The English Colonization of America During the Seventeenth Century (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. CAPTAIN SAMUEL AKGALL, DEPUTY-GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA. first presiding officer of the London Company was -- Sir Thomas Smith. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth he was knighted, and in 1604 sent on an embassy to Russia. No one so quick as he engaged in projects calculated to develop the commerce of England, and he was recognised as the ruling spirit of the Muscovia, Greenland, East India, and Virginia Companies, all of which for years held their meetings at his elegant and capacious mansion in Philpot Lane.1 It was a measure of policy as well as a source of pleasure for him to patronize those who were writing histories of the brave men who had sailed over distant seas and discovered new lands, one of whom was Purchas, the editor of the Pilgrimage, and also of the five folio volumes called the Pilgrims. With all his commercial energy and foresight, and the flattering position he held among the courtiers of King James, he was yet ready to stoop to mean and dishonourable acts to fill his coffers. While acting as the 1 Purchas's Pilgrimage, 747. 60 ARGALL NAMES DELA WARE BA Y. Governor of the London Company, he used his position for self-aggrandizement; and in 1609, before the expedition of Gates and Somers could arrive, he despatched one of his relatives and favourites?Samuel Argall, described by an old chronicler as "an ingenious, active, and forward young gentleman"?in a fast-sailing vessel, of which Robert Tindall was master, with a cargo of wine and provisions,1 to be traded on private account.2 When Argall returned, he was?in 1610?appointed to conduct Lord Delaware to Jamestown; and on the 19th of June followed in another vessel after Sir George Somers, who was bound to the Bermudas for fish and wild hogs. Losing Somers in a dangerous fog abo...