for. The colonists had been strictly admonished by the Council to select a spot free of wood, and in disregarding this instruction they brought upon themselves many of the most serious misfortunes befalling them.[1]
The choice which they were required to make was beset with difficulties at the best. Even when a spot appeared to combine every physical advantage, it was open to objection on account of some instruction given by the Company with a view to disconcerting foreign enemies. This was the case in the instance of Kecoughtan. It had two or three thousand acres of cleared fields, the air was not rendered unwholesome by the presence of numerous and extensive marshes and swamps, and the channel of the river could easily have been successfully disputed. The colonists did not take permanent possession of this place because it was exposed to attack on land; it was also under cultivation by the Indians, who could only have been disseized by means which would have been severely condemned by the Company in England, who recognized the wisdom of maintaining peaceful relations with the aboriginal tribes;[2] in addition, the orders which the colonists had received directed them to make a settlement at as great a distance from the mouth of the river as its depth permitted, even if that distance ran over a hundred miles.[3]
- ↑ “You must take especial care that you choose a seat for habitation that shall not be over burthened with woods near your town; for all the men you have shall not be able to cleanse twenty acres a year; besides that it may serve for a covert for your enemies round about.” Instructions for the Intended Voyage, 1606, Works of Capt. John Smith, p. xxxvi.
- ↑ See Instructions for the Intended Voyage, 1606, Works of Capt. John Smith, p. xxxv. See also the Instructions for the Government of the Colonies, Hening’s Statutes, vol. I, p. 74. There are numerous evidences that the injunction not to “unplant nor wrong the salvages,” was in the beginning borne constantly in mind by the colonists. See Works of Capt. John Smith p. 610.
- ↑ Instructions for the Intended Voyage, 1606, Works of Capt. John
