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burthen,
1 bearing one hundred and five men, destined
to remain, set sail for a harbor in
Virginia.
The voyage began under inauspicious omens.
Of the one hundred and five, on the list of emigrants, there were but twelve laborers, and very few mechanics.
2 They were going to a wilderness, in which, as yet, not a house was standing; and there were fortyeight gentlemen to four carpenters.
Neither were there any men with families.
It was evident, a commercial and not a colonial establishment was designed by the projectors.
Dissensions sprung up during the voyage; as the names and instructions of the council had, by the folly of James, been carefully concealed in a box, which was not to be opened till after the arrival in
Virginia, no competent authority existed to check the progress of envy and disorder.
3 The genius of
Smith excited jealousy; and hope, the only power which can still the clamors and allay the feuds of the
selfish, early deserted the colonists.
Newport, who commanded the ships, was acquainted with the old passage, and, consuming the whole of the early spring in a navigation which should have been completed in February, sailed by way of the Canaries and the
West India Islands.
As he turned to the north, a severe storm carried his fleet beyond the settlement of
Raleigh, into the magnificent Bay of the
Chesapeake.
4 The head-lands received and retain
the names of
Cape Henry and
Cape Charles, from the sons of King James; the deep water for anchorage, ‘putting the emigrants in good Comfort,’ gave a name to the
Northern Point; and within the capes a country
