colony would have perished of famine; but " God, that would not this country should be unplanted," sent them deliverance in the shape of the Deliverance ship.

Gates and Somers cast anchor, and at once went on shore. The shipwrecked looked at the shipwrecked. Jamestown was a scene of desolation. The torn-down palisades, the gates creaking on rusty hinges, the dismantled houses, the emaciated faces, the hungry eyes and babbling voices, scarce able to articulate the prayer to be taken home to die, — these were the piteous sights and sounds which greeted Sir Thomas Gates and the Admiral, as they landed from their cedar ship and looked and listened, in the midst of the dreary throng gathering around them on the shore. All was over for the Virginia colony, it seemed. Even the stout souls who had braved the storm in the Sea-Venture without losing hope lost it now. Heavy-hearted and despairing at finding famine where they had expected abundance, Gates and Somers, who had provisions for only fourteen days, resolved to sail for England by way of the Newfoundland fishing settlements, and take the wretched remnant of the colony with them. The cannon and other arms were buried at the gate of the fort, and on the 7th of June the drums rolled, giving the signal to embark. At the signal the disorderly crowd hastened towards the ships. It was only with great difficulty that they were prevented from destroying the last traces of the settlement. The place was about to be set fire to, but "God, who did not intend that this excellent country should be abandoned," says the old historian Stith, "put it into the heart of Sir T. Gates to save it." Gates remained on shore with a party of men to preserve order, and was the last man to step into the boat.

Then a volley was fired, the sails were spread, and the Patience and Deliverance, with two other ships containing the colonists, sailed away toward England.

Such had been the result of the long, hard struggle to found an English colony in the New World. Hundreds of thousands of pounds had been expended and hundreds of lives lost in the effort, and now, after three long years of trial, a little band of starving men, women, and children were sailing homeward, leaving behind them at Jamestown only a few dismantled cabins to show that the place had been once inhabited. Virginia had been abandoned; but a joyful surprise was near. On the next morning the little fleet of four small vessels was about to continue its way from Mulberry Island, in James River, where it had anchored for the night, when a row-boat was seen coming up the river toward them. It brought them joyful intelligence. Lord Delaware had arrived with three vessels from England; had heard at the lower settlement that the colony was about to be deserted; and had sent his long-boat with dispatches directing Gates and Somers to return to Jamestown, where he would soon join them.

Such was the curiously dramatic event which prevented the New World from being abandoned in 1610 by the English. If a writer of fiction had invented the incident it would have been criticised as the most improbable of fancies. The fleet under Delaware arrived in the waters of Virginia at the very moment when the fleet under Gates and Somers was about to disappear; and an old writer, relating these events, bursts forth into exclamations of thanks and praise for "the Lord's infinite goodness." Never had poor people more cause to cast themselves at his "very footstool." They were

saved by a direct interposition of his providence. "If they had set sail sooner and launched into the vast ocean, who would have promised that they should encounter the fleet of the Lord La Warre? If the Lord La Warre had not brought with him a year's provisions, what comfort would these poor souls have received to have been re-landed to a second destruction? This was the arm of the Lord of Hosts, who would have his people pass the Red Sea and Wilderness, and then to possess the land of Canaan."

On the next morning, which was Sunday (June 10, 1610), Lord Delaware landed at the south gate of the fort, where Gates had drawn up his men to receive him. As soon as the new Governor touched the shore he knelt down, and remained for some moments in prayer. He then rose and went to the church, where service was held and a sermon preached; after which he delivered an address, encouraging the colonists.

Events had followed each other like scenes on the stage of a theatre. The curtain had slowly descended on the desolate picture of the abandoned colony, and now it again rose on a busy and bustling scene, -on the shore thronged with hundreds of persons, the devout worshipers kneeling in the church, and Lord Delaware announcing to the assembled people that all was well. In the space of three days the Virginia colony had perished and come to life again.

XIV.

THE LORD DE LA WARRE.

VIRGINIA under Lord Delaware was a very different place from Virginia under the "rule or ruin" people, Ratcliffe, and the rest. All the turmoil had suddenly disappeared. Jamestown was a scene of tranquillity, and a well-ordered society had succeeded the social chaos. A stable government had all at once taken the place of that wretched mockery of an executive - the old wrangling council. Lord Delaware, Governor and Captain General of Virginia, ruled now, and he had power to make his authority respected. This power was practically unhampered. He was to obey the instructions of the Company, if they chose to send him any; but if none were sent he was to govern at his discretion, under the charter. In any time of emergency he was not to await orders from England. He was to strike, and strike quickly; to declare martial law, and put down wrong-doers with the sword or the halter.

It was a wholesome state of things for a community lately a prey to the "unruly gallants," shouting and wrangling in the streets, drinking at the tavern, and making the days and nights hideous with their wild. uproar. A single glance showed the gallants that the new ruler was their master. Lord Delaware kept the state of a viceroy. He had his Privy Council: his Lieutenant-General, Sir Thomas Gates; his Admiral, Sir George Somers; his Vice-Admiral, Captain Newport; and his Master of the Horse, Sir Ferdinand Wy

man.

It was an imposing simulacrum of royalty, a little court in the wilderness. Some of the old soldiers of Smith, no doubt resenting the wrong done him, looked sidewise at the fine pageant. "This tender state of Virginia," one of them growled, "was not grown to that maturity to maintain such state and pleasures as was fit for a personage with such brave and great attendance. To have more to wait and play than work, or more commanders and officers than industrious laborers, was not so necessary. For in Virginia," adds the grim critic, "a plain soldier that can use a pickaxe and spade is better than five knights that could break a lance." It was the old protest of Smith, who said "nothing was to be expected from Virginia but by labor." Give us working-men, not drones - laboring people in good fustian jackets, rather than fine gentlemen in silk and lace!

So the old settlers growled at my Lord Delaware, that "man of approved courage, temper, and experience, distinguished for his virtues and his generous devotion to the welfare of the colony." He was wiser than the critics. This splendor of which they complained had its advantages it made his authority respected. The unruly gallants had due notice, and Delaware was never forced to proclaim martial law. He imposed and regulated. The colonists were ordered to go to work, and they went. The hours of labor were fixed, and were from six to ten in the morning, and from two to four in the afternoon. At ten and four the bells rang, when labor ceased, and the settlers attended religious services in the church. Thus all in the Virginia colony was well ordered at last.

The scenes at this old Jamestown church are painted