those days, laid claim to all of North America, and was threatening to come to the Chesapeake Bay and lay waste the settlement there as an encroachment upon her rights.
The stranger was a queer-looking craft, if we may judge her by modern standards, for she was, as all ships then were, short and thick — bluff-bowed and round at the stern — while she towered so high out of water at each end that the term "forecastle," which was then and is now applied to any structure at the bow of a ship, was a word of obvious significance. There was literally a castle on her bow, and another, called a poop, on her stern. Her sails, too, of which she carried, doubtless, two on the fore and the main masts, and one on the mizzen, were like great bags bellying out before the wind. When compared with the flat canvas of a modern ship it is easy to see that one would have difficulty in securing a crew for such a ship in these days. But more interesting than the form of either hull or sail was the row of black-muzzled cannon that projected through the bulwarks on each side; and altogether it is not mere fancy to say that the alarm of such a ship approaching Jamestown carried tremors of fear to the breasts of the weak, and added throbs to the hearts of the strong as they hurried to get their weapons and go down to the river bank to receive her.
But as the stranger drew near, the trained eyes of the colonists saw many signs to allay their fears. She was flying the Dutch flag, for one thing, and the Dutch were then the leading traders of the world. Moreover, it was apparent that her cannon were neither manned nor cast loose for action; the attitudes and the work
