all his budget of news, forgetting for the time being,
most like, that he was not speaking to his equal, and thus it was
I learned what were Captain Newport's instructions from the London
Company.
CAPTAIN NEWPORT'S INSTRUCTIONS
He was ordered, if you please, not to return to England without bringing
back a lump of gold, exploring the passageway to the South Sea, or
finding some of Sir Walter Raleigh's lost colony, of which I will tell
you later.
But whether he did the one or the other, he had been commanded to crown
as a king, Powhatan, and had brought with him mock jewels and red robes
for such a purpose.
To find a lump of gold, after he had brought to England a shipload of
yellow sand!
To crown Powhatan king, when, to our sorrow, he was already showing
himself far more of a king than was pleasing or well for our town of
James!
Forgetting I was but a lad, and had no right to put blame on the
shoulders of my leaders and betters, or even to address Master Hunt
as if I were a man grown, I cried out against the foolishness of those
people in London for whom we were striving to build up a city, saying
very much that had better been left unsaid, until the good preacher
cried with a laugh:
"We can forgive them almost anything, Dicky Mutton, since they have made
our Captain Smith the head of the government in this land of Virginia."
And now I will tell you, as Master Hunt told me, the story of this
lost colony of Roanoke, which the London Company had commanded Captain
Newport to find.
You must know that English people had lived in this land of Virginia
before we came here in 1606, and while it does not concern us of
Jamestown, except as we are interested in knowing the fate of our
countrymen, it should be set down, lest we so far forget as to say that
those of us who have built this village are the first settlers in the
land.
THE STORY OF ROANOKE
Twenty-one years before we sailed from London, Sir Walter Raleigh sent
out a fleet of seven ships, carrying one hundred and seven persons, to
Virginia, and Master Ralph Lane was named as the governor. They landed
on Roanoke Island; but because the Indians threatened them, and because
just at that time when they were most frightened, Sir Francis Drake came
by with his fleet, they all went home, not daring to stay any longer.
Two years after that, which is to say nineteen years before we of
Jamestown came here, Sir Walter Raleigh sent over on
|