Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/57

 sixty dollars was entitled to a hundred acres of land, and every person emigrating to the colony, or carrying others there at his own expense, was allowed a hundred acres for each person. On all grants of lands a quit-rent was reserved. Three vessels were fitted out by the Company, under command of Christopher Newport, and together with Wingfield, Gosnold, Hunt, the chaplain, and the famous John Smith, a hundred and five men embarked—this was on the 19th of December, 1606. Unfortunately, less than twenty of these were practical mechanics and workmen, the large proportion being in no sense possessed of the qualifications necessary in laying the foundations of a colony in a new and unknown world.

Dissensions arose on the voyage, almost of necessity, for the king, by a refinement of folly, had sealed up in a tin box, the names and instructions of those who were to form the council. The evident superiority of Smith for the present undertaking excited envy and jealousy, and on a frivolous charge he was put in confinement on the voyage. The prudent and judicious conduct and exhortations of the excellent chaplain served, however, greatly to allay the feelings of jealousy and animosity which had been aroused. Newport took the old route by the Canaries, so that he did not reach the coast of Virginia till April, 1607. By what may be termed a fortunate gale, he was driven quite past the site of the old colony, into the mouth of the noble Chesapeake Bay. The headlands were called Cape Henry and Cape Charles, and the deep water for anchorage led to the name of Point Comfort. Delighted with this noble inlet, they sailed up and explored James River for fifty miles, and there fixed upon the site for the colony. The name was adopted, and it is the oldest town founded by the English in America.

Smith was found named as one of the council, when the box came to be opened, yet so great was the jealousy of Wingfield that he succeeded in having the only competent man among them excluded from the council, and put upon his trial for sedition. He was honorably acquitted, and by the good offices of Hunt, the chaplain, was restored to his seat in the council, Indeed, had it not been for this courageous, energetic, and ever ready man, the whole colony would probably soon have shared the like disastrous fate with that at Roanoke.

In company with Newport, Smith ascended James River, and visited Powhatan, who received them with ceremony, but with little cordiality. In June, Newport returned to England with the ships, and the colonists became speedily sensible of their true position. Weak in numbers, reduced by sickness, without suitable provisions, suffering from the summer heats, exposed to the hostility of the natives, their condition was truly deplorable; half of the whole died before autumn, one of whom was Gosnold. The president of the council, Wingfield, was deposed for avarice and endeavoring meanly to desert the colony in its trouble; Ratcliffe, his successor, was