Not content with giving this statement of their affairs, in the month of January or February 160910, they issued out a paper, which bears the title of

"A PUBLICATION by the Counsell of Virginia, touching the plantation there.

"Howsoever it came to pass by God's appointment that governes all things, that the fleet of eight shippes lately sent to Virginea, by meanes the Admirall, wherein were shipped the chief Governours, Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Sommers, and Captain Newport, by tempestuous windes and forcible current were driven so farre to the westward, that they could not in so convenient time recover Cape Henrie, and the port in Virginea, as by returne of the same fleete to answere the expectation of the Adventurers, in some measure;

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By occasion whereof some few of those unruly youths sent thither, (beeing of most leaud and bad condition, and such as no ground can hold,) for want of good directions there were suffered by stealth to get aboard the shippes returning thence, and are come for England againe, giving out in all places where they come, (to colour their own misbehaviour and the cause of their returne with some pretence,) most vile and scandalous reports, both of the country it self, and of the cariage of the business there:

quoted, that it was published either in Dec. 1609, or before Jan. 31, 1609-10.

"Which hath also given occasion that sundry false rumours, and despightful speeches, have beene devised and given out by men that seeme of better sort, being such as lie at home, and doe gladly take all occasions to cheere them selves with the prevention of happy success in any action of publicke good, disgracing both the action and actors of such honourable enterprises, as whereof they neither know nor understand the true intents and honest ends;

"Which howsoever for a time it may deterre and keepe backe the hands and helpe of many well-disposed men, yet men of wisdome and better resolution doe well conceive and know that these devices infused into the tongues and heades of such devisors, by the father of untruths, doe serve for nothing else but as a cloke to cover the wretched and leaud prancks of the one sort, and the stupidity and backwardness of the other, to advance any commendable action that taxeth their purse, and tendeth not wholly to their own advantage.

"And therefore those of his Majesties Counsell in this honourable plantation, the Lords, Knights, Gentlemen, and Merchants, interessed therein, rightly considering that as in all other good services, so in this, much losse and detriment may many waies arise and grow to the due meanes and manner of proceeding, which yet no way toucheth nor empeacheth the action it self, nor the ends of it, which do still remaine entire and safe upon the same grounds of those manifold christian du

ties, whereon it was first resolved, are so farre from yielding or giving way to any hindrance or impeachment of their cheerfull going on, that many of them, both honourable and worshipfull, have given their hands and subscribed to contribute againe and againe to new supplies, if need require.

"And further they doe instantly prepare and make ready a certain number of good shippes with all necessaries, for the Right Honourable Lord De la Ware, who intendeth, (God assisting) to be ready with all expedition to second the aforesaid Generals, WHICH WE DOUBT NOT ARE LONG SINCE

SAFELY ARRIVED AT THEIR WISHED PORT IN VIRGINIA.

"And for that former experience hath too dearely taught, how much and manie waies it hurteth, to suffer parents to disbourden them selves of lascivious sonnes, masters of bad servants, and wives of ill husbands, and soe to clogge the businesse with such an idle crue as did thrust them selves in the last voiage, that will rather starve for hunger, then lay their hands to any labour:

"It is therefore resolved, that no such unnecessary person shall now be accepted, but onely such sufficient, honest, and good artificers, as

Physicians for the body, and learned Divines to instruct the Colony, and to teach the infidels to worship the true God: of which so many as will repaire to the house of Sir Thomas Smith, Treasurer of the Company, to proffer their service in this action, before the number be full, and will put in good suretie to be readie to attend the said Honourable Lord in the voyage, shall be entertained with those reasonable and good conditions, as shall answer and be agreeable to each man's sufficiency in his several profession.*"

In April or May, 1610, Lord De la Ware, with three ships, sailed for Virginia, and arrived at James-Town on the 9th of June. Here first he learned, that Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers were not lost, as had been supposed in England, the two knights having arrived at Virginia about a fortnight before him, in two cedar vessels that they had built at Bermuda, from which they sailed on the 10th of May, after having spent about nine months on that island. Shortly afterwards,

* Imprinted, at London, by Thomas Hareland, for William Welby, and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Church-yard, at the signe of the Swanne, 1610 [probably Jan. 1609-10,] a halfsheet.

(June 19, 1610 *,) the new Governour sent Sir George Somers for a fresh supply of victuals to Bermuda, where he died, Nov. 9, 1610, as appears by an inquisition taken at Dorchester on the 26th of July, 1611†.

During a great part of the year 1610, the fate of Somers and Gates was not known in England; but the latter, having been sent home by Lord Delaware, arrived there in August or September, 1610; and before the end of that year, in order to quiet the minds of those who were concerned in this adventure, and to assure the publick of the safety of Sir George Somers, and those who had accompanied him in the SEA-ADVENTURE, the Council of Virginia published a Narrative of the disasters which had befallen the fleet that had been sent out in 1609, from materials furnished by Sir Thomas Gates.

Previously however to its appearance, one Jourdan, who probably returned from Virginia in the

* Mr. Strachey's letter, dated James-Town, July 7, 1610. MSS. Harl. 7009. art. 12. fol. 35.

+ Escaet. 10 Jac. p. 2. n. 127.

He died of too great fatigue and a surfeit of pork, which Bermuda so abundantly supplied. See the Proceedings of the English Colonye in Virginia, by W. S. 1612, p. 106; and Howe's continuation of Stowe's Chronicle. His body was brought to England in his own cedar vessel, and landed at Lyme, in Dorsetshire, and he was buried in the church or cemetery of Whitchurch Canonicorum, on the 4th of June, 1611; as appears by an entry in the Register of that parish, which the Rev. Mr. Tucker, in the year 1802, obligingly examined, at my request.