Colonization (a) Utopia Gonzalo. Had I plantation of this isle, my lord... And women too, but innocent and pure... To feed my innocent people. The Tempest, II. i. 150—171 (b) Virginia 1607 It might well be thought, a country so fair as Virginia is and a people so tractable, would long ere this have been quietly possessed, to the satisfaction of the adventurers, and the eternising of the memory of those that effected it. But because all the world do see a defailment, this following treatise shall give satisfaction to all indifferent readers how the business hath been carried where no doubt they will easily understand and answer to their question, how it came to pass there was no better speed and success in these proceedings. Captain Bartholomew Gosnoll, one of the first movers of this plantation, having many years solicited many of his friends, but found small assistance, at last prevailed with some gentlemen, as Captain John Smith, Master Edward-Maria Wingfield, Master Robert Hunt and divers others, who depended a year upon his projects; but nothing could be effected, till by their great charge and industry, it came to be apprehended by certain of the nobility, gentry and merchants; so that his Majesty by his letters patent, gave commission for establishing councils, to direct here, and to govern and to execute there. To effect this was spent another year, and by that, three ships were provided, one of a hundred tons, another of forty, and a pinnace of twenty. The transportation of the company was committed to Captain Christopher Newport, a mariner well practised for the western parts of America. But their orders for government were put in a box, not to be opened nor the governors known, until they arrived in Virginia. On the nineteenth of December, 1606, we set sail from Blackwall, but by unprosperous winds were kept six weeks in the sight of England; all which time Master Hunt, our preacher, was so weak and sick that few expected his recovery. Yet although he were but twenty miles from his habitation (the time we were in the Downs), and notwithstanding the stormy weather, nor the scandalous imputations (of some few, little better than atheists, of the greatest rank amongst us) suggested against him; all this could never force from him so much as a seeming desire to leave the business, but he preferred the service of God in so good a voyage, before any affection to contest with his godless foes, whose disastrous designs (could they have prevailed) had even then overthrown the business, so many discontents did then arise, had he not with the water of patience, and his godly exhortations (but chiefly by his true devoted examples) quenched those flames of envy and dissension. We watered at the Canaries, we traded with the savages at Dominica, three weeks we spent in refreshing ourselves amongst these West India Isles; in Guadelupe we found a bath so hot, as in it we boiled pork as well as over the fire. And at a little isle called Monica we took from the bushes with our hands near two hogsheads full of birds in three or four hours. In Nevis, Mona and the Virgin Isles we spent some time, where, with a loathsome beast like a crocodile called a gwayn, tortoises, pelicans, parrots, and fishes, we daily feasted. Gone from thence in search of Virginia, the company was not a little discomforted, seeing the mariners had three days passed their reckoning and found no land; so that Captain Ratcliffe (captain of the pinnace) rather desired to bear up the helm to return for England than make further search. But God, the guider of all good actions, forcing them by an extreme storm to hull all night, did drive them by his providence to their desired port, beyond all their expectations; for never any of them had seen that coast. The first land they made they called Cape Henry; where thirty of them, recreating themselves on shore, were assaulted by five savages, who hurt two of the English very dangerously. That night was the box opened and the orders read, in which Bartholomew Gosnoll, John Smith, Edward Wingfield, Christopher Newport, John Ratcliffe, John Martin, and George Kendall, were named to be the council, and to choose a president amongst them for a year, who with the council should govern. Matters of moment were to be examined by a jury, but determined by the major part of the council, in which the president had two voices. Until the thirteenth of May they sought a place to plant in; then the council was sworn, Master Wingfield was chosen president, and an oration made, why Captain Smith was not admitted of the council as the rest. Now falleth every man to work, the council to contrive the fort, the rest cut down trees to make place to pitch their tents; some provide clapboard to relade the ships, some make gardens, some nets, etc. The savages often visited us kindly. The president's overweening jealousy would admit no exercise at arms, or fortification but the boughs of trees cast together in the form of a half moon by the extraordinary pains and diligence of Captain Kendall....What toil we had with so small a power to guard our workmen a-days, watch all night, resist our enemies, and effect our business, to relade the ships, cut down trees, and prepare the ground to plant our corn, etc., I refer to the reader's consideration. Six weeks being spent in this manner, Captain Newport (who was hired only for our transportation) was to return with the ships. Now Captain Smith, who all this time from their departure from the Canaries was restrained as a prisoner, upon the scandalous suggestions of some of the chief (envying his repute) who feigned he intended to usurp the government, murder the council, and make himself king, that his confederates were dispersed in all three ships, and that divers of his confederates that revealed it, would affirm it; for this he was committed as a prisoner. Thirteen weeks he remained thus suspected, and by that time the ships should return they pretended out of their commiserations to refer him to the Council in England to receive a check, rather than by particulating his designs to make him so odious to the world, as to touch his life, or utterly overthrow his reputation. But he so much scorned their charity, and publicly defied the uttermost of their cruelty; he wisely prevented their policies, though he could not suppress their envies; yet so well he demeaned himself in this business, as all the company did see his innocency and his adversaries' malice, and those suborned to accuse him accused his accusers of subornation. Many untruths were alleged against him, but, being so apparently disproved, begat a general hatred in the hearts of the company against such unjust commanders, that the president was adjudged to give him two hundred pounds, so that all he had was seized upon, in part of satisfaction, which Smith presently returned to the store for the general use of the colony. Many were the mischiefs that daily sprung from their ignorant (yet ambitious) spirits; but the good doctrine and exhortation of our preacher, Master Hunt, reconciled them, and caused Captain Smith to be admitted of the council. The next day all received the communion, the day following the savages voluntarily desired peace, and Captain Newport returned for England with news; leaving in Virginia one hundred, the fifteenth of June 1607. CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH, The Generall Historie of Virginia 1624 Travellers' Tales* I spake of most disastrous chances, Of moving accidents by flood and field, Of hair-breadth 'scapes i' the imminent deadly breach, Of being taken by the insolent foe And sold to slavery, of my redemption thence And portance in my travel's history; Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle, Rough quarries, rocks and hills whose heads touch heaven It was my hint to speak, such was the process; And of the Cannibals that each other eat, The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads Do grow beneath their shoulders. Othello, I. iii. 134-145 * See also pp. 70, 71. Lepidus. What manner o' thing is your crocodile ? Antony. It is shaped, sir, like itself, and it is as broad as it hath breadth; it is just so high as it is, and moves with its own organs; it lives by that which nourisheth it; and the elements once out of it, it transmigrates. Lepidus. What colour is it of? Antony. Of its own colour too. Antony. "Tis so; and the tears of it are wet. Antony and Cleopatra, II, vii. 47-56 Civis. Gentle master, I cannot tell what to call you, nor of what country you are. Mendax. Sir, I was born near unto Tunbridge, where fine knives are made; my name is Mendax, a younger brother lineally descended of an ancient house before the conquest. We give three whetstones in gules, with no difference, and upon our crest a left hand, with a horn upon the thumb, and a knife in the hand. The supporters are a fox on the one side, and a friar on the other side. And of late I travelled into Terra Florida, whereas I felt both wealth and woe; the black ox never trod upon my foot before; a dog hath but a day. We are born all to travail, and as for me I have but little to lose. Yet I am a gentleman, and cannot find it in my heart to play the slave, or go to cart; I never could abide it, by the mass. Civis. You speak like a wise man. I perceive by your behaviour that you have been well brought up. I pray you, where is that land? Mendax. Many thousand miles beyond Torrida Zona, on the equinoctial line, in the longitude near unto the pole antarctic; it is an hundred thousand miles long, and is in the part named America; and by the way are the islands called Fortunato or Canaria, whose west parts be situated in the third climate. Civis. It was a dangerous travel into that country. Where landed you? At what place? Mendax. We sailed to the islands of Portum Sanctum, and then to Madeira, in which were sundry countries and islands, as Eractelenty, Magnefortis, Grancanary, Teneriffe, Palme Ferro, &c. And our captain went with his soldiers to land. And at our first coming near unto the river in one of these islands, as we refreshed ourselves among the date trees, in the land of the 1 |