9/32 The Two Virginia Companies.%--As a result of this voyage, Gosnold was more eager than ever to plant a colony in Virginia, and this enthusiasm he communicated so fully to others that, in 1606, King James I.created two companies to settle in Virginia, which was then the name for all the territory from what is now Maine to Florida. Each company was to own a block of land 100 miles square; that is, 100 miles along the coast,--50 miles each way from its first settlement,--and 100 miles into the interior. The First Company, a band of London merchants, might establish its first settlement anywhere between 34 deg. |