untrymen. To them he had literally given a national
tradition of adventure by compiling and editing one of the more
influential books in England's history--_The Principall Navigations,
Voyages, and Discoveries of the English Nation_, whose reading, in
Michael Drayton's words, inflamed "Men to seeke fame." Hakluyt had been
advisor to both Gilbert and Raleigh in their ventures, and since then
he had consistently promoted the idea that England might best find in
North America the opportunities that were needed for her prosperity and
her security.

A significant indication of the extent to which the public interest was
considered to be involved in the Virginia project is found in the
provision that was first made for the government of the two colonies.
The powers of government, which is to say the ultimate right to decide
and to direct, were vested in a royal council, commonly known as the
Virginia Council and having its seat in London. Its membership was
probably drawn exclusively from the two groups of Virginia adventurers,
but the members were appointed by the king and were sworn to his
special service. Among the first members were Sir Thomas Smith, chief
of the London merchants; Sir William Wade, lieutenant of the London
Tower; Sir Walter Cope, member of parliament for Westminster and
adventurer in a variety of overseas enterprises; Sir Henry Montague,
recorder of the City of London; Solicitor General John Doderidge,
subsequently justice of the Kings Bench; Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who
later would lead a reviving interest in the settlement of New England
and still later would become an enemy of the Puritans who so largely
accomplished that task; Sir Francis Popham, son and heir to the Lord
Chief Justice; and John Eldred of London, Thomas James of Bristol, and
James Bagge of Plymouth, each of these three being described as a
merchant. This assignment of the powers of government proved to be
awkward, and it denied the adventurers direct control over the more
important questions affecting their adventures, as in the choice of a
plan of government for the colony or in the appointment of its key
officers. Consequently, the adventurers secured a change in the second
Virginia charter, granted in 1609. It was then specified that members
of the council thereafter should be "nominated, chosen, continued,
displaced, changed, altered and supplied, as death, or other several
occasions shall require, out of the Company of the said Adve