For scandall cannot doe us wrong,
God will not let us fall.
Let England knowe our willingnesse,
For that our worke is good,
WE HOPE TO PLANT A NATION
WHERE NONE BEFORE HATH STOOD."

* The Virginia Company.



CHAPTER VI. SIR THOMAS DALE

In a rebuilded Jamestown, Lord De La Warr, of "approved courage, temper and
experience," held for a short interval dignified, seigneurial sway, while
his restless associates adventured far and wide. Sir George Somers sailed
back to the Bermudas to gather a cargo of the wild swine of those woods,
but illness seized him there, and he died among the beautiful islands. That
Captain Samuel Argall who had traversed for the Company the short road from
the Canaries took up Smith's fallen mantle and carried on the work of
exploration. It was he who found, and named for the Lord Governor, Delaware
Bay. He went up the Potomac and traded for corn; rescued an English boy
from the Indians; had brushes with the savages. In the autumn back to
England with a string of ships went that tried and tested seafarer
Christopher Newport. Virginia wanted many things, and chiefly that the
Virginia Company should excuse defect and remember promise. So Gates sailed
with Newport to make true report and guide exertion. Six months passed, and
the Lord Governor himself fell ill and must home to England. So away he,
too, went and for seven years until his death ruled from that distance
through a deputy governor. De La Warr was a man of note and worth, old