ten
magnanimous, as vain men are apt to be.

King James's elaborate lack of good sense had sent the expedition to sea
with the names of the Council sealed up in a box, not to be opened
till it reached its destination. Consequently there was no recognized
authority. Smith was a young man of about twenty-eight, vain and no
doubt somewhat "bumptious," and it is easy to believe that Wingfield
and the others who felt his superior force and realized his experience,
honestly suspected him of designs against the expedition. He was the
ablest man on board, and no doubt was aware of it. That he was not only
a born commander of men, but had the interest of the colony at heart,
time was to show.

The voyagers disported themselves among the luxuries of the West Indies.
At Guadaloupe they found a bath so hot that they boiled their pork in
it as well as over the fire. At the Island of Monaca they took from the
bushes with their hands near two hogsheads full of birds in three or
four hours. These, it is useless to say, were probably not the "barnacle
geese" which the nautical travelers used to find, and picture
growing upon bushes and dropping from the eggs, when they were ripe,
full-fledged into the water. The beasts were fearless of men. Wild birds
and natives had to learn the whites before they feared them.

"In Mevis, Mona, and the Virgin Isles," says the "General Historie," "we
spent some time, where with a lothsome beast like a crocodile, called
a gwayn [guana], tortoises, pellicans, parrots, and fishes, we feasted
daily."

Thence they made sail-in search of Virginia, but the mariners lost their
reckoning for three days and made no land; the crews were discomfited,
and Captain Ratcliffe, of the pinnace, wanted to up helm and return to
England. But a violent storm, which obliged them "to hull all night,"
drove them to the port desired. On the 26th of April they saw a bit
of land none of them had ever seen before. This, the first land they
descried, they named Cape Henry, in honor of the Prince of Wales; as the
opposite cape was called Cape Charles, for the Duke of York, afterwards
Charles I. Within these capes they found one of the most pleasant places
in the world, majestic navigable rivers, beautiful mountains, hills, and
plains, and a fruitful and delightsome land.

Mr. George Percy was ravished at the sight of the fair meadows and
goodly tall trees. As much to his taste were the large and delicate
oysters, which the nati