ancies in which the company had
the right to fill. For the colonists it meant nothing more than change
of one tyranny for another, since the local government in Virginia was
made the rule of an absolute governor. For this office the council
selected one of the peers of the realm, Thomas West, Lord Delaware,
but as he could not go out at once they commissioned Sir Thomas Gates
as first governor of Virginia,[12] arming him with a code of martial
law which fixed the penalty of death for many offences.

All things being in readiness, the "Third Supply" left Falmouth, June
8, 1609, in nine ships, carrying about six hundred men, women, and
children, and in one of the ships called the _Sea Venture_ sailed the
governor, Sir Thomas Gates, and the two officers next in command, Sir
George Somers and Captain Christopher Newport.

When within one hundred and fifty leagues of the West Indies they were
caught in the tail of a hurricane, which scattered the fleet and sank
one of the ships. To keep the _Sea Venture_ from sinking, the men
bailed for three days without intermission, standing up to their
middle in water. Through this great danger they were preserved by
Somers, who acted as pilot, without taking food or sleep for three
days and nights, and kept the ship steady in the waves till she
stranded, July 29, 1609, on one of the Bermuda Islands, where the
company, one hundred and fifty in number, landed in safety. They found
the island a beautiful place, full of wild hogs, which furnished them
an abundance of meat, to which they added turtles, wild fowl, and
various fruits. How to get away was the question, and though they had
not a nail they started promptly to build two small ships, the
_Patience_ and _Deliverance_, out of the cedar which covered the
country-side. May 10, 1610, they were ready to sail with the whole
party for Jamestown, which they reached without accident May 23.[13]

At Jamestown a sad sight met their view. The place looked like "some
ancient fortification" all in ruins; the palisades were down, the
gates were off their hinges, and the church and houses were in a state
of utter neglect and desolation. Out of the ruins tottered some sixty
wretches, looking more like ghosts than human beings, and they told a
story of suffering having hardly a parallel.[14]

The energetic Captain Argall, whose arrival at Jamestown has been
already noticed, temporarily relieved the destitution there, first by
supplies which he br