XVI. SIR THOMAS SMITH,

ALL which is known with certainty

of this gentleman is, that he was a London merchant, of great wealth and influence, Governor of the Eaft-India and Muscovy Companies, and of the Company affociated for the difcovery of the north-weft paffage ; that he had been fent (1604) Ambaffador from King James to the Emperor of Ruffia; that he was one of the Affignees of Sir Walter Raleigh's patent, and thus became interefted in the Colony of Virginia. He had been Treasurer of the Company, under their firft Charter, and prefided in all the meetings of the Council and of the Company in England; but he never came to America.

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It is unfortunate for the memory of Six Thomas Smith, that both the Company and Colony of South Virginia were distracted by a malevolent party fpirit; and, that he was equally an object of reproach on the one hand, and of panegyric on the other. To decide on the merit or demerit of his character, at this diftance of time, would perhaps require more evidence than can be produced; but candour is due to the dead, as well as to the living.

He was a warm friend of Captain John Smith, who in his account of Virginia, fpeaks of him with respect, as a diligent and careful overfeer, especially in fending fupplies to the Colony, during his refidence there; and after his return to England, he depended on Sir Thomas and the Council, for those accounts of the Colony which he has inferted. in his hiftory, fubfequent to that period.

In a dedication prefixed to a narrative of the fhipwreck of Sir George Somers on the ifland of Bermuda,* Sir Thomas is complimented in the following manner: "Wor

thy

*This narrative was written by Sylvefter Jordan, one of the paffengers. The dedication was by another perfon, who fubfcribes it with the initials W. C. It was printed with the black English letter, 1613.

thy Sir, if other men were like you, if all as able as you, were as willing, we should foon fee a flourishing Chriftian Church and Commonwealth in Virginia. But let this be your confolation; there is one that is more able and more willing than you, even the God of heaven and earth. And know further, for your comfort, that though the burthen lie on you and a few more, yet are there many honourable and worthy men of all forts who will never shrink from you. Go on, therefore, with courage and conftancy; and, be affured that though by your honourable embaffages and employments, and by your charitable and virtuous courses, you have gained a worthy reputation in this world, yet nothing that you ever did or fuffered, more honours you in the eyes of all that are godly-wife, than your faithful and unwearied profecution, your continual and comfortable affiftance of those foreign plantations."

But though flattered and complimented by his admirers, yet he had enemies both among the Company in England, and the Colonists in Virginia. By some of his asfociates, he was accufed of favouring the

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growth of tobacco in the Colony, to the neglect of other ftaple commodities, which the country was equally capable of producing. It was alfo alleged, that instead of a body of laws agreeable to the English Conftitution, a book had been printed and dedicated to him, and fent to Virginia by his own authority, and without the order or confent of the Company, containing "Laws written in blood;" which, though they might ferve for a time of war, being moftly tranf -lated from the martial law of the United Netherlands, yet were deftructive of the liberties of English fubjects, and contrary to the exprefs letter of the Royal Charter. For this reafon, many people in England were

deterred from emigrating to Virginia, and

many perfons in the Colony were unjustly put to death.

In the Colony, the clamour against him was ftill louder. It was there faid, that he had been moft fcandaloufly negligent, if not corrupt, in the matter of fupplies; that in a certain period called "the ftarving time," the allowance for a man was only eight ounces of meal and half a pint of pease per day, and that neither of them were fit to be

eaten;

thy Sir, if other men were like you, if all as able as you, were as willing, we should foon fee a flourishing Chriftian Church and Commonwealth in Virginia. But let this be your confolation; there is one that is more able and more willing than you, even the Gop of heaven and earth. And know further, for your comfort, that though the burthen lie on you and a few more, yet are there many honourable and worthy men of all forts who will never fhrink from you. Go on, therefore, with courage and conftancy; and, be affured that though by your honourable embaffages and employments, and by your charitable and virtuous courses, you have gained a worthy reputation in this world, yet nothing that you ever did or fuffered, more honours you in the eyes of all that are godly-wife, than your faithful and unwearied profecution, your continual and comfortable affiftance of those foreign plantations."

But though flattered and complimented by his admirers, yet he had enemies both among the Company in England, and the Colonists in Virginia. By fome of his af fociates, he was accused of favouring the

growth