twelve kine, twenty goats, and all things
needful for the colony." Gates followed in May with other ships, three
hundred colonists, and much cattle.

For the next few years Dale becomes, in effect, ruler of Virginia. He
did much for the colony, and therefore, in that far past that is not
so distant either, much for the United States--a man of note, and worth
considering.

Dale had seen many years of service in the Low Countries. He was still
in Holland when the summons came to cross the ocean in the service of
the Virginia Company. On the recommendation of Henry, Prince of Wales,
the States-General of the United Netherlands consented "that Captain
Thomas Dale (destined by the King of Great Britain to be employed in
Virginia in his Majesty's service) may absent himself from his company
for the space of three years, and that his said company shall remain
meanwhile vacant, to be resumed by him if he think proper."

This man had a soldier's way with him and an iron will. For five years
in Virginia he exhibited a certain stern efficiency which was perhaps
the best support and medicine that could have been devised. At the end
of that time, leaving Virginia, he did not return to the Dutch service,
but became Admiral of the fleet of the English East India Company, thus
passing from one huge historic mercantile company to another. With six
ships he sailed for India. Near Java, the English and the Dutch having
chosen to quarrel, he had with a Dutch fleet "a cruel, bloody fight."
Later, when peace was restored, the East India Company would have given
him command of an allied fleet of English and Dutch ships, the objective
being trade along the coast of Malabar and an attempt to open commerce
with the Chinese. But Sir Thomas Dale was opening commerce with a
vaster, hidden land, for at Masulipatam he died. "Whose valor," says his
epitaph, "having shined in the Westerne, was set in the Easterne India."

But now in Maytime of 1611 Dale was in Virginian waters. By this day,
beside the main settlement of Jamestown, there were at Cape Henry and
Point Comfort small forts garrisoned with meager companies of men. Dale
made pause at these, setting matters in order, and then, proceeding up
the river, he came to Jamestown and found the people gathered to receive
him. Presently he writes home to the Company a letter that gives a view
of the place and its needs. Any number of things must be done, requiring
continuous and hard work, "as, namel