A TRUE AND SINCERE declaration of the purpose and ends of the Plantation begun in Virginia, of the degrees which it hath received; and means by which it hath been advanced: and the resolution and conclusion of his majesties Council of that Colony, for the constant and patient prosecution thereof, until by the mercies of GOD it shall Commonwealth.  
Set forth by the authority of the Governors and Councillors established for that Plantation.  A word spoken in due season, is like apples of Gold, with pictures of silver. Prover. 25. 11. Fear is nothing else, but a betraying of the succours which reason offereth. Wis. 17. 11. 
AT LONDON, Printed for I. Stepn, and are to be sold at the sign of the Crane in Paul's Churchyard. 1610.   

A true and sincere declaration of the purpose & ends of the Plantation begun in Virginia; of the degrees which it hath received; and means by which it hath been advanced: And the resolution and conclusion of his majesties Council of that Colony, for the constant and patient prosecution thereof, until by the mercies of God it shall retribute a fruitful harvest to the Kingdom of Heaven, and to this Commonwealth.  
IT IS RESERVED, AND only proper to Divine wisdom to foresee and ordain, both the Ends and Ways of every action. In humane prudence it is all can be required, to propose Religious and Noble, and feasible ends; & it can have no absolute assurance, and infallibleness in the Ways and Means, which are contingent, and various, perhaps equally reasonable, subject to unpresent circumstances, and doubtful events, which ever dignify, or beetray the councils, from whence they were derived. And the higher the quality, and nature, and more removed from ordinary action (such as this is, of which we discourse) the more perplexed and misty are the paths thereunto. Upon which Grounds, we purpose to deliver roundly and clearly, our ends and Ways to the hopeful Plantations begun in Virginia: and to examine the truth, and safety of both, to redeem ourselves and so Noble an action, from the imputations and aspersions, with which ignorant rumour, virulent envy, or impious subtlety, daily callumniateth our industries, and the success of it: wherein we doubt not, not only to satisfy every modest and well-affected heart of this Kingdom; but to excite and kindle the affections of the Incredulous, and lazy; and to cool and assuage the curiosity of the jealous, and suspicious; & to temper and convince, the malignity of the false, and treacherous. The Principal and Main Ends (out of which are easily derived to any mean understanding infinite less, & yet great ones) wear first to preach, & baptise into Christian Religion, and by propagation of that Gospel, to recover out of the arms of the Devil, a number of poor and miserable souls, wrapped up unto death, in almost invincible ignorance; to endeavour the fulfilling, and accomplishment of the number of the elect, which shall be gathered from out all corners of the earth; and to add our mite to the treasury of Heaven, that as we pray for the coming of the kingdom of glory, so to express in our actions, the same desire, if God have pleased, to use so weak instruments, to the ripening & consummation thereof. Secondly, to provide and build up for the public Honour and safety of our gracious King and his Estates (by the favour of our Superiors even in that care) some small Rampire of our own, in this opportune and general Summer of peace, by trans-planting the rankness and multitude of increase in our people; of which there is left no vent, but age; and evident danger that the number and infiniteness of them, will outgrow the matter, whereon to work for their life, and sustentation, and shall one infest and become a burden to another.  
But by this provision they may be seated as a Bulwark of defence, in a place of advantage, against a stranger enemy, who shall in great proportion grow rich in treasure, which was exhausted to a low estate; and may well endure an increase of his people long wasted with a continual war, and dispersed uses and losses of them: Both which cannot choose but threaten us, if we consider, and compare the ends, ambitions and practices, of our neighbour Countries, with our own.  
Lastly, the appearance and assurance of Private commodity to the particular undertakers, by recovering and possessing to themselves a fruitful land, from whence they may furnish and provide this Kingdom, with all such 
a Copper, Iron. Steel, Timber for ships, Yards, Masts. Cordage, Soap-ashes.  necessities, & defects under which we labour, and are now enforced to buy, and receive at the courtesy of other Princes, under the burden of great Customs, and heavy impositions, and at so high rates in traffic, by reason of the great waste of them from whence they are now derived, which threatens almost an impossibilty long to recover them, or at least such loss in exchange, as both the kingdom and Merchant, will be weary of the dearness and peril. These being the true, and essential ends of this Plantation, and corresponding to our first rule, of Religious, Noble, and Feasible, two of which are not questioned, the third easy, and demonstrable in the second limb, when we shall examine the causes of some disaster and distemper in the ways unto them: These being admitted of, for such as we pretend them to be, and standing yet firm and safe in themselves, we hope easily to justify the first part of our undertaking, and presume to aver, that in this branch there ariseth to no peaceable man, any scruple or doubt, to suspect the issue, or to withdraw his affection and assistance, or to Callumniat the Project, or our choice of it.  
In discussion and examination of the second part, which is the ways, by which we hope to arrive at these ends, and in which no humane reason can so provide but that many circumstances, and accidents, shall have as great a stroke in the event, as any Council shall have; we must first briefly deliver the course of this Plantation, from the Infancy thereof; and then let us equally consider, whether from so small a root, it hath not had a blessed and unexpected growth: Next, we will call before us all the objections, and confess ingenuously all the errors & discouragements, which seem to lie so heavy, as almost to press to death this brave and hopeful action; and relieve it, we doubt not, from that, which with reasonable men, can at most be but a pause, and no entire desertion, and restore it to the primary estate, lîfe, and reputation.  
In the year 1606. Captain Newport, with three ships, discovered the Bay of Chessiopeock in the height of thirty seven degrees of Northerly latitude, and landed a hundred persons of sundry qualities and Arts, in a River falling into it; and left them under the Government of a Precedent and Council, according to the authority derived from, and limited by his majesties Letters Patents. His return gave us no hope of any extraordinary Consequence, yet only upon report of the Navigablenesse of the River, pleasure, fertility, and situation of the land, to our projected ends, we freshly and cheerfully sent in the next year a like number: and yet also receiving nothing new, we had courage and constancy to relieve them the third time, with one hundred more: at which return experience of error in the equality of Governors, and some outrages, and follies committed by them, had a little shaken so tender a body; after Consultation and advise of all the inconveniences in these three supplies, and finding them to arise out of two roots, the form of Government, and length and danger of the passage, by the Southerly course of the indies: To encounter the first, we did resolve and obtain, to renew our Letters Patents, and to procure to ourselves, such ample and large privileges and powers, by which we were at liberty to reform and correct those already discovered, and to prevent such as in the future might thteaten us; and so, to set and furnish out under the Conduct of one able and absolute Governor, a large supply of five hundred men, with some number of families, of Wife, Children, and Servants, to take fast hold and root in that land, and this resolution was with much alacrity and confidence. And to meet the second Inconvenience, we did also prepare to set out, one small ship, for discovery of a shorter way, and to make trial of the Fishing within our Bay, and River.  
Hitherto, until the sending of this Auisall for experience, and Fleet for settling the Government, appears no distaste, nor despair; for every supply in some respect, was greater than other, and that in preparation greater than them all in every respect, and must in reason hold Anologie and proportion with our expectations and hopes at the dis-inboging of it.  
So that whatsoever wound or Palsy this Noble action hath gotten, & the sickness under which it seems to faint, must needs arise out of the success of these two: which we will now examine apart with all equity and clearness, and weigh, whither there be any such reason, to desist from the prosecution thereof, in rectified judgement; or to fall so low in our resolutions, and opinions of it, as rumour and ignorance doth pretend we do, or have cause to do.  
For the Discovery, Captain Argoll received our Commission under our Seal, with instruction (to avoid all danger of quarrel with the Subjects of the King of Spain) not to touch upon any of his Dominions actually possessed, or rightly entitled unto, and to shape his course free from the road of Pyrotts, that hang upon all straits and skirts of lands; and to attempt a direct and clear passage, by leaving the Canaries to the East, and from thence, to run in a straight Western Course, or some point near thereunto. And so to make an experience of the Winds and Currents which have affrighted all under-takers by the North. By which discovery, there would grow to us much security, and ease, and all occasion of offence removed, and we should husband and save a moiety of the charge in victual and freight, which was expended, and lost in the South earn passage.  
To these ends he set sail from Portsmouth the fifth day of May; and shaping his course Southsouthwest to the height of thirty degrees, leaving the Canaries a hundred leagues to the East, he found the winds large, and so took his course direct West, & did never turn nearer the South: & being in the longitude of the Barmudos he found the wind a little scant upon him, yet so, that on the thirteenth of july he recovered our harbour: and in trial found no currant, nor any thing else which should deter us from this way.  
He made his journey in nine weeks, and of that, was becalmed fourteen days: whereupon he hath divers times since his return publicly avowed, and undertaken to make this passage within seven weeks: and that the winds in all this course, are as variable, as at other places, and no apparent inconvenience in the way.  
So that the main end of this advise hath succeeded almost beyond our hopes; The second for fishing, proved so plentiful, especially of Sturgeon, 
He that went for that purpose died in the way.  of which sort he could have loaded many ships, if he had had, some man of skill to pickle and prepare it for keeping, whereof he brought sufficient testimony both of the flesh and Caviary, that no discreet man will question the truth of it, so it appears clearly that from hence there can be derived no cause to suspect or desist from our first ends, but so contrary, that in this project both our purposes and ways were happy and successful even to our desires. But from this Ship ariseth a rumour of the necessity and distress our people were found in, for want of victual: of which, though the noise have exceeded the truth, yet we do confess a great part of it; But can lay aside the cause and fault from the design, truly and home upon the misgovernment of the Commanders, by dissension and ambition among themselves, and upon the Idleness and bestial sloth, of the common sort, who were active in nothing but adhering to factions and parts, even to their own ruin, like men almost desperate of all supply, so conscious, and guilty they were to themselves of their own demerit, and laziness. But so soon as Captain Argoll arrived among them, whose presence and example gave new assurance of our cares, and new life to their endeavours, by fishing only in few days, they were all recovered, grown hearty, able, and ready to undertake every action: So that if it be considered that without industry no land is sufficient to the Inhabitants: and that the trade to which they trusted, betrayed them to lose the opportunity of seed-time, and so to rust and wear out themselves: for the Naturals withdrew from all commerce and traffic with them, cunningly making a war upon them, which they felt not, who durst no otherway appear an enemy: And they being at division among themselves, and without warrant from hence, could not resolve to enforce that, which might have preserved them, and which in such a necessity is most lawful to do, every thing returning from civil Propryety to Natural, and Primary Community: Lastly if it be remembered, that this Extremity in which they were now relieved, (which is as happy in the presage of Gods future blessing as in his present providence and mercy) was but an effect of that, we did foresee in the first Government, and for which the form was changed, and the new in project, and therefore cannot be objected as any just exception to the success of this, but a consequent Considered, and digested in the former: It is then I say evident, that in all the progress of this discovery, or any thing accidental to it, there cannot be racked nor pressed out any confession, either of error in the ends, or miscarriadges in the ways unto them.  
To the establishment of a government, such as should meet with all the revealed inconveniences; we gave our Commission to an able & worthy Gentleman, Sr. Thomas Gates, whom we did nominat and appoint sole and absolute Governor of that Colony, under divers limitations, & instructions expressed in writing: and with him we sent Sir George Summers' Admiral, and Captain Newport Vice-admiral of Virginia, and divers other persons of rank and quality, in seven ships, and two pinnaces, with several Commissions sealed, successively to take place one after another, considering the mortality, and uncertainty of humane life, and these to be divided into several ships.  
Our fleet weighed anchor from Falmouth the eight of june, the wind being fair, they shaped a course for the height of the Canaries; within few days sail, the Governor calling a Council of all the Captains, Masters and Pilots, it was resolved, they should run southerly unto the Tropicque, and from thence bear away West: (which error will take up all the objections of sickness, the sun being then in it, was the cause of all the infection, and disease of our men) At this consultation, was delivered an instruction under seal, to every Master, with a provision what course should be taken, if the fleet were separated; which was that if the winds scanted, or were contrary, or that any lost sight of the Admiral, they should steer away for the West Indies, and make the Baruada an Island to the North of Dominico, and there to have their Rendezvous, and to stay seven days one for another.  
In this height and resolution, short of the West-Indies 150. leagues, on S. james day a terrible tempest over-took them, and lasted in extremity 48. hours, which scattered the whole fleet, and wherein some of them spent their masts, and others were much distressed: Within three days four of the fleet met in consort, and hearing no news of their Admiral, and the winds returning large for Virginia, and they wearied and beaten, it was resolved among them, to bear right away for our Bay, and to decline their commission, which within few days they made, and arrived in the King's River, on the eleventh of August: In this passage, fourteen degrees to the southward of Virginia, ran no current with them, which should hinder or make difficult that in Proposition by the Northwest. Within six days after came in one, and within five, another of our fleet, the Masters of both having fallen upon the same Council, by the opportunity of the wind, not to seek the Baruada, but to steer away for our Harbour, which doubtless the Admiral himself did not observe, but obeyed his own directions, and is the true or probable cause of his being cast so far into suspicion; where perhaps bound in with wind, perhaps enforced to stay the Masting or mending of some what in his ship, torn or lost in this tempest, we doubt not, but by the mercy of God he is safe, with the Pinnace which attended him, and shall both, or are by this time arrived at our Colony.  
Not long after these, another of our small Pinnaces, yet also unaccounted for, recovered the River alone; and now seven of our Fleet being in, they landed in health near four hundred persons; who being put a shore without their Governor, or any order from him, (all the Commissioners and principal persons being aboard him,) no man would acknowledge a superior: nor could from this headless and unbridled multitude, be any thing expected, but disorder and ryott, nor any council prevent, or foresee, the success of these ways.  
Now if we compare the disasters of this supply, with the main ends, it will appear they have weakened none of them, but that they still remain safe and feasible, for any thing ariseth in objection out of them. For that these accidents and contingencies, were ever to be expected, and a resolution was to be put on at first, armed against the probability of them. Who can avoid the hand of God, or dispute with him? Is he fit to undertake any great action, whose courage is shaken and dissolved with one storm? Who knows, whither he that disposed of our hearts to so good beginnings, be now pleased to try our constancy and perseverance, and to discern between the ends of our desires, whither Piety or Covetousness carried us swifter? For if the first were the principal scope, hence ariseth nothing to infirm or make that impossible: But as it falleth out in business of greatest consequence, sometime the noblest ends, upon which we are most intense, are furthest removed from the first steps made unto them, and must by lesser and meaner Bee approached; so Plantation of religion being the main and chief purpose, admits many things of less and secondary consequence of necessity to be done before it: for an error or miscarriage in one of which, to desist or staggar, were to betray our principal end cowardly and faintly, and to draw upon ourselves just scorn and reprehension.  
Whither we shall discourse out of reason, or example; that every action hath Proportional difficulties, to the greatness thereof, such as must necessarily be admitted from the first conception, and such as even in the passage, dignify both the actors and the work, if with prudence they foresee all the hazards, and with Patence and Constancy, meet and encounter them. It must either be confessed, that it was folly from the Origen and first step, not to have been prepared for such as these; or that it is none now, not to quit it, for them, but the greatest of all to say, who would have expected this? If we cast our eye upon the Spanish Conquest of the indies, how abundant their stories are of Fleets, Battles, & Armies lost: eighteen upon the attempt of Guiana, and more than seventy in both the Indies, and yet with how indefatigable industry, and prosperous fate, they have pursued and vanquished all these, their many Armies maintained in Europe, can witness, with too lamentable an experience.  
If we compare the beginnings, they were meaner than ours, and subject to all the same, and much more uncertainty, If the Religion, which shall crown the success, it admits no Controversy nor Comparison, among those, to whom we write: if the Commodities, they, which we have in assurance and knowledge, are of more necessity, and those in hope equally rich and abundant.  
But to come home to our purpose: that which seems to dishearten or shake our first grounds in this suppyle; ariseth from two principal sources, of which, one was cause of the other; First, the Tempest: and can any man expect an answer for that? next, the absence of the Governor, an effect of the former, for the loss of him is in suspense, and much reason of his safety against some doubt; and the hand of GOD reacheth all the Earth. Now if these two only be the main crosses, which staggar the feasablenesse, consider that of three voyadges before, no man miscarried in the way, and that all other depend on these, as the misgovernment of our men, their Idleness, their want, and the empty return of out fleet, wherein if we recover and correct the Cause, we vanquish all things consequent unto it, and yet in appearance, if with these we compare the advantages which we have gotten, in the Shortness and security of the passage, in the intelligence of some of our Nation planted by Sir Water Raleigh (yet a live) within fifty mile of our fort, who can open the womb and bowels of this country: as is testified by two of our colony sent out to seek them, who, (though denied by the Slavages speech with them) found Crosses, & letters, the Characters & assured Testimonies of Christians newly cut in the barks of trees: 
With every werowan or king, is buried all his wealth, for they believe that he that dieth richest liveth in another world happiest.  if we consider the assuredness of the commodities, Wines, Pitch, Soap-ashes, Timber for all uses, Iron, Steele, Copper Dies, Cordage, Silkegrasse, Pearl, which, (though discoulered and softened by fire, for want of skill in the Naturals to pierce them) was found in great abundance in the house of their sepultures.  
If we consider I say, and compare these certainties and truths, as less ends to strengthen, and produce our first and principal, with those casual and accidental misadventures and errors, which have befallen us, before every equal and resolved heart, they will vanish and become smoke and air, and not only keep upright, but raise our spirits and affections, and reconcile our reasons to our desires.  
If any object the difficulty of keeping that we shall possess; if this discourse could admit a disputation of it, it should easily appear, that our confidence against any enemy, is built upon solid and substantial reason: And to give some taste thereof; Our enemies must be either the Natives, or Strangers; Against the first the war would be as easy as the argument. For the second; a few men may dispute the possession of any place wherein they are fortified, where the enemy is so much a stranger, as that he must discover and fight at once: upon all disadvantages of straits, Fords, and Woods; and where he can never march with horse, nor with ordinance without them; nor can abide to stay many months, when all his relief must be had from his ships, which cannot long supply a number competent to besiege: Neither is it possible to block us up, by planting between us and the Sea, the Rivers being so broad, and so many outlets from them into the Bay. Besides the protection and privilege of Subjects to so Potent a King, whom any wise estate willbe wary to affront or provoke.  
We doubt not, but by examination of what is said, our first ends are yet safe, and the ways unto them in no sort so difficult, as should more affright and deter us now, then at the first meditation of them. But if these be not sufficient to satisfy, and encourage, every honest affection we will not so desist, but urge the necessity of a present supply, to redeem the defects, and misadventures of the last: that seeing all the dangers and sicknesses have sprung from want of effecting our purpose of Sending an able Governor: we have concluded and resolved to set forth the Right Honour: the Lord de la War by the last of january, and to give him all the liberties and privileges, which we have power to derive upon him, and to furnish him with all necessaries fit for his quality, person, and the business which he shall undergo, and so by God's grace to persist until we have made perfect our good and happy beginnings.  
If these shall not yet suffice to resolution, that a Baron and Peer of this kingdom (whose Honour nor Fortune needs not any desperate medicine) one of so approved courage, temper, and experience, shall expose himself for the common-good to all these hazards and pains which we fear and safely talk off, 
As a door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the sluggard upon his bed.  that sit idle at home; & bear a great part upon his own charge, and revive and quicken the whole by his example, constancy, and resolution? If you have no implicit faith nor trust in us, 
Prou 26. 14.  that govern this business; to whom there must be some advantage granted in our practice, and intelligence (especially in this) above ordinary persons; that we have no will nor intent, to betray our poor Countrymen, nor to burden our own consciences, nor to draw so just scorn, and reproach upon our reputations? If our knowledge and constant persuasion, of the fruitfulness and wholesomeness of this Land, and of the recompense it shall in time bring to this Kingdom, and to every particular member of this plantation, be of no authority? If this seem not to you some argument, that every man returned is desirous to go back to that which they account and call their own home: and do upon their lives justify, which else they wilfully betray; that if the Government be settled, and a supply of victual for one year sent, so that they may have a seed and Harvest before them, they will never need nor expect to charge us with more expense, for any thing of necessity to man's life; but they will have leisure and power, to retribute with infinite advantage all the cost bestowed upon them: If all these be yet too weak to confirm the doubtful, or awake the drowsy, then let us come nearer, and arise, from their reasons and affections to their Souls, and Consciences: remember that what was at first but of Conveniency, and for Honour, is now become a case of necessity, and piety: let them consider, that they have promised to adventure and not performed it, that they have encouraged & exposed many of Honourable birth, and which is of more consequence 600. of our brethren by our common mother the Church, Christians of one faith, and one Baptism to a miserable and un-evitable death, Let not any man flatter himself, that it concerns not him: for he that forsakes another, whom he may safely relieve, is as guilty of his death as he that can swim, and forsakes himself by refusing, is of his own.  
Let every man look inward, and disperse that cloud of avarice, which darkeneth his spiritual sight, and he will find there, that when he shall appear before the Tribunal of Heaven, it shall be questioned him what he hath done? Hath he fed and clothed the hungry and naked? It shall be required, what he hath done for the advancement of that Gospel which hath saved him; and for the relief of his maker's Image, whom he was bound to save: O let there be a virtuous emulation between us and the Church of Rome, in her own Glory, and Treasury of good works! and let us turn all our contentions upon the common enemy of the Name of CHRIST. How far hath she sent out her Apostles and through how glorious dangers? How is it become a mark of Honour to her faith, to have converted Nations, and an obloquy cast upon us, that we having the better Vine, should have worse dressers and husbanders of it?  
If Piety, Honour, Easiness, Profit, nor Conscience, cannot provoke, and excite (for to all these we have applied our discourse.) Then let us turn from hearts of Stone and Iron, and pray unto that merciful and tender God, who is both easy & glad to be entreated, that it would please him to bless and water these feeble beginnings, and that as he is wonderful in all his works, so to nourish this grain of seed, that it may spread till all people of the earth admire the greatness, and seek the shades and fruit thereof: That by so faint and weak endeavours his great Counsels may be brought forth, and his secret purposes to light, to our endless comforts and the infinite Glory of his Sacred Name. Amen.  
TO render a more particular satisfaction and account of our care, in providing to attend the Right Honourable the Lord de la War, in this concluded and present supply, men of most use and necessity, to the foundation of a Commonwealth; And to avoid both the scandal and peril, of accepting idle and wicked persons; such as shame, or fear compels into this action; and such as are the weeds and rankness of this land; who being the surfeit, of an able, healthy, and composed body; must needs be the poison of one so tender, feeble, and yet unformed: And to divulge and declare to all men, what kind of persons, as well for their religion and conversations, as Faculties, Arts, and trades, we purpose to accept of: we have thought it convenient to pronounce that for the first provision, we will receive no man, that cannot bring or render some good testimony of his religion to God, and civil manners and behaviour to his neighbour, with whom he hath lived; and for the second, we have set down in a Table annexed, the proportion, and number we will entertain in every necessary Art, upon proof and assurance, that every man shall be able to perform that which he doth undertake, whereby such as are requisite to us, may have knowledge and preparation, to offer themselves, and we shall be ready to give honest entertainment and content, and to recompense with extraordinary reward, every sit and industrious person, respectively to his pains and quality.   

The Table of such as are required to this Plantation.  

Four honest and learned Ministers.  
2. Surgeons.  
2. Druggist's.  
10. Iron men for the Furnace and Hammer.  
2. Armourers.  
2. Gun-founders.  
6. blacksmiths.  
10. sawyer's.  
6. Carpenters.  
6. Shipwrights.  
6. Gardeners.  
4. Turner's.  
4. Brick-makers.  
2. Tilemakers.  
10. Fishermen.  
6. Fowlers.  
4. Sturgeon dressers, and preservers of the Caneary.  
2. Salt-makers.  
6. Cooper's.  
2. Collermakers for draft.  
2. Plow-wrights.  
4. Rope-makers.  
6. Vine dressers.  
2. Press makers.  
2. joiners.  
2. Sope-ashe makers.  
4. Pitch Boilers.  
2. Mineral men.  
2. Planters of Sugar Cane.  
2. Silk dressers.  
2. Pearl Drillers.  
2. Bakers.  
2. Brewers.  
2. Colliers.   
FINIS.