"The Virgin Queen."

The expedition had set out from England in December of the year before
(1606). Among those who filled the three ships were men already veteran
explorers and others who had never been a day's voyage away from their
island home.

Among the former were Bartholomew Gosnold, who had first sailed for the
strange new world some five years before. He had landed far to the north
of the river where the ships now rested--on a colder, sterner shore.
There he had discovered and named Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard.
Christopher Newport too had sailed before in Western waters, but
further to the southward. He was an enemy of the Spaniard wherever he
found him, and had left a name of terror through the Spanish Main, for
had he not sacked four of their towns in the Indies and sunk twenty
Spanish galleons? And there was John Smith, who had fought so many
battles in his twenty-seven years that many a graybeard soldier could
not cap his tales of sieges, sword-play, imprisonment and marvelous
escapes. And many other men were there whom hope of gain or love of
adventure had brought across the Atlantic. They had listened to the
strange story of the lost colony on Roanoke Island, English men and
women killed doubtless by the Indians, though no sure word of their fate
was ever to be known, but fear of a like destiny had not deterred them
from coming.

There were many points to be considered: The settlement must be near the
coast, so that the ships from home would be able to reach it with as
little delay as possible, yet away from the coast in case of raids by
the Spaniards.