ncerned in the first settlement of Virginia.

In 1602, the forty-third and last year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, deviating from the usual oblique route by
the Canaries and the West Indies, made a direct voyage in a small bark
across the Atlantic, and in seven weeks reached Massachusetts Bay. It
was on this occasion that Englishmen, for the first time, landed on the
soil of New England. Gosnold returned to England in a short passage of
five weeks. In these early voyages the heroism of the navigators is the
more admirable when we advert to the extremely diminutive size of their
vessels and the comparative imperfection of nautical science at that
day. Encouraged by Gosnold's success, the mayor, aldermen, and merchants
of Bristol sent out an expedition under Captain Pring, in the same
direction, in 1603, the year of the accession of James I. to the throne.
During the same year a bark was dispatched from London under Captain
Bartholomew Gilbert, who fell in with the coast in latitude 37 deg., and, as
some authors say, ran up into the Chesapeake Bay, where the captain and
four of his men were slain by the Indians.

In 1605 Captain Weymouth came over under the auspices of Henry, Earl of
Southampton, and Lord Thomas Arundel.

FOOTNOTES:

[18:A] Memoir on the first discovery of the Chesapeake Bay. Communicated
by Robert Greenhow, Esq., to the Virginia Historical Society, May, 1848,
in Early Voyages to America, (edited by Conway Robinson, Esq., and
published by the Society,) p. 486. Mr. Greenhow cites for authority the
Ensayo Chronologico Para la Historia de la Florida of Barcia,
(Cardenas.)

[18:B] MS. letter of John Gilmary Shea, Esq., author of "History of the
Catholic Missions among the Indian Tribes of the United States," citing
Barcia and Alegambe.

[19:A] "A 37 grados y medio." Alegambe says: "Axaca ab aequatore in
Boream erecta 37 deg.."

[19:B] In a map found in a rare work, in French, dated 1676, entitled
"Tourbe Ardante," shown me by Townsend Ward, Esq., Librarian of
Pennsylvania Hist. Society, the Chesapeake is called St. Mary's Bay.

[22:A] Wingan signifies "good."

[22:B] Smith's History of Virginia, i. 79. Stith's History of Virginia,
11.

[25:A] De Bry.

CHAPTER II.

1579-1604.

Early Life and Adventures of Captain John Smith--Born at
Willoughby--At Thirteen Years of Age undertakes to go to Sea--
At Fifteen Apprentice to a Merchant--Visits