He was a navigator of some renown, principally
derived from a voyage of destruction against the Spaniards in 1592; but
he was a vain and affected character, little calculated for decisive and
manly action. Instructions were prepared, but the King, with his
accustomed profundity of folly, directed that they should be sealed in a
box, and not opened until the voyagers arrived upon the coasts of
Virginia. In the vessels there embarked, beyond the regular crews, one
hundred five persons, to form the settlement. And it does not seem
extravagant to assert that Virginia has felt, through all her subsequent
history, the influence of these first settlers in giving a peculiar bias
to her population. Besides the six gentlemen intended for the council,
and Mr. Robert Hunt, a minister of the gospel, we find the names of more
than fifty cavaliers, who are carefully reckoned in the shipping list as
"gentlemen," and who were better fitted for the adventures of the
drawing-room than for the rude scenes of the American forest.
Disappointed in hope and reduced in fortune, these restless wanderers
sought the New World with desire for exciting adventure and speedy
wealth. Among them was George Percy, a member of a noble family and
brother to the Earl of Northumberland. In this singular band we note but
eleven professed laborers, four carpenters, one blacksmith, one
bricklayer, and one mason: but we are not surprised to find a barber to
aid in making the toilet of the "gentlemen," a tailor to decorate their
persons, and a drummer to contribute to their martial aspirations!
Thus prepared with the elements of a refined colony, Newport set sail
from Blackwall, December 19, 1606.
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