The Admiral of this fleet is Christopher Newport, an old seaman of Raleigh's.

Bartholomew Gosnold captains the Goodspeed, and John Ratcliffe the Discovery.

The three ships have aboard their crews and one hundred and twenty colonists, all men.

The Council in Virginia is on board, but it does not yet know itself as such, for the names of its members have been deposited by the superior home council in a sealed box, to be opened only on Virginia soil.
The colonists have their paper of instructions.

They shall find out a safe port in the entrance of a navigable river.