or  traps  into  which  the  game 
was  driven,  while  the  remaining  characters  were  signs 
relating  to  the  hunt,  and  intelligible  to  the  natives. 

Mr.  Kendall  gives  an  account  of  his  visit  to  Digh- 
ton in  the  second  volume  of  his  travels,  printed  in 
1809;  and,  in  reference  to  the  speculations  then  in 
vogue  respecting  the    origin   of  the    inscription,  he 


*  They  are  called  in  "Antiquitates  Americana;"  Dr.  Baylies  and  Mr.  Goorl!fe> 
The  original  sketch  by  Joseph  Gooding  is  still  preserved  by  Miss  Sophia  F.  Browr 
of  Dighton,  to  whose  mother  he  gave  it  when  an  old  man. 


45 


says :  "  It  is  not  a  monument  of  the  PhcEnicians,  nor 
of  the  Carthaghiians,  nor  of  the  lost  tribe  of  Israel, 
nor  of  Prince  Madoc,  nor  of  Captain  Blackbeard,  nor 
of  Captain  Kyd  (the  Scandinavians  had  not  then 
claimed  it  for  the  Northmen) ;  but  it  is  a  monument 
of  the  sculpture  of  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  America, 
whether  Narragansetts  or  others." 

In  1812,  a  drawing  of  the  inscription  was  made 
by  IVIr.  Job  Gardner;  and,  in  1825,  the  rock  and  its 
figures  were  described  and  commented  upon  in  the 
Memoires  de  la  Societe  de  Geographic  de  Paris.  They 
are  also  noticed  with  particularity  in  Yates  and  ]\Ioul- 
ton's  History  of  New  York. 

These  are  the  most  prominent  of  the  notices  which 
this  monument  had  received  before  1830,  when  the 
Rhode-Island  Historical  Society  entered  into  corre- 
spondence with  the  Antiquaries  of  Denmark,  who 
were  at  that  time  engaged  in  collecting  evidences  of 
the  early  visits  of  the  Northmen  to  this  Continent, 
and  had  traced  them,  as  was  believed,  at  least  as  far 
south  as  the  neighborhood  of  Newport.  The  discov- 
ery of  a  stone  containing  an  inscription  Avhich  might 
possibly  be  Runic,  found  not  far  from  that  place,  was 
of  course  a  God-send,  which  could  not  be  too  grate- 
fully welcomed,  or  too  strenuously  impressed  into  the 
service  of  their  cause. 

The  Rhode-Island  Antiquaries  were  happy  to  ren- 
der every  assistance  ;  and  not  only  furnished  trans- 
cripts of  di-awings  which  had  been  previously  taken. 


46 


but  appointed  a  committee  to  make  a  new  one,  on 
their  own  account,  from  the  rock  itself.  As  antiqua- 
ries they  would  naturally  have  been  pleased  to  see  it 
proved  that  the  earliest  settlement  of  civilized  men 
upon  this  Continent  was  within  the  jurisdiction  of 
their  own  Society ;  but  while  they  provided  as  much 
evidence,  real  or  imaginary,  as  they  could  obtain,  they 
wisely  left  the  argument  to  the  zeal  and  ingenuity  of 
their  Scandinavian  correspondents. 

Faith  in  this  monument  as  a  relic  of  the  Northmen 
has  gradually  given  way  as  a  knowledge  of  the  arts 
and  habits  of  the  Indians  has  been  increased.  Simi- 
lar inscriptions,  previously  known  to  exist  in  different 
parts  of  the  country,  have  been  more  carefully  exam- 
ined, and  many  new  ones  have  been  discovered  which 
are  beyond  doubt  the  work  of  the  natives. 

Soon  after  the  large  volume  entitled  "  Antiquitates 
Americante"  was  published  by  the  Danish  Society, 
in  1837,  Mr.  Schoolcraft  submitted  the  various  delin- 
eations of  the  Dighton  Rock,  there  given,  to  an  Algon- 
kin  chief,  named  Chingwauk,  who  was  particularly 
skilled  in  the  pictographic  arts  of  his  race.  He  se- 
lected the  drawing  made  in  1790  by  Gooding  for 
his  explanation,  and  undertook  to  state  the  meaning 
and  force  of  the  various  figures ;  rejecting  a  few  near 
the  centre,  as  not  being  Indian  symbols.* 

*  At  the  meeting  of  the  Society,  there  were  laid  on  the  table,  bj'  Rev.  Edward 
E.  Hale,  a  fiicsimile  of  the  drawing  by  Joseph  Gooding,  in  1790,  and  a  large  sketch 
of  the  rock  and  surrounding  scenery  in  oils,  with  a  separate  copy  of  the  inscription 
on  a  large  scale;  the  last  two  having  been  prepared  to  illustrate  portions  of  a  lec- 
ture given  by  Hon.  Alexander  H.  Everett,  many  years  since. 


47 


According  to  his  interpretation,  the  inscription  is 
the  memorial  of  a  battle  between  two  native  tribes, 
and  was  the  work  of  the  victorious  party.  Mr. 
Schoolcraft  at  that  time  was  disposed  to  believe,  that 
the  central  marks  rejected  by  Chingwauk,  as  without 
meaning  to  him,  were  really  placed  there  by  the' 
Northmen,  and  led  to  the  selection  of  the  stone  by 
the  Indians  for  their  own  record.  In  1853  he  super- 
intended the  taking  of  a  view  of  the-  inscribed  surface 
by  the  daguerreotype  process,  and  then  declared  it  to 
be  a  uniform  piece  of  Indian  pictography.  He  says 
in  his  fourth  volume  of  Indian  History,  "It  presents 
a  unity  of  original  drawing,  corresponding  to  the 
Indian  system,  which  cannot  fail  to  strike  the  obser- 
ver. It  is  entirely  Indian,  and  is  executed  in  the 
symbolic  character  which  the  Algonkins  call  Kekee- 
win.  The  fancied  resemblances  to  the  old  forms  of 
the  Roman  letters  on  the  Copenhagen  copies  wholly 
disappear." 

Accepting  this  view  of  the  subject  as  probably 
correct,  the  rock  remains  to  us  one  of  the  most  perfect 
and  interesting  monuments  of  native  inscriptive  art 
that  has  yet  been  discovered  in  the  United  States ; 
and  its  features  should  be  preserved  by  all  practicable 
means. 

It  is  a  singular  fact,  that,  of  all  the  various  copies 
thus  far  taken,  no  two  are  alike ;  and  the  diversity  is 
in  some  cases  very  extreme.  This  is  probably  due 
partly  to  the  general  obscurity  of  the  marks,  and  part- 


48 

ly  to  the  difficulty  of  distinguishing  natural  lines  and 
fissures  from  the  artificial  sculpture. 

Mr.  Kendall,  who  discussed  the  whole  subject  very 
thoroughly  in  his  paper,  presented  to  the  American 
Academy  in  1807,  condemns  the  method  adopted  by 
Professor  Winthrop  in  making  his  copy  ;  namely,  that 
of  fii-st  filling  the  marks  with  paint,  and  then  taking 
an  impression  directly  from  them  on  paper.  He  says 
the  relative  strength  and  distinctness  of  the  different 
marks  is  thus  lost,  and  unimportant  or  even  natural 
lines  acquire  a  place  in  the  representation  that  does 
not  belong  to  them.  The  same  objection  is  applica- 
ble to  the  plan  pursued  by  Mr.  Schoolcraft,  who 
chalked  the  lines  before  taking  his  daguerreotype. 
Mr.  Kendall  decides,  with  apparent  reason,  that  the 
most  trustworthy  view  is  that  Avhich  is  taken  by  the 
artist  with  his  pencil,  after  a  careful  study. 

We  may  therefore  believe,  that  the  donation  of 
Commodore  Blake  is  to  be  relied  upon  as  a  faithful 
representation  of  present  appearances.  He  is  under 
a  mistake  in  supposing  that  the  fact  of  the  rock  being 
wholly  covered  by  the  tide  is  owing  to  a  change  in 
the  bed  of  the  stream.  So  far  as  I  can  learn,  there 
has  been  little,  if  any,  change  of  circumstances  since 
the  rock  was  first  noticed ;  and  it  has  always  been 
flooded  by  the  tide  as  it  is  now.  Although  a  hard 
stone,  the  attrition  of  the  water  would  be  likely  to 
have  some  effect  upon  it ;  and  lines  tliat  were  percep- 
tible to  early  observers  may  now  be  obliterated. 


49 


Another  obligation  which  the  Society  will  heartily 
acknowledge,  arises  from  the  very  generous  proposal 
of  Mr.  Charles. R.  B.  Claflin,  who  as  a  photographer 
is  excelled  by  no  other,  to  furnish  the  Society  with 
card-photographs  of  citizens  of  Worcester,  to  an  ex- 
tent of  which  he  has  yet  set  no  limits.  He  has 
already  filled  one  volume,  which  lies  on  the  table  to- 
day; and  has  other  volumes  left  with  him  for  the 
same  purpose.  The  personal  appearance  of  a  genera- 
tion of  people  is  an  element  of  history  that  is  des- 
tined to  be  more  and  more  a  matter  of  interest,  as  the 
facilities  for  obtaining  and  transmitting  likenesses 
increase ;  and  we  riiay  venture  to  predict,  that  these 
memorials  of  Worcester  people  filling  the  various 
stations  and  engaged  in  the  various  pursuits  of  life, 
as  it  is  here  in  1864,  will  be  among  our  most  attrac- 
tive records ;  and  we  are  sure  that  Mr.  Claflin's  skill 
as  an  artist,  as  well  as  his  liberality,  will  be  fully 
appreciated. 

It  may  be  not  mal  a  j^roj^os  in  this  connection  to 
remark,  that  the  American  Philosophical  Society  are 
taking  measures  to  procure  card-photographs  of  all 
their  associates,  and  have  already  secured  a  large 
number.  Perhaps  tliis  Society  will  think  it  not  un- 
Avise  or  inexpedient  to  follow  so  respectable  an  exam- 
ple. 

S.   F.   HAVEN,  Librarian. 


50 


|lt))0rt  0f  tirt  f  reasurtr. 


The  Treasurer  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society  submits  the  following  semi- 
annual Report,  for  the  six  months  ending  Oct.  20,  1864:  — 
The  Librarian's  and  General  Fund,  April  25, 1864,  was   .     .    $21,763.82 
Received  for  dividends  and  interest  since      ....  909.82 

$22,673.64 
Paid  for  salaries  and  incidental  expenses 629.60 

Present  amount  of  this  Fund $22,044.04 

The  Colkctim  and  Research  Fund,  April  25,  1864    ....      $8,910.06 
Received  for  dividends  and  interest  since 522.45 

$9,432.51 
Paid  for  incidental  expenses,  and  including  one-half 

of  Librarian's  salary 176.00 

Present  amount  of  this  Fund 9,256.51 

The  Bookbinding  Fund,  April  25,  1864,  was $6,691.04 

Received  for  dividends  and  interest  since 310.25 

$7,001.29 
Paid  for  premium  on  stock,  &c 33.54 

Present  amount  of  this  Fund 6,967  75 

The  Publishing  Fund,  April  25,  1864,  was $6,902  64 

Received  for  dividends  and  interest  since 320.50 

$7,223.14 
Paid  for  printing  semi-annual  Report 127.00 

Present  amount  of  this  Fund 7,096,14 

Aggregate  of  the  four  Funds $45,364.44 

Cash  on  hand,  included  in  foregoing  statement $606.09 

Investments. 
Librarian's  and  General  Fund. 

Worcester  National  Bank  Stock $1,100.00 

City  National  Bank  of  Worcester  Stock 100.00 

Central  „              „                „              „          100.00 

Citizens'                „            •  „              „         1,500.00 

Quinsigamond      „                „              „          2,300.00 

Blackstone            „         (Uxbridge)     „          500.00 

Oxford  Bank  Stock 400.00 

Fitchburg  Bank  Stock 600.00 

Amount  carried  forward $6,600.00 


51 


Amount  brought  forward, $6,600.00 


Bank  of  Commerce  (Boston)  Stock 

Massachusetts  Bank       „            „        500.00 

North  Bank                      „            „        ........  500.00 

Shawmut  Bank              „           „ .  3,700.00 

Worcester  and  Nashua  Railroad  Stock  (.37  shares)  .     .  2,407.40 

Northern  (N.H.)  Railroad  Stock  (12  shares)    ....  615.00 

United-States  Five-twenty  6  per  cent  Bonds  ....  1,500.00 

United-States  Ten-forty  5  per  cent  Bonds 500.00 

United-States  Seven-thirty  Bonds 1,000.00 

United-States  Certificates  of  Indebtedness 2,921.64 

Note SOO.OO 


Collection  and  Research  Fund. 

Worcester  National  Bank  Stock 

City  National  Bank  Stock  (Worcester)  .... 

Oxford  Bank      „         „         

Bank  of  Commerce  (Boston)  Stock , 

Webster  Bank  „  „        

Bank  of  North  America  (Boston)  Stock      ... 

Northern  (N.H.)  Railroad  (8  shares) 

Norwich  and  Worcester  Railroad  Bond  .... 
United-States  Five-twenty  6  per  cent  Bonds  .     . 

Note 

Cash 


$800.00 
600.00 
200.00 
800.00 
800.00 
600.00 
410.00 
1,000.00 
3,800.00 


Bookbinding  Fund. 
City  National  Bank  Stock  (Worcester)  . 
Quinsigamond  „  „  „ 
Bank  of  Commerce  „  (Boston) 
Webster  Bank  „  „  ... 
Northern  (N.H.)  Railroad  Stock  (10  shares) 
United-States  Five-twentj'  6  per  cent  Bond 
Cash 


2,600.00 

2,500.00 

512.50 

600.00 

255.25 


Publishing  Fund. 
ak  (Worcester)  Stock  . 


Central  National  ] 

Mechanics  „  „  „      . 

Shawmut  „      (Boston)  „      .    , 

Boston  National  Bank  Stock 

Norwich  and  Worcester  Railroad  Bond  .     .     . 
United-States  Five-twenty  6  per  cent  Bonds  . 


United-Sta 
Note  .    . 
Cash  .    . 


Jfloate  of  Indebtedn 


S500.00 
500.00 
500.00 
400.00 
1,000.00 
2,500.00 
991.81 
500.00 
204.33 


Total  of  the  four  Funds 


Respectfully  submitted, 


Hall,  Worcester,  Oct. 


NATHANIEL   PAINE, 
Treasurer  of  Am.  Anliq.  Society. 


52 


SOME    NOTES    ON    ROANOKE    ISLAND    AND  j 

JAIklES    KIVER.  ] 


BY    EDWARD    E.    HALE. 


When,  in  1859,  the  Society  intrusted  to  me,  for 
editing  the  manuscript  of  Ralph  Lane's  Letters  from 
Roanoke  Island,  and  of  Capt.  Newport's  voyage  up 
the  James  River,  I  certainly  did  not  imagine  that  the 
geography  I  then  undertook  to  study  was  to  receive 
its  chief  interest  from  the  military  movements  of  the 
next  five  years.  In  1860  the  Society  published  those 
papers.  Since  that  time,  Roanoke  Island  has  been 
made  the  seat  of  another  colony,  and  the  James 
River  of  other  voyages  and  warfare ;  to  all  of  which 
there  is  a  new  interest  given,  when  we  study  them 
with  the  maps  and  notes  of  Gov.  Lane  and  of  Capt. 
John  Smith  in  our  hands. 

Roanoke  Island  was  selected,  as  the  Society  will 
remember,  in  1585,  as  the  seat  of  Sir  Walter  Ra- 
leigh's colony.  The  settlement  there,  which  proved 
abortive,  was  begun  about  August  1,  and  was  aban- 
doned on  the  18th  of  June.     The  same  summer,  Sir 


53 


Eichard  Greenville  landed  fifteen  men  at  the  deserted 
island,  who  perished  the  same  winter.  The  next 
year,  John  White  left  a  new  colony,  which  was  also 
wholly  broken  up.  Our  only  knowledge  of  it  was  ob- 
tained a  few  years  since  by  the  discovery  of  Strachey's 
manuscript  in  the  British  Museum. 

I  think  the  colony  thus  attempted  may  be  called 
the  first  colony  attempted  in  America  by  the  English 
.people.  In  1863  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  selected  the  same  island  for  the  first  colony 
planted  under  its  own  formal  protection  and  direc- 
tion. The  island  of  Roanoke,  having  been  taken  by 
our  troops  in  Gen.  Burnside's  expedition,  offered  itself 
as  a  convenient  and  sequestered  spot  for  colonizing 
refugee  negroes.  The  establishment  there  is  under 
the  charge  of  Rev.  Horace  James,  lately  of  Worces- 
ter. The  maps  of  the  island  seem  to  show,  that  the 
principal  settlement,  made  first  by  the  rebel  troops 
and  afterwards  by  our  own,  is  to  the  southward  of 
Lane's  Fort.  I  have  sent  to  Roanoke  Island  our 
fourth  volume,  and  full  copies  of  the  other  records  of 
the  early  colonization;  and  hope  that  some  of  the 
intelligent  officers  stationed  there  may  find  time  to 
send  us  the  results  of  any  researches  which  shall 
throw  light  on  the  history  of  either  of  the  three  un- 
successful colonies. 

The  second  paper  in  our  fourth  volume  is  an 
anonymous  journal  of  the  first  voyage  made  by  the 
English  up  James  River,  under  the  conduct  of  Capt. 


54 


J^ewport.  This  paper  also  I  edited;  much  harassed, 
I  will  confess,  by  its  geography.  The  discoverers 
sailed  from  Jamestown  on  the  21st  of  May,  1607. 
On  the  21st  of  INIay,  1864,  I  found  myself,  for  the 
fii'st  time,  sailing  up  the  James  River,  in  veiy  differ- 
ent company,  and  on  very  different  business ;  but  very 
glad,  if  I  could,  to  use  my  voyage  in  correcting  my 
errors  in  the  early  geography.  The  difference  in 
style  which  has  been  made  since  1607  did  not  appear* 
in  any  difference  in  climate  or  foliage.  The  river 
was  as  lovely  as  they  describe  it;  the  temperature 
as  agreeable,  and  the  shores  as  lovely  as  they  were 
then,  or  more  so.  If  Smith's  map  may  be  believed, 
there  were  almost  as  many  tokens  of  habitation  on 
the  shores  of  the  river  between  Jamestown  and  the 
Appomattox  in  1607  as  struck  the  eye  of  the  modern 
traveller,  even  before  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  Such 
plantations  as  there  are,  are  concealed  behind  growth 
of  woods  ;  and  it  must  be  remembered  that  this  part 
of  Virginia  has  been  declining.  Gen.  Butler's  army, 
when  I  visited  it,  was  encamped  in  pine-forests 
twenty  or  thu'ty  years  old,  where  the  furrows  of  old 
corn-fields  were  still  apparent. 

I  am  disposed  to  make  a  more  definite  statement 
of  the  stopping-places  of  the  exploring  party,  in  place 
of  the  very  vague  conjectures  in  my  printed  notes. 
The  difficulty  has  been  in  the  name  Wynauk,  their 
landing-place  the  first  night.  I  now  believe  that  this 
applies  to  "a  considerable  region  of  country  on  both 


55 

sides  the  river*  Smith's  map  gives  the  name  Wea- 
nock  to  a  point  held  all  this  summer  by  Gen.  Butler, 
opposite  City  Point  and  the  junction  of  the  Appomattox 
and  the  Upper  James.  I  attempted  in  my  notes  to 
make  that  the  first  landing-place.  But  I  am  satisfied 
now,  that  that  point  does  not  satisfy  the  conditions. 
The  narrative  becomes  intelligible,  and  the  distances 
given  are  sufficiently  accurate,  if  we  suppose  the  first 
night  to  have  been  spent  a  little  below  Wilson's 
Wharf,  on  the  north  side  of  the  river,  —  the  second 
encampment,  at  the  place  which  he  calls  Turkey 
Isle,  to  be  the  present  Turkey  Island,  just  below  the 
Turkey  Point  of  our  maps ;   and  the  second  night  to 


*  The  narrative  of  Newport's  voyage  in  our  fourth  volume  thus  speaks  of 
Wynauk :  — 

May  21.  "  We  were  up  the  river  thirteen  myle  [from  James  Town]  at  a  low 
meadow  point,  which  I  call  Wynauk. 

May  26,  at  one  of  King  Pamaunche's  houses,  five  miles  below  Queen  Apuma- 
tec's  Bower.  "  This  place  I  call  Pamaunche's  Palace,  howbeit,  by  Nanvarans  his 
words,  the  King  of  Wynauk  is  possessor  hereof.  .  .  .  Having  left  this  King  in  kind- 
ness and  friendship,  we  crossed  over  the  water  to  a  sharp  point,  which  is  part.of 
Wynauk  on  Salisbury  side  [the  south  side].  This  I  call  Careless  Point  [after 
this].    This  night  he  came  to  Point  Wynauk  [this  was  on  their  return]. 

June  8.  "  Wynauk,"  by  which  the  King  of  Wynauk  is  meant,  is  spoken  of 
among  their  "contracted  enemies." 

These  references  alone  seem  enough  to  show  that  Wynauk  was  the  name  of  one 
of  the  "  kingdoms  "  which  extended  on  both  sides  of  the  river.  The  name.  Point 
Wynauk,  having  been  given  to  the  point  wher6  Newport's  party  first  landed, 
remained  unchanged.  If  Weanock  be  the  same  name  as  Wynauk,  we  may  suppose 
that  Smith,  in  his  map,  affixes  it  to  some  favorite  seat  of  the  "  King,"  and  does  not 
attempt  to  designate  the  whole  of  his  dominion,  the  boundaries  of  which,  indeed,  it 
is  evident  were  doubtful. 

These  suggestions,  which  I  derived  from  a  review  of  the  Newport  narrative  on 
the  spot,  are  entirely  confirmed  by  our  associate,  Mr.  Deane,  who  is  much  better 
informed  in  this  geography  than  I  am.  He  writes  me,  "  Smith,  in  his  early  narra- 
tive (1608),  speaks  of  this  place, '  Weanock,'  as  being  twenty  miles  from  Jamestown. 
Now  the  Appomattox  is  much  more.  I  agree  with  you  that  Newport's  '  Wynauk  ' 
was  nearer  Jamestown;  and  this  view  is  confirmed  by  'Fry  and  Jefferson's 
Map'  of  about  1760.  In  this,  'Weynock'  is  placed  opposite  the  mouth  of  a 
creek  called  '  Flower  de  Hundred,'  about  twenty  miles  from  Jamestown." 


56 

have  been  spent  near  our  Deep  Bottom.  This  is  the 
point  which  he  calls  Poore  Cottage ;  *  and,  I  dare  say, 
many  of  the  10th  Corps  wUl  confirm  that  name.  His 
next  encampment,  Arahatec's  Joy,  is  laid  down  on 
Smith's  map,  and,  I  believe,  correctly.  It  is  near 
Cox's  Ferry,  the  point  held,  till  lately,  by  the  left  of 
Gen.  Foster's  forces. 

At  the  time  I  visited  the  army,  Gen.  Butler  held 
the  tract  between  the  Appomattox  and  James  Eivers, 
and  had  fortified  strong  lines  from  the  Point  of 
Kocks  on  the  Appomattox  north-westerly  to  the  James 
River.  We  have  a  military  hospital  at  the  Point 
of  Rocks.  Dr.  A.  A.  Woodhull,  an  accomplished 
surgeon  in  the  general  staff",  writes  me  since  my 
return :  — 

"  Some  of  the  '  Pamunkies  '  yet  survive,  impressed  into  tlie 
rebel  service,  battling  still  against  the  stranger. 

"  On  that  beautiful  Point  of  Rocks,  jutting  into  the  Appomattox, 
stands  a  magnificent  oak,  or  rather  two  coalesced,  which  an  imagi- 
native doctor  (for  we  have  a  hospital  there  now)  has  published  as 
the  veritable  one  under  which  Pocahontas  saved  the  life  of  Capt. 
Smith,  whom  she  afterward  married.  I  beg  you  to  note  the  poet- 
ical justice  of  the  just-quoted  fiction.  Everybody  thinks  '  Smith  ' 
should  have  been  the  name  by  which  Pocahontas's  grandchildren 
ought  to  have  been  known  in  the  land." 

I  need  hardly  say  here,  that  our  associate,  Mr. 
Deane,  has  well  nigh  destroyed  the  romance  by  which 
Pocahontas    had    been    saving    Smith's   life,  for  two 


*  So  our  copy  from  the  original  manuscript,  reads;  but  Percy  in  "  Purclias,"  or 
the  printer,  reads  Port  Cottage. 


57 


centuries  and  a  half  before  Mr.  Deane's  edition  of 
Wingfield,  and  his  note  on  the  Pocahontas  narrative. 
I  quote  tlie  passage  as  an  ilkistration  of  the  passion 
for  idealizing  romances.  There  are  two  claimants  in 
Virginia  for  the  honors  of  the  spot  where  Pocahontas 
flung  herself  round  the  prisoner's  neck.  Both  of 
these  are  on  the  York  River,  and  are  familiar  to  our 
soldiers  who  passed  up  that  river  in  Gen.  McClellan's 
campaign.  One  is  Shelly ;  and  the  other,  Powhatan  s 
Chimney.  Both  are  forty  or  fifty  miles  from  the 
Point  of  Rocks.  Smith  says  himself,  that  the  place,  . 
which  he  calls  Werowocomoco,  was  twenty-five  miles 
below  the  fall  of  the  river,  which  we  call  West 
Point. 

The  part  of  Smith's  story  which  is  not  a  romance 
is  the  statement  that  he  went  up  the  river  of  the 
"  Chickahamanias  "  to  trade  for  corn.  Our  soldiers  on 
the  same  river  scarcely  remembered,  I  think,  the 
braggart  soldier  who  first  made  its  shores  ring  with 
the  echoes  of  English  weapons.  "  A  fugitive  slave," 
says  Dr.  Palfrey  with  point,  "  was  the  founder  of 
Vu'ginia."  In  the  most  critical  period  of  her  infant  for- 
tunes, he  Avent  up  the  river  of  the  "  Chickahamanias  " 
to  trade  for  corn.  Leaving  his  pinnace,  I  think,  near 
the  present  steamboat  landing,  he  forced  a  canoe  as 
much  farther  as  he  could,  till  he  had  to  cut  the  trees 
which  fell  across  the  river.  He  then  left  his  canoe, 
and,  with  an  Indian  guide,  pushed  through  "  the 
marshes  of  the  river's  head"  till  he  was  beset  with 


58 


savages.  Retreating,  he  slipped  into  "  an  oasie 
creek ; "  and  there,  half-dead  with  cold,  threw  down 
his  arms,  and  was  taken  prisoner. 

If  we  may  rely  on  Smith's  distances,  this  was  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Gen.  Sumner's  bridges  across 
the  stream.  These  marshes,  and  "  this  oasie  creek," 
—  which  Smith's  adventures  have  made  for  centuries 
historical,  are  the  oozy  swamps  of  the  Chickahominy. 

Oct.  21,  1664. 


59 


REMARKS   OF    CHARLES   DEANE. 


Mr.  Deane,  referring  to  tlie  preceding  paper  read  by  Mr. 
Hale,  spoke  as  follows  :  — 

Mr.  President,  —  There  are  some  other  phiccs  on 
the  James  River  and  its  branches,  rendered  sacred 
by  the  events  of  the  last  few  years,  which,  for  a  long 
period  before,  had  an  historical  and  a  romantic  in- 
terest associated  with  them.  You  may  remember 
seeing  in  the  newspapers,  a  few  months  since,  that 
General  Butler  was  employing  some  of  his  men  in 
cutting  off  a  neck  of  land  on  the  James,  called  "Dutch 
Gap."  This  place  is  about  twelve  miles  from  Rich- 
mond, and,  at  present,  marks  the  extent  of  our  unob- 
structed advance  on  the  river.  Here  the  stream  turns 
in  a  southerly  direction,  and  sweeps  around  some  five 
or  six  miles  ;  returning  again  to  within  about  five 
hundred  feet  of  the  point  of  departure.  The  penin- 
sula formed  by  this  bend  in  the  river,  sometimes 
called  Farrar's  Island,  a  little  below  the  old  Indian 
town,  "  Arrohateck,"  *  was  the  site  of  an  early  Virginia 


•  It  was  at  Arrohateck,  on  the  23d  of  May,  1607,  that  Captain  Newport  and  Iiis 
party  first  met  the  Indian  Prince,  who  lived  at  Powhatan,  to  which  place  they  fol- 


60 


city*     A  year  or  two  after  Captain  John  Smith  had 
left  the  Colony,  one  of  his  successors  in  office,  Su- 


lowed  or  accompanied  him,  and  who,  they  then  supposed,  was  "the  greate  Kyng 
Powatah  "  himself.  (See  Newport's  Discoveries  in  Virginia,  in  ArchiEol.  Amer.  iv. 
41,  edited  by  our  associate,  the  Rev.  Edward  E.  Hale.)  In  this,  however,  they 
were  mistaken.  A  few  months  later,  when  Smith,  who  was  one  of  Newport's 
party  up  the  river,  was  a  prisoner  with  the  Indians,  he  was  carried  to  Werowo- 
comoco,  where,  for  the  first  time,  he  saw  the  Emperor  Powhatan.  In  the  contem- 
porary narrative  of  his  companions,  in  spealiing  of  Smith's  captivity,  they  say, 
"  His  relation  of  the  plenty  he  liad  seen,  especially  at  Werowocomoco,  where  inhab- 
ited Powhatan  (that  till  that  time  was  unknown),  so  revived  again  their  dead 
spirits,"  &c.  (Smith's  Virginia,  Oxford,  1612,  part  ii.,  p.  14).  Wingfield,  also,  under 
date  of  June  25,  after  Newport  had  sailed  for  England,  says,  "  An  Indian  came  to 
us  from  the  great  Poughwaton,  with  the  word  of  peace.  .  .  .  This  Powaton  dwell- 
eth  ten  miles  from  us,  upon  the  river  Pamaonche,  which  lyeth  North  from  us.  The 
Powhatan  in  the  former  journal  mentioned  ...  is  a  Wyroaunce,  and  under  this 
great  Powatan,  which  before  we  knew  not "  (Archasol.  Amer.  iv.  77,  78).  Referring  to 
Smith's  imprisonment,  Wingfield  says,  that,  after  he  had  been  taken  round  from  one 
chief  to  another,  he  was  at  last  brought  "  to  the  great  Powhatan,  of  whom  before 
we  had  no  knowledge  ;  "  that  is,  none  of  them  had  before  seen  him.     (Ibiii,  92). 

Some  modern  historians  of  Virginia  have  likewise  fallen  into  this  error.  Burk 
(i.  98,  Petersburg,  1804)  says,  "  Captain  Newport,  with  Smith  and  twenty  men, 
explored  the  river  as  high  as  the  falls.  In  this  expedition,  they  visited  Fowh.atan, 
the  principal  chief  or  emperor  of  the  country."  And  Campbell,  in  his  work,  pub- 
lished as  late  as  1860  (pp.  41,  42),  says,  "  In  six  days  they  reached  a  town  called 
Powhatan,  one  of  tlie  seats  of  the  great  chief  of  that  name,  whom  they  found  there." 
This  error  has  arisen  from  an  expression  in  the  narrative  usually  followed,  viz.  Smith's 
Virginia,  &c.,  Oxford,  1612,  part  ii.  p.  4;  or  the  Generall  Historie,  p.  42;  — "  Of  this 
place  the  prince  is  called  Powhatan,  and  his  people  Powhatans."  It  is  not  im- 
probable that  the  chief  who  dwelt  here  at  this  time,  though  not  the  Emperor  Pow- 
hatan, was  called  Powhatan,  and  possibly  from  the  name  of  his  place  of  residence. 
Indeed,  Strachey,  writing  of  this  period,  says,  "  Upon  Powhatan,  or  the  king's 
river,  are  seated  as  followeth.  1.  Parahunt,  one  of  Powhatan's  sons,  whom  we 
therefore  call  Tanxpowatan,  which  is  as  much  as  to  say  Little  Powhatan,  and  is  a 
Weroance  of  the  country,  which  hath  his  own  name,  called  Powhatan,"  &c.  (His- 
torie of  Travaile  in  Virginia,  p.  56). 

The  following,  written,  as  Captain  Smith  says,  "  with  his  own  hand,"  gives 
further  information  concerning  the  Emperor  and  his  possessions.  "  Tlieir  chief 
ruler  is  called  Powhatan,  and  taketh  his  name  of  the  principal  place  of  dwelling, 
called  Powhatan.  But  his  proper  name  is  Wahmisonacock.  Some  countries  he  bath 
which  have  been  his  ancestors,  and  came  unto  him  by  inheritance,  as  the  country 
called  Powhatan,  Arrahateck,  Appamatuke,  Pamavnke,  Youghtanud,  and  Mattapanient, 
All  the  rest  of  his  territories  expressed  in  the  map,  they  report  have  been  his  sev- 
eral conquests.  In  all  his  ancient  inheritances,  he  hath  houses  built  after  their 
manner,  like  arbors,  some   thirty,  some   forty  yards  long,  and    at  every  house 

•  A  History  of  tlie  Colony  and  Ancient  Dominion  of  Virginia,  by  Charles 
Campbell.  Philadelphia,  1860,  pp.  104, 105;  Old  Churches,  Ministers,  and  Families 
of  Virginia,  by  Bishop  Meade;  Philadelphia,  1857;  i.  123,  124. 


61 


Thomas  Dale,  who  came  over  as  "  High-Martial "  of 
the  Colony,  formed  a  plan  of  building  a  city  in  Vir- 
ginia. He  surveyed  the  Nansemond  and  the  James 
Rivers,  as  far  as  to  the  falls  on  the  latter,  and  finally 
pitched  upon  this  neck  of  land  ;  and,  after  being 
relieved  from  the  office  of  governor  by  the  arrival  of 
Gates  in  August,  1611,  he  took  with  him  three  hundred 
and  fifty  men,  many  of  them  Germans,  and,  in  the  early 
part  of  the  next  month,  went  up  the  river,  and  began 
his  work.  He  enclosed  the  place  with  a  palisade, 
built  three  streets  of  well-framed  houses,  erected  a 
handsome  church,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  a  more 
stately  one  of  brick,  besides  building  store-houses, 
watch-houses,  &c. ;  and  he  named  the  city  Henrico, 
"  in  honor  of  the  noble  prince  Henrie,"  the  Prince  of 
Wales.*  This  was  the  second  city  in  Virginia,  though 
a  few  feeble  settlements  elsewhere  had  already  been 
made,  since  the  building  of  Jamestown  in  1607. 
Included  within  the  limits  of  Henrico,  a  short  dis- 


provision  for  his  entertainment  according  to  the  time.  At  l^Wocimmco^  lie  was 
seated  upon  the  north  side  of  tlie  river  Pamavnhe,  some  fourteen  miles  from  James- 
town, where,  for  the  most  part,  he  was  resident ;  but  he  took  so  little  pleasure  in  our 
near  neighborhood,  that  were  able  to  visit  him  against  his  will,  in  six  or  seven  hours, 
that  he  retired  himself  to  a  place  in  the  deserts,  at  the  top  of  the  river  CMchaha- 
mania,  between  Youghtanund  and  Powhatan.  His  habitation  there  is  called  Ora- 
pachs,  where  he  ordinarily  now  resideth."  In  another  placj,  speaking  of  the 
Pamaunke  country,  Smith  says,  "  About  twenty-five  miles  lower,  on  the  north 
side  of  this  river,  is  Weraioocomoco,  where  their  great  king  inhabited  when  Captain 
Smith  was  delivered  him  prisoner  "  (Smith's  Virginia,  Oxford,  1612,  pp.  6,  34,  35, 
and  Generall  Historic,  conclusion  of  p.  39). 

*  A  True  Discourse  of  the  Present  Estate  of  Virginia,  &c.,  written  by  Ealph 
Hamor,  the  younger,  late  Secretary  of  the  Colony:  London,  1G15,  pp.  29,  30.  —  Hen- 
rico is  an  abbreviation  of  Henrifopolis.  It  was  sometimes  called  Henruus, 
Henrico,  in  1634,  became  the  name  of  one  of  the  counties  of  Virginia,  and  now 
includes  Richmond.  '■ 


6-2 


tance  down  the  river,  at  a  place  subsequently  called 
Varina,  was  the  residence  of  John  Rolfe  and  his 
beautiful  Indian  bride,  Pocahontas,  the  site  of  whose 
house  is  still  pointed  out  to  the  visitor.*  Henrico 
City  was  also  the  seat  of  the  projected  Indian  Col- 
lege, for  which  funds  were  largely  collected  in  Eng- 
land, and  some  attempts  were  here  made  to  instruct 
children  of  both  sexes  ;  but  the  terrible  massacre  of 
1622  damped  the  ardor  of  its  friends,  and  shook  the 
faith  of  those  who  had  believed  it  practicable  to 
educate  the  savage  race.f  Henrico  then  received  its 
death  wound,  and  the  place  has  long  been  desolate. 
Some  vestiges  of  the  city  are  still  visible  ;  but  the 
ruins  were  plainly  to  be  distinguished  in  the  time  of 
Stith,  who  lived  not  far  from  the  neck,  at  Varina,  on  a 
fertile  tract  of  land,  which  produced  "  tobacco  nearly 
resembling  the  Spanish  Varinas,"  from  which  it  re- 
ceived its  name  ;  J  and  here  Stith  dates  the  Preface  to 
his  History  of  Virginia  in  1747.  A  spectator,  standing 
on  the  spot  where  the  city  of  Henrico  once  stood,  may 
see  almost  at  one  view  what  appear  to  be  four  beau- 
tiful rivers,  though  in  reality  there  is  but  one.  The 
name,  "  Dutch  Gap,"  is  said  to  be  given  to  this 
neck  of  land  because  of  the  marks  of  the  commence- 
ment of  a  channel  there  by  some  of  the  early  Dutch 
settlers.     A  narrow  canal  appears  to  have  been  cut 


*  Me:ide,  i.  125. 

t  Ciimphell,  pp.  117,  159;  Meade,  i.  44-87 
,   }  Campbell,  1,  105;  Meade,  i.  136,  137. 


63 


about  half-way  across  the  neck,  and  then  abandoned.* 
It  may  be  left  to  General  Butler  to  complete  a  work 
which  has  been  agitated  in  the  councils  of  Virginia 
more  than  once. 

Passing  down  the  river,  and  briefly  noticing  Curls's 
Neck,  Turkey  Island,^  and  Bremo,  the  residences, 
many  years  since,  of  members  of  the  famous  Randolph 
Family,^  just  in  sight  of  the  ever  memorable  Malvern 
Hill,  we  soon  come  to  another  spot  of  some  note  at 
the  present  time.  I  mean  Bermuda  Hundred,  near 
which  General  Butler's  troops  have  been  for  some 
time  quartered.  It  is  about  five  miles,  by  land,  from 
Henrico,  near  the  junction  of  the  Appomattox  with 
the  James  Eiver.  This  place  was  also  settled  by 
Sir  Thomas  Dale.  The  Appomattox  Indians  had 
shown  evidence  of  unfriendliness  to  the  English  ; 
and,  in  the  latter  part  of  this  year  (1611),  he  cap- 


*  Meade,  i.  123. 

t  "  Turkey  Island  "  is  a  point  of  land  at  the  lower  end  of  Curls's  Neck,  the 
home  of  Bacon,  the  rebel  of  1676,  and  is  near  the  dividing  line  between  Henrico 
and  Charles-City  Counties.  It  is  said  that  there  was  once  a  small  island  at  the 
mouth  of  Bremo  Creek,  which  gave  the  name  to  this  point  of  land,  and  that  it  was 
washed  away  in  a  great  freshet,  in  1771.  Smith's  map  has  also  been  referred  to  as 
furnishing  evidence  of  an  island  there  in  his  time;  but  there  is  nothing  on  his  map 
that  can  be  relied  upon  as  indicating  such  an  island  at  that,  place.  An  island  some- 
where in  the  riverearlyreceived  that  name  (seeVa.  Hist.  Reg.  iv.  103;  and  Newport's 
Discoveries  in  Virginia,  in  Archasol.  Amer.  iv.  p.  41,  note  6;  p.  42). 

X  "The  first  of  the  name  who  settled  in  Virginia,  William  Randolph,  be- 
came possessed  of  the  large  estate  on  James  River,  called  Turkey  Island,  bordering 
on  Charles  City,  to  which  he  added  numerous  other  estates,  on  which  he  settled  his 
sons,  building  excellent  houses  for  all  of  them.  He  married  Miss  Mary  Isham  .  .  . 
of  Bermuda  Hundred,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river.  They  had  seven  sons  and 
two  daughters:"  William,  of  Turkey  Isl.and;  Thomas,  of  Tuckahoe;  Isham,  of 
Dungeness;  Richard,  of  Curls,  who  married  a  Miss  Boiling,  a  liescendant  of  Poca- 
hontas; Henry;  Sir  John,  of  Williamsburg;  Edward,  who  married  in  England,  and 
one  of  whose  daugliters  became  the  mother  of  William  Stith,  the  historian.  Seve- 
ral of  these  sons  were  men  of  distinction  in  Virginia  (Meade,  i.  138-140). 


64 


tured  their  town,  and  established  a  plantation  there, 
which  he  called  New  Bermuda.  It  is  now  called 
Bermuda  Hundred,  and  is  the  port  of  Richmond  for 
ships  of  heavy  burthen.  Sir  Thomas  also  laid  out  a 
number  of  plantations  in  the  neighborhood,  which 
he  called  Hundreds,  —  Digges  Hundred,  llochdale 
Hundred,  &c.*  Our  troops  now  occupy  almost  the 
entire  space  between  Bermuda  Hundred  (the  landing- 
place)  and  Farrar's  Island. 

The  Eev.  Alexander  Whittaker,  who  came  over 
with  Dale,  was  at  one  time  the  minister  of  both  New 
Bermuda  and  Henrico.  At  New  Bermuda  lived  Ralph 
Hamor,  the  Secretary  of  the  Colony,  and  the  author 
of  the  rare  little  tract  from  which  we  derive  the 
most  of  what  is  known  concerning  the  baptism  and 
marriage  of  Pocahontas,  and  which  contains  that 
interesting  and  remarkable  letter  of  John  Rolfe  to 
Sir  Thomas  Dale,  giving  the  reasons  "  moving  him  " 
to  make  her  his  wife. 

Sir  Thomas  Dale  had  been  a  soldier  in  the  Low 
Countries ;  and  he  brought  over  with,  him  a  code  of 
laws  for  the  Colony,  "  divine,  moral,  and  martial," 
as  they  were  styled,  which  were  inhuman  in  their 
character.f  They  were  sent  over  by  Sir  Thomas 
Smith,  the  Treasurer  of  the  Company,  and,  it  is 
said,    without   their   sanction.      Many   of    the    laws. 


*  Hamor,  p.  31. 

t  They  were  printed  at  London  in  1612.    "  For  the  Colony  of  Virginea  Britan- 
,.     Lawes  Dinine,  Morall  and  Miirtiall,"  &c.,  and   reprinted  in  Force's  Tracts, 


65 


like  the  code  of  the  early  Athenian  lawgiver,  were 
"  written  in  blood."  The  character  of  many  of  the 
first  settlers  of  Virginia  was  such  as  required  a  severe 
rule ;  but  it  was  perhaps  fortunate  on  the  whole  that 
a  miui  of  such  discretion  as  Sir  Thomas  Dale  pos- 
sessed, was  sent  over  to  administer  this  sanguinary 
code.* 

Again  chosen  Governor,  Sir  Thomas,  in  1614, 
removed  from  Henrico  to  Jamestown,  and,  two  years 
after,  returned  to  England,  accompanied  by  Rolfe  and 
his  wife,  "  the  Lady  Rebecca,"  from  which  visit  she 
never  returned.f 


*  Campbell,  i.  105 ;  Meade,  i.  135, 137.  Even  the  church,  says  Hawkes,  was 
placed  under  martial  law.  A  new  and  better  state  of  things  was  inaugurated  on  the 
arrival  of  Gov.  Yeardley,  in  1619,  who  then  superseded  the  arbitrary  Argall,  and 
those  cruel  laws  were  abrogated.  The  first  assembly  of  Burgesses  met  this 
in  July,  at  Jamestown  (see  2  N.  Y.  Hist.  Coll.  vol.  iii^  part  i.  pp.  331-358). 

1  She  died  at  Gravesend  as  she  was  preparing  to  embark  for  Virginia.  In  £ 
book  of  historical  and  confidential  letters,  published  in  London  in  1849,  entitled, 
"  The  Court  and  Times  of  James  the  First,"  &o.,  are  references  to  her.  In  a  letter 
of  John  Chamberlain,  Esq.,  "  London,  June  22d,  1616,"  to  Sir  Dudley  Carleton 
then  at  the  Hague,  the  writer  says,  "  Sir  Thomas  Dale  is  arrived  from  Virginia,  and 
brought  with  him  some  ten  or  twelve  old  and  young  of  that  country,  among  whon 
is  Pocahuntas,  daughter  of  Powatan,  a  king  or  cacique  of  that  country,  married  t( 
one  Rolfe,  an  Englishman.  I  hear  not  of  any  other  riches,  or  matter  of  worth,  bu 
only  some  quantity  of  sassafras,  tobacco,  pitch,  tar,  and  clapboard,  things  of  no 
great  value,  unless  there  were  plenty,  and  nearer  hand.  All  I  can  hear  of  it 
that  the  country  is  good  to  live  in,  if  it  were  stored  with  people,  and  might  in  time 
be  commodious;  but  there  is  no  present  profit  expected.  But  you  may  understand 
more  by  himself  when  he  comes  into  those  parts,  which  he  pretends  to  do  within  a 
month  or  little  more  "  (vx)l.  i.  415).  Dale  had  arrived  at  Plymouth  on  the  12th,  ten 
days  before  this  letter  was  written.  Again,  under  date  Jan.  18,  1616  [1617],  this 
same  writer  says,  "  The  Virginia  woman  Pocahuntas,  with  her  father  counsellor, 
have  been  with  the  King,  and  graciously  used;  and  both  she  and  her  assistant  well 
placed  at  the  masque.  She  is  on  her  return,  though  sore  against  her  will,  if  the 
wind  would  come  about  to  send  them  away"  (vol.  i.  388).  Again;  under  date 
"  March  29,  1617,"  "  The  Virginia  woman,  whose  picture  I  sent  you,  died  this  last 
week,  at  Gravesend,  as  siie  was  returning  homeward."  In  tlie  next  paragraph,  by 
a  singnlar  coincidence,  the  writer  says,  "  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  took  his  leave  yester- 
ini;lit  of  Jlr.  Secretary,  and  goes  this  morning  towards  Dover,  where  he  hopes  to 
tiad  his  ship,  though  his  followers  are  yet  in  the  river,  and  make  no  great  haste 
9 


66     . 

Passing  down  the  river,  and  keeping  our  eye  on 
the  map,  we  soon  come,  on  the  north  side,  to  another 
place,  which  will  ever  be  memorable  in  the  history  of 
Virgihia,  and  indeed  in  the  history  of  this  country.  I 
refer  to  the  spot  where  General  McClellan,  after  with- 
drawing his  long  lines  from  the  swamps  of  the  Chicka- 
hominy,  and  fighting  those  terrible  seven  days'  battles, 
finally  brought  the  remnant  of  his  noble  army  in 
safety  under  the  protection  of  our  gun-boats.  "  Har- 
rison's Landing,"  or  the  place  occupied  by  our  troops  at 
that  time,  embraces  the  spot,  called  Berkeley,  where 
one  of  the  Presidents  of  the  United  States  was 
born;  and  earlier,  indeed,  soon  after  the  first  settle- 
ment of  the  country,  there  lived  here  one  Master 
George  Thorpe,  a  kinsman  of  Sir  Thomas  Dale,  "  a 
pious,  worthy,  and  religious  gentleman,"  Avho  had 
been  "  of  the  king's  bed-chamber."  So  much  interest 
had  he  felt  in  the  education  and  conversion  of  the 
Indians,  that  he  left  his  home  and  came  over  here  to 
be  chief  manager  of  the  college  designed  for  their 
benefit.  Ou  that  fatal  22d  of •  March,  1622,  when 
three  hundi'ed  and  forty-seven  persons,  —  one-twelfth 

after  him.  He  makes  away  with  all  the  speed  he  can,  for  fear  of  a  countermand, 
by  reason  of  some  message  brought  by  the  Lord  Rons,"  &c.  (vol.  ii.  3).  The  career 
of  Raleigh  was  soon  to  close.  Nothing  would  appease  his  enemies  but  his  blood. 
He  had  but  recently  been  liberated  from  mi  imprisonment  of  thirteen  years  in  the 
Tower,  just  in  time  to  see  in  London  (as  he  might  have  done)  that  brilliant  repre- 
sentative of  a  race,  whose  country  he  had  expended  so  large  a  part  of  his  life  and 
fortune  in  fruitless  attempts  to  colonize.  To  return  to  Pocahontas:  tlie  Parish  Reg- 
ister of  burials  at  Gravesend  has  the  following  entry,  "  1616.  March  21,  —  Rebecca 
Wrothe,  Wyffe  of  Thomas  Wrothe  gent.  A  Virginia  Lady  borne  was  buried  in 
the  Chauncell"  (Va.  Hist.  Reg.  for  1S49,  ii.  149).  There  is  an  error  here  in  the 
Christian  name  of  her  husband,  to  say  nothing  of  the  odd  way  in  which  the  sur- 
name is  spelled. 


67 


of  all  the  colonists,  —  including  six  members  of  the 
council,  were  cut  off  by  the  savages,  he  and  ten  others 
were  slain  at  Berkeley.* 

The  lines  of  McClellans  army  at  the  same  time 
also  included,  as  appears  by  the  military  map  here 
upon  the  table,  a  part  of  the  famous  old  plantation 
of  Westover,  celebrated,  if  for  nothing  else,  for 
having  been  the  residence  of  Colonel  William  Byrd, 
one  of  the  most  accomplished  men  of  Vu-ginia  in  the 
early  time.  He  was  born  to  one  of  the  amplest  for- 
tunes in  the  country,  was  sent  to  England  to  be 
educated,  and  there  formed  an  intimate  acquaintance 
with  many  eminent  literary  and  public  men.  "  He 
was  called  to  the  bar  in  the  Middle  Temple,  studied 
for  some  time  in  the  Low  Countries,  visited  the  Court 
of  France,  and  was  chosen  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal 
Society."  He  returned  to  this  country  as  Receiver- 
General  of  his  Majesty's  Revenues  in  Virginia,  and 
resided  at  Westover,  in  a  princely  mansion,  which  was 
standing  within  a  few  years,  a  monument  of  his  taste 
and  elegant  expenditure.  Colonel  Byrd  was  distin- 
guished for  great  public  spirit,  as  well  as  for  literary 
accomplishments  of  a  high  order.  He  had  one  of  the 
best  private  libraries  in  that  part  of  the  country,  which 
Stith  says  was  freely  thrown  open  to  his  use  when  he 
was  writing  his  History  of  Virginia.  A  catalogue  of  his 
books  is  said  to  be  in  the  Franklin  Library  at  Philadel- 
phia.f   "  The  Westover  manuscripts,"  published  within 

*  Stith,  p.  211. 

t  Campbell,  pp.  135, 136;  Va.  Hist.  Reg.  iv.  87-90;  Westover  MSS.  &c..  Editor's 
Preface. 


68 

a  few  years  from  his  papers,  will  well  repay  a  perusal.* 
Colonel  Byrd  is  entitled  to  our  gratitude  for  having 
secured,  while  in  England,  the  two  volumes  (tran- 
scripts) of  the  Virginia  Company's  Records,  which 
also  Stith  acknowledges  to  have  been  of  great  service 
to  him  in  his  historical  labors  ;  and  which,  after  pass- 
ing through  the  families  of  the  Randolphs,  Blands, 
and  Leighs,  have  at  last  found  their  way,  I  believe,  to 
the  Library  of  Congress  at  Washington.  Colonel 
Byrd,  among  his  large  domains,  inherited  an  extensive 
tract  of  land  on  which  Richmond  is  now  situated.  It 
had  belonged  to  that  celebrated  Bacon,  whose  name  is 
associated  with  the  famous  episode  in  the  history  of 
Virginia,  known  as  "  Bacon's  Rebellion."  After  his 
death  and  the  reduction  of  the  rebellion,  his  lands 
were  confiscated,  and  came  into  the  possession  of  the 
father  of  Colonel  Byrd.f    lit  1733,  Colonel  Byrd  and  a 


*  "  The  WestOYer  Manuscripts;  containing  the  History  of  the  Diviiling  Line 
betwixt  Virginia  and  Nortli  Carolina,"  &c.  By  William  Byrd,  of  Westover: 
Petersburg,  1841. 

t  The  father  of  Colonel  Byrd  was  Captain  William  Byrd,  who  came  over  about 
the  year  1674.  He  is  said  to  have  been  instrumental  in  bringing  to  justice  the 
rebels  of  Bacon's  Rebellion.  His  name  also  occurs  in  the  incipient  steps  relative 
to  the  College  of  William  and  Mary.  He  lived  at  Belvidere,  opposite  the  falls,  —  a 
place  said  to  have  been  rightly  named.  He  was  father  to  the  first  Colonel  Byrd,  of 
whom  we  have  spoken  above,  who  died  26  August,  1744,  aged  70.  A  son  of  the 
latter,  also  Colonel  William,  the  last  of  the  name  who  owned  Westover,  w.as  com- 
mander of  a  regiment  under  Washington  in  1758  (Campbell,  421,  BOO;  Meade, 
i.  318;  Westover  Papers,  Preface  iv.).  Lieutenant  Anburey,  an  officer  in  the  British 
service,  taken  prisoner  with  Burgoyne,  after^spending  some  time  at  Cambridge 
and  its  neighljorhood,  was  sent  with  the  captured  force  to  Virginia,  where  he  spent 
two  years;  during  which  he  enjoyed  the  hospitality  of  some  of  its  citizens.  The 
troops  were  quartered  at  Charlottesville  and  its  vicinity.  The  otficers  were  paroled, 
and  allowed  to  go  wherever  they  pleased,  within  a  circuit  of  one  hundred  miles. 
Anburey  visited  the  principal  towns,  Richmond,  Petersburg,  &c.,  and  appears  to 
have  been,  a  frequent  guest  of  Colonel  Randolph  of  Tuckahoe.  He  describes 
southern  life  and  manners  at  that  period  with  great  spirit.    In  a  letter  dated  "  Jones's 


69 


few  of  his  friends  laid  out,  on  a  plan,  the  city  of  Rich- 
mond, Avhere,  for  a  good  many  years,  Shoccoe  Ware- 
house had  already  been  established  ;  and  also  the  town 
of  Petersburg,*  —  both  being  at  the  head  of  navigation 
on  the  James  and  Appomattox  Rivers, — two  cities  of. 
especial  interest  to  us  at  this  moment;  and,  in  1737, 
he  advertised  lots  in  Richmond  for  sale.  This  town 
was  not  incorporated  till  174:2.1 

Continuing  our  journey  down  the  river,  and  passing 
many  places  of  great  interest,  —  the  point  of  Weynock 
on  the  north,  and  Sir  George  Yeardley's  plantation, 
called  Flower  de  Hundred,  near  the  present  Fort 
Powhatan,  on  the  south,  and  also  Jamestown  itself. 


Plantation,  near  Charlottesville,  April  10,  1779,"  he  says,  "  The  first  night  after  our 
leaving  Richmond,  I  slept  at  an  elegant  villa,  called  Belvidera,  which  formerly 
belonged  to  a  Colonel  Bird,  who  distinguished  himself  greatly  in  the  last  war,  in 
that  sad  disaster  of  General  Braddook's.  He  possessed  a  most  affluent  fortune,  and 
was  proprietor  of  all  the  lands  round  the  falls  for  many  miles,  as  well  as  the  great- 
est part  of  the  lands  round  the  town  of  Richmond.  His  great  abilities  and  personal 
accomplishments  were  universally  esteemed;  but,  being  infatuated  with  play,  his 
affairs,  at  his  death,  were  in  a  deranged  state.  The  widow  whom  he  left  with  eight 
children,  has,  by  prudent  management,  preserved  out  of  the  wreck  of  his  princely 
fortune,  a  beautiful  house,  at  a  place  called  Westover,  upon  James  River,  some 
personal  property,  a  few  plantations,  and  a  number  of  slaves.  The  grounds  around 
the  house  at  Westover  are  laid  out  in  a  most  beautiful  ma;iner,  and  with  great  taste, 
and  from  the  river  appear  delightful  "  (Travels  through  the  Interior  Parts  of  Amer- 
ica, by  an  Officer:  London,  1789,  ii.  369,  370). 

*  Petersburg  is  on  the  south  side  of  the  Appomattox,  about  twelve  miles  from 
its  confluence  with  the  James.  Nearly  opposite  to  Petersburg  is  a  kind  of  suburb 
called  Pocahontas.  John  Randolph,  sen.,  the  father  of  John  of  Roanoke,  had  a  seat 
near  there,  which  he  called  Matoax  (one  of  the  names  of  Pocahontas);  and  he  died 
there  in  1775.  His  widow,  whose  maiden  name  was  Frances  Bland,  married, 
secondly,  St.  George  Tucker,  who  then  came  to  live  there.  It  has  sometimes  been 
supposed  that  John  of  Roanoke  was  born  there,  but  he  was  probably  born  at  Caw- 
son's.  He,  however,  spent  the  years  of  his  boyhood  at  Matoax  (see  The  Bland 
Papers,  ii.  9, 119).  John  Randolph,  as  is  well  known,  took  great  pride  in  his  descent 
from  the  daughter  of  Powhatan.  It  is  in  this  wise.  His  father,  John  R.,  sen., 
married  a  daughter  of  Richard  R.,  of  Curls,  whose  wife  was  Jane  Boiling,  daugh- 
ter of  John  Boiling,  who  was  son  of  Robert  Boiling,  whose  wife  was  Jane  Rolfe, 
daughter  of  Thomas  Rolfe,  who  was  the  son  of  Pocahontas. 

t  Campbell,  pp.  420,  421,  422. 


70 


now  deserted  and  desolate,  —  we  come  to  the  noted 
city  of  Williamsburg,  lying  about  three  miles  from  the 
river;  the  place  where  the  Rebel  army  tirst  made  its 
stand  and  where  the  first  battle  was  fought  after  the 
evacuation  of  Yorktown  in  the  spring  of  1862.  This 
city,  for  so  many  years  the  capital  of  the  State,  the 
residence  of  some  of  the  noted  men  of  Virginia,  — 
the  place  where  Patrick  Hemy,  in  the  midst  of  that 
magnificent  debate  on  the  Stamp  Act  resolutions  in 
the  capitol,  exclaimed,  "  in  a  voice  of  thunder,  and 
with  the  look  of  a  god,"  "  Csesar  had  his  Brutus,"  &c., 
—  the  site  of  the  oldest  seat  of  learning  in  the  United 
States  (except  Harvard  College),  where  originated 
the  literary  society  of  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa,  from 
which  the  affiliated  society  at  Harvard  derived  its 
charter,  —  was  known  in  its  early  history  as  "  Middle 
Plantation,"  it  being  half-way  between  the  James  and 
York  Rivers.*     This  place  was  for  a  time  the  head- 


*  This  place  is  early  referred  to  as  Dr.  John  Pott's  Plantation,  described,  in 
1633,  as  a  tract  of  land  lying  between  Queen's  Creek,  emptying  into  Charles  River, 
—  as  the  Painaunke  River,  now  York,  was  then  called,  —  and  Archer's  Hope-Creek, 
emptying  into  James  River.  It  was  subsequently  called  Middle  Plantation.  The 
charter  of  the  College  was  obtained  in  1692.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Blair  was  sent  over  to 
solicit  it  of  their  majesties;  and  Seymour,  the  English  attorney-general,  having 
received  commands  to  draw  up  the  charter,  which  was  to  be  accompanied  by  a 
grant  of  monej',  remonstrated  against  such  liberality,  contending  that  it  was  a  use- 
less expenditure;  that  the  money  was  more  needed  at  home,  and  that  there  was  not 
the  slightest  occasion  for  a  college  in  Virginia.  Mr.  Blair  replied  that  the  purpose 
was  to  educate  young  men  for  the  ministry,  and  begged  the  attorney  to  reflect  that 
the  people  of  Virginia  had  ?ouls  to  be  saved  as  well  as  the  people  of  England. 
'Souls!"  exclaimed  Seymour,  "damn  your  souls!  make  tobacco"  (Campbell, 
pp.  187,  188;   The  Works  of  Franklin,  x.  iii). 

Governor  Nicholson,  who  succeeded  Andros  in  1698,  removed  the  seat  of  gov- 
ernment from  Jamestown,  which  now  contained  but  three  or  four  houses  suitable 
for  habitation,  to  Middle  Plantation,  which  now  received  the  name  of  Williamsburg. 
He  designed  to  make  it  a  large  town,  and  laid  out  the  streets  in  the  form  of  a  W  and 


71 

qi;arters  of  Bacon,  the  rebel  of  1676  ;  and  here  one  of 
his  comrades  was  executed.  William  Drummond  had 
recently  been  Governor  of  North  Carolina.  He  had 
joined  himself  to  Bacon  ;  and,  in  the  waning  fortunes 
of  the  rebellion,  he  escaped,  but  was  captured  and 
brought  ui.  The  Governor,  Sir  William  Berkeley, 
being  on  board  ship  in  Queen's  Creek,  immediately 
came  on  shore,  and  approaching  the  prisoner,  with  a 
low  bow,  said,  "  Mr.  Drummond,  you  are  very  wel- 
come :  1  am  more  glad  to  see  you  than  any  man  in 
Virginia.  ]\Ir.  Drummond,  you  shall  be  hanged 
in  half  an  hour."* 

Passing  rapidly  onward,  and  merely  glancing  at 
many  places  of  note,  —  Camp  Butler,  the  point  of 
Newport's  News  f  (which  divides  the   James    River 


M,  in  honor  of  William  and  M;iry ;  but  these  ambitious  plans  were  not  fully  carried 
out  (Campbell,  p.  3&e). 

The  first  newspaper  in  the  colony  —  "The  Virginia  Gazette"  —  was  published 
at  Williamsburg.  It  was  first  issued  in  August,  1736,  by  William  Parks,  who  here 
printed  Stith's  History  of  Virginia  in  1747.  Sir  William  Berkeley,  in  1671,  in  his  Re- 
port to  the  Commissioners  of  Foreign  Plantations,  thanked  God  that  there  were  no 
free  schools  nor  printing  in  Virginia;  but  there  must  have  been  inaterials  for  printing 
here  soon  after,  if  the  statement  is  true,  that  John  Buckner,  in  1682,  was  called 
before  Lord  Culpepper  and  his  Council,  for  printing  the  laws  of  1680  without  the 
Governor's  license,  and  he  and  his  printer  were  put  under  bonds  not  to  jirint 
any  thing  thereafter  until  his  majesty's  pleasure  should  be  known  (Hening,  ii.  511, 
B18).  The  earliest  extant  evidence  of  printing  done  in  this  colony  is  the  edition  of 
"The  Revised  Laws,"  published  in  1733  (Campbell,  p.  419). 

*  The  Beginning,  Progress,  and  Conclusion  of  Bacon's  Rebellion,  &c.,  p.  23 ; 
An  Account  of  Our  late  Trouble  in  Virginia,  p.  9.  Both  papers  are  in  vol.  i.  of 
Force's  Tracts. 

t  Smith  (General!  Historie,  p.  15«)  calls  this  place  "  Newports-newes."  Beverley 
(History  of  Virginia,  London,  1722,  p.  37)  says  that  Captain  Newport  arrived  in 
November,  1621,  "  with  fifty  men  imported  at  his  own  charge,  besides  passengers, 
and  made  a  plantiition  on  Newport's  News,  naming  it  after  himself."  The  autlmr- 
ities  in  Smith  say,  that  "  Master  Gookin  came  at  this  time  out  of  Ireland,  with  fifty 
men  of  his  own,  and  thirty  passengers,"  &c.,  and  planted  himself  at  this  place,  and 
do  not  mention  Newport's  arrival  at  this  time.  An  antiquarian  friend  tells  me,  that 
he  was  passing  this  place  some  thirty  years  ago,  on  a  steamer,  and  the  old  pilot  told 


72 


from  Hampton  Eoads)  and  Hampton,*  the  old  Ke- 
coughtan  of  Smith,  on  the  one  side,  and  the  Nanse- 


him  they  called  it  Newport's  "  Noose,"  and  pointed  to  the  cove  at  the  northwest  of 
the  point  of  land  as  the  "  noose  " ;  and  suggests  that  the  name  is  a  misprint  in  Smith. 
But  the  name  as  given  by  Smith,  whose  authority  is  probably  the  Company's 
Records,  is  found  in  the  early  tracts.  It  is  "  Newports  News "  in  the  "  New 
Albion,"  printed  in  1648;  and  the  writer  had  every  opportunity  of  knowing  how  it 
was  then  called.  Beverley,  Stith,  and  Burk,  the  last  quoting  the  Company's 
Records,  make  no  suggestions  concerning  the  name,  but  merely  write  it  as  do 
others;  and  so  it  appears  on  Fry  aiwi  Jefferson's  map,  executed  about  1750. 

Newport's  News,  as  I  have  stated,  was  early  the  residence  of  Captain  Gookin, 
whose  son  Daniel  subsequently  came  to  Massachusetts,  and  is  memorable  as  the  his- 
torian of  the  Indians  of  New  England.  Captain  Samuel  Matthews,  the  Governor  in 
1659,  also  resided  here.  It  was  at  his  plantation,  some  time  during  the  years  1644- 
1647,  that  he  gave  "  kind  entertainment "  to  "  Beauchamp  Plantagenet,"  or  whoever 
may  have  been  the  person,  that,  under  this  imposing  pseudonym,  wrote  the  "  Descrip- 
tion of  the  Province  of  New  Albion,"  printed  in  1648;  a  book  which  is  the  earliest 
known  authority  for  the  statement,  that  Argall,  on  his  return  from  Nova  Scotia,  in 
1613,  landed  at  Manhattan,  and  caused  the  Dutch  governor  there  to  submit  "to  his 
majesty,  and  to  the  governor  and  government  of  Virginia,"  which  submission  was 
"sent  to  Virginia  and  recorded"  {see  New  Albion,  p.  18;  Brodhead's  New  York, 
p.  754).  Another  writer,  in  1648,  describes  Captain  Matthews  as  "  an  old  planter  of 
above  thirty  years'  standing,  ,  .  .  hath  yorty  negro  servants,  brings  them  up  to 
trades  in  his  house."  In  connection  with  the  subject  of  negro  slavery  in  this  col- 
ony, I  will  add,  that  letters  from  Virginia  at  this  time  relate,  that  "  there  are  .in  Vir- 
ginia about  fifteen  thousand  English,  and  of  negroes  brought  thither  three  hundred 
good  servants"  (A  Perfect  Description  of  Virginia,  &c.,  in  Force,  ii.  2,  14,  15).  In 
a  letter  written  from  Virginia  by  John  Rolfe  (Generall  Historic,  pp.  126,  127),  we 
learn,  that,  about  the  last  of  August,  1619  (not  1620,  as  is  usually  stated),  there  came 
a  "  Dittch  man-of-war"  into  Virginia,  "  that  sold  us  twenty  negars."  This  is  the 
first  notice  we  have  of  negroes  in  that  colony.  In  1670,  the  whole  population  of 
Virginia  was  forty  thousand,  of  whom  only  two  thousand  were  negro  slaves,  six 
thousand  being  white  servants.  But  few  slaves  were  imported.  The  average  annual 
importation  of  servants  was  about  fifteen  hundred,  but  they  were  chietiy  English,  with 
a  few  Scotch  and  Irish.  In  1715,  Virginia  was  second  in  population  only  to  Massa- 
chusetts (then  by  far  the  largest  of  the  eleven  Anglo-American  colonies).  She  had 
seventy-two  thousand  whites,  and  twenty-three  thousand  negroes.  In  1756,  with  a 
white  population  of  a  hundred  and  seventy  three  thousand,  she  had  a  black  popu- 
lation of  a  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  (Campbell,  pp.  144,  206,  272,  383,  494). 

*  Hampton  is  the  capital  of  Elizabeth-City  County.  It  early  experienced  the 
effects  of  this  war.  The  quaint  old  church  here  was  occupied  as  a  guard-house  by 
Federal  troops  in  the  summer  of  1861;  and,  when  the  place  was  evacuated  by  them, 
it  was  burnt  by  order  of  the  rebel  General  Magruder.  A  few  miuutes  after  midnight, 
on  the  7th  of  August,  the  torch  was  applied ;  and  the  greater  part  of  its  five  huudred 
houses  were  soon  in  flames.     The  town  was  laid  in  ashes,  and  deserted. 

After  Point  Comfort,  Kecoughton  was  one  of  the  earliest  places  visited  on  the 
river;  being  only  two  and  a  half  miles  from  the  former  place.  The  savages  here  from 
the  first  received  the  English  kindly;  and  the  place  was  always  a  favorite  resort. 
This  was  probably  the  earliest  place  fortified  near  the  mouth  of  the  river.     The 


73 


mond  and  Elizabeth  Rivers,  on  the  other,  —  all  places 
of  great  interest,  both  historically  and  in  view  of 
recent  events,  —  we  come  to  Old  Point  Comfort,  — 
the  Point  Comfort  of  Smith's  map.  We  read  in  the 
contemporary  narratives  of  the  first -comers,  that, 
after  escaping  destruction  by  the  tempest  at  sea,  and 
finding  their  little  fleet  in  the  entrance  of  the  Chesa- 
peake, between  the  two  capes,  which  they  named,  — 
Cape  Charles,  on  the  right  hand,  and  Cape  Henry, 
on  the  left, — they  landed  on  Cape  Henry,  opened  their 
box  containing  the  orders  for  their  government,'  and 
then  commenced  seeking  a  place  for  a  settlement. 
Crossing  over  in  their  shaUop  to  a  point  of  land  near 
the  mouth  of  the  James  River,  then  called  the  "  Pow- 
hatan," and  sounding  as  they  approached  the  shore, 
they  say  they  found  good  depth  of  water,  which  put 
them  "  in  good  comfort"  ;  and  they  named  the  place 
"  Cape  Comfort,"*  or  "Point  Comfort,"  as  it  stands  on 
Smith's  map.  This  place  was  subsequently  fortified  by 
the  colony.  It  has  certainly  been  a  Point  Comfort  to 
the  North  during  this  present  Rebellion.  The  posses- 
sion of  Fortress  Monroe  has  secured  to  us  that  portion 


Lord  Delaware,  the  Governor  in  1610,  "built  two  new  forts  (the  one  called  Fort 
Henry,  and  the  other  Fort  Charles,  in  honor  of  our  most  noble  Prince  and  his  bro- 
ther) upon  a  pleasant  hill,  and  near  a  little  rivulet,  which  we  call  South-hanapton 
Kiver"  (A  True  Declaration  of  Virpnia,  1610,  pp.  51,  52).  "Here  it  was  intended," 
says  Stith,  "that  those  who  came  from  England,  should  be  quartered  at  their  first 
landing,  that  the  wearisomeness  and  nausea  of  the  sea  might  be  refreshed  in  this 
pleasant  situation  and  wholesome  air"  (p   120). 

•  Percy's  "Observations,"  &o.  in  Purchas,  iv.  1627;    Smith's  Virginia,  1612, 
part  ii.  pp.  8,  9. 

10 


74 

of  Vu'ginia  which  commands  the  entrance  of  all  her 
prmcipal  rivers. 

In  the  interesting  paper  just  read  to  us  by  Mr.  Hale, 
he  has  called  our  attention  to  another  spot  not  far  from 
this  neighborhood ;  not  upon  the  James  River,  but 
upon  the  adjoining  river,  the  York,  the  ".Pamavnke  " 
of  Smith  ;  a  spot  not  inferior  in  interest  to  Jamestown 
itself.  I  mean  the  place  which  was  the  principal  and 
favorite  residence  of  the  Emperor  Powhatan  during  the 
first  few  years  of  the  settlement  of  Virginia,  called 
by  Smith,  who  also  indicates  it  on  his  map,  "  Wero- 
wocomoco."  It  is  on  the  north  side  of  York  River,  in 
Gloucester  County,  only  a  few  miles  distant  from  the 
historic  field  of  Yorktown,  on  the  other  side  the  river, 
now  memorable  for  its  two  sieges.  Smith,  in  his  ear- 
liest tract  on  Virginia,  says,  "  The  bay  where  he 
dwelleth  hath  in  it  three  creeks,  and  a  mile  and  a 
half  from  the  channel."  Mr.  Campbell,  in  his  recent 
History  of  Virginia,  locates  the  place  "  at  Powhatan's 
Chimney,"  on  the  east  side  of  Timber-neck  Bay, 
where  stands  the  old  stone  chimney,  which  Bishop 
Meade,  who  made  a  pilgrimage  to  see  it,  thinks  is  the 
veritable  one  built  for  the  old  chief  by  the  colonists. 
It  was  to  WerowocomocQ  that  Captain  Smith,  after 
having  been  taken  prisoner  in  December,  1607,  on 
the  Chickahominy,  and  been  shown  roimd  from  chief 
to  chief,  even  to  the  upper  waters  of  the  Potomac,  was  - 
finally  brought;   and  here  he  for  the  first  time  saw 


75 

the  JImperor  Powhatan.*  It  was  here,  too,  as  Smith 
alleges  in  one  of  his  later  works,  that  occurred  the 
romantic  incident  of  his  rescue  from  the  cruel  clubs 
of  the  savages,  by  the  young  girl  Pocahontas.  It  was 
here  that  the  necessities  of  the  Colony  were  often 
relieved  by  supplies  of  corn ;  and  here  also  the 
mock  ceremony  of  crowning  the  old  chief  was  per- 
formed by  Newport. f  After  a  few  years,  Powhatan 
removed  from  this  place,  choosing  another  spot, 
further  up  the  river,  for  his  principal  place  of  resi- 
dence. 

Reference  has  been  made  to  Smith's  Map  of  Vir- 
ginia ;  and,  before  concluding  these  remarks,  I  would 
like  to  say  a  word  respecting  it.  When  we  consider 
the  circumstances  under  which  the  sketch  for  this  map 
was  made,  we  may  weU  regard  it  as  a  remarkable 
production.  Smith  was  about  three  months  on  his 
topographical  survey ;  at  least,  of  that  part  of  Chesa- 
peake Bay  which  lies  north  of  the  James  River.  He 
was  chiefly  employed,  for  the  first  year  of  his  residence 
in  the  Colony,  in  exploring  the  James  and  its  tribu- 


*  Campbell,  pp.  18,  49,  62,  63,  67, 159, 130;  Compare  Meade,  i.  336,  350;  Wing- 
field's  Discourse,  &c.,  in  Archseol.  Amer.  vol.  iv.  p.  78,  notes,  8,  9. 

t  "  Here,  two  centuries  and  a«half  ago,  dwelt  the  famous  old  Powhatan,  tall, 
erect,  stern,  apparently  beardless,  his  hair  a  little  frosted  with  gray.  Here  he 
beheld  with  barbarous  satisfaction,  the  scalps  of  his  enemies  recently  massacred, 
suspended  on  a  line  between  two  trees,  and  waving  in  the  breeze.  Here  he  listened 
to  recitals  of  hunting  and  blood;  and,  in  the  red  glare  of  the  council-fire,  planned 
schemes  of  perfidy  and  revenge.  Here  he  sate  and  smoked,  sometimes  observing 
Pocahontas  at  play,  sometimes  watching  the  fleet  canoe  coming  in  from  the 
Pamaunke.  Werowocomoco  was  a  befitting  seat  of  the  great  chief,  overlooking 
the  bay  with  its  bold,  picturesque,  wood-crowned  banks;  and  in  view  of  the  wide 
mnjestio  flood  of  the  river,  impurpled  by  transient  cloud-shadows,  or  tinged  with 
the  rosy  splendor  of  a  summer  sunset"  (Campbell,  p.  68,  69). 


76 

tavies,  with  occasional  visits  to  tlie  Indian  settlements 
on  the  Pamaunke,  for  the  purpose  of  replenishing 
the  stores  of  food  at  JamestoAvn.  In  the  early 
part  of  June,  1608,  however,  he  started,  with  four- 
teen men,  in  a  barge  of  two  tons,  on  a  voyage  of 
exploration.  The  party  went  down  the  river,  shot 
across  to  the  Eastern  Shore,  fell  in  with  the  isles 
called  "  Smith's  Isles,"  and  bending  their  way  along  to 
the  north,  inside  the  Bay,  examined  every  river,  inlet, 
island,  and  point  of  land,  till  they  reached  "  Limbo 
lies;"  when  they  crossed  over  to  the  western  shore, 
and  still  proceeded  northward.  After  ha\ing  been 
absent  about  fourteen  days,  some  of  the  company,  by 
exposure  and  hard  labor,  had  become  much  exhausted, 
and  consequently  somewhat  discouraged.  Three  or 
four  of  the  men  had  fallen  sick ;  and  it  was  decided 
that  the  whole  party  should  now  return  to  James- 
tovm.  On  the  16th  of  June,  they  came  in  sight  of 
the  beautiful  river  Potomac,  which  they  described  as 
nine  miles  broad.  They  knew  not  the  name  of  this 
noble  stream ;  and,  as  the  sick  men  had  now  recov- 
ered, the  party  resolved  to  explore  it.  They  went  up 
thirty  miles,  to  near  the  spot  of  the  future  birthplace 
of  Washington,*  before  seeing  any  inhabitants.  Soon 
afterward,  they  came  near  falhng  into  an  ambuscade 
of  two  or  three  hundred  savages,  but,  by  the  discreet 
and  gallant  conduct  of  Smith,  escaped  injury.  After 
returning  again  to  the  Bay,  they  were  astonished  at 

*  Campbell,  p.  57. 


77 


the  great  abundance  of  fish  which  they  saw  swimming 
around  them,  and  which,  for  want  of  nets,  they  at- 
tempted to  catch  with  a  frying-pan  :  but  the  early 
narrators  of  the  expedition  say,  that  they  found  it  a 
very  bad  instrument  to  catch  fish  with.  They  never 
had  seen  a  greater  abundance  of  fish ;  but  they  were 
"  not  to  be  caught  with  frying-pans."  And  here  the 
following  incident  is  recorded.  Happening  to  run 
their  boat  aground,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Rappahan- 
nock, then  called  "  Tappahannock,"  and  espying 
many  fish  lurking  among  the  weeds  on  the  sand, 
Captain  Smith  and  his  men  amused  themselves  "  by 
nailing  the  fish  to  the  ground "  Avith  then-  swords, 
by  which  means  they  caught  in  an  hour  more  than 
they  could  eat  in  a  day.  But  the  Captain,  happening 
to  spear  a  strange  fish,  "  being  much  of  the  fashion 
of  a  thornback,"  —  a  "stingray,"*  as  it  is  called  in 
the  margin,  —  "  with  a  long  tail  like  a  riding-rod, 
where,  on  the  middest,  is  a  most  poisonous  stmg,  of 
two  or  three  inches  long,  bearded  like  a  saw  on  each 
side,"t  in  taking  it  from  his  sword,  was  severely 
wounded  in  his  wrist,  Avhich  caused  such  a  great 
swelling  in  his  arm  and  shoulder,  as  they  "  all  with 
much  sorrow  concluded  his  funeral,"  and,  according 
to  his  own  direction,  "  prepared  his  grave  in  an  isle 
hard  by."     By  the  help,  however,  of  a  precioUs  oil, 

*  The  "  Sting  Ray "  is  sometimes  called  the  "  saw-tailed  skate."  The  Ray 
family  is  quite  numerous,  and  embraces  the  thornback,  the  skate,  the  torpedo,  or 
electric  ray,  &c. 

t  Compare  Smith's  Virginia,  1612,  part  ii.  p.  34,  with   his  Generall  Historic, 


78 


which  Dr.  Russell,  one  of  the  party,  fortunately  had 
about  him,  the  Captain's  pain  was  so  far  assuaged, 
that  he  was  able  at  night  to  take  sweet  revenge  on 
the  offending  fish  by  eating  it  for  his  supper.  The 
island  where  the  grave  was  dug  was  named  "  Stingray 
Isle,"  which  may  be  seen  on  Smith's  map.  On  later 
maps  the  island  is  not  seen  ;  but  we  find  in  its  place 
"  Stingray  Point."  If  the  place  ever  was  an  island, 
the  alluvium  from  the  river  has  joined  it  to  the  main 
land.  The  party  now  thought  best  to  proceed  directly 
to  Jamestown,  where  they  an-ived  on  the  21st  of  July, 
having  been  gone  seven  weeks. 

Three  days  afterward,  Smith  again  set  forward  "  to 
finish  the  discovery,"  with  twelve  men, — "gentlemen" 
and  "  soldiers."  After  being  detained  two  or  three  days 
at  Kecoughtan  by  contrary  vdnds,  the  party  embarked 
again;  and,  anchoring  the  first  night  at  "'Stingray 
Isle,"  prepared  to  make  further .  discoveries  at  the 
head  of  the  Bay.  They  encountered  savage  tribes  of 
Indians,  who  dwelt  on  the  more  northerly  rivers,  and 
generally  they  were  received  with  every  indication  of 
welcome.  On  exploring  the  rivers,  the  voyagers  gave 
names  to  prominent  places ;  and,  at  the  extreme  limits 
of  discovery,  crosses  were  cut  in  the  bark  of  trees,  or 
were  otherwise  exhibited.  Returning,  the  party  went 
up  the  Rappahannock  River,  where,  with  few  excep- 
tions, they  received  kind  treatment  from  the  natives 
there  inhabiting.  During  this  part  of  the  voyage,  one 
of  their  number  died,  and  was  buried  on  the  banks  of 


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this  picturesque  river,  with  a  volley  of  shot.  Smith 
has  perpetuated  the  name  and  the  place  of  his  burial 
on  his  map  by  "  Fetherstone's  Bay."  This  river 
was  explored  to  the  falls,  where  a  hostile  encounter 
took  place  with  some  Indians.  This  was  near  the 
place  where  Fredericksburg  now  stands.  Smith 
never  di-eamed  of  the  terrible  battles  which  would  be 
fought  near  that  spot,  —  not  between  the  English  and 
the  savages  whom  he  so  often  encountered,  —  but 
between  two  hostile  sections  of  a  country,  with  the 
settlement  of  each  of  which  his  name  is  so  intimately 
connected. 

After  exploring  the  Payankatank  River,  the  voyagers 
returned  to  Point  Comfort,  having  encountered  a  severe 
thunder-storm  in  Gosnold's  Bay.  Smith  then  visited 
the  Elizabeth  and  Nansemond  Rivers,  on  the  former 
of  which  Norfolk  is  situated,  had  some  skirmishing 
with  the  Indians  dwellmg  there,  procured  as  much 
corn  as  he  could  carry  away,  and  arrived  at  James- 
town on  the  9th  of  September ;  having  been  absent 
on  this  last  expedition  a  little  over  six  weeks.* 

The  draft  of  his  map  indicating  these  and  other 
discoveries  made  in  Virginia,  Smith  sent  home  before 
the  close  of  this  year,  with  a  letter  to  the  Company, 
in  which  he  says  :  "  I  have  sent  you  this  Map  of 
the    Bay    and    Rivers,    with    an    annexed    Relation 


•  For  these  two  voyages  of  exploration,  see  Smith's  Tract  of  1612,  part  ii.  pp. 
28-40,  with  which  compare  his  Generall  Historie,  pp.  64,  65.  The  account  of  the 
visit  to  the  "  Chisapeaks  &  Nandsamnnds "  at  this  time,  is  not  contained  in 
the  tract  of  1612.    It  first  appears  in  tlie  Generall  Historic. 


80 


of  the  Countries  and  Nations  that  inhabit  them,  as 
you  may  see  at  large."  The  "annexed  Relation"  is 
doubtless  that  portion  of  the  tract  published  at  Ox- 
ford in  1612,  entitled  "  Map  of  Virginia,"  &c.,  which 
is  embraced  in  the  first  thirty-nine  pages ;  -at  the  con- 
clusion of  which,  as  published  subsequently  in  his 
"•  Generall  Historic,"  is  the  following :  "  John  Smith 
writ  this  with  his  own  hand."  The  Map  was  first 
published  in  this  Oxford  tract.  It  was  subsequently 
issued  in  the  "  Generall  Historic,"  which  was  first  pub- 
lished in  1624,  and  it  is  sometimes  found  inserted  in 
the  fourth  volume  of  Purchas's  Pilgrims,  between  the 
pp.  1690  and  1691.  Smith's  Map  was  the  basis  of  all 
the  maps  of  Virginia  for  more  than  one  hundi-ed 
years.  It  was  copied  in  good  facsimile  for  De  Bry's 
German  large  voyages,  in  1627  and  1628  ;  also  for 
Gottfried's  "  Newe  Welt,"  &c.,  1631.  It  was  early 
copied  for  two  English  editions  of  Hondy's  Mercator, 
with  fanciful  additions,  and  is  found,  at  a  later  date, 
in  Ogilby's  huge  folio  on  America.  The  first  complete 
map  of  Virginia  was  made  by  Joshua  Fry,  Professor  of 
Mathematics  in  William  and  Mary  CoUege,  in  connec- 
tion with  Peter  JeflFerson,  a  land-surveyor,  the  father 
of  Thomas  Jefierson.  It  was  made  about  the  year 
1750,  and  was  soon  after  included  in  Jefferys's  work 
on  North  America.  It  was  copied  by  Stockdale  for 
Jefferson's  "Notes  on  Virginia,"  1787. 


.^^ 


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