preached to the Indians; lands were to descend as in England; trial by jury was secured to all persons charged with crime; the subordinate council was to try civil causes; and the products of the colonists were to be brought to a public storehouse, where a Cape merchant or treasurer was to control and apportion them as they were needed. This early development of the socialistic and coöperative idea resulted unfortunately; but for the moment it had a plausible appearance on What was plain about the charter was, that the colony of Virginia would have no rights other than those which King James I. chose to allow it. His "instructions" were to be the law, and he held to that theory with all the obstinacy of a narrow mind to the end of his life.

paper.

Having secured this charter the friends of the enterprise made every preparation for the voyage. About one hundred colonists were secured, apparently without difficulty, and at the end of the year 1606 all was ready for the expedition. The little fleet consisted of three vessels, one of twenty tons, one of forty, and one of a hundred, the names of which were the Discovery, the Good Speed, and the Susan Constant.

On the 19th of December, 1606, these three ships set sail down the Thames for Virginia.

IV.

JAMESTOWN.

THE sailing of the ships excited general interest even in so busy a city as London. Prayers were offered up in the churches for the welfare of the expedition, and

the poet Drayton wished his countrymen good fortune in a glowing lyric: —

"You brave heroic minds

Worthy your country's name,
That honor still pursue

Whilst loitering hinds

Lurk here at home with shame,
Go and subdue!

"Britons! you stay too long,
Quickly aboard bestow you,
And with a merry gale
Swell your stretch'd sail
With vows as strong

As the winds that blow you!

"And cheerfully at sea

Success you still entice

To get the pearls and gold,
And ours to hold

Virginia

Earth's only paradise."

The character and motives of these first Virginia adventurers have been the subject of discussion. There is really nothing to discuss. They were men of every rank, from George Percy, brother of the Earl of Northumberland, to Samuel Collier, "boy; and in the lists were classed as "gentlemen, carpenters, laborers," and others. Unfortunately more than half the whole number were "gentlemen," and a gentleman at the time signified a person unused to manual labor. As to the motives of the adventurers, these lay on the surface. To get the pearls and gold was no doubt the thought in the minds of the majority, but this was not the only aim. Many had it warmly at heart to convert the Indians to Christianity, and others looked to the extension of English empire. The dissensions of the first years were due

to causes which will be stated; but a radical defect wa the unfitness of the original colonists for their work More than half their number had never used an axe. and "jewellers, gold refiners, and a perfumer," were among the people sent to fight the American wilder

ness.

The three small ships sailed down the Thames, followed by prayers and good wishes, and, after tossing in the Channel for some weeks, went out to sea. For reasons unexplained they were not in charge of Bartholomew Gosnold, but of Captain Christopher Newport; and, following the old southern route by way of the Azores, safely reached the West Indies toward the spring. A curious incident of the voyage was the arrest of Smith by the other leaders. He was charged with a design to murder them and make himself "King of Virginia;" and he afterwards stated that a gallows was erected to execute him. Nothing more is known of this singular occurrence. Smith remained under arrest until after the arrival in Virginia, when the first American jury tried and acquitted him.

It was the intention to found the colony on the old site, Roanoke Island, but a violent storm drove the ships northward quite past the shores of Wingandacoa, and they reached the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. In this they took shelter toward the end of April 1607, and the beauty of the country induced the commanders of the expedition to settle there instead of at Roanoke. The low shores were covered with "flowers of divers colors;" the "goodly trees" were in full foliage; and all around was inviting. A party landed to look at the country, and had their first experience with the Indians. They were received with a flight of arrows from the

lurking people hidden in the tall grass, but they fled at a volley from the English guns, and the party returned to the ships, which continued their way. Before them was the great expanse of Chesapeake Bay, the "Mother of Waters" as the Indian name signified, and in the distance the broad mouth of a great river, the Powhatan. As the ships approached the western shore of the bay the storm had spent its force, and they called the place Point Comfort. A little further,

at the

present Hampton, they landed and were hospitably received by a tribe of Indians. The ships then sailed on up the river, which was new-named James River, and parties landed here and there, looking for a good site for the colony. A very bad one was finally selected, a low peninsula half buried in the tide at high Here the adventurers landed on May 13, 1607, and gave the place the name of Jamestown, in honor of the King.

water.

Nothing remains of this famous settlement but the ruins of a church tower covered with ivy, and some old tombstones. The tower is crumbling year by year, and the roots of trees have cracked the slabs, making great rifts across the names of the old Armigers and Honourables. The place is desolate, with its washing waves and flitting sea-fowl, but possesses a singular attraction. It is one of the few localities which recall the first years of American history; but it will not recall them much longer. Every distinctive feature of the spot is slowly disappearing. The river encroaches year by year, and the ground occupied by the original huts is already submerged.

The English landed and pitched tents, but soon found it more agreeable to lodge "under boughs of trees

in the pleasant May weather, until they built cabins. These were erected on the neck of the peninsula, and before the summer they had settled into something like a community. From the moment of landing they had paid sedulous attention to the exercises of religion. An "old rotten tent" was the first church in the American wilderness. The next step was to stretch an awning between the trunks of trees; to nail a bar between two of these to serve as a reading-desk — and here "the religious and courageous divine," Mr. Hunt, read the service morning and evening, preached twice every Sunday, and celebrated the Holy Communion at intervals of three months. After a while the settlers busied themselves in constructing a regular church. It was not an imposing structure, since the chronicle describes it as a log building "covered with rafts, sedge, and dirt," but soon they did better. When Lord Delaware came, in 1610, he found at Jamestown a church sixty feet long and twenty-four broad, the first permanent religious edifice erected by Englishmen in North America.

The Virginians had thus made a good beginning. They had felled trees, built houses, erected a church, and were saying their prayers in it, like honest people who were bent on doing their duty in that state of life in which it had pleased Heaven to place them. But the whole cheerful prospect was overclouded by a simple circumstance. Their leaders were worthless. The names of the Council had not been announced in England by King James. He had had the eccentric fancy of sealing them up in a box, which was not to be opened until the expedition reached Virginia. The box had then been opened and the Councillors were found to be Bartholomew Gosnold, John Smith, Edward Maria