vicinity]

Governor White soon found it necessary to go back to England for
supplies, and, in consequence of the Spanish war, three years slipped by
before he was able to return to the colony. He was then too late. Every
soul had perished, and to this day nobody knows how or where. Ralegh
could do no more, and in 1589 made over all his rights to a joint-stock
company of merchants. This company did nothing, and the sixteenth
century came to an end with no English colony in America.[1]

[Footnote 1: Doyle's _English Colonies in America_, Virginia, pp. 56-74;
Bancroft's _History of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 60-79;
Hildreth's _History of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 80-87.]

%18. Gosnold in New England.%--With the new century came better
fortune. Ralegh's noble efforts to plant a colony aroused Englishmen to
the possibility of founding a great empire in the New World, and
especially one named Bartholomew Gosnold.

Instead of following the old route to America by way of the Canary
Islands, the West Indies, and Florida, he sailed due west across the
Atlantic,[2] and brought up on the shore of a cape which he named Cape
Cod.[3] Following the shore southward, he passed through Nantucket Sound
and Vineyard Sound, till he came to Cuttyhunk Island, at the entrance of
Buzzards Bay. On this he landed, and built a house for the use of
colonists he intended to leave there. But when he had filled his ship
with sassafras roots and cedar logs, nobody would remain, and the whole
company went back to England.[4]

[Footnote 2: By thus shortening the journey 3000 miles, he practically
brought America 3000 miles nearer to Europe.]

[Footnote 3: Because the waters thereabout abounded in codfish. For a
comparison of Gosnold's route with those of the other early explorers
see the map on p. 15.]

[Footnote 4: Bancroft's _United States_, Vol. I., pp. 70-83. Hildreth's
_United States,_ Vol. I., p. 90.]

%19. The Two Virginia Companies.%--As a result of this voyage,
Gosnold was more eager than ever to plant a colony in Virginia, and this
enthusiasm he communicated so fully to others that, in 1606, King James
I. created two companies to settle in Virginia, which was then the name
for all the territory from what is now Maine to Florida.

1. Each company was to own a block of land 100 miles square; that is,
100 miles along the coast,--50 miles each way from its first
settlement,--and 100 miles into the interior.

2. The First Co