Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/188

 across the Atlantic, without sailing by way of the Canaries round the West Indies and through the Gulf of Florida, as had been the previous practice of navigators. In 1606, two maritime companies, under charter from King James, were authorised to colonise and plant the American coast within the 34th and 41st degrees of latitude. One of these, known as the South Virginia Company, afterwards formed the provinces of Maryland, Virginia, and North and South Carolina; and the second, the "Plymouth Adventurers," was empowered to establish plantations as far as the 45th degree of latitude, their assignment of territory embracing Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and other New England towns. In the same year the "London Company" sent out two ships and founded "James-Town" in Virginia; and in 1612 Bermuda was also settled.

When Charles I. ascended the throne he commenced putting into execution one of those doubtful prerogatives of the crown which, pushed too far, led to a fatal revolution. Either under the pretence or conviction that the government of the transatlantic colonies could be more advantageously carried on by himself and his council, through the intervention of a governor resident on the spot and appointed by the Crown, he assumed the direct government of Virginia, and not only treated the charter of the Company as annulled, but broadly declared that colonies founded by adventurers, or occupied by British subjects, were essentially part and parcel of the dominion of the mother country. The Company*