t a loss to conjecture their fate, left
in the island another small party of settlers and again set sail for
England.

The flattering description which was given of the country, by those
who had visited it, so pleased Queen Elizabeth, that she gave to it
the name of Virginia, as a memorial that it had been discovered in the
reign of a Virgin Queen.

Other inefficient attempts were afterwards made to colonize North
America during the reign of Elizabeth, but it was not 'till the year
1607, that a colony was permanently planted there. In December of the
preceding year a small vessel and two barks, under the command of
captain Newport, and having on board one hundred and five men,
destined to remain, left England. In April they were driven by a storm
into Chesapeak bay, and after a fruitless attempt to land at Cape
Henry, sailed up the Powhatan (since called James) River, and on the
13th of May 1607, debarked on the north side of the river at a place
to which they gave the name of Jamestown. From this period the country
continued in the occupancy of the whites, and remained subject to the
crown of Great Britain until the war of the revolution.

A new charter which was issued in 1609 grants to "the treasurer and
company of the adventurers, of the city of London for the first colony
of Virginia, in absolute property the lands extending from Point
Comfort along the sea coast two hundred miles to the northward, and
from the same point, along the sea coast two hundred miles to the
southward, and up into the land throughout from sea to sea, west and
north-west; and also all islands lying within one hundred miles of the
coast of both seas of the precinct aforesaid." Conflicting charters,
granted to other corporations, afterwards narrowed her limits; that
she has been since reduced to her present comparatively small extent
of territory, is attributable exclusively [6] to the almost suicidal
liberality of Virginia herself.

On the part of France, voyages for the discovery and colonization of
North America were nearly contemporaneous with those made by England
for like objects. As early as the year 1540, a commission was issued
by Francis 1st for the establishment of Canada.[2] In 1608, a French
fleet, under the command of Admiral Champlaine, arrived in the St.
Lawrence and founded the city of Quebec. So successful were her
attempts to colonize that province, that, notwithstanding its
proximity to the English colonies, and the f