Chapter II: A Discourse of Western Planting

Some peculiarities of sixteenth century maps 41 How Richard Hakluyt's career was determined 42 Strange adventures of a manuscript 43 Hakluyt's reasons for wishing to see English colonies planted in America 44 English trade with the Netherlands 45 Hakluyt thinks that America will presently afford as good a market as the Netherlands 46 Notion that England was getting to be over-peopled 46 The change from tillage to pasturage 46, 47 What Sir Thomas More thought about it 47 Growth of pauperism during the Tudor period 48 Development of English commercial and naval marine 49 Opposition to Hakluyt's schemes 49 The Queen's penuriousness 50 Beginnings of joint-stock companies 51 Raleigh's difficulties 52, 53 Christopher Newport captures the great Spanish carrack 53 Raleigh visits Guiana and explores the Orinoco River 54 Ambrosial nights at the Mermaid Tavern 54 Accession of James I 55 Henry, Earl of Southampton, Shakespeare's friend, sends Bartholomew Gosnold on an expedition 55 Gosnold reaches Buzzard's Bay in what he calls North Virginia, and is followed by Martin Pring and George Weymouth 55, 56 Performance of "Eastward Ho," a comedy by Chapman and Marston 56 Extracts from this comedy 57-59 Report of the Spanish ambassador Zuñiga to Philip III 59 First charter to the Virginia Company, 1606 60 "Supposed Sea of Verrazano" covering the larger part of the area now known as the United States 61 Northern and southern limits of Virginia 62 The twin joint-stock companies and the three zones 62, 63 [Pg xii] The three zones in American history 63 The kind of government designed for the two colonies 64 Some of the persons chiefly interested in the first colony known as the London Company 65-67 Some of the persons chiefly interested in the second colony known as the Plymouth Company 67, 68 Some other eminent persons who were interested in western planting 68-70 Expedition of the Plymouth Company and disastrous failure of the Popham Colony 70, 71 The London Company gets its expedition ready a little before Christmas and supplies it with a list of instructions 71, 72 Where to choose a site for a town 72 Precautions against a surprise by the Spaniards 73 Colonists must try to find the Pacific Ocean 73 And must not offend the natives or put much trust in them 74 The death and sickness of white men must be concealed from the Indians 75 It will be well to beware of woodland coverts, avoid malaria, and guard against desertion 75 The town should be carefully built with regular streets 75, 76 Colonists must not send home any discouraging news 76 What Spain thought about all this 76, 77 Christopher Newport starts with a little fleet for Virginia 77 A poet laureate's farewell blessing 77-79