CHAPTER II

VIRGINIA: THE FIRST GREAT COLONY OF THE BRITISH

Character of the men--Raleigh's Virginian colonies--Motives for colonisation--Gosnold and Pring--Richard Hakluyt--Elizabeth and James I.--Formation of the London and Plymouth Companies-- The government of the London Company--The Virginian settlers-- Foundation of Jamestown--Captain John Smith--The lust for gold --Smith's good work--English interest in Virginia--Sir George Somers and Sir Thomas Gates--Lord Delawarr--Improvements in Virginia--The Princess Pocahontas--Samuel Argall--Sir Thomas Dale--Yeardley and the first Representative Assembly--The Company in danger--The abolition of the Company--A change in the character of Virginian history--Wyatt and Harvey as Governors--A land of peace and plenty--Sir William Berkeley --Trouble with the Indians--Virginia and the Civil War-- Berkeley's dislike of education--Arlington and Culpeper-- Virginia under Berkeley--Bacon's rising--Sir Herbert Jeffreys --Virginia and the Revolution--Virginia in the eighteenth century--Robert Dinwiddie 19