GOSNOLD, gos'nold, Bartholomew, Eng lish voyager to America: d. Jamestown, Va., 22 Aug. 1607. He joined Raleigh in his attempt to colonize Virginia, and after the failure of that enterprise was placed in command of an expedi tion fitted out at the cost of the Earl of South ampton and others for planting a settlement in New England. He sailed from Falmouth 25 March 1602, with one small vessel and a com pany of 32 persons, 20 of whom were colonists. Steering directly across the Atlantic, in seven weeks he reached Massachusetts Bay, first see ing land probably not far north of Nahant. Thence he turned south and landed on Cape Cod, to which he gave the name it still bears. Sailing around the promontory and stopping at the island now known as No Man's Land, but which he called Martha's Vineyard, Gosnold anchored at the mouth of Buzzard's Bay and resolved to plant his colony on an island which he called Elizabeth, and which now bears the Indian name of Cuttyhunk. The adventurers here built and fortified a house, but the hostility of the Indians, scarcity of provisions and dis putes about a division of the profits, disheart ened them, and the whole party returned to England, taking a valuable cargo of sassafras root, then highly esteemed as a medicine, cedar, furs and other commodities. Gosnold next
turned his attention toward Virginia, and after long effort succeeded in organizing a company for colonization in that region, the heads of which were Edward Wingfield, Robert Hunt and the famous Capt. John Smith. A charter was granted them by James I, 10 April 1606, the first instrument of that nature under which the English were planted in America; and on 19 Dec. 1606 Gosnold set sail with three small vessels and an ill-assorted band of 105 adven turers, only 12 of whom were laborers and very few mechanics. After a tedious voyage, a storm having driven them into Chesapeake Bay (26 April 1607), they sailed up James River, which they named after the king, disem barked about 50 miles above its mouth and founded the settlement of Jamestown. Sickness and various disasters destroyed 50 of their num ber before autumn, among whom was the pro jector of the colony. The Massachusetts town ship of Gosnold, comprising the Elizabeth Islands, was named in his honor.