They beat the tangled cypress swamp, If haply in despair They might have strayed into its glade: But found no vestige there. "The pine! the pine!" the Governor groaned; And there each staring man Read in a maze, one single word, Deep carven,--CRO-A-TÀN! But cut above, no cross, no sign, No symbol of distress; Naught else beside that mystic line Within the wilderness! And where and what was "CRO-A-TÀN"? But not an answer came; And none of all who read it there Had ever heard the name. The Governor drew his jerkin sleeve Across his misty eyes; "Some land, maybe, of savagery Beyond the coast that lies; "And skulking there the wily foe In ambush may have lain: God's mercy! Could such sweetest heads Lie scalped among the slain? "O daughter! daughter! with the thought My harrowed brain is wild! Up with the anchors! I must find The mother and the child!" They scoured the mainland near and far: The search no tidings brought; Till mid a forest's dusky tribe They heard the name they sought. The kindly natives came with gifts Of corn and slaughtered deer; What room for savage treachery Or foul suspicion here? Unhindered of a chief or brave, They searched the wigwam through; But neither lance nor helm nor spear, Nor shred of child's nor woman's gear, Could furnish forth a clue. How could a hundred souls be caught Straight out of life, nor find Device through which to mark their fate, Or leave some hint behind? Had winter's ocean inland rolled An eagre's deadly spray, That overwhelmed the island's breadth And swept them all away? In vain, in vain, their heart-sick search! No tidings reached them more; No record save that silent word Upon that silent shore. The mystery rests a mystery still, Unsolved of mortal man: Sphinx-like untold, the ages hold The tale of CRO-A-TÀN! MARGARET JUNKIN PRESTON. In April, 1606, James I sanctioned the formation of two Virginia colonies, and the first colony set sail on the following New Year's day--three vessels, with one hundred and five men, under command of Christopher Newport. Twelve weeks later, they landed at a place they named "Point Comfort," and proceeded up a great river which they named the King's and afterwards the James. On May 13, 1607, the colonists landed on a low peninsula fifty miles up the river, and Captain Newport selected this, against many protests, as the site for the settlement. They christened the place Jamestown. Captains Newport, Gosnold, Smith, and Sickelmore were named as the resident council for the colony, but time soon proved Smith the ablest man in the company, and the leadership fell to him. JOHN SMITH'S APPROACH TO JAMESTOWN [May 13, 1607]