Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/524

 514 E. p. Clieyney not enjoye the same longe, but that the Englishe there would aspire to government of themselves, yet were it better that it should be soe then that the Spaniardes should with the treasure of that countrie torment all the countries of Europe with warres." This and much more equally audacious and impracticable brought no response from the thrifty and cautious powers then in charge of the English govern- ment. And indeed such a project is to be looked upon rather as an indication of the expansive spirit of England than as a proposal any- where within the realm of success. Thus the century and the reign of Elizabeth closed without the possession by England of a foothold on the western continent. Yet the way was obvious. Six chartered commercial companies had divided most of the available Old World between them ; next to be chartered was the Virginia Company. In fact the three next suc- ceeding companies, the Guiana, the Newfoundland, and the Bermuda Companies, established in 1609, 1610, and 1612 respectively, all had their sphere of operation in America. The connection of the older companies with the Virginia Company was very close. More than one hundred members of the Virginia Company were already mem- bers of the East India Company. Sir Thomas Smythe was at the same time governor of both the Muscovy and the East India Com- panies, a member of the Levant Company, and treasurer of the Virginia Company. John Eldred, a director, and Sir William Romney, a governor of the East India Company, were members of the first council of Virginia. Richard Staper, who is described on his tombstone in St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, as " the cheefest actor in the discoverie of the trades of Turkey and East India ", was much interested in the Virginia project, but died in June, 1608, just too soon to have his name inscribed with the others on the second charter. The same connection existed in the case of Sir Edwin Sandys, Sir Thomas Roe, and many others. There was also a distinct lapping over in time. The second charter of the Virginia Company was signed on the twenty-third and the second charter of the East India Company on the thirty-first of May, 1609. The vessels for the third voyage to India and those for the first voyage to Virginia were both loading at the wharves of London at the same time ; and the two shi|)s of one of the expeditions of the Muscovy Company had returned to Gravesend but three months before the first Virginian fleet left it. Close however' as was the connection of the Virginia Company with preceding trading companies, in many ways the closest analogy with its action and its nearest congener among the movements of the time is to be found in the plantation of Ireland then in progress.