emarks, 'England is more indebted for its
American possessions than to any man of that age,' used influential
arguments with various gentlemen of condition, to induce them to present
a petition to King James to grant them patents for the settlement of two
plantations on the coast of North America. This petition issued in the
concession of a charter, bearing date the 10th of April 1606, by which
the tract of country lying between the thirty-forth and forty-fifth
degrees of latitude was to be divided into nearly equal portions, between
two companies; that occupying the southern portion to be called the first
colony (subsequently named the London Company), and that occupying the
northern, to be called the second colony (subsequently named the Plymouth
Company). The patent also vested in each colony a right of property over
fifty miles of the land, extending along the coast each side of the point
of first occupation, and a hundred miles inland. The chief adventurers
in the London or South Virginian Company, with which as the first
settlement we now have principally to do, were Sir Thomas Gates, Sir
George Somers, Richard Hakluyt, and Edward Maria Wingfield. The command
of the expedition was committed to Captain Newport."

"By a strange caprice of the king, these instructions were sent carefully
sealed up and inclosed in a box, not to be opened till their arrival in
Virginia." Thus, destitute of a leader at the time when they most needed
one, they chose the gallant Captain John Smith, so well known from "the
romantic tale of his own life and Englishmen's lives, for his sake, being
saved once and again, by the personal devotion of the generous but
ill-requited Pocahontas." Under him the first permanent settlement of the
English in America was effected, and James Town built. In 1609 the
expedition under Lord Delaware set out; and "under his enlightened and
beneficent auspices the colony soon assumed a wholesome and active
appearance." Ill health, however, compelled him within two years to
return to England: but Sir Thomas Dale arriving soon after, with a fresh
supply of emigrants, the colony continued prosperous, its affairs
subsequently retrograded; and Lord Delawarr again went out in the year
1618,--but unfortunately only to die, near the bay which still bears his
name.

"Finally it was not till 1620, after so many abortive efforts had been
made both by Government and powerful bodies to form an establishment in
North Virgin