ginia. Riding on the Thames, before Blackwall, are three ships, small
enough in all conscience' sake, the Susan Constant, the Goodspeed, and
the Discovery. The Admiral of this fleet is Christopher Newport, an old
seaman of Raleigh's. Bartholomew Gosnold captains the Goodspeed, and
John Ratcliffe the Discovery. The three ships have aboard their crews
and one hundred and twenty colonists, all men. The Council in Virginia
is on board, but it does not yet know itself as such, for the names of
its members have been deposited by the superior home council in a sealed
box, to be opened only on Virginia soil.

The colonists have their paper of instructions. They shall find out a
safe port in the entrance of a navigable river. They shall be prepared
against surprise and attack. They shall observe "whether the river on
which you plant doth spring out of mountains or out of lakes. If it be
out of any lake the passage to the other sea will be the more easy, and
like enough... you shall find some spring which runs the contrary
way toward the East India sea." They must avoid giving offense to the
"naturals"--must choose a healthful place for their houses--must
guard their shipping. They are to set down in black and white for the
information of the Council at home all such matters as directions and
distances, the nature of soils and forests and the various commodities
that they may find. And no man is to return from Virginia without leave
from the Council, and none is to write home any discouraging letter. The
instructions end, "Lastly and chiefly, the way to prosper and to achieve
good success is to make yourselves all of one mind for the good of
your country and your own, and to serve and fear God, the Giver of
all Goodness, for every plantation which our Heavenly Father hath not
planted shall be rooted out."

Nor did they lack verses to go by, as their enterprise itself did not
lack poetry. Michael Drayton wrote for them:--

Britons, you stay too long,
Quickly aboard bestow you,
And with a merry gale,
Swell your stretched sail,
With vows as strong
As the winds that blow you.

Your course securely steer,
West and by South forth keep;
Rocks, lee shores nor shoals,
Where Eolus scowls,
You need not fear,

So absolute the deep.
And cheerfully at sea
Success you still entice,
To get the pearl and gold,
And ours to hold
VIRGI