CHAPTER II

A DISCOURSE OF WESTERN PLANTING

Some peculiarities of sixteenth century maps 41

How Richard Hakluyt's career was determined 42

Strange adventures of a manuscript 43

Hakluyt's reasons for wishing to see English colonies planted in America 44

English trade with the Netherlands 45

Hakluyt thinks that America will presently afford as good a market as the Netherlands 46

Notion that England was getting to be over-peopled 46

The change from tillage to pasturage 46, 47

What Sir Thomas More thought about it 47

Growth of pauperism during the Tudor period 48

Development of English commercial and naval marine 49

Opposition to Hakluyt's schemes 49

The Queen's penuriousness 50

Beginnings of joint-stock companies 51

Raleigh's difficulties 52, 53

Christopher Newport captures the great Spanish carrack 53

Raleigh visits Guiana and explores the Orinoco River 54

Ambrosial nights at the Mermaid Tavern 54

Accession of James I 55

Henry, Earl of Southampton, Shakespeare's friend, sends Bartholomew Gosnold on an expedition 55

Gosnold reaches Buzzard's Bay in what he calls North Virginia, and is followed by Martin Pring and George Weymouth 55, 56

Performance of "Eastward Ho," a comedy by Chapman and Marston 56

Extracts from this comedy 57-59

Report of the Spanish ambassador Zuñiga to Philip III 59

First charter to the Virginia Company, 1606 60

"Supposed Sea of Verrazano" covering the larger part of the area now known as the United States 61

Northern and southern limits of Virginia 62

The twin joint-stock companies and the three zones 62, 63

The three zones in American history 63

The kind of government designed for the two colonies 64

Some of the persons chiefly interested in the first colony known as the London Company 65-67

Some of the persons chiefly interested in the second colony known as the Plymouth Company 67, 68

Some other eminent persons who were interested in western planting 68-70

Expedition of the Plymouth Company and disastrous failure of the Popham Colony 70, 71

The London Company gets its expedition ready a little before Christmas and supplies it with a list of instructions 71, 72

Where to choose a site for a town 72

Precautions against a surprise by the Spaniards 73

Colonists must try to find the Pacific Ocean 73

And must not offend the natives or put much trust in them 74

The death and sickness of white men must be concealed from the Indians 75

It will be well to beware of woodland coverts, avoid malaria, and guard against desertion 75

The town should be carefully built with regular streets 75, 76

Colonists must not send home any discouraging news 76

What Spain thought about all this 76, 77

Christopher Newport starts with a little fleet for Virginia 77

A poet laureate's farewell blessing 77-79