Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/87

 classes, but beyond the Atlantic there was a land which an ever-expanding number of English emigrants, who belonged to these classes, were seeking each year, and where they were finding the opportunities for improving their condition that were not open to them in their native country.

The colonization of Virginia was considered by some to be highly advisable because it would raise a barrier in the West against the Spanish Power. Sir Thomas Dale gave expression to this view when he declared that the plantation on the Powhatan would put a bit in the mouth of the ancient enemy of England. The strategic advantages of the situation were recognized by the Spaniards themselves, and their failure to remove the Colony is only explicable on the ground that they anticipated that an expedition to destroy it would either be unsuccessful, or would precipitate a contest with England. In attacking the Huguenot settlement in Florida, they were perfectly aware that the act was not likely to arouse a lasting feeling of resentment in the Catholic French government, as the colonists were Protestants who had left their native country in order that they might have the full enjoyment of their religious belief. The massacre of the Huguenots at Fort Caroline in 1556, did not equal in atrocity the massacre of the Huguenots at the feast of St. Bartholomew in Paris many years later. Religious zeal atoned for the terrible crime on St. John&#8217;s River. It was, however,