IV 



The Seeding of New England 



THERE was no shaking John Smith's faith in America. 

 No sooner were the wounds caused by that explosion of 

 gunpowder at Powhatan's garden healed, than he was limping 

 about London, calling on the Directors of the Virginia Com- 

 pany to send to Jamestown no more remittance men from the 

 ranks of the landed gentry, but skilled workmen; millwrights, 

 joiners, blacksmiths, gardeners. 



On his own, turning his back on the Company, he was fit- 

 ting out an expedition to explore the coasts of Northern Vir- 

 ginia, to which he was to give the name of "New England." 



There had been a settlement on the Kennebec River at the 

 time Jamestown was founded. After a year, the survivors of 

 the colony had trailed forlornly home to England with tales 

 of blizzards, wolves, savages, poor soil and few natural re- 

 sources. "Northern Virginia" had a black eye. 



John Smith pooh-poohed all this. What if the winters were 

 long and cold and the summers too short to grow pineapples, 

 indigo, nutmegs and coffee? (Later, settlers in Massachusetts 

 were to try all of these crops. ) What if the brief summer sea- 

 son presented a difficulty in raising sufficient food to supply a 

 settlement through a year? Were there not the fisheries off the 

 coast to supplement the crops? And were not these fisheries in 

 themselves worth developing as a source of revenue in England? 



He pointed out to all who would hear that the Hollanders, 

 by fishing and selling their catch to the Germans, "are made 

 so mighty strong and rich as no state but Venice of twice 

 their magnitude, is so well furnished with so many fair cities, 

 goodly towns. . . . And never could the Spaniard with all 



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