The New International Encyclopædia/Newport, Christopher

NEWPORT, Christopher (c.1565-1617). An English navigator. In 1591 he sailed from London as captain of the Golden Dragon with three other ships, on an expedition to the West Indies. After sacking four Spanish towns and capturing and sinking twenty Spanish merchantmen, the expedition turned back across the Atlantic laden with spoil. At Flores they joined Sir John Burgh and took part with him in the capture of the Madre de Dios, August 3, 1592. In 1606 Newport commanded the fleet of three ships which conveyed John Smith and his fellow colonists to Virginia. He spent some time in Virginia, and took part in an exploring expedition up the James River with Smith. In 1607-08 he made another voyage to Virginia, and in 1609 commanded the first expedition sent out under the second charter, which conveyed Sir Thomas Gates and Lord Somers to Virginia. Newport's ship, the Sea Venture, was cast ashore on the Bermudas, whence the colonists proceeded to Virginia in two small pinnaces, which they constructed from the wrecked ship. In 1611 he made a last voyage to Virginia. In the year following he entered the service of the East India Company. Between 1613 and 1617 he made four voyages to India for the company, finally dying at Bantam of a fever. An account of his voyages to America, entitled Newport's Discovcries in Virginia, and purporting to have been written by “a gentleman of the colony,” was published in the Archæologia Americana, vol. iv. (Boston, 1860).