THE COLONY ON THE JAMES.—Meanwhile another band of Englishmen (one hundred and forty-three in number) had been sent out by the London Company to found a colony in what is now Virginia. They set sail in December, 1606, in three ships under Captain Newport, and in April, 1607, reached the entrance of Chesapeake Bay. Sailing westward across the bay, the ships entered a river which was named the James in honor of the king, and on the bank of this river the party landed and founded Jamestown (map, p. 44). With this event began the permanent occupation of American soil by Englishmen. At this time, more than a hundred years after the voyages of Columbus, the only other European settlers on the Atlantic coast of the United States were the Spaniards in Florida.
[Illustration: RUINS AT JAMESTOWN. Church tower as it looks to-day.]
SUMMARY
1. The Huguenots tried to found French colonies on the coast of South Carolina (1562) and of Florida (1564); but both attempts failed.
2. In 1565 all America, save Brazil, either was in Spanish hands, or was claimed by Spain and not yet occupied.
3. During the next twenty years English sailors began to fight Spaniards, Drake sailed around the globe, Frobisher explored the far north, and Sir Humphrey Gilbert attempted to plant a colony in Newfoundland.
4. Gilbert's half-brother Raleigh then took up the work of colonization, but his attempts to plant a colony at Roanoke Island ended in failure.
5. The attacks of English buccaneers on the American colonies of Spain led to a war (1585-1604), in which the most memorable event was the defeat of the Spanish Armada.
6. After the war two companies were chartered to plant English colonies in America. The Plymouth Company's colony was a failure, but in 1607 the London Company founded Jamestown.