Madrid: "They have latelie had severall Consultations about our Plantation
in Virginia. The resolution is--That it must be removed, but they thinke
it fitt to suspend the execution of it, . . . for that they are in hope
that it will fall of itselfe."

The Spanish hope seemed, at this time, not at all without foundation.
Members of the Virginia Company had formed the Somers Islands Company named
for Somers the Admiral--and had planted a small colony in Bermuda where
the Sea Adventure had been wrecked. Here were fair, fertile islands without
Indians, and without the diseases that seemed to rise, no man knew how,
from the marshes along those lower reaches of the great river James in
Virginia. Young though it was, the new plantation "prospereth better than
that of Virginia, and giveth greater incouragement to prosecute yt." In
England there arose, from some concerned, the cry to Give up Virginia that
has proved a project awry! As Gates was once about to remove thence every
living man, so truly they might "now removed to these more hopeful
islands!" The Spanish Ambassador is found writing to the Spanish King:
"Thus they are here discouraged . . . on account of the heavy expenses they
have incurred, and the disappointment, that there is no passage from there
to the South Sea . . . nor mines of gold or silver." This, be it noted, was
before tobacco was discovered to be an economic treasure.

The Elizabeth from London reached Virginia in May, 1613. It brought to the
colony news of Bermuda, and incidentally of that new notion brewing in the
mind of some of the Company. When the Elizabeth, after a month in Virginia,
turned homeward, she carried a vigorous letter from Dale, the High Marshal,
to Sir Thomas Smith, Treasurer of the Company.

"Let me tell you all at home [writes Dale] this one thing, and I pray
remember it; if you give over this country and loose it, you, with your