sued between Gates and Somers, the one celebration of the holy communion may have taken place on this occasion, and (May 10, 1610) the whole company embarked for Virginia, where they arrived fourteen days afterwards, nearly a year after their departure from England.

The wreck of the Sea-Venture was long remembered as one of the most romantic incidents of a romantic age. It caught the popular fancy as a vivid picture of the adventurous experiences which awaited the mariner on the unknown western sea; and the lonely islands supposed to be the haunt of devils and furies, but now known to be full of beauty and tropical delight, became the talk of London, and eventually the site of an English colony. They were called indifferently the Somers and the Summer Isles. Either name was appropriate, but the brave Admiral, "a lamb upon land and a lion at sea," was entitled to have them named after him.

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Returning from Virginia in his cedar ship, in June of the same year, for supplies, he was taken ill, and "in that very place which we now call St. George's town, this noble knight died, whereof the place taketh the name." We are told that, "like a valiant captain," he exhorted his men to be true to duty and return to Virginia, but they as men amazed, seeing the death of him who was even as the life of them all, embalmed his body and set sail for England;" and "this cedar ship at last, with his dead body, arrived at Whitchurch, in Dorsetshire, where, by his friends, he was honorably buried, with many volleys of shot and the rites of a soldier."

So the good English soldier and admiral ended.

XI.

THE LAST WRESTLE OF THE FACTIONS.

WHILE the castaways were idly dreaming, all these nine long months, under the blue skies of Bermuda, a fierce drama was in progress in Virginia. The old adversaries, except Newport, were face to face there once more, and a stormy struggle was taking place, the old struggle of 1607-8 over again.

The seven ships which had been separated from the Sea-Venture in the storm managed to ride through, and reach the Chesapeake, though in a fearfully shattered condition. But they were safe at last in Hampton Roads, and made for Jamestown. As they were seen coming up the river they were taken for Spaniards, and the settlers ran to arms. Even some Indians who were at the town volunteered to fight the supposed Spaniards, which indicated the entente cordiale between them and the English now. The mistake was soon plain. The culverins in the fort were about to open on the ships, when they ran up the English flag. The vessels came to anchor, and a boat brought on shore Ratcliffe, Martin, and a new confederate, Archer.

Thus the bad old times were coming back. It was melancholy and exasperating. Of the return of these people to Virginia to resume authority there, it might be said that it could not and it would not come to good. It is not good for the wounded battle-horse, when the vultures have been scared off, to have them swoop back. These birds of ill-omen were now hovering again over Jamestown, or rather had alighted. One is tempted to

thus characterize the ill crew who had the fate of the colony again in their hands. Thanks to the vivid old chronicles we know the men well. The writers who describe them are not generalizing historians, but painters; with their rude pen-strokes they draw portraits. We see the men themselves, their faces and gestures; the very tones of the voices come up out of the mist which for nearly three centuries has wrapped the figures; and the combatants matched against each other on the old arena are actual people, not mere ghosts.

The men who fought for the mastery in Virginia, from 1607 to 1609, were the hard workers and the sluggards. Smith was at the head of the first; Wingfield, Ratcliffe, and their associates at the head of the last. Of these, Wingfield was an imbecile, Newport a tale-bearer, Ratcliffe a mutineer, who even bore a false name; and these had drawn into their counsels, by a sort of natural selection, Archer an agitator, Martin a cat's-paw, and all that loose and floating element found in every society, which hangs on and waits, and instinctively takes the side which promises to be the strongest. The antagonists had declared war from the very first; had gone on wrangling with each other all through the years 1607 and 1608, and the hard workers and fighters had crushed the sluggards. One by one they had been shot, or deposed, or banished. They had gone to England then, and effected by intrigue what they had failed to effect by force. Ratcliffe and Newport had taken their revenge for Smith's unceremonious treatment of them. They had gained the ear of the Company, laid the blame of the whole failure in Virginia on his shoulders, and the result was soon seen. Between the lobbyists in London, bowing low to the Right Honorables, and the

brusque soldier in Virginia, writing them "rude answers" and rough, discourteous intimations that they were altogether absurd people, the choice was promptly made. The Company listened to the lobbyists, not to the fighting man, with his unkempt manners. It was plain that all the mismanagement in Virginia was due to him; the incompetent servant should be discharged, and the true men reinstated.

This indication of the state of things in Virginia at the moment (August, 1609) will explain what followed. Ratcliffe, coming on shore from the ships, claimed authority in the colony as the representative of the new rulers, who would soon arrive. The old government was done away with, he said; Smith was no longer President; and he summoned all men to yield to his authority. If Smith's "old soldiers " had been left to decide, the decision of the question would doubtless have been prompt. Ratcliffe was extremely unpopular, and Smith extremely popular; but there were the new-comers. These were Ratcliffe's people, and were about three hundred in number. There were among them "divers gentlemen of good means and great parentage," but also "many unruly gallants, packed thither by their friends to escape ill destinies." These unruly gallants could be counted on with tolerable certainty to oppose a hard master like Smith. He was not to their fancy, and they promptly sided with Ratcliffe.

Then all Jamestown was suddenly in commotion. Ratcliffe went about the town denouncing Smith as a usurper. His men followed him through the narrow streets in loud discussion; drank deep at the "taverne;" uttered threats and curses; and their leader nursed the storm, and inflamed them more and more against the

tyrant. Smith looked on and listened in huge weariness and disgust, chaos had come again. Those

"unruly gallants would dispose and determine of the government sometimes to one, sometimes to another: to-day the old commission must rule; to-morrow the new; the next day neither; in fine, they would rule all or ruin all." The soldier grew bitter, and utter hopelessness took possession of him. He would have nothing further to do with affairs, but "leave all and return to England," — not before the arrival, however, of some duly empowered successor. The term of his presidency had not yet expired; he was still the head. of the colony, and he would hold to strict account those who disobeyed his orders.

Smith was a man of few words, and could always be counted on to do what he said he would do. Ratcliffe continued his agitation, still inflaming the minds of his followers, when Smith suddenly arrested him with other leaders in the disturbance, and placed them in confinement to await trial. This at once suppressed the disorder, and there was no further opposition to the soldier's will; but he was weary of his position. He surrendered it to Martin, who, it seems, had taken no part in the riot; but to this the old settlers would not consent, and he was compelled to resume it. He was not to exercise authority long. The end was near, and to the very last the vivid contrast between utter incompetence and real ability was plain to all. An incident showed the inefficiency of Martin. Smith sent him to Nansemoud to form a branch settlement in that region; but the Indians saw that he was "distracted with fear," and he fled to Jamestown, "leaving his company to their fortunes."