Our first century . rse by going far out of theirway after the foolish fashion of that time. Instead ofsaiUng straight across the ocean, they went down to theCanary Islands, and thence by way of the West Indies,thus wasting time and needlessly consuming their sup-plies. These were blunders of course, but they weresmall blunders in comparison with others that were madein those times in the conduct of every enterprize of mo-ment. Instead of organizing the expedition before it set out 21 22 OUR FIRST CENTURY and placing it from the first under the control of the menwho were to govern the colony,
Our first century . rse by going far out of theirway after the foolish fashion of that time. Instead ofsaiUng straight across the ocean, they went down to theCanary Islands, and thence by way of the West Indies,thus wasting time and needlessly consuming their sup-plies. These were blunders of course, but they weresmall blunders in comparison with others that were madein those times in the conduct of every enterprize of mo-ment. Instead of organizing the expedition before it set out 21 22 OUR FIRST CENTURY and placing it from the first under the control of the menwho were to govern the colony, the company in Londonsent the motley crew to sea with a sealed box which con-tained the namesof the counselorsor governors, butwhich they wereunder orders notto open untilthey should landin absolutelynothing could bedone during thelong voyage inthe way of Or-ganizing the col-ony, assigningeach man to hisduty, or makingpreparations forsuccess afterlanding. Even the cap-tains of the shipsthat carried the. First settlement in Virginia. company, did not know on what part of the coast theywere to land. They had a vague notion of Roanoke A COMPANY OF INCAPABLES 23 Island—the locality of Raleighs unsuccessful efforts—asa proper destination, but they sailed along up the coast,missing that part of it, and at last passing into the mouthof Chesapeake Bay. Thence they pushed their way past Old Point Com-fort, through Hampton Roads, and up the James River, It was spring now and all nature was abloom. Thesupplies of food which the ships carried had been veryseriously depleted during the voyage, and it would takea very long time for the ships to go back to England andbring over a fresh supply. Obviously the thing now to be done was to go ashoresomewhere as quickly as possible and plant a food cropbefore it should be too late. The Indians had corn andpeas and beans and squashes and pumpkins growing inall their fields along the rivers, and the sight of thosefields should at on
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