Religion.—The total number of communi cants or members of churches in Virginia in 1906 was 793,546. In numerical strength the 10 largest denominations stood in the following crder: Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Ro man Catholic, Protestant Episcopal, Disciples or Christian, Lutheran, Dunkers or German Bap tists, Christian (Christian connection) and United Brethren. There were 5,965 Sunday schools, with 50,226 officers and teachers and 430,452 scholars.
Population.— In 1790 the population of Vir ginia was 747,610; 1800, 880,200; 1810, 974,600; 1820, 1,065,116; 1830, 1,211,405; 1850, 1,421,661; 1860, 1,596,318; 1870, 1,225,163; 1880, 1,512,565; 1890, 1,655,980; 1900, 1,854,184; 1910, 2,061,612. The population (1910) was divided by sex and race as follows: Male 1,035,348; female 1,025, 264; white 1,389,809; negro 671,096; Asiatic 168; Indian 539. There were 27,057 of foreign birth, of whom-3,687 were English, 2,450 Irish, 4,228 German, 4,379 Russian and 1,246 Scotch. The United States Bureau of the Census estimates Virginia's population was 2,213,025 on 1 July 1917. The population of the chief cities by that estimate was— Richmond, 158,702; Norfolk, 91,146; Roanolce, 46,282; Portsmouth, 40,693; Lynchburg, 33,497..
Colonial History.— Herjulfsen, a Norse man, sailing the Greenland Sea, and storm driven westward to the coast of Labrador, was the first European to see the shores of North America. He was incurious, and did not land. Lief Ericsen, 15 years later (An 1001), landed in 41;1° N. lat., well within the patent of Vir ginia territory which James I granted to the London Company six centuries later. For 300 years these prowlers of the sea occasionally vis ited the northern shores of the continent, sailed away and left no trace. The greatest date in the annals of discovery is 1492, the year the Italian, Christopher Columbus, commissioned by the royal pair of Spain, reached the Western World. Thereafter the Spanish had no part in the new country soon to be called Virginia, and the English entered upon the scene, led by a yenetian-born sailor, Cabot, and by a sure in stinct for colonizing and possessing. They claimed all the continent from the Spanish pos sessions on the south to the French on the north. This vast territory was the original Virginia, the first of the American colonies settled by the English. Jamestown, on the James River, was founded 13 May 1607 by 105 colonists sent out by the London Company, to whom James I had granted South Virginia, as it was then called in distinction from the territory to the north ward, named North Virginia. The colonists were mostly worthless adventurers; Wingfield, the president of the colony, proved dishonest, and the whole enterprise was only saved from a disastrous end by the courage and energy of Capt. John Smith. (See Surru, Joitw). In 1609 the London Company was reorganized and received a grant of territory extending 200 miles north, and the same distance south of Old Point Comfort, and westward to the Pa dfic. The government council was superseded by a governor to be appointed by the company's council in England, and to have the sole super intendence of local affairs. Lord Delaware was appointed governor, Sir Thomas Gates lieuten ant-governor, Sir George Somers admiral, Clristopher Newport vtce-achniral and Sir Thomas Dale, high marshal, all for life. Nine vessels with 500 colonists, including 20 women and children, set sail at once. Gates, Somers
and Newport accompanied the fleet, but the governor was detained for some time in Eng land by his private affairs. The three officers all embarked in the same vessel and were cast ashore on one of the Bermudas; one of the other vessels was lost, but the remaining seven arrived in safety in the James River. The old government was abrogated, but none of the of ficers of the new one having arrived, Smith re tained the government, as the charter author ized him to do, but the new colonists, like the old, were mostly a profligate set of adventurers, whose whole study seemed to be to create dis turbances. Smith was soon after severely wounded by an accident and obliged to return to England for surgical aid, and left a colony of 500 persons well supplied with arms, provi sions and goods for traffic with the Indians, and provided with a fort, church, storehouse and 60 dwellings and a good stock of domestic aninials. After his departure the colonists gave them selves up to riot and idleness, and a party of 30 seized a vessel belonging to the colony and sailed away as pirates. Six months after Smith's departure only 60 colornsts remained. At this juncture Newport, Gates and Somers, with 150 men arrived from the Bermudas in vessels which they had built there. Finding the condition of things at Jamestown, they resolved tc abandon Virginia and sail with the remnant of the colonists to Newfoundland to seek food and a passage home from the fishermen. As they descended' the river (10 June 1610) they met Lord Delaware, who had just arrived from England, bringing supplies and colonists. He persuaded them to return to Jamestown, took measures for procuring supplies, established a trading-post at Hampton at the entrance to James River, and punished the Indians for their barbarities toward the colonists by attacking and burning several of their villages. His health failing, he returned to England, leav ing Captain Percy as his deputy. He was soon superseded by Sir Thomas Dale, who arrived with 300 settlers and some cattle. Under Dale property, theretofore held in common, was di vided among the colonists. The right of prop erty in land in America was then first recog nized. •He was followed in the governor's of fice by Sir Thomas Gates, who brought 350 more colonists. New settlements were com menced at Henricot some distance above James town, and at the Junction of the Appomattox and the James, then called New Bermuda. The laws made for the cobny were harsh and strict, and occasioned much dissatisfaction. In 1616 Dale, who had resumed the government of the colony at the departure of Gates, returned to England, and soon after Captain Argall was ap pointed deputy-governor. He used his office so much to the distress of the colonists that Lord Delaware sailed from England to resume his duties, but died on his passage, at the mouth of the bay which bears his name. George Yeardley now appointed governor (1619) and 'alighted, deserves to rank as the first Ainer ican Democrat. He called the first legis lative body ever constituted in Virginia to meet at Jamestown on 30 July 1619. Its membership was composed of two elected representatives from each of 11 boroughs of the colony. This house of burgesses was the first act in the long drama of self-government in Virginia.