STATES AND TERRITORIES. — VIRGINIA.    155

tory hordes around them, gave rise to numerous memorable deeds of heroism and magnanim-
ity, as well as to no less a number of acts of cruel oppression and sanguinary atrocity. On
the one hand, although pillage, assassination, and every species of outrage signalized the
course of the lawless savage, the conduct of the civilized settlers themselves towards their
untamed neighbors was not always the most just, humane, or politic.- After a few years of
perseverance , and endurance, however, the latter succeeded in establishing themselves as a
permanent community, through the aid of several fortunate circumstances which occurred in
the lifetime of Powhatan, the celebrated and powerful Indian chief. To his singularly
acquired friendship, the colony was at one time mainly indebted for its exemption from total
extermination. His daughter, Pocahontas, after her generous rescue of Captain Smith from
imminent death, married a Mr. Rolfe, a respectable planter, subsequently went to England
with her husband, where she was honored with marks of the highest consideration; and thus a
foundation was laid for the restoration of amity between the contending parties, which con-
tinued, with a few sad interruptions, for a long period.*

The curse of slavery, so lamentably entailed upon this otherwise favored region, and which,
at the present remote date, is a source of bitter controversy, if not of incalculable danger to
the whole American nation, originated with the landing of some twenty negroes from a Dutch
vessel, and the selling of them into perpetual bondage, at about the time of the advent of the
Plymouth “ Pilgrims." This evil, which has since grown in magnitude and enormity to an
extent scarcely reducible by human power, is a source of regret to the best portion of the
people of Virginia, as well as one of angry remonstrance and censure on the part of many
other members of the Union.f

The original limits of Virginia have, at various periods, and under divers circumstances,
been materially circumscribed. In the early period of its colonial existence, its boundaries
had never been accurately defined. It was an immense unexplored wilderness, to all appear-
ance illimitable, especially on the north and west, and confined by no natural barrier then
known to its new residents. As the population multiplied, and spread itself into the interior,
and along the coast, to points remote from the seat of government, legislation upon local
affairs became difficult, and the management of the general interests grew unwieldy. With
this advance of civilization in every direction arose the necessity of forming new and distinct
communities. Thus, from time to time, large portions of territory, with their inhabitants, were
set off from the parent commonwealth, made independent of the latter, and endowed with the
prerogative of establishing their own constitutions and laws. Most of the circumjacent
regions, since erected into states, were meant, in all probability, to be included in the patents
primarily granted to the London Companies by James I. His successors, however, at different
periods, subdivided the country, and established distinct colonies within its supposed origi-
nal borders.

The incipient principles of national freedom, the diffusion of which resulted in the American
revolution, were as early recognized and inculcated in Virginia as in any of her sister colonies.

A Gazetteer of the United. States of America by John Hayward.

Hartford, CT: Case, Tiffany and Company. 1853. Public domain image