Thomas Wentworth Higginson, A book of American explorers

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[187] manner, for the supply and relief of his colony then remaining in Virginia. But, before they set sail from England, it was after Easter; so that our colony half despaired of the coming of any supply; wherefore every man prepared for himself, determining resolutely to spend the residue of their life .in that country. And, for the better performance of this their determination, they sowed, planted, and set such things as were necessary for their relief in so plentiful a manner as might have sufficed them two years, without any further labor. Thus, trusting to their own harvest, they passed the summer till the 10th of June, at which time their corn which they had sowed was within one fortnight of reaping; but then it happened that Sir Francis Drake, in his prosperous return from the sacking of Saint Domingo, Cartagena, and Saint Augustine, determined, in his way homeward, to visit his countrymen, the English colony then remaining in Virginia. So, passing along the coasts of Florida, he fell with¹ the parts where our English colony inhabited; and, having espied some of that company, there he anchored, and went a-land,² where he conferred with them of their state and welfare, and how things had passed with them.

They answered him that they lived all, but hitherto in some scarcity, and as yet could hear of no supply out of England: therefore they requested him that he would leave with them some two or three ships, that, if in some reasonable time they heard not out of England, they might then return themselves. Which he agreed to. Whilst some were then writing their letters to send into England, and some others making reports of the