The Susan Constant, which would serve as the flagship of the small fleet, was a 100-ton bark of 55.2 feet long by 22.8 feet width by 9.5 feet depth. It was purchased by the company from the merchant firm of Colthrust, Dapper and Wheatley. Boarding it were 71 bodies, both settlers and crewmen, including Admiral Christopher Newport, commander of the little fleet, and the famed Captain John Smith. Also among the 71 was one John Dods, aged about seventeen or eighteen, and described as a laborer in John Smith's list of The First Settlers, and John Laydon, aged about 25, a carpenter, who would become the first English groom to marry in Virginia nearly two years after his departure from England. The Godspeed, commanded by Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, was a 40-ton pinnance of "flyboat" design, and carried 52 individuals, settlers and sailors. The remaining 21 individuals, both crewmen and settlers, boarded the Discovery, a 20-ton, two-masted pinnance, commanded by Captain John Ratcliffe, alias John Sicklemore.

Now, I don't know what you learned about the voyage to Virginia from England. Perhaps, you were a better student of history, or were more fortunate than I in having your history teachers point out that the voyage included stops along the way. I don't recall ever learning in school, even in the Virginia schools I attended, anything about the voyage including about three weeks of venturing onto first one green island paradise, then another. I believed, up into my early adulthood, that the settlers just got on the boats in England and came on over to Virginia. One trip, no stops. That wasn't the way of it, at all.

The small fleet fell from London and anchored in the Downes on the fifth of January. The following day, Captain John Smith was accused of mutiny, and was held prisoner for the duration of the voyage for alleged conspiracy. (Another little piece of information my teachers neglected to mention.) As supplies were spoiling or being used up, contrary winds and tempests held the ships' passengers as much prisoners as Smith, keeping them in their cramped, unhealthy quarters. Six weeks later the sick and travel-weary voyagers were finally on their way to Virginia, traveling along the usual route of the times, via the West Indies.

They stopped briefly in the Canary Islands to take on a fresh supply of water, then continued on. On the twenty-third of February, they passed by the Island of Martinique, anchoring at Dominico on the following day. One passenger, George Percy, found the island fair, with "Trees full of sweet and good smels", but the natives he discovered there were somewhat odd, and a lot fearsome.

                        "...their bodies are all painted red to keepe away the bitingof Muscetos; they
                         goe all naked without covering: the hair of their head is a yard long, all
                         of a length pleated in three plats hanging downe to their wastes, they suffer
                         no haire to grow on their faces, they cut their skinnes in divers workes, they
                         are continually in warres, and will eate their enemies when they kill them,
                         or any stranger if they take them."

Regardless of how fearful the natives appeared to the English, they apparently overcame their horror to trade with them for much needed food and other items of interest during their short visit on the island.

                        "...they came many to our ships with their Canoas, bringing us many kinds of
                        sundry fruits, as Pines, Potatoes, Plantons, Tobacco, and other fruits, and Roane
                        Cloth abundance, which they had gotten out of certaine Spanish ships that were
                        cast away upon that Iland. We gave them Knives, Hatchets for exchange which
                        they esteem much, wee also gave them Beades, Copper Jewels which they hang
                        through their nosthrils, eares, and lips, very strange to behold..."

The natives were not the only strange sights for the voyages while they were at Dominica, as George Percy describes also a fight between sea creatures, as well.

                        Whilest we remayned at this Iland we saw a Whale chased by a Thresher and a
                        Swordfish: they fought for the space of two houres, we might see the Thresher
                        with his flayle lay on the monstrous blowes which was strange to behold: in the
                        end these two fishes brought the Whale to her end."

The fleet passed by Marie Galante on the Twenty-sixth day of February, and went ashore the island of Guadeloupe. There they found "a Bath which was so hot, that no man was able to stand long by it, our Admirall Captaine Newport caused a piece of Porke to be put in it: which boyled it so in the space of halfe an houre, as no fire could mend it." They did not stay long according to Percy, but reboarded their ships and sailed "by many Ilands, as Mounserot and an Iland called Saint Christopher, both unhabited about..." About two o'clock in the afternoon, they landed at the island of Nevis. Upon reaching land, Captain Newport, fearing treachery from the island natives, gave his men Muskets and other arms, and sent them a mile into the woods to stand guard. The other passengers discovered a Bath which stood in a valley on the island, one which Percy described as being more "of the nature of the Bathes in England, some places hot and some colder..." After refreshing themselves in the bath, they made camp and spent the next three days hunting and fishing, never once being confronted by the island natives. Percy tells us that the naturals "would not come to us by any meanes, but ranne swiftly through the Woods to the Mountaine tops".

The day after leaving Nevis, they sailed by St Eustatius and Saba, and anchored at the Virgin Islands in an excellent bay Percy claimed would "harbour a hundred Ships" and would be "a great profit and commoditie" to the English, if it had stood in England. They spent several more days on the island of Mona, hunting, fishing, and exploring the island where they found tree bark which "tasted much like Cinnamon, and very hot in the mouth," but no fresh water. They set sail, again, after several days, and passed by Vieques and "St John de Porto Rico," later arriving at Mona, where they refilled their casks with greatly needed fresh water. While the sailors did so, the others marched six miles up the island, looking for other provisions, and killed two wild boars, and "saw a huge wild Bull, his hornes was an ell betweene the two tops." They also killed Guanas, "in fashion of a Serpent, and speckled like a Toade under the belly." One passenger, a gentleman named Edward Brookes, died while on the island, his "fat melted within him by the great heate and drought of the Countrey..."

While staying on the island of Mona, they visited the nearby island of Monica, where Percy complains that they had "a terrible landing, and a troublesome getting up to the top of the Mountaine or Ile, being a high firme Rocke step, with many terrible sharpe stones..." Once they reached the top, however, he found the land to be very fertile, "full of goodly grasse, and abundance of Fowles of all kindes, they flew over our heads as thick as drops of Hale..." They loaded two of their boats full of the eggs of the birds in three hours time.

The following day, the tenth of April, they set sail from Mona and the West Indies for their journey north to Virginia. On the fourteenth, they passed by what Percy called the "Tropike of Cancer." A week later, at about five in the afternoon, a terrible thunderstorm blew up, which lasted all night, tossing the ships about until they did not know where they were. For four days, afterwards, they sounded for land, but found no ground. Finally, on the twenty-sixth of April, at about four in the morning, a shout came from the crow's nest. Land was sighted.

We can imagine how the first settlers must have felt when they set eyes on the flowering wilderness of Virginia, their new home. The forests were dense with trees when they arrived, pines probably being the first they saw along the coast. Hardwoods, such as Black Walnut and tall, straight Oaks, grew in profusion, while wild plum and cherry trees, as well as crabapples dotted the forest. At that time of year the dogwood trees and lowland laurels would have been in full bloom, splashing the woodland with white, as wild roses and violets brightened it with color. What a lovely greeting for the travel-weary voyagers.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brian Lavery. SHIPS OF THE WORLD, Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1988, p. 425.
Percy, Master George. DISCOURSE OF THE PLANTATION OF THE SOUTHERNE COLONIE IN VIRGINIA BY THE ENGLISH,
    1606.

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