many Ilands, as Mounserot and an Iland called Saint Christopher, both
uninhabited; about two a clocke in the afternoone wee anchored at the Ile
of Mevis. There the Captaine landed all his men . . . . We incamped
ourselves on this Ile six days . . . . The tenth day [April] we set saile
and disimboged out of the West Indies and bare our course Northerly ....
The six and twentieth day of Aprill, about foure a clocke in the morning,
wee descried the Land of Virginia."*

* Percy's "Discourse in Purchas, His Pilgrims," vol. IV, p. 1684.
Also given in Brown's "Genesis of the United States", vol. I, p. 152.


During the long months of this voyage, cramped in the three ships, these
men, most of them young and of the hot-blooded, physically adventurous
sort, had time to develop strong likings and dislikings. The hundred and
twenty split into opposed camps. The several groups nursed all manner of
jealousies. Accusations flew between like shuttlecocks. The sealed box that
they carried proved a manner of Eve's apple. All knew that seven on board
were councilors and rulers, with one of the number President, but they knew
not which were the seven. Smith says that this uncertainty wrought much
mischief, each man of note suggesting to himself, "I shall be
President--or, at least, Councilor!" The ships became cursed with a pest of
factions. A prime quarrel arose between John Smith and Edward-Maria
Wingfield, two whose temperaments seem to have been poles apart. There
arose a "scandalous report, that Smith meant to reach Virginia only to
usurp the Government, murder the Council, and proclaim himself King." The
bickering deepened into forthright quarrel, with at last the expected
explosion. Smith was arrested, was put in irons, and first saw Virginia as
a prisoner.