Meanwhile Newport's little fleet was half way on its voyage. It started down the Thames from Blackwall on the 19th of December, but by reason of "unprosperous winds" it was obliged to keep its moorings "all in the Downs," as in the ballad of "Black-eyed Susan," until New Year's Day, 1607, when it finally got under way. A farewell blessing was wafted to them in Michael Drayton's quaint stanzas:[35]—
"You brave heroic minds,
Worthy your country's name,
That honour still pursue,
Go and subdue,
Whilst loitering hinds
Lurk here at home with shame.
"Britons, you stay too long,
Quickly aboard bestow you,
And with a merry gale
Swell your stretched sail,
With vows as strong
As the winds that blow you.
"Your course securely steer,
West and by South forth keep;
Rocks, lee shores, nor shoals,
When Æolus scowls,
You need not fear,
So absolute the deep.
"And cheerfully at sea
Success you still entice,
To get the pearl and gold,
And ours to hold
Virginia,
Earth's only paradise!
"Where nature hath in store
Fowl, venison, and fish;
And the fruitfull'st soil
Without your toil,
Three harvests more.
All greater than you wish.
"And the ambitious vine
Crowns with his purple mass
The cedar reaching high
To kiss the sky,
The cypress, pine,
And useful sassafras.
"To whose, the Golden Age
Still nature's laws doth give;
No other cares that tend,
But them to defend
From winter's age,
That long there doth not live.
"When as the luscious smell
Of that delicious land,
Above the seas that flows
The clear wind throws
Your hearts to swell,
Approaching the dear strand.
"In kenning of the shore
(Thanks to God first given)
O you, the happiest men
Be frolic then;
Let cannons roar,
Frighting the wide heaven.