New-York tribune., 1906-12-19
THE AuESTOWN TERCENTENARY.

The Jamestown tarcentenary celebration
| properly begins to-day. The exposition near
jamestown and it's attendant ceremonies will
nor occur until next year, which is fitting
! saaInp that it was not until April %, 1907
that the Virginian colonlsts reached the
| Canas Of the Chesapeake, and May 13 that
| tbev landed at jamestown. But it was on De-
| cember 10. 1906 that Captain Newports little
ho4ilIa started down the Thames from Black
wall on the memorable voyage which was to
result In the planting Of the first permanent
English colony on the American continent. 1t
was some time ago suggested that this ami
versary should be marked by dressing ship
on every vessel of the American and British
navies The day is certainly worth some pass
ing commemoratiOn.
For the sailing of the Susan Constant, Cap
tain CHRISTOPHER Newport the Godspeed Cap
tain Bartholomew Gosnold, and the Discovery,
Captain John Radcliffe. was not less signi1l-
cant and Influential than the sailing OF the
MayfOwer a few years afterward. 1t was the
serving of notice TO all the world that Eng
land meant TO contest the settlement of the
western world with Spain and France. 1t
was so regarded by the King of Spain, who
forthwith began, with his counsellors to con-
sder what steps might be best taken TO thwart
or to defeat it. Less than fifty years had
passed since a French Protestant colony q
little further down the coast had been savagely
exterminated by Spain. OF course several
things had happened since Menendez's time
the destruction of the "Inyincible" Armada, for
example. Still, it was recognized that there
was no little danger of similar attempt by
the Spaniards and. indeed, the sealed orders
under which the cOlonists sailed expressly pre-
scrbed precautions against their being sur
prised as the French were by Melindus' (Nfe-
nendez) Also it was through a stormy win
ter sea" that the three ships sailed, and on a
long and troubled voyage. AS for the hard
ships and losses Of the coonists they were
comparable with the worst that any ever suf-
fered. AS for the personnel Of the company,
it needs only to be recalled that it comprised
John Smith. Finally, as for the outcome of
the venture 1t was company of Virginian col
onIsts, setting forth from the neighborhood Of
jamestown, that little more than a century
later opened the doors to the conquest Of the
continent by the Anglo-Saxon race.
Those three ships vanished more than two
centuries ago. The early settlement OF James
town long since sank into ruinous decay. The
poet laureate Draytons quaint stanZas on the
occasion are unfamiliar save to the antiquary.
Who without prompting or research could
place the lines?
You brave heroic minds,
Worthy your country's name.
That honor still pursue.
Go and Subdue,
Whilst lettering kinds
Lurk here at home with shame
Thy voyages attend,
Industrious Hakluyt,
Whose reading shall infiame
Men 10 seek fame
And much commend
To after times thy wit
But we must Justly reckon that voyage, which
began three hundred years ago to-day. among
the memorable voyages Of the world, and epoch
making IN the history Of the British Empire
and of the America which was then to be.