I have a dream of ships.

IT HAS THE feel of the knowing, but it cannot be, dead as that is within me. Still, I wake shaking as if the ships were real.

They are frightful, fantastical, and strange. They come one after another, crowding the wharf at James Town. They unload their cargo: people. So many people. But not just ordinary groups of settlers. That is what is so odd. There are ships with only children, ships with all young women dressed in white dresses, and a ship carrying people with dark brown skin, dressed in colorful robes.

The people themselves are not frightful, but rather the sheer mass of them. They fill James Town to overflowing and spread up the river on both sides. Too many people to feed. Too many people to govern. Too many people spreading out into Indian lands, angering the Powhatan leaders.

I sit up in bed and shake my head to chase away the dream. Nzgy2zMciXSXft4HwGks7HByN67JiS3YtVATeCzOjsh732kCMaqLSw+Eo7Wzg0B0