erbert, Henry
Clinton, Richard Sackville, Thomas Cecil, Philip Herbert--Earls of
Salisbury, Suffolk, Southampton, Pembroke, Lincoln, Dorset, Exeter,
and Montgomery. Then follow a dozen peers, the Lord Bishop of Bath and
Wells, a hundred knights, many gentlemen, one hundred and ten merchants,
certain physicians and clergymen, old soldiers of the Continental wars,
sea-captains and mariners, and a small host of the unclassified. In
addition shares were taken by fifty-six London guilds or industrial
companies. Here are the Companies of the Tallow and Wax Chandlers, the
Armorers and Girdlers, Cordwayners and Carpenters, Masons, Plumbers,
Founders, Poulterers, Cooks, Coopers, Tylers and Brick Layers, Bowyers
and Vinters, Merchant Taylors, Blacksmiths and Weavers, Mercers,
Grocers, Turners, Gardeners, Dyers, Scriveners, Fruiterers, Plaisterers,
Brown Bakers, Imbroiderers, Musicians, and many more.

The first Council appointed by the new charter had fifty-two members,
fourteen of whom sat in the English House of Lords, and twice that
number in the Commons. Thus was Virginia well linked to Crown and
Parliament.

This great commercial company had sovereign powers within Virginia. The
King should have his fifth part of all ore of gold and silver; the laws
and religion of England should be upheld, and no man let go to Virginia
who had not first taken the oath of supremacy. But in the wide field
beside all this the President--called the Treasurer--and the Council,
henceforth to be chosen out of and by the whole body of subscribers,
had full sway. No longer should there be a second Council sitting in
Virginia, but a Governor with power, answerable only to the Company at
home. That Company might tax and legislate within the Virginian field,
punish the ill-doer or "rebel," and wage war, if need be, against Indian
or Spaniard:

One of the first actions of the newly constituted body was to seek
remedy for the customary passage by way of the West Indies--so long and
so beset by dangers. They sent forth a small ship under Captain Samuel
Argall, with instructions "to attempt a direct and cleare passage, by
leaving the Canaries to the East, and from thence to run a straight
westerne course.... And so to make an experience of the Winds and
Currents which have affrighted all undertakers by the North."

This Argall, a young man with a stirring and adventurous life behind him
and before him, took his ship the indicated way. He made the voyag