Of course, we Virginians are proud to claim the First Permanent English settlement (as well as the first Thanksgiving), all of which we trace back to 1607.

Yesterday, I got a mailing from The University of Virginia about a special course on the First Spanish Settlement (or some similarly worded statement) in 1608 or 1609 out in what is now Arizona or New Mexico.  I have been led to understand that such settlement preceded Jamestowne.

But worse, part of the English-French-Spanish Troika was the French settling Quebec in 1608 or 1609 -- i.e. another AFTER Jamestowne date.  But I recall reading during my Jamestowne-400 phase that the French were celebrating Christmas of 1606 up somewhere in what is now Canada (Port Royal?) even while the good Jamestowne Colonists were on the high seas that Christmas.

Sorry I cannot find the mailer and my poor brain cannot remember the exact dates.  But my point is just  WHAT is it that is being claimed for the Spanish and French doing AFTER Jamestowne, when everything I have read says that the English were late comers.  Have we Virginians acquired the New England Thanksgiving Virus which manifests itself through the rewriting of history?

Randy Cabell

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