The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-05-14


follows:
This spot reminds me, IN Its remote
moss. It's loneliness, Its Quiet simplicity,
of tho spot where another famous
landing took place nearly fifteen hun.
dred years ago, the landing Of tho
flsst English settlers from GERMANY,
on the coast OF Kent, at Ebb's Fleet,
between Sandwich and Ramsgate. Tho
tide OF life has flowed away from both
spots They are consecratod to history,
to the memory of founders who planted
the seed that has grown into n tree
whose branches spread over three
great divisions Of tho earth. II Is we'll
these spots should remain almost as
they were when those founders first
saw them.
The Landing.
On this day. three hundred years ago.
two small ships and aspinnace, coming
from England by way Of the Canary
Islands and the West Indies, anchored
here and landed their passengers
about 1870 persons In number, upon
this island. They came from London
under charter from the King, which
claimed for the crown of England the
whole OF North America between the
thirty fourth and forty-ftfth degrees
Of latitude. being the territory then
called Virginia. In the London which
these settlers had Just left Shakespeare
was then living. Some OF them may
have seen him, with perhaps Ben Jonson
beside him, watching the first perform
ance OF Hamlet" four or five years be-
fore Francis Bacon was living, though
not yet lord chancellor. Some of them
may have heard him arguing cases in
the courts. No one had yet suggested
that he was the author OF the dramas
commonly attributed to Shakespeare.
Milton was born the next year; Sir
Walter Raleigh was man Of fifty
forty nine; Pym youth of seven
teen: John Hampden, boy OF seven;
Oliver Cromwell boy Of eight The
land whence the emigrants came was
one fitted to give birth to great and
noble enterprises. Measured by what
it was doing for the world, it was
great England, with great poets great
thinkers, and strong men, who did
great deeds. Never before and never
since has such constellation OF bril-
liant names glittered at the same time
In the English sky. But measured by
population England was small coun-
| try. with only some five million In
habitants. Ireland was still but half
conquered, and Scotland, though her
| King had Just inherited the English
| throne. was distinct and not too
little nation, though her statesmen
and sailors had not long before won
immortal fame by their defeat of the
sinvincible Armada. And the settlers
were few indeed to venture on the task
of occupying the vast continent on
which they were landing. How feeble
a folk must they have seemed to the
men of Spain, who held not only
! Mexico and the immense territories
| north Mayicn 1cn ha 1,o1 la
/ OF South America and ell the Antilles
But God had chosen the weak things
! Of the world to confound the things
which are mighty. and the things
/. which are. not to bring to nought
4 things that are. The majestic empire
4 of Spain was fated to decline and
dissolve. awhile from this spot the
4 inforced by accesslOns from other Euro
pean peoples, was to spread out first
to the Alleghanies and then to the
\ Mississippi, and then to the Rocky
Mountains, and at last to the far-of
shores OF the Pacific. The oak OF
English dominion on the contineS. Of
& North America lay hidden in the acorr
4 that was planted on this island in the
4 James River. just as tho germ OF
I be found In the charter that had beer
4 granted by Queen Elizabeth to thu
East India Company seven years be
I fore this very settlement here.
i Notable Event.
4 The landing at Jamestown was one
of the great events in the lllstorJ O.
!, the world-an event to be compare,
I for its momentous consequences Sc n
J the overthrow of the Persian eml 4
y by Alexander: with the destruction &
: Carthage by Rome; with the conqps.
) of Gau by Clovis: with the taking q
, Constantinople by the Turks-on,
: might almost say with the discover,
| OF America by Columbus. But did an,
5 idea Of the magnitude of this even
rise in the minds of the little ban,
; OF settlers when they read their roya
: charter on board ship before landing
when they held their first religion
service, and set to the building o
r their fort, called after the King. jaime
Town" and began to sow their field
with wheat? There Is nothing to shov
!, that they saw far ahead. No MAJ
! among them had the splendid imagina
!, ton Of Sir Walter Raleigh. Many
settlement tried before upon tn
American coasts had failed, since til
S long forgotten landing Of Eric tn
Red, and they had other things thai
the distant future to think Of 70
the Spanish power to the south o
thcm-though then nomlnally at peace
was Jealous of their intrusion, an
: the Indian tribes around them wer
y suspicious and hostile. But we ma
q say OF them that they and those VIII
: sent them forth from England. ha
g the true spirit Of practical men VIII
saw the opportunity which o. ney
I country offered to q growing people
y They were of the stuff which make
: good settlers, and they did that wllic
:. the needs Of the time required. TIL
= little band had many troubles-trouble
: from disease, from hunger, from dis
: sensions. from an ill-planned schem
n for their government. But they per
: severed. and though few of the frs
). ~ Fl