The Menace of Spain
There was also on Virginia in these days the shadow of Spain. In 1611 the
English had found upon the beach near Point Comfort three Spaniards from a
Spanish caravel which, as the Englishmen had learned with alarm, "was
fitted with a shallop necessarie and propper to discover freshetts,
rivers, and creekes." They took the three prisoner and applied for
instructions to Dale, who held them to be spies and clapped them into
prison at Point Comfort.
That Dale's suspicions were correct, is proved by a letter which the
King of Spain wrote in cipher to the Spanish Ambassador in London ordering
him to confer with the King as to the liberty of three prisoners whom
Englishmen in Virginia have captured. The three are "the Alcayde Don Diego
de Molino, Ensign Marco Antonio Perez, and Francisco Lembri an English
pilot, who by my orders went to reconnoitre those ports." Small wonder
that Dale was apprehensive. "What may be the daunger of this unto us," he
wrote home, "who are here so few, so weake, and unfortified, . . . I refer
me to your owne honorable knowledg."
Months pass, and the English Ambassador to Spain writes from Madrid
that he "is not hasty to advertise anything upon bare rumours, which hath
made me hitherto forbeare to write what I had generally heard of their
intents against Virginia, but now I have been . . . advertised that
without question they will speedily attempt against our plantation there.
And that it is a thing resolved of, that ye King of Spain must run any
hazard with England rather than permit ye English to settle there . . .
.Whatsoever is attempted, I conceive will be from ye Havana."
Rumors fly back and forth. The next year 1613--the Ambassador writes
from Madrid: "They have latelie had severall Consultations about our
Plantation in Virginia. The resolution is--That it must be removed, but
they thinke it fitt to suspend the execution of it, . . . for that they
are in hope that it will fall of itselfe."
The Spanish hope seemed, at this time, not at all without
foundation. Members of the Virginia Company had formed the Somers Islands
Company named for Somers the Admiral--and had planted a small colony in
Bermuda where the Sea Adventure had been wrecked. Here were fair, fertile
islands without Indians, and without the diseases that seemed to rise, no
man knew how, from the marshes along those lower reaches of the great
river James in Virginia. Young though it was, the new plantation
"prospereth better than that of Virginia, and giveth greater incouragement
to prosecute yt." In England there arose, from some concerned, the cry to
Give up Virginia that has proved a project awry! As Gates was once about
to remove thence every living man, so truly they might "now removed to
these more hopeful islands!" The Spanish Ambassador is found writing to
the Spanish King: "Thus they are here discouraged . . . on account of the
heavy expenses they have incurred, and the disappointment, that there is
no passage from there to the South Sea . . . nor mines of gold or silver."
This, be it noted, was before tobacco was discovered to be an economic
treasure.
The Elizabeth from London reached Virginia in May, 1613. It brought
to the colony news of Bermuda, and incidentally of that new notion brewing
in the mind of some of the Company. When the Elizabeth, after a month in
Virginia, turned homeward, she carried a vigorous letter from Dale, the
High Marshal, to Sir Thomas Smith, Treasurer of the Company.
"Let me tell you all at home [writes Dale] this one thing, and I
pray remember it; if you give over this country and loose it, you, with
your wisdoms, will leap such a gudgeon as our state hath not done the like
since they lost the Kingdom of France; be not gulled with the clamorous
report of base people; believe Caleb and Joshua; if the glory of God have
no power with them and the conversion of these poor infidels, yet let the
rich mammons' desire egge them on to inhabit these countries. I protest to
you, by the faith of an honest man, the more I range the country the more
I admire it. I have seen the best countries in Europe; I protest to you,
before the Living God, put them all together, this country will be
equivalent unto them if it be inhabited with good people."
If ever Mother England seriously thought of moving Virginia into
Bermuda, the idea was now given over. Spain, suspending the sword until
Virginia "will fall of itselfe," saw that sword rust away.
Five years in all Dale ruled Virginia. Then, personal and family
matters calling, he sailed away home to England, to return no more. Soon
his star "having shined in the Westerne, was set in the Easterne India."
At the helm in Virginia he left George Yeardley, an honest, able man. But
in England, what was known as the "court party" in the Company managed to
have chosen instead for De La Warr's deputy governor, Captain Samuel
Argall. It proved an unfortunate choice. Argall, a capable and daring
buccaneer, fastened on Virginia as on a Spanish galleon. For a year he
ruled in his own interest, plundering and terrorizing. At last the outcry
against him grew so loud that it had to be listened to across the
Atlantic. Lord De La Warr was sent out in person to deal with matters but
died on the way; and Captain Yeardley, now knighted and appointed
Governor, was instructed to proceed against the incorrigible Argall. But
Argall had already departed to face his accusers in England.
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