 but we don't even know how many of those packed into the White Lion's hull came ashore, just that some, quote, 20 and odd Negroes, end quote, disembarked and joined the British colonists in Virginia. But in his sweeping history before the Mayflower, first published in 1962, scholar Lerone Bennett, Jr. said of the White Lion, quote, no one sensed how extraordinary she really was, but few ships before or since have unloaded a more momentous cargo.