George Bancroft, History of the Colonization of the United States, Vol. 1, 17th edition.

[183] The night before the execution of the conspiracy, it

Chap V.} 1622

was revealed by a converted Indian to an Englishman whom he wished to rescue; Jamestown and the nearest settlements were well prepared against an attack; and the savages, as timid as they were ferocious, fled with precipitation from the appearance of wakeful re distance. Thus the larger part of the colony was save¹ A year after the massacre, there still remained two thousand five hundred men; the total number of the emigrants had exceeded four thousand. The immediate consequences of this massacre were disastrous. Public works were abandoned;² the culture of the fields was much restricted; the settlements were reduced from eighty plantations to less than eight.³ Sickness prevailed among the dispirited colonists, who were now crowded into narrow quarters; some even returned to England. But plans of industry were eventually succeeded by schemes of revenge; and a war of extermination ensued. In England, the news, far from dispiriting the adventurers, awakened them to strong feelings of compassionate interest; the purchase of Virginia was endeared by the sacrifice of so much life; and the blood of the victims became the nurture of the plantation.⁴ New supplies and assistance were promptly despatched; even King James, for a moment, affected a sentiment of generosity, and, like the churl, gave from the tower of London presents of arms, which had been thrown by as good for nothing in Europe. They might be useful, thought the monarch, against the Indians! He