The Lake County times., 1907-05-04
HOW The FIRST
PIONEERS CAME
One Ship Was Wrecked and
Lost for a Year on Ber-
muda Island.
REACHED MAINLAND
And Found Colonists Had Founded
Jamestown-Story Told In
Shakespeare's ''Tenfert."

Members of THE LAKE COUNTY TIMES
party who will visit the jamestown
exposition as the guests of this paper
on a ten days trip. and their friends,
will be interested in the history i'm
mediately following the landing of the
first permanent English colony in
America
On a fine day in May, 1909, just two
years after the landing of the first
settlers at jamestown, Va, a fleet of
nine vessels. carrying 500 passengers
of all ages, men. women and children,
set sail from England. bound for the
new colony in Virginia, far away
across the western ocean.
The fleet was under the command
of Captain Christopher Newport and
on Newports vessel were Sir Thomas
Gates, the newly appointed lieutenant
governor of the jamestown colony, and
Sir George Somers, who as an admiral
was to assist in the government of the
colony and look after the navy" The
nine vessels made good headway and
nothing occurred to mar the pleasure
of the summer journey until they were
within eight days of their destination,
when they were caught in the tail of
a ana Ln6 sea venture
with Newport Gates and Somers and
$50 people aboard became separated
from the remainder of the fleet and,
after being torn and shaken by the
storm, sprung a leak. The plight of
the co1onists became grevious and
hope had we'll nigh been abandoned
when land was sighted and one the
summit of mighty wave their vessel
hafu fJa Ia1o IA
rocky shore and the storm beaten voy-
ayers aaaasa on one of the Bermuda
islands. which were then part of
Virginia although several hundred
miles off the Virginia coast
Here the colony lived nearly year,
as castaways. upon beautiful but un-
inhabitated island. Food, they had in
plenty fish, turtle and wild fowl and
stores from the ship. Huts were built
and the ships bell was brought to
land and used as call to worship,
morning and evening. There were mar
riages, two children were born and
six persons died, among them being
the wife of Admiral Somers. OF the
| two births. a boy and a girl, one was
manned Bermudas and the other Ber-
| muda Bermuda was the daughter of
u
the death of his wife in jamestown,
married Pocahontas, the Indian prin-
cess.
| Altogether the lot Of the castaways
was not an unpleasant one, but never
! theless they strained their eyes in the
direction of the Virginia coast to catch
/ a glimpse of sail that never came.
Almost a year went by and as the
chance of rescue seemed hopeless, two
small barks were constructed from
the cedars of the Bermuda forests and
the portions of the wreck of the Sea
Venture" and upon these which were
| named Patience and 'Deliverance"
the colonists embarked and on the
| cath day of May, 1910. they sailed into
Hampton Roads and passed along the
site of the Jamestown Ter Centennial
| Proceeding up the James river they
arrived at Jamestown and found that
their companions of the fleet which
had left England a year before reach
ed the colony many months previous,
never again expecting to see the pas
sengers of the Sea Venture"
The story of this shipwreck, as re-
ported in England, gave rise to many
literary productions. including Shakes
peare's Tempest" and the supersti-
tious tales which the castaways told
of the haunted islands of the vexed
Bermooths" upon which dwelt "in an
/ enchanted den, the furies which all
men did shun as perdition," gave the
scene of Prospero practicing his magic,
while witches" hovered in the air and
uncouth shapes appeared and vanished.