trading voyage; and in 1605 George Weymouth was sent out, visited the
Kennebec River in Maine, and brought back a good report of the country.

THE VIRGINIA CHARTER OF 1606.--Peace had now been made with Spain; England
had not been forced to stop her attempts to colonize in America; the
favorable reports of Gosnold, Pring, and Weymouth led to the belief that
colonies could be successfully planted; and in 1606 King James I chartered
two commercial companies to colonize Virginia, as the Atlantic seaboard
region was called.

To the first or London Company was granted the right to plant a colony
anywhere along the coast between 34° and 41° of north latitude (between
Cape Fear River and the Hudson). To the second or Plymouth Company was
given the right to plant a colony anywhere between 38° and 45° (between
the Potomac River and the Bay of Fundy). Each company was to have a tract
of land one hundred miles square--fifty miles along the coast each way
from the first settlement and one hundred miles inland; and to prevent
overlapping, it was provided that the company last to settle should not
locate within one hundred miles of the other company's settlement.

[Illustration: VIRGINIA.]

THE COLONY ON THE KENNEBEC.--The charter having been granted, each company
set about securing emigrants. To get them was not difficult, for in
England at that day there were many people whose condition was so
desperate that they were glad to seek a new home beyond the sea. [16] In a
few months, therefore, the Plymouth Company sent out its first party of
colonists; but the ship was seized by the Spaniards. The next year (1607)
the company sent out one hundred or more settlers in two ships. They
landed in August at the mouth of the Kennebec River, and built a fort, a