THE RELATION OF the Right Honourable the Lord Delawarre, Lord Governor and Captain General of the Colony, planted in VIRGINEA. LONDON ΒΆ Printed by William Hall, for William Welbie, dwelling in Paul's Churchyard at the Sign of the Swan. 1611. A SHORT RElation made by the Lord Delawarre, to the Lords and others of the Counsel of Virginea, touching his unexpected return home, and afterwards delivered to the general Assembly of the said Company, at a Court holden the twenty five of june, 1611. Published by authority of the said Counsel. My Lords, etc. BEing now by accident returned from my Charge at Virginea, contrary either to my own desire, or other men's expectations, who spare not to censure me, in point of duty, and to discourse and question the reason, though they apprehend not the true cause of my return, I am forced, (out of willingness to satisfy every man) to deliver unto your Lordships, and the rest of this Assembly, briefly, (but truly) in what state I have lived, ever since my arrival to the Colony; what hath been the just occasion of my sudden departure thence; and in what terms I have left the same: The rather because I perceive, that since my coming into England, such a coldness and irresolution is bred, in many of the Adventurers, that some of them seek to withdraw those payments, which they have subscribed towards the Charge of the Plantation, and by which that Action must be supported and maintained; making this my return, the colour of their needless backwardness and unjust protraction. Which, that you may the better understand, I must inform your Lordships, that presently after my arrival in james Town, I was welcomed by a hot and violent Ague, which held me a time, till by the advice of my Physician, Doctor Laurence Bohun, (by blood letting) I was recovered, as in my first Letters by Sir Thomas Gates I have informed you. That disease had not long left me, till (within three weeks after I had gotten a little strength) I began to be distempered with other grievous sicknesses, which successively & severally assailed me: for besides a relapse into the former disease, which with much more violence held me more than a month, and brought me to great weakness, the Flux surprised me, and kept me many days; then the Cramp assaulted my weak body, with strong pains; & afterwards the Gout (with which I had heretofore been sometime troubled) afflicted me in such sort, that making my body through weakness unable to stir, or to use any manner of exercise, drew upon me the disease called the Scurvy; which though in others it be a sickness of slothfulness, yet was in me an effect of weakness, which never left me, till I was upon the point to leave the world. These several maladies and calamities, I am the more desirous to particularize unto your Lordships (although they were too notorious to the whole Colony) lest any man should misdeem that under the general name and common excuse of sickness, I went about to cloak either sloth, or fear, or any other base apprehension, unworthy the high and Honourable charge, which you had entrusted to my Fidelity. In these extremities I resolved to consult my friends, who (finding Nature spent in me, and my body almost consumed, my pains likewise daily increasing) gave me advise to prefer a hopeful recovery, before an assured ruin, which must necessarily have ensued, had I lived, but twenty days longer, in Virginia: wanting at that instant, both food and Physic, fit to remedy such extraordinary diseases, and restore that strength so desperately decayed. Whereupon, after a long consultation held, I resolved by general consent and persuasion, to ship myself for Mevis, an Island in the West Indies, famous for wholesome Baths, there to try what help the Heavenly Providence would afford me, by the benefit of the hot Bath: But GOD, who guideth all things, according to his good will and pleasure, so provided, that after we had sailed an hundred Leagues, we met with Southerly winds which forced me to change my purpose, (my body being altogether unable to endure the tediousness of a long voyage) and so stern my course for the Western Islands, which I no sooner recovered, than I found help for my health, and my sickness assuaged, by means of fresh diet, and especially of Oranges and Lemons, an undoubted remedy and medicine for that disease, which lastly, and so long, had afflicted me: which ease as soon as I found, I resolved (although my body remained still feeble and weak, to return back to my charge in Virginia again, but I was advised not to hazard myself before I had perfectly recovered my strength, which by counsel I was persuaded to seek in the natural Air of my Country, and so I came for England. In which Accident, I doubt not but men of reason, and of judgement will imagine, there would more danger and prejudice have happened by my death there, than I hope can do by my return In the next place, I am to give account in what estate I left the Colony for government in my absence. It may please your Lordships therefore to understand, that upon my departure thence, I made choice of Captain George Pearcie, (a Gentleman of honour and resolution, and of no small experience in that place, to remain Deputy Governor, until the coming of the Marshal Sir Thomas Dale, whose Commission was likewise to be determined, upon the arrival of Sir Thomas Gates, according to the intent and order of your Lordships, and the Council here. The number of men I left there, were upward of two hundred, the most in health, and provided of at least ten months victuals, in their storehouse, (which is daily issued unto them) besides other helps in the Country, lately found out by Captain Argoll by trading with petty Kings in those parts, who for a small return of a piece of Iron, Copper, etc. have consented to truck great quantities of Corn, and willingly embrace the intercourse of Traffic, showing unto our people certain signs of amity and affection. And for the better strengthening and securing of the Colony, in the time of my weakness there, I took order for the building of three several Forts, two of which are seated near Point Comfort, to which adjoineth a large Circuit of ground, open, and fit for Corn: the third Fort is at the Falls, upon an Island environed also with Corn ground. These are not all manned, for I wanted the commodity of Boats, having but two, and one Barge, in all the Country, which hath been cause that our fishing hath been (in some sort) hindered, for want of those provisions, which easily will be remedied when we can gain sufficient men to be employed about those businesses, which in Virginia I found not: but since meeting with Sir Thomas Gates at the Cows near Portsmouth (to whom I gave a particular account of all my proceedings, and of the present estate of the Colony as I left it) I understood those wants are supplied in his Fleet. The Country is wonderful fertile and very rich, and makes good whatsoever heretofore hath been reported of it, the cattle already there, are much increased, and thrive exceedingly with the pasture of that Country: The Kine all this last Winter, though the ground was covered most with Snow, and the season sharp, lived without other feeding then the grass they found, with which they prospered well, and many of them ready to fall with Calf: Milk being a great nourishment and refreshing to our people, serving also (in occasion) as well for Physic as for food, so that it is no way to be doubted, but when it shall please God that Sir Thomas Dale, and Sir Thomas Gates, shall arrive in Virginia with their extraordinary supply of one hundred Kine, and two hundred Swine, besides store of all manner of other provisions for the sustenance and maintenance of the Colony, there will appear that success in the Action as shall give no man cause of distrust that hath already adventured, but encourage every good mind to further so worthy a work, as will redound both to the Glory of GOD, to the Credit of our Nation, and to the Comfort of all those that have been Instruments in the furthering of it. The last discovery, during my continual sickness, was by Captain Argoll, who hath found a trade with Patamack (a King as great as Powhatan, who still remains our enemy, though not able to do us hurt.) This is in a goodly River called Patomack, upon the borders whereof there are grown the goodliest Trees for Masts, that may be found elsewhere in the World: Hemp better then English, growing wild in abundance: Mines of Antimony and Lead, There is also found without our Bay to the Northward an excellent fishing Bank for Cod, and Ling, as good as can be eaten, and of a kind that will keep a whole year, in Ships hold, with little care; a trial whereof I now have brought over with me. Other Islands there are upon our Coasts, that do promise rich merchandise, and will further exceedingly the establishing of the Plantation, by supply of many helps, and will speedily afford a return of many worthy Commodities. I have left much ground in part manured to receive Corn, having caused it the last Winter to be sowed for roots, with which our people were greatly relieved. There are many Vines planted in divers places, and do prosper well, there is no want of any thing, if the action can be upheld with constancy and resolution. Lastly, concerning myself, and my course, though the World may imagine that this Country and Climate, will (by that which I have suffered beyond any other of that Plantation) ill agree, with the state of my body, yet I am so far from shrinking or giving over this honourable enterprise, as that I am willing and ready to lay all I am worth upon the adventure of the Action, rather than so Honourable a work should fail, and to return with all the convenient expedition I may, beseeching your Lordships, and the rest, not only to excuse my former wants, happened by the Almighty hand: but to second my resolutions with your friendly endeavours: that both the State may receive Honour, yourselves Profit, and I future Comfort, by being employed (though but as a weak Instrument) in so great an Action. And thus having plainly, truly, and briefly, delivered the cause of my return, with the state of our affairs, as we now stand, I hope every worthy and indifferent hearer, will by comparing my present resolution of return, with the necessity of my coming home, rest satisfied with this true and short Declaration. FINIS.