It seems remarkable that more than a hundred years had passed since the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, without seeing the planting of a single permanent English colony on this side of the Atlantic. All this time, too, England laid claim to the whole continent, because of the discoveries of John Cabot and his son Sebastian. Finally, however, in 1606, two great companies were formed for the colonization of America, one in Plymouth and the other in London. The efforts of the Plymouth Company ended in failure, but the other corporation was successful. In the depth of the winter of 1606, three vessels—the _Sarah Constant_, of one hundred tons burden; the _Godspeed_ and the _Discovery_, each of forty tons, started across the Atlantic, under the command of Captain Christopher Newport. They carried one hundred and five men, but no women, and intended to settle at Roanoke Island, where the “lost colony” had disappeared some twenty years before; but they were driven farther north by a storm, and, with no idea of where they were, began hunting for a suitable place for settlement. They sailed into the broad opening of Chesapeake Bay, and were still roving northward when they were pleased with the appearance of a wide river, which flowed into the bay from the mainland on the west. They turned the prows of their little vessels into this stream, carefully studying the shores in their quest for an inviting spot.