VI. ter as Sir John Popham, lord chief justice of Eng- SECT. land, as one of the members of the Plymouth Company, and a great promoter of the design.. Mr. 1606. George Popham, one of the patentees, was his brother.* Sir Ferdinando Gorges, then governor of Plymouth, and several other west-countrymen and merchants are mentioned also as being concerned in this company. They seem to have been more ex. peditious than the members of the London Company, in their first attempts to carry into effect the intentions of the Charter. In August, 1606, they dispatched a ship of fifty tons, under the command of Henry Challons, to make further discovery of the coasts of North Virginia; and, if it should appear expedient, to leave as many men, as he could spare, in the country. On his passage, however, from the West India islands towards the American coast, he and his crew, consisting of about thirty persons, were taken by a Spanish fleet, and carried into Spain, where his vessel was confiscated. Although this misfortune considerably abated the ardour of the Plymouth company; yet the lord chief justice Pop * Hutchinson's Hist. of Massachusetts, Vol. 1, p. 10. † Oldmixon's British Emp. in America, Vol. 1, p. 26.—It may be proper to observe here, that, although the two colonies were to be under the direction and government of the king and his council of Virginia, yet the associators who applied to the king for his letters patent became thereby divided also into two mercantile or trading companies, one at London, the other at Plymouth, the former as proprietors of the first or South Virginia colony, and the latter as proprietors of the second or North Virginia colony, but each colony subject to the "laws, ordinances, and instructions" of the king and his council of Virginia. VI. 1606. SECT. ham having, immediately after the departure of Challons, sent out, at his own expense, another ship, under the command of Thomas Hanam, one of the patentees, whose business was not so much to settle a colony as to make discovery in order thereto, the account given of the country on the return of this ship was so favourable as to cherish in a considerable degree the spirit of enterprise necessary for further undertakings.* The instruc Mean-while, in order to effectuate the purpose of the letters patent, a set of instructions, under the tions rela- king's privy seal, relative to both colonies or comboth colo-panies, in pursuance of the before-mentioned impor tive to nies. tant clause in these letters, were made out on the twentieth of November, in the same year. Whether these instructions were drawn up by the king himself, history does not expressly say.† As James * Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. 39, p. 270, and Holmes's Annals, Vol. 1, p. 154, where it is said, that Sir Ferdinando Gorges observed, on this occasion, that Martin Pring (or Prinn) who went with Hanam in this voyage, (and who had commanded the voyage of discovery in the year 1603, as before mentioned,) brought, on his return from this last-mentioned voyage, the most exact account of the Virginia coast, that ever came to his hand. What part of the American coast they visited does not appear in modern authors who mention this voyage. The particulars of it, however, are probably to be found in Purchas's Pilgrimages. † Marshall (in his Life of Washington, Vol. 1, p. 25,) calls them a Code of Laws, framed by the king, for the government of the colonies. This would impress the reader with an idea, that James in his vanity, had compiled a volume of laws for the occasion. But a recurrence to the instrument will show that the title of "Orders and Instructions for the colo VI. 1606. was not a little vain of his talents as a writer, and SECT. not much less so as a legislator, there is great probability that they were the dictates of his own mind. If the arbitrary power which he supposed to be annexed to the prerogative of his crown, he allowed him, there is nothing in them but what was consonant to his usual exercise of that preroga tive, and apparently necessary to carry into effect the provisions of the charter. The patentees or proprietors of the first or South Proceedings of the Virginia colony, proceeded with more effect, though first or not with so much expedition, as those of the second South Virginia colony. On the receipt of their letters patent, pre- company. parations for the purpose had been undertaken by three small vessels, one of a hundred tons, another of forty, and a pinnace of twenty, with everything requisite for settling a colony, consisting of one hundred and five persons, were provided by the latter end of the year, and the naval command thereof, together with the care of transporting the colony, was entrusted to capt. Christopher Newport, said to be "a mariner of celebrity and experience on the American coast." Besides the set of "orders and instructions," under the king's privy seal before-mentioned, two other several sets of instructions were given by the South Virginia Company, on this occasion. One to capt. Christopher Newport, concerning the naval command and transportation of the colony: the nies," which other writers give it, is more correct. Holmes's Annals, Vol. 1, p. 153.-See them nearly at large, in Burk's Hist. of Virginia, Vol. I, p. 85. s 1 SECT. other, to him, (Newport,) in conjunction with capt. VI. Bartholomew Gosnold and capt. John Ratcliffe, re1606. specting the form and administration of the government. These last, being the most important, were close sealed, and accompanied with orders that they were not to be opened for twenty-four hours after their arrival on the coast of Virginia. To these were added also by his majesty, by way of advice, instructions of a general nature; containing, however, one or two strange particulars, concerning a communication by some river or lake between Virginia and the Indian or South Sea.* The first colony 4 This little squadron sailed from Blackwall, on sent out to the Thames, on the twentieth of December, 1606; but by some unlucky accidents, were for several der New-, weeks detained on the coast of England. At last, settle Vir. ginia un port, and nent set formed at James' town. 1607. a perma- they continued their voyage, and having taken in tlement fresh water and other necessaries at the Canaries, proceeded to the Caribbee islands, where they arrived on the twenty-third of February, 1607, and staid amongst them, but chiefly in the island of Nevis, about five weeks. These delays seem to have afforded nourishment to some violent dissensions, which arose, during the voyage among the adventu. rers. Jealousy of power, and envy of preferment, seem to have been at the bottom of them. Symp. toms of these dissensions made their appearance before the squadron had cleared the English coast, but they were in some measure allayed, it seems, by the prudent conduct and pious exhortations of their chaplain, the rev. Mr. Hunt. They, however, * Burk's Hist. of Virginia, Vol. 1, p. 93. VI. eventuated in the arrest of capt. John Smith, on the SECT. absurd charge of an intention to murder the council, usurp the government, and make himself king of 1697. Virginia; and he was accordingly kept in close confinement during the remainder of the voyage. Smith was, perhaps, the most extraordinary personage, of whom the early histories of North America have made mention. The accounts of his adventures in the east of Europe, seem rather to have been borrowed from some romance of the thirteenth century than taken from any real scenes of life. After these adventures, he had returned to England, his native country, and had accidentally formed an acquaintance with captain Gosnold, in the height of the zeal of the latter for colonising America. Gosnold rightly conceiving that Smith's active genius was peculiarly fitted for such an undertaking, communicated his schemes to him. They were ardently embraced by him, and he embarked with the other colonists for America. t Thus disturbed by internal dissensions, the little fleet left the West Indies, on the third of April, 1607, but not falling in with the land for three days after their reckoning was out, serious propositions were made for returning to England. The place of their destination was the old disastrous situation at Roanoke; but fortunately they were overtaken by a storm, which drove them to the mouth of the Chesapeake, which they entered on the twenty-sixth of April. The promontory on the south side of the entrance into the bay, they called Cape Henry, in honour of the then prince of Wales, who died not |