The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1870-04-06

absence of four months. The littl,
island upon which Captain Gosnolc
built his house has often been yisiteC
by students of history, to see if an,
traces remained of this first attempt 4
: colonize New England. Jeremy Bel
KNAPP, Boston clergyman and author
OF high repute in his day, who exam
ined the island in 1897, says of it:
: "The protecting hand of Nature
has reserved this iavorite spot to her.
self. Its fertility and its productions
are exactly the same as in Gosnoldu
time; excepting the wood, of which
there is none. Every species of what
: he calls rubbish, with strawberries,
peas, tansics, and other fruits AID
herbs, appear in rich abundance, un-
moiested by any animal but aquatic
birds. We had the supreme satisfac-
lion to find the cellar of Gosnolds
store-house, the stones of which were
evidently taken from the neighboriug
beach, the rocks of the islet being less
movable, and lying in lodges"
Within few years past the spot
has been several times identified by
tourists. All that coast, during the
! early summer, the season when Cap
tain Gosnold and his tour gentlemen
journalists, as they are styled, saw it,
is enchanting beyond expression. Il
seems as if nature wished to atone,
during that brief season of delight, for
the long, cold, and tempestuous win
ter to which the region is subject
The abundance of vegetation conceals
from view the extensive ledges OF
granite, and the great boulders scat
tered about where they were left ages
ago by the drifting Ice. There Is
singular protusion, from the middle of
june all through July, of wild roses,
particularly in those parts of the coast,
like Cape Ann, which seem almost
entirely composed of granite. There
is also a wonderful abundance and
variety of sweet herbs and wild berries.
The ground in some places is red with
the ripening Strawberries; and in 9TH
ers there are extensive and impenetra-
Bile thickets of blackberry and rasp-
berry bushes. Where there is but q
handful of soil in the cra7jces Of the
rocks, there spring upon many vigOre
Gus whortleberry bushes, covered in
the season with fruit. And when
Gosnold's men saw that coast, in June,
1902, and for many years after, the
whole region, except where the rock
was bare, and where the Indians had
cleared few cornfelds, was covered
with the magnificent trees, tall, straight
and massive, of the primeval forest.
The beauty OF the country produced ,
upon Gosnold and the four gentlemen
who accompanied him, profound and
lasting impression. All of them wrote
such narratives of their expedition as
we should expect from intelligent men
who had seen for the first time the
islands about Martha's Vineyard in
the month of June. With one voice
they exclaimed, as il were, in the
hearing of their countrymen, at will
be to England sin and shame if We
do not 60 forth and possess the sweet
est and noblest land upon which the
sun shines!" There was also Captain
Gosnold's undeniable cargo of sassa-
fras, cedar, and furs, and the tale he
brought of the abundance Of Goldfish
upon the coast-all capable OF being
into English gold and Span
sh silver. Gosnold's failure, there
fore, awoke in England general en-
thusiasm for colonizing America. which
never slumbered until colonies were
planted. No summer again passed
without at least one expedition sailing
from England to the coast of North
America for exploration or trade.
Gosnold was one of the company Of
who, in 1907, settled at
in Virginia. I passed
he spot few days ago, in the steam
boat that plies between Norfolk and
1t is broad, fat penin-
ula Of two thousand acres, raised only
our or five feet above the level Of the
vide, yellow James; and it is separat.
ID from the main land by allow swami
~ neck. TO this day, "a / was told
~ Virginian who lives near, the
'laoe is unhealthy, and the water not
he best Here it was that Captain
Iosnold met his death, in the summer
# 1907. 1t was a summer of misery,
Iorror. During the heats of July
nd August, there were days when,
ut of the hundred colonists, there
Iere not five men well enough to
Mount guard, and when, in the course
f a single night, as many as four Of
hem died. Before the cool winds Of
cptember brought relief, fifty of them
ad perished; one of whom was
ne worthy Bartholomew Gosnold.
trough whose zeal and perseverance
le expedition had been set on foot.
In all Virginia the colonists could
ardly have found worse site; and
Othing now remains of jamestown
lceps part of the wall of its ancient
lurch =