36
VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
at Jamestown without their governor or their
charter, Percy was persuaded to accept the
presidency on the expiration of Smith's term
of office. Probably no ability as a leader could
have accomplished anything, and Percy was
soon incapacitated by illness. The period of
his administration is known as the starving
time. 'Jhe new settlers had landed sick and
without adequate supplies, and they soon con-
sumed the provisions that the old settlers had
at Jamestown. The consequence was that they
nearly all died, and there were only sixty
settlers remaining, when the governor under
the new commission. Sir Thomas Gates
arrived from Bermuda where he had been
wrecked and compelled to remain for forty
weeks. When Lord Delaware left Virginia
in March, 1611, Percy was appointed deputy
governor, which shows the confidence enter-
tained in him, despite his unfortunate experi-
ences. He was a brave soldier, and in punish-
ment for treachery attacked and destroyed the
towns of the Paspaheghs and of the Appomat-
tox people. He left Virginia, April 22, 1612,
and reached England in the following summer.
He never returned to Virginia, but about 1625,
when war was declared against Spain, he went
again to the Netherlands where as captain of
a company he distinguished himself, losing a
finger in battle. He died unmarried in 1632.
He kept a journal of the original Virginia
voyage, an abridgement of which was pub-
lished for the first time in 1625 by Samuel
Purchas. Mutilated as it was, it presents the
fullest account we have of the voyage and of
the first events of the settlement to Newport's
departure June 12, 1607. After the appear-
ance of Smith's "General Historic" with his
very prejudiced account of the afifairs during
the time of Percy's government, Captain Percy
wrote "A Trewe Relacyon" of the occurrences
in Virginia from the time of the shipwreck
of Sir Thomas Gates in 1609 until his ow^n
departure from the country in 1612. In a
letter to his brother Henry, Earl of Northum-
berland, he declared that his account was in-
ducer! by the many untruths formerly pub-
lished. This interesting narrative still remains
in manuscript owing to the narrow conceptions
of its present possessor, although he has suf-
fered some few extracts to be published by
Dr. E. D. Neill and Mr. G. C. Eggleston.
Gates, Sir Thomas, appointed the first and absolute governor of Mrginia under the second charter to the Virginia Company of London, is said to have been born at Colyford, in Coly- ton parish, Devonshire ; was a lieutenant of Captain Christopher Carleill's own company in the celebrated Drake-Sidney voyage to America 1585-86; published the Brigges Crof- tes account of this voyage in 1589, which he dedicated to the Earl of Essex ; served gal- lantly at the capture of Cadiz and was knighted by Essex in June, 1596. He also served in the island voyage August-October, 1597; entered Gray's Inn March 14, 1598. About 1603 he enlisted in the service of the Netherlands, but when King James granted the first charter to the Virginia Company of London, he "had the honor to all posterity" of being first named in that celebrated document. He was in the gar- rison at Oudwater in South Holland with Dale in November, 1606; and in 1608 he received leave of absence to go to Virginia. The Vir- ginia Company selected him as first governor undier the new charter (1609), and in June he took passage with about 500 settlers. This expedition is known as the "Third Supply," and the emigration was the largest that ever left England up to that time. But the voyage over was very unfortunate, for an epidemic
