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administration absorbed in the search for the mines which Faldoe reported to exist in the Monacan territory, that there was a grave omission of those duties which it was absolutely necessary to perform to insure the perpetual existence of the community. Delaware had been urged to this course by special instructions from the Council in London, who thus showed the plainest determination to subordinate the practical development of the Jamestown settlement to a search for gold. The foundation of a plantation was not “the full and utmost intention” advised from England, but rather, says Dale, the discovery of the mines of Faldoe, the Helvetian.^[1] Faldoe perished before he was able to point out the exact spot where he had found gold in the previous year; search was, therefore, uncertain and confused, if made at all, and in the end wholly barren of any favorable result.^[2]

In the midst of these groundless notions that gold and

↑ Dale to the Council, Brown’s Genesis of the United States, p. 490. See also Neill’s Virginia Vetusta, p. 79.
↑ The manner in which Faldoe met his death is involved in some doubt. According to Smith’s General Historie, in which he is referred to as “Valdo,” he was discovered to be an impostor and soon “dyed most miserably.” Works of Capt. John Smith, p. 487. Strachey informs us that the Helvetian died of a burning fever, and with him passed away all knowledge of “the myne which, in his lifetime, he would not be drawn to reveyle unto any one ells of the colony.” Historie of Travaile into Virginia, p. 132. In the “Breife Declaration of the Plantation of Virginia during the first Twelve Years,” it is declared that the design of Delaware in leading an expedition into the Monacan country, Captains Brewster and Yeardley being his subordinates in command, was defeated, in spite of the fact that the expedition reached “the head of the River,” by “the unfortunate losse of all of our chieffe men skilfull in findeinge out mines, who weare treacherously slaine by the Salvadges (inviteinge them ashoare to eat victuells which they wanted) even when the meate was in theire mouthes, they careinge only to fill their bellies, foresaw not to prevent this danger which befell them.” British State Papers, Colonial, vol. III, No. 21, I. Colonial Records of Virginia, State Senate Doct., Extra, 1874, p. 73.

[1] Dale to the Council, Brown’s Genesis of the United States, p. 490. See also Neill’s Virginia Vetusta, p. 79.

[2] The manner in which Faldoe met his death is involved in some doubt. According to Smith’s General Historie, in which he is referred to as “Valdo,” he was discovered to be an impostor and soon “dyed most miserably.” Works of Capt. John Smith, p. 487. Strachey informs us that the Helvetian died of a burning fever, and with him passed away all knowledge of “the myne which, in his lifetime, he would not be drawn to reveyle unto any one ells of the colony.” Historie of Travaile into Virginia, p. 132. In the “Breife Declaration of the Plantation of Virginia during the first Twelve Years,” it is declared that the design of Delaware in leading an expedition into the Monacan country, Captains Brewster and Yeardley being his subordinates in command, was defeated, in spite of the fact that the expedition reached “the head of the River,” by “the unfortunate losse of all of our chieffe men skilfull in findeinge out mines, who weare treacherously slaine by the Salvadges (inviteinge them ashoare to eat victuells which they wanted) even when the meate was in theire mouthes, they careinge only to fill their bellies, foresaw not to prevent this danger which befell them.” British State Papers, Colonial, vol. III, No. 21, I. Colonial Records of Virginia, State Senate Doct., Extra, 1874, p. 73.

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