Connie Lapallo - Scrapbook and Excerpts

Introduction	Joan's English Home	Departing England	Life On Board Ship	New Jamestown Home	Learning to Survive
Will the Company Abandon Them?	Cecily in Lady Gates’s Care	Remembering Cecily’s Journey	Plymouth and Pilgrimages?	The Spanish Threaten	Babies Arrive amidst Turmoil
Brutal Martial Law	Nothing to Eat	Hope: the First General Assembly
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	My heart raced with excitement, and my palms grew sweaty—this time, more from nervousness than the heat. We made our way up the scuttle toward daylight into open sky, the sweet river breeze, wind rustling past our ears, and the cool spray of water. Along the banks, the calls of birds and frogs seemed primeval in their simplicity. Exhilaration swept away fear. Now I understood the attraction of this land, even with all its unknowns and challenges. This is what the pamphlet writers meant. This is what drew the imagination of Sir Francis Drake and so many others. There was something elegant and Edenlike here.		The trees—how immense! These forests were different from the English countryside, with thickets so dense they appeared impenetrable. Yet there were open fields, too. I understood the natives to be farmers as well as hunters and here their clearings indicated that. Large grey seabirds circled overhead. Others passed us—amusing birds that looked as though they had stretched their beaks holding something far too heavy. These flew in long formations, occasionally ducking into the water to scoop fish. I had never seen any bird like this—its beak more a pot than a bill! Pelicans, Harrison called them. Janey laughed and pointed with one hand while I clasped the other, and Maggie patted my back happily. Behold, Canaan. From Dark Enough to See the Stars in a Jamestown Sky by Connie Lapallo © 2006