brated men of his age for scientific attainments, and one who was thought to be especially trustworthy in his geographical views.[1]
Lane was anxious to discover a harbor on that part of the coast where the Chesapeake Bay lies, and his recommendation as to the course to be pursued, in case such a harbor was found, evidently made a strong impression on those who were interested in the voyage of 1606.[2] He declared that the journey in the search of the South Sea should begin from this harbor. It would require four days to pass to the river Choanoke, at which point in the route a fort should be erected; entrance should then be made into the Choanoke province, and a day would be consumed before the town of the Mangoaks could be reached; the journey should then proceed along the line of the Moratoc until its fountain-head and the salt sea had been arrived at, care being taken to build forts also on this part of the course for the defence of all the expeditions which hereafter should go that way. Lane asserted that by following this route, a gain of four days would be secured in travelling into the heart of the country.[3]
- ↑ Hakluyt’s Voyages, vol. III, pp. 314, 316.
- ↑ Lane had visited the modern Hampton Roads, “To the Northward” (i.e. from Roanoke), he wrote, “our furthest discovery was to the Chesepians distant from Roanoke about 130 miles; the passage to it was very shallow and most dangerous by reason of the bredth of the Sound and the little succour that upon any flawe was there to be had.” The Chesapeake tribe was seated upon the southern side of the great body of water situated at the mouth of the Powhatan. It is evident that Lane, in making his way in, failed to discover the channel, which lies close to the northern shore (Hakluyt’s Voyages, vol. III, p. 312). For this reason he did not consider it a “safe harbor.”
- ↑ Hakluyt’s Voyages, vol. III, p. 317. It is interesting to note that this suggestion of Lane was carefully borne in mind by the English when they had many years afterwards established themselves permanently in Virginia. In the report which Francis Maguel made in 1610 to the Spanish Council of State, as to what he had observed in the course of his
