and subsequently relieved their necessities when they were
about to perish; his shotted hammock was swung at the last in
the long surges of the Indian Seas.
    Bartholomew Gosnold, that "worthy and religious gentle-
man, "bold discoverer and explorer of both coasts of Virginia,
was laid in an unmarked grave somewhere there where the
waters have cut into the shore, and his heroic dust has long
since been swept away by the waters of the James, like that
of so many another brave and devoted soldier and mariner.
Years afterwards, Captain John Smith declared that he had
not one foot of ground in Virginia, "not the very house he had
builded; nor the land he had digged with his own hands."
    But though these men and their followers are not known
save to a few historical students, their work is written large
upon the History of the World. They laid the foundation for
what we call North America. To use their own term, "they
broke the ice and beat the paths," and the rest was compara-
tively easy.
    From their work, and out of their contentions, for there
was contention enough, came the enlarged Charters of 1609,
1612 and 1618, which gave and guaranteed to all Virginians and
their posterity the rights, privileges and immunities of English-
born citizens forever.
    Previous to this time Colonists who left their country did
not take with them across seas even those rights and privileges
that they had at home; the new country was under Martial
Law, with all who were therein. But when these English
settlers came they insisted on bringing with them, and they
brought with them, the rights of free-born Englishmen. And
this was the first great service which this first Colony of
England rendered to mankind.
    If one were summoned to make good the claim that God
had set His stamp here, he might point to the course of history
which in its wonderful development led up through the strange
chances and changes of the Sixteenth Century to the final and
abiding settlement of the Continent by the Saxon Race with its



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