The New International Encyclopædia/Argall, Samuel

AR'GALL, Sir Samuel (c.1580-1626). An English navigator, and deputy governor of the Virginia colony, born about 1580 or 1585. In 1609 he was sent to Virginia in charge of a vessel, with orders to find a more direct route than that previously followed, and he succeeded in considerably shortening the time ordinarily occupied by the passage. After his arrival, in 1609, he was employed in surveying Chesapeake Bay and a large part of the coast northward to Cape Cod. Returning to Virginia, he took part in the fighting with the Indians, and in 1612 he conducted the negotiations with the chief of a Potomac tribe to whose care the women of the Powhatan tribe had been intrusted during hostilities, by which the English secured possession of Pocahontas, a favorite daughter of the chief, Powhatan, in exchange for a copper kettle. Her marriage to John Rolfe followed soon after, and the troubles with the natives were settled, leaving Argall free to go to sea again. In 1613 he was given command of a powerful war vessel, and instructed to keep all intruders out of the territory claimed for England. He sailed to Mount Desert Island, where he found a French Jesuit settlement, which he destroyed, carrying off the settlers to Jamestown as prisoners. French establishments at Port Royal and Saint Croix received the same treatment. At New Amsterdam (now New York) Argall found a Dutch colony, and forced the governor to haul down his flag and display the English colors in its place—a recognition of English supremacy which lasted so long as Argall was in the harbor. In 1617 Argall was promoted to be deputy governor and admiral of Virginia. He conducted affairs in a high-handed fashion, and was accused of engaging in illegal trade, especially with the Spanish settlements in the West Indies. He ignored several peremptory orders to return to England to answer the charges against him, but eventually went back to stand trial. No serious action, however, was taken, probably because of the protection afforded him by the Earl of Warwick, who is supposed to have participated in the profits of Argall's ventures. In 1620 Argall was captain in a fleet which attacked the Algerine pirates in the Mediterranean. A year later he was knighted. In 1625 he was appointed admiral of an Anglo-Dutch fleet of twenty-eight vessels, which took Spanish prizes valued at over £100,000, and later in the same year took part, as commander of the flagship, in Cecil's expedition against the Spaniards.