Tobacco bay Bermuda.
John Rolfe Steals Stolen Tobacco
Tobacco Bay
1609
The Sea Venture rode at anchor in Plymouth Harbor. John Rolfe was eager to board but Sarah was nervous. She didn’t have a good feeling about her first ocean voyage. It was John’s idea. She was several months pregnant and wasn’t sure she would make it to the Virginia colony in time for her delivery.
The Sea Venture was the flagship of a nine-vessel convoy of ships carrying colonists and supplies to Virginia. But in July they ran into a hurricane that threw them off course. Admiral Somers ran the ship onto a reef to save the lives of his passengers. His heroic decision worked. All the 150 passengers were spared but the Sea Venture was a total loss. The Virginia Company investors would not be pleased. Somers was supposed to get the much-needed supplies to the colony by August.
In many ways the castaways were fortunate. They were able to spend the cold winter months on the balmy island rather than on the frozen shores of the James River. They spent ten months eating fresh food and stores from the Sea Venture while the crew built two ships out of cedar trees and marine supplies rescued from the Sea Venture. Then in February Sarah gave birth to the first baby every born on Bermuda. John christened her “Bermudas Rolfe,” but the young child died a few weeks later.
By May, the two new ships, the Patience and the Deliverance were ready to sail and the castaways clambered aboard. But Somers left three men, Edward Chard, Robert Waters and Christopher Carter on the island to defend the Virginia Company’s claim that Bermuda was part of England and an extension of the Virginia Colony.
The men lived well, became known as the three kings of Bermuda and were not above taking a few hits of the Spanish Leaf they were growing on Smith’s Island. They knew they were breaking the law. Spain had made it illegal to grow tobacco anywhere but in the Caribbean. That meant mostly on the island of Tobago from whence Tobacco got its name.
Only ten days after leaving Bermuda The Patience and the Deliverance cruised into Chesapeake Bay. But when they arrived in Jamestown they realized they were too late. The colony had been overcome by famine and disease. From the looks of it some of the survivors had reverted to cannibalism. Only 60 of the original settlers and a few mangled bodies remained as testament to the hardships endured during the starving time.
Sarah died shortly after they arrived in Virginia leaving John doubly bereft. But he had to make a life for himself as best he could. He started by planting some of the tobacco he had taken from Tobacco Bay. It grew taller and was milder to inhale than the tobacco the local Powhatan Indians were smoking.
But the Powhatan had someone else Rolfe grew to treasure. Chief Powhatan’s favorite daughter whom he called Pocahontas, “the playful one.” Pocahontas was already well known to the settlers. John Smith had written that she had saved his life by stopping her father from putting his head on a rock and threatening to club him. This story always made Pocahontas laugh. She knew she had played her part well. It had all been part of the tribe’s initiation ceremony that had been misinterpreted. Who was she to ruin the white man’s story?
Pocahontas was later raped and kidnapped for her pains and brought to Jamestown to be bartered for English prisoners. The exchange never took place so she had been transferred to Henrico where she learned English, was forced to convert to Christianity and fell in love with John Rolfe.
Rolfe was also smitten but conflicted. How could he marry a heathen with a son born out of wedlock? He wrote of his dilemma to Governor Dale, “It is Pocahontas to whome my hearty and best thoughts are, and have been a long time so entangled and enthralled, in so intricate a labyrinth that I could not unwind myself thereout.”
The two married in 1614, which brought about the peace of Pocahontas, which allowed the English to expand their colony and get themselves firmly planted in the new world.
But things were not going so well financially for the colony. The Virginia Company investors were threatening to pull the plug on the settlement unless they started turning a profit by 1616.
This is where Rolfe’s tobacco came into play. London buyers were favorably impressed with his Bermuda tobacco but it was still not good enough to compete with the tobacco grown in the Caribbean by the Spanish. John’s problem was that he still didn’t know how to properly cure his tobacco.
Pocahontas came to the white man’s rescue once again. She taught him the Powhattan method of curing tobacco and he was on his way. By 1618 John and his fellow growers were exporting 25,000 pounds of “Virginia” tobacco to London.
But the three kings of Bermuda had also become skilled at growing tobacco and passed it on to future settlers. By 1624 Bermuda was exporting 70,000 pounds of the intoxicating drug. But that was about as much tobacco as you could grow on the small island. Virginia surpassed Bermuda in tobacco exports in 1630. She would have to find a replacement for her fine herb.
####