Or in New England claim his birth,
From the old pilgrims there,
He is a bastard, if he dare to mock
Old Jamestown's shrine, or Plymouth's famous rock.'
James Kirke Paulding.
Although it was late in December, the sun was shining almost as warm as at a Dec 21, 1848 the close of May. While finishing my sketch, I was glad to take shelter from its beams in the shadow of the sycamore. Here, upon this curiously-wrought slab, clasped by the roots of the forest anak, let us sit a while and ponder the early chronicles of Virginia. **
I have mentioned, in the Introduction to this work, the efforts made by the English, Spanish, and French adventurers to plant colonies in the New World, and their failures. The idea was not abandoned; and the public mind, particularly in England, was much occupied with the visions of new and opulent empires beyond the ocean, of which a few glimpses had appeared. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a step-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, published a hypothetical treatise on a northwest passage to the East Indies, which attracted great attention, and exerted much influence favorable to colonizing expeditions. He obtained b June 11, 1578 a patent from Queen Elizabeth (b) to colonize such parts of North America as were already possessed by any of her allies. Raleigh, a young, ardent, and ambitious student at Oxford, had just completed his studies, and was about to engage in a military life in France. He was induced by his step-brother to join with him in an expedition to America. They sailed early in 1579, but never reached our Continent, because, as was alleged, their little squadron was broken up in a conflict with a Spanish fleet, when they returned to England. Gilbert's patent was limited, and he made great efforts to plant a colony before it should expire. He and Raleigh equipped a new squadron in 1583. ***
* Wirt's Letters of a British Spy, page 128.
** The slab referred to was a blue stone about four inches thick. The roots of the sycamore were so firmly entwined around it that no church-yard thief could take it away. It bore the date of 1608. The remainder of the inscription was so broken and defaced that I could not decipher a name. This is probably the oldest tomb-stone extant in the United States. Vandalism has been at work in that old grave-yard as elsewhere. Almost every monument has a fragment broken from it. A small piece, with some letters upon it, had been recently broken from one, and was left lying in the grass. This I brought away with me, not, however, without a sense of being an "accessory after the fact" in an act of sacrilege.
** The names of the vessels were Raleigh, Swalloir, Hind, Delight, and Squirrel. The Raleigh went but a lew leagues from Portsmouth, and returned.