woods; others, more energetic, seized a vessel and became pirates. In
short, such scenes were enacted as have been lately beheld in India and in
Cuba. The severity of the famine may be judged from the fact that out of
five hundred persons at the beginning of the six months, only sixty
diseased and moribund wretches survived. And this in a land which had been
described by its discoverers as a very Garden of Eden, flowing with milk
and honey.

Meanwhile, great things were preparing in England. Smith's warning that
America must be regarded and treated as an agricultural and industrial
community, and not as a treasure-box, had borne fruit; and a new charter
was applied for, which should more adequately satisfy the true conditions.
It was granted in 1609; Lord Salisbury was at the head of the promoters,
and with him were associated many hundreds of the lords, commoners and
merchants of England. The land assigned to them was a strip four hundred
miles in breadth north and south of Old Point Comfort, and across to the
Pacific, together with all islands lying within a hundred miles of shore.
In respect of administrative matters, the tendency of the new charter was
toward a freer arrangement; in especial, the company was to exercise the
powers heretofore lodged with the king, and the supreme council was to be
chosen by the shareholders. The governor was the appointee of the
corporation, and his powers were large and under conditions almost
absolute. The liberties of the emigrants themselves were not specifically
enlarged, but they were at least emancipated from the paternal solicitude
of the stingy and self-complacent pettifogger who graced the English
throne.

Lord Delaware was chosen governor; and Newport, Sir Thomas Gates and Sir
George Somers were the commissioners who were to conduct the affairs of
the colony until his arrival. A large number of emigrants, many of whom