Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1907-04-26
The Exposition Which Opens Today.

Omaha. 81. Louis and Portland cele-
brate our great national progress and
achievement. 1t is rather to be
classed with that held at Chicago in
1888 as observing a notable anniversary
of the beginnings of civilization upon
our shores. 1t was at daybreak on the
morning of April &c. 1907. over CEN
fury after Columbus had discovered
the New World, that three shiploads of
English colonists sighted Cape Henry
on the Virginia coast Their arrival
was by no means the first attempt at
English colonization Whereabouts. Over
20 years before, Sir Walter Raleigh had
sent OUT expeditions which established
q colony on Roanoke Island but which.
though three times re-established and
re-enforced was doomed to failure and
determination. Explorers under Ra-
leigh had named the region Virginia
in honor of Elizabeth. but the war be-
tween England and Spain prevented the
Roanoke settlement from becoming
permanent.
And 50. while these English arrivals
in 1907 were not the first to touch upon
those shores, il was their settlement at
jamestown that became the first per-
manent English colony in America and
from it we date English supremacy on
this continent. The newcomers wan
dered about Chesapeake Bay for a
couple of weeks and then sailed up the
or town. on May IA. This was the
first permanent English settlement in
America, and has not unfitly been char
acteriZed as the cradle of the nation.
Despite the Indians, lack of food.
malarial epid-mics, and other SWellers
of mortality statistics peculiar To pio-
necr life in those days, the colony stuck
il out. and by the year 1920 the Original
l0t citizens had been increased TO 1000
During the first winter SO of the l0l
died or We're killed. Their loss was
made up by the arrival of 100 new re-
crnits from the old world. After the
winter of l609-l0. known as the starry
ing time, of 800 persons landed in the
colony but $50 remained alive
In 1913 one John Rolfe contracted
his famous marriage with POcahontas,
daughter of neighbOring Indian chief,
and the dusky heroine of the immortal
John Smith episode, and from this time
the colony was apparently never in
danger of abandonment. Here it was
that in the year of our Lord 1919 a
shipl"ad of respectable maidens" was
auctioned off To the cOloniStS, and here
also. in the same year, by the arrival
of Dutch vessel with some "negars"
for sale, was laid the foundation for
that brutal traffic that 240 years later
came 50 near wreckng q great re-
public.
The exposition at jamestown. which
will formally open its doors to the pub
lie today, commentaries not alone
the date on which the SontherIy cape
Of the great Chesapeake inlet was
sighted, nor that n few days later,
when jamestown itself was founded,
but the whole period of struggle by
these progenit"rs Of the present in
habitants of the oountry-the period
when they We're fighting 10 gain foot
hold for the Anglo Saxon in America
Jamestown has long been place for
patriotic pilgrimages, although the
less familiar to the world than the
story of the colony established about a
dozen years later at Plymouth by
those sturdy Puritans who laid the
foundation stones of New England's
greatness and power. There is no
need at this time 10 discuss the differ
ence between the pioneers of New
England and those Of Virginia and
their different influences upon the
J.
tans came in search Of religious free
dom and with the avowed purpose of
establishing permanent homes for
themselves and their descendants. The
pioneers of Virginia. on the other hand.
were largely treasure hunters and lazy
and lawless in disposition, but this
class soon gave place to true colOniSts
vino made the settlement permanent,
men and women who We're real heroes
of history and 10 whose endurance and
courage we are largely indebted for the
fact that English and not Spanish in
fluences became predominant in North
America.
From a historical point of view,
therefore. the jamestown exposition is
one Of the most interesting celebrations
ever held in this country. and in its
sentimental and patriotic appeal is