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and in January, IGOS, was again at James Fort, as
the settlement was then called. Fever, hunger, and
Indian arrows had swept off more than half of those
he had fii'st brought over, among them some members
of the council. Wingfield, the first president, was
under arrest, and John Smith, an influential man
in the colony, was awaiting execution.
At the end of three months, when Newport again sailed for England, one-half of those who were alive in January had died. Edward Maria Wingfield, the first president of the local council, was the only person among the patentees who came with the colonists. With suffering came dissension. Ratchffe, Martin, and Smith removed Wingfield not only from the presi- dency but from the council. In the circumstances his overthrow was easy. It was charged that he was a Catholic, some authorities say an atheist, that he brought no Bible with him, and also that he had conspired with the Spaniards to destroy Virginia. In April, 1608, Wingfield left Jamestown, and later in England made to the authorities an interesting state- ment in his own defence. For considerably more than two hundred years Captain John Smith was univer- sally regarded as the ablest and the most useful of the first Jamestown settlers. Indeed, he was believed to have been the founder and the preserver of the colony. As a matter of fact, he was a mere adven- turer, responsible for much of the dissension among the first settlers. His "General History" is an absurd eulogy of himself and an unfair criticism of his fellows. Perhaps it was no misfortune to Virginia when the accidental explosion of a bag of gunpowder compelled him to return to England for medical treatment. Smith was never afterward employed by the Virginia Company. The five hundred new settlers sent to Jamestown in 1609 were "a worthless set picked up in the streets of London or taken from the jails, and utterly unfit to become the founders of a state in the New World ". This, however, while true of a particu- lar band of immigrants, will not serve for a description of those who came later. During the seventeenth century there arrived numerous knights, and numbers of the nobihty of every rank, representatives of the best families and the best intellect in England.
In the beginning the population of Virginia was almost exclusively English; indeed, Virginia was very much Uke an English shire. As early as 1619 the company had sent out a few Frenchmen to test the soil for its capacity to produce a superior variety of grapes. Other French immigrants continued to arrive in the colony throughout the seventeenth cen- tury. After the English took New Amsterdam, in 1664, many Dutchmen went from New Netherland to Virginia. Germans and ItaUans were never numer- ous in that province. During the era of Cromwellian ascendency many Irish were sent to Virginia. Again in 1690 and afterwards there arrived many Irishmen who were captured at the Boyne and on other battle- fields. These non-English elements in the population do not appear, however, to have exerted much social or other influence. They soon melted into the popu- lation around them. The name of Edward Maria Wingfield has been mentioned as that of the only patentee who came over with the colonists. If there is any doubt as to the Catholicism of the first presi- dent of the council there is none concerning the religious belief of the Earl of Southampton. That nobleman had a keen interest in English colonization.
While England was engaged in developing the Province of \'irginia, four other European powers, Spain, France, Holland, and Sweden, were establish- ing themselves on parts of the Atlantic coast of North America. In 165.') the Dutch conquered New Sweden, and nine years later New Netherland was acquired by the English. The latter conquest was facilitated by the former, because New Netherland had reduced it- self to a condition of bankruptcy in order to send its
warlike armament into Delaware Bay. After the
failures of Ribaut and Laudonniere the French made
no attempt to settle the south Atlantic coast. That
nation, however, did not abandon American coloniza-
tion. From the founding of Quebec, in 1608, great
activity was manifested in Canada and later in Louisi-
ana. On the Atlantic coast, therefore, .Spain and
England were the chief rivals. The former manifested
little interest to the northward of the Mexican Gulf,
and after 1664 England ^vas free to develop her mari-
time colonies in her own way. In the meantime
France was exploring the interior, establishing garri-
sons, and in other ways strengthening her hold on the
most desirable part of the continent. Between the
outposts of the two nations colhsions were inevitable.
Inter-colonial Wars. — It is not possible to discuss here either the causes or the conduct of those wars which in 176.3 ended in the complete triumph of British arms. Between 1689 and 1763 four separate struggles took place between these ancient enemies. The first, which began in 1689, is known as King William's War, ending in 1697 by the treaty of Rys- wick.
The second conflict was Queen Anne's War, known in European history as the War of the Spanish Suc- cession. Though not so widespread as the preceding one, in America it was marked b.y the same character- istics. In 1710, with the assistance of ships sent from England, Port Royal was again captured. With it the whole of Acadia pas.sed into the hands of the EngUsh. The name of the town was changed to Annapolis Royal, in honour of Queen Anne. Acadia became Nova Scotia, or New Scotland. In 1713 this war was ended by the treaty of LTtrecht. The extent of the country designated as Acadia was somewhat vague, and as to the regions included under that name new disputes were destined to arise.
The War of the Austrian Succession (1744-1748), occurring in the reign of George II, is known in American history as King George's War. The French promptly swept down on and captured the little town of Canso, in Nova Scotia. They carried off its garri- son and then attacked AnnapoKs, but were repulsed. The most important event of this war was the ex- pedition against Louisburg, on Cape Breton Island. Though Loviisburg had been fortified at an expense estimated at S10,000,000, it was compelled to sur- render. Later there came the alarming report that a French armada was on the way to retake Acadia and Louisburg, and to destroy Boston. Though the armada reached American waters, it was dispersed by a tempest off the coast of Nova Scotia, and its crest- fallen crews soon returned to France. At this stage of the war both sides were freely assisted by savages. One of the French exijeditions attacked the outpost of Saratoga, killed thirtj' persons, and took a hundred prisoners. By the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in July, 1748, all conquests were mutually restored. The news of the surrender of Louisburg, which had been chiefly won and defended at the expense of New England, caused the greatest dissatisfaction throughout the colonies, and strained somewhat the relations with the mother country.
Having emerged from the last war without loss of territory, France went to work more vigorously than ever with her preparations for excluding the British altogether from the Mississippi valley. In 1749 the Governor of Canada despatched C^loron de Bienville with a band of men in birch-bark canoes to take formal possession of the Ohio valley, the only highway still unguarded. Once on the Allegheny River, the cere- mony of taking possession began. The men were drawn up by their commanders, and Louis XV was proclaimed king of all the country drained bj- the Ohio. Then the arms of France were nailed to a tree, at the foot of which was buried a leaden plate with an inscrip- tion claiming the Ohio and all its tributaries for the
