Aristopia/Chapter 13
Very soon after returning from his exploring expedition Ralph Morton embarked for London. Arriving there, he first went to the officers of the Virginia Company and, after a long negotiation with them, obtained a grant of land extending along the Potomac from the Eastern Branch to the source of the river, and five miles in width, paying twenty thousand pounds for it. The company had expended much on the Virginia colony and received but a trifling sum in return. Such was the character of the colonists and the incredible folly of the officials that the colony was still suffering what Captain Smith called "strange miracles of misery." Morton's grant could have been obtained for much less money if the company had not still been haunted by the illusion of Virginia's gold—gold of which they never saw an ounce except Morton's twenty thousand bright sovereigns, and those he had paid the company for the first grant.
The grant obtained, Morton sought the king. A new favorite, young George Villiers, was now nearest the royal ear, and though receiving much of the royal bounty, was greedy for more gold. A handsome present from Morton engaged him to induce the king's favorable notice of Morton's proposition to obtain a charter. James was in great need of money. Parliament, stingy even to the imperious Elizabeth, before whom the Commons crouched, withheld all supplies from the timid James, except on such conditions that he loathed to ask money of the Commons he despised. Morton was well aware of all this, and he boldly demanded terms in his charter which seemed, when demanded by an obscure young man, little less than presumptuous. But James, priding himself on his royal power, thought it no less—rather more—an exhibition of that power to create a vice-king in a new world out of an obscure gentleman than out of a great noble. And then, a man who could deliver a hundred thousand pounds sterling of gold was well worthy even of a king's respect.
Morton had less trouble in getting the extensive powers of government he sought than in obtaining; some smaller matters. The king of Spain had since the time of Columbus exacted one-fifth of all the gold and silver discovered in his American dominions, and Elizabeth had done the same with hers. James had a good deal of respect for Elizabeth, but vastly more for the king of Spain, and thought his example should he followed. But finally Morton evaded this condition by proposing, as if boastfully, to yield the royal treasury from his colony double the amount of gold yielded each year by the four times broader colony of Virginia. James had never seen an ounce of gold from Virginia, but esteeming himself very shrewd, thought that the reckless young man's proposal offered an advantage, and the royal trader closed with it. It is needless to say that Morton never had to pay James nor any of his successors an ounce of gold on this condition in his charter.
When it came to the name of the colony, James was about to propose a name in honor of some member of the royal family, but Morton desired the name "Aristopia"—the best place—to which the royal scholar assented.
The South Virginia Company had a charter for the region extending from the thirty-fourth to the fortieth parallel and one hundred miles from the coast. Ralph Morton asked a charter for the region (besides the five-mile belt along the Potomac from the Eastern Branch to the source of the river) extending from the thirty-eighth to the forty-first parallel, and from the crest of the highest range of the mountains of Virginia to the South Sea. This range, Morton assured the king, was more than a hundred and fifty miles from the coast. The American continent was then thought by the English to be very narrow, and the South Sea not very far beyond the mountains. Morton had taken care that no account of his expedition beyond the mountains should be sent to England. In view of the fact that the explorations of De Soto along the lower Mississippi and of Coronado and Cabeza de Valca in New Mexico had long been published, it is difficult to understand how the English notion of the narrowness of the American continent could survive, as it did. Powhatan repeatedly told John Smith that the stories of the great salt sea beyond the mountains were lies. How could a mind at all philosophical suppose that so great a river as the historians of De Soto's expedition described could be collected in a very narrow continent? More than one English navigator had seen the vast volume of fresh water poured down by the St. Lawrence, which any schoolboy should have known could be drained only from a great continent. The Indians in the vicinity of the first English settlement at Roanoke, seeing the Englishmen very desirous of finding two things: gold and the South Sea, told them, with the design of sending them off on a wild-goose chase from which they might never return, that Roanoke River rose in a region full of gold; and that its source was a fountain so near the South Sea that the spray of the ocean dashed into the fountain. And this story was believed in England. So many wonders had been found in the new world that it seemed not incredible that a river should rise a few rods from the Pacific and flow into the Atlantic; or that a vast stream of fresh water could flow with a strong current from one salt sea into another.
The boundaries asked for by Morton were granted, with the proviso that if the crest of the main range of mountains was not a hundred and fifty miles from the Atlantic, then the eastern boundary of Aristopia should be a line parallel with the Atlantic coast and one hundred and fifty miles from it.
The charter was drawn up in Latin. The preamble, or a translation of it, read thus:
"Whereas, our well-beloved and right trusty subject, Ralfe Morton, gent., of the county of Kent, in our said kingdom of England, being animated by a laudable and pious zeal for extending the Christian religion, and also the territories of our empire, hath humbly besought leave of us that he may transport, by his own industry and expense, a numerous colony of the English nation, to a certain region, hereinafter described, in a country hitherto uncultivated, in the parts of America now partly occupied by savages, who have no knowledge of the Divine Being, and in all that region, with certain privileges and jurisdictions appertaining unto the wholesome government and state of his colony and region aforesaid, may by our royal highness be given, granted, and confirmed unto him and his heirs."
Morton and his heirs and successors were constituted absolute lords and proprietaries of the region, to be held under the allegiance due to the king, in free and common socage, by fealty only, and not in capite, nor by knight's service, "yielding therefore unto us, our heirs and successors, two Indian arrows of those parts, to be delivered at the said castle of Windsor, every year, on Tuesday in Easter week; and also of the gold and silver ore which shall happen from time to time to be found within the aforesaid limits, so much as shall be double the amount of the fifth part of all gold and silver ore discovered in our royal province of Virginia." Morton's proprietorship was of the soil, mines, forests, waters, and the fish in them.
Morton was to have in the province religious power, "as any Bishop of Durham within the bishopric or county palatine of Durham," which was certainly extensive enough.
Morton and his heirs and successors were given power to make laws with the advice, assent, and approbation of the freemen of the province or their delegates or deputies, and ordinances for cases of emergency, "so, nevertheless, that the laws and ordinances aforesaid be consonant to reason, and be not repugnant or contrary to, but (so far as conveniently may be) agreeable to the laws, statutes, customs, and rights of this our kingdom of England."
Owing to the dangers which might suddenly arise in so remote a province, from savages, pirates, and other enemies, Morton, his successors, and their lieutenants were to have power to exercise martial law and military power "as full and unrestrained as any captain-general of an army hath or ever hath had."
To facilitate the peopling of the province, it was provided that all persons except those expressly forbidden should he free to emigrate to the province. The inhabitants of the province were to have all the privileges and rights of the subjects residing in England. They were to have the right to trade with all nations, and were to be burdened with no more customs duties than the other subjects of the kingdom of England.
Morton was to have power to establish ports of entry and levy import duties.
Morton and his heirs were to have power to convey "what estate of inheritance soever, in fee simple or fee tail, or otherwise, as to them shall seem expedient."
He was empowered to coin money of gold, silver, and copper, the gold and silver coins to be of the same fineness as those of the English mint.
He was empowered to grant titles of nobility, provided they were not the same as the titles of any of the nobility of Great Britain or Ireland.
It was provided that the new province should not be held or reputed a part of, or subordinate to, the land of Virginia, or any other colony alread transported, or thereafter to he transported.
It may well be supposed that when Ralph Morton gazed upon the fair and ample parchment, with its broad red seal, giving him such vast, almost royal powers, his heart swelled with exultation.