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4 London and Plymouth Companies. [IGOG because those in command of them preferred privateering against the Spaniards to fulfilling their appointed task. The colony perished, leaving behind only a vague tradition of dispersion among the natives. The dawn of the seventeenth century rose on a somewhat changed England. Englishmen filled with the new wine of the Renaissance and united under a Queen whose rule, despite all its craft and meanness, appealed intensely to their imagination, had dreamt dreams and seen visions. A generation succeeded, not less enterprising, but more patient, more self-denying, more sane. The conception of colonies as centres from which Christianity might be spread through savage lands did not altogether disappear, nor did English emigrants at once give up the idea of rivalling Spain in the race for gold. But these ideas fell into the background. Colonisation designed to provide homes for surplus population, to expand alike the imports and exports of England, and thereby to develop her naval resources, now became the dominant motive. In 1606 these ideas and schemes took definite shape. Colonies were no longer to be dependent on the resources or the purpose of a private individual. The trade with the Baltic and that with the East Indies were already under the control of associated companies. That principle was now applied to colonisation ; and a company was formed with two branches. One, with its headquarters in London, was to establish a plantation between the forty-fifth and thirty-eighth degrees of north latitude. The other drew most of its support from the West of England, and was therefore commonly, though not as it would seem formally, called the Plymouth Company. This was to establish another settle- ment between the forty-first and thirty -fourth degrees. For the present we need only consider the London Company. The constitution of the Company involved a complex system of divided and qualified control, which had to be got rid of if the colony was to become a thriving community with any spirit of self-government. The Company itself was to have only a trading interest in the under- taking, to find the capital and receive in return certain commercial advantages. The government of the colony was to be vested in two councils, both nominated by the King. One was to be resident in England and was to be supreme in all political and legislative matters. The other, established in the colony, was responsible for local administra- tion. Thus three authorities were set up, between whom a conflict of jurisdiction was inevitable. In December, 1606, 143 emigrants were sent out. It is clear that the colonists were ill-chosen. They proved idle and discontented, with- out the courage necessary for explorers, or the patience and discipline to make prosperous settlers. Nor was there among their leaders any man who combined the natural gifts needed for the post with such a position and such antecedents as to give him authority. By far the best was that John Smith whose adventures, beyond doubt tinged with romance,