"
Smith's practical mind saw the uselessness of trying to get any
Non-Conformist taken on by a royal colony in Virginia just then. "'Tis a
hard case," he said sympathetically, "but we may meet again some day.
There's room enough in the Americas, the Lord knows, for all the honest
men England can spare."
Thus they parted, and on April 26, 1607, the Virginia voyagers saw land
at the mouth of the Chesapeake.
The company was rather top-heavy. Out of the hundred who were enrolled,
fifty-two were gentlemen adventurers, each of whom thought himself as
good as the rest and even a little better. No sooner had the ship
dropped anchor than thirty of them went ashore to roam the forest,
laughing and shouting as if they had the country to themselves. The
appearance of five Indians sent them scurrying back to the ship with two
of their number wounded, for they had no weapons with them. That night
the sealed orders of the London Company were opened, and it was found
that the directors had appointed a council of seven to govern the colony
and choose a president for a year. The colonists were charged to search
for gold and pearls and for a passage to the East Indies. Nothing more
original in the way of a colonial enterprise had occurred to the
directors. Success in these undertakings meant immediate profits with
which the new Company could compete with Bristol, Antwerp, and the
Muscovy Company's rich fur trade.
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