Sainte-Terre, or The White Stone
In 1602, a ship full of English adventurers and would-be colonists dropped
anchor off the west end of the island. Seven miles across an ocean sound
they spied haughty chalk cliffs that reminded them of Dover. But here the
harbor was snug. They came ashore and spent the winter. Next spring they
went back to England and for one reason or another did not come again. (So
it was not till several years later with the better-known but more
mysteriously fated settlement at Jimson that the English tried again on the
continent.) The leader of the expedition to our island, Mr. Bartholomew
Gosnold, was an actor and adventurer, a colleague of Mr. Shakespeare, to
whom in the spring of 1603 he imparted news of the island, its wealth, its
shimmering illusions, its magic.
