New Discoveries at Jamestown Part 9

Bells.--Bra.s.s and iron bells of types which were used for bartering with the Indians have been excavated. A few days after the colonists reached Jamestown one of them recorded that "our captaine ... presented [to an Indian chief] gyftes of dyvers sortes, as penny knyves, sheeres, belles, beades, gla.s.s toyes &c. more amply then before."

[Ill.u.s.tration: BRa.s.s CASTING COUNTERS EXCAVATED ON JAMESTOWN ISLAND.

MANY WERE MADE IN GERMANY BEFORE 1575 FOR USE BY MERCHANTS ON COUNTING BOARDS. IN THE NEW WORLD THEY WERE USED FOR THE INDIAN TRADE.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A FEW OBJECTS UNEARTHED AT JAMESTOWN WHICH WERE USED FOR TRADING WITH THE INDIANS. SHOWN ARE GLa.s.s BEADS, SCISSORS, IRON KNIVES, A HATCHET, AND BELL FRAGMENTS.]

Hatchets.--Many fine specimens of handwrought hatchets have been found.

These were valuable items during the early years of the settlement, and much sought after by the Indians, so that a large number were used in trading with them. But hatchets were used primarily by the carpenter, cooper, and other artisans.

Pots and Pans.--A pot or pan made of bra.s.s or copper was almost worth its weight in gold for trading purposes. A few complete examples, together with numerous fragments, have been recovered.

Bra.s.s Casting Counters or Jettons.--Most of these thin bra.s.s tokens or counters (similar in appearance to coins) were made in Germany during the second half of the 16th century. In Europe they were used on counting boards for making mathematical calculations, but in the New World it is believed that they were used in the Indian trade.

Approximately a dozen have been found at Jamestown. Three were also found on Roanoke Island (site of Raleigh's ill-fated "Lost Colony") and one was recovered in an Indian sh.e.l.l mound near Cape Hatteras, not too distant from Croatoan Island (known today as Ocrac.o.ke Island). Many of the counters in the Jamestown collection were made by Hans Schultes and Hans Laufer of Nuremberg, who manufactured such jettons between 1550 and 1574, at which time Nuremberg was a center for the making of casting counters. Some of the counters have holes punched through them, indicating that the Indians may have worn them around their necks like pendants, suspended from leather thongs.

Miscellaneous Items.--Other objects which the English used in trade with the Indians were colored cloth, gla.s.s toys, and whistles; but no examples of these have been recovered during archeological explorations.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A WHARF SCENE--ARRIVAL OF A SHIP FROM THE MOTHER COUNTRY.

(Conjectural sketch by Sidney E. King.)]

ENGLISH AND FOREIGN TRADE

During the 17th century, active trade was carried on between the Virginia colony and the mother country. Local commodities of timber, wood products, soap ashes, iron ore, tobacco, pitch, tar, furs, minerals, salt, sa.s.safras, and other New World raw materials were shipped to England. In exchange, English merchants sold to the colonists, tools, farm implements, seeds, stock and poultry, furniture and household accessories, clothing, weapons, hardware, kitchen utensils, pottery, metalware, gla.s.sware, and certain foods and drinks.

There is also good evidence that some trade was carried on with Holland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Mexico, and the West Indies.

Many artifacts unearthed (especially pottery) were made in the countries mentioned. It is believed that certain commodities were acquired by direct trade with the country where made, in spite of the strict laws by which the Colonial Powers sought to monopolize the colonial trade for the benefit of the mother country.

Lead Bale Clips.--A series of decorated lead clips which relate to 17th-century trade have been found at several places on Jamestown Island. As their name implies, these lead clips, or seals, were attached to bales of English goods, usually woolen cloth, to attest that the goods were of an approved quality and length, and of a given amount.

Each clip usually consisted of two discs connected by a narrow band, and when used for marking cloth the name or initials of the maker of the material was often incised on one of the discs. The clips, too, were often embossed with a decorative device such as a coat of arms, crest, crown, name or initials of a king, numerals, king's head, royal arms, animal, or flower. Over a dozen of these small lead clips have been unearthed, and serve as reminders of a past day when majestic English merchantmen sailed to Jamestown laden with bales of goods from the mother country.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LEAD BALE CLIPS USED FOR SEALING BALES OF WOOLEN CLOTH AND OTHER GOODS. ONCE A CLIP HAD BEEN ATTACHED TO A BALE IT ATTESTED THAT THE GOODS WERE OF AN APPROVED QUALITY AND LENGTH OR AMOUNT.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THIS 1,300-POUND IRON PILEDRIVER USED FOR DRIVING PILES IN THE BUILDING OF SMALL WHARVES WAS FOUND AT JAMESTOWN.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BUILDING A WHARF, ABOUT 1650. (Conjectural sketch by Sidney E. King.)]

Piers and Wharfs.--In order to accommodate such large sailing vessels, piers and wharfs had to be built at Jamestown. A 1,300-pound iron piledriver was found in the bas.e.m.e.nt of a 17th-century building in 1955.

It was probably used three centuries ago for driving piles in the James River during construction of a small wharf.

Worshipping

The Jamestown colonists were, for the most part, religious and G.o.d-fearing people. The majority were members of the Church of England.

One of the first settlers, the Rev. Robert Hunt, was an ordained minister of that church. Whenever possible, services were held every morning and evening, and sermons delivered twice on Sundays.

A few ornamental bra.s.s book clasps excavated near Jamestown may have been used on early Bibles and Prayer Books. Under the care of Bruton Parish Episcopal Church in Willamsburg are four pieces of communion silver which were used in the church at Jamestown. Two pieces, an exquisite chalice and paten, were donated to the Jamestown church by Lt.

Gov. Francis Morrison (or Moryson) in 1661. Inscribed on both is the legend: "Mixe not holy thinges with profane." A second paten, made in London in 1691-92, was given to the Jamestown Church by Gov. Edmund Andros in 1694. Another paten, or a collection plate (also made in London), bears the inscription: "For the use of James City Parish Church."

[Ill.u.s.tration: DECORATED BRa.s.s BOOK CLASPS FOUND NEAR JAMESTOWN WHICH MAY HAVE BEEN USED ON AN EARLY BIBLE OR PRAYER BOOK]

The officials of the Virginia Company of London, admonishing the first settlers to serve and fear G.o.d in order to plant a successful and prosperous colony, advised:

Lastly and chiefly the way to prosper and achieve good success is to make yourselves all of one mind for the good of your country and your own, and to serve and fear G.o.d the Giver of all Goodness, for every plantation which our Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted out.

Seemingly the advice was carried out, for from the small settlement on a tiny island in the James River grew a great and mighty nation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COMMUNION SILVER USED IN THE JAMESTOWN CHURCH AFTER 1661.

BOTH THE CHALICE AND PATEN WERE MADE IN LONDON, AND DONATED TO THE CHURCH BY LT. GOV. FRANCIS MORRISON (OR MORYSON) IN 1661. ON BOTH PIECES IS THE LEGEND: "MIXE NOT HOLY THINGES WITH PROFANE."]