Chapter 13

Before they returned to America Roger crossed the channel and sailed into Brest where he sold the cargo in his merchantman. While they did not manage to buy or trade for any English goods or material, the French goods were of fine quality, including some wine. The profits from the trip would easily pay for all the expenses and leave a tidy amount for the NAU. One of the other purposes of the trip was to open trade with other nations and France was their second intended stop. They succeeded in this goal, the French anxious to establish friendly relations with a nation that could apparently sink English ships at will. Of course a second reason for the trip was to impress Europeans with the technological abilities of the NAU. Roger believed his little skirmish with the English and the visit to France had successfully done this.

In addition to the good wine and brandy Roger traded for he loaded up with some manufactured metal objects such as hinges, pokers and so forth. He really didn't need some of the crudely manufactured items but he did want the metal. He managed to obtain some lead and copper items also. He left a list of items the NAU would trade for and passed the word they were accepting qualified emigrants as well. All in all, Roger was well pleased with his visit to France.

On the day they left Brest Roger consulted with his staff. They decided they had enough fuel in the bunkers to make a small detour to Spain. Roger wanted to "show the flag" as well as to impress the Spanish with the small fleet he had with him. Of course the Spanish were already somewhat familiar with Roger's ships capability from their fights in and around Florida. Even knowing they were already conversant with his fleet's capabilities he wanted to make a port visit or two to impress upon them that his fledgling nation had a long reach. Besides, a little show of force never hurt anything. Of course they needed to set up trade agreements and pass the word on colonists and available trade in the new NAU as widely as possible.

The small fleet made a rapid transit to Spain and made port in Aviles, the hometown of the man who founded St. Augustine, FL. After a short visit they then moved on to Santander before returning to the NAU. At each stop a small amount of trading was done and a large amount of showing off their ships was accomplished. Of course during the shore leave Roger's sailors made sure to pass the word on the damage to the English fleet during their visit to England. Finally, his short term goals for the trip complete Roger ordered his small fleet to return home.

Roger's ships made better time on the trip home since they did not have to travel at the most fuel efficient speeds. After they returned he released his warships to their normal duties of patrolling his coastline. His merchant ship was released to trade with the Caribbean islands and even to make a run back to Europe. She had two smaller caliber guns on board. It might take more than one shot to sink an attacking ship but if she could not sink it she could always outrun it!

One of the naval patrols taken north from Savannah in July of 1607 found three English ships anchored in the James River. They were offloading cargo and there was a small fort taking shape on the shore. This time the NAU ship was the NAUS Enterprise (FF2).

As the Enterprise moved into the harbor frenzied activity could be seen on board the English ships. People on shore could be seen running away from the coast. While the Enterprise was still well out of range of the now old fashioned English cannon they were ran out the gun ports.

Enterprise moved into easy hailing distance of the ships. The Captain of the enterprise moved to the bridge wing and addressed the apparent flagship through his megaphone. "You are in North American Union waters and apparently engaged in an invasion of our country. I demand you surrender at once."

A man dressed in much finery moved to the rail of the quarterdeck of the ship and replied, "You well know this is English land. It is you, sir, who are guilty of invasion, nay, even of piracy. We are engaged in the King's business here. Now be off with you sir before I lose my patience with you."

"No sir, you must know King Roger informed your King that any attempt to colonize America would be considered an act of war and would be met with force. This is your last chance to surrender without violence. I demand you immediately surrender your ships and remove the personnel on shore. As soon as your people are on board your ships you must leave our waters. If you do not comply with my request I will be forced to attack."

The English dandy turned to a man beside him. The Captain of Enterprise could not hear what was said but almost immediately two things occurred. A volley of musket fire roared out toward the Enterprise and soon after the first broadside of cannon fire followed. Enterprise returned fire and sank the three ships with one shell each. She did not bother hunting for survivors.

The Enterprise made a rapid trip back to Savannah where she reported the invasion. Roger immediately ordered a company of soldiers onto a merchant ship. Two days later the troop transport and two FF's made their way down river and headed for the attempt to colonize Jamestown. Their orders were to capture Jamestown and imprison any English soldiers or sailors found. Roger sent his oldest son Prince Roger to take over as Governor of the settlement.

Before he left King Roger said, "Roger I need you and your staff to be careful when you interview the colonists. We want to keep those who will make our new nation stronger and send back those who came here to live on others. I am leaving the decision on who is returned to England and on who is allowed to remain here in America to you and your staff. Do your utmost to keep qualified tradesmen, educated and skilled men. Return the leeches such as the gentry unwilling to work for a living and the so called ministers that wish to repress their flocks instead of guide them to a better life. All English officials should be returned without fail. Do your utmost to entice the soldiers and sailors to emigrate. We need both of those skills desperately. Also, as much as it pains me to do so, you must be positive no one who does not wish to return is sent back to England. If that means a husband wishes to return to England and his wife does not, you must not let him force her to accompany him. As soon as you have completed the interviews you need to move the colony to the area we have selected for the new town of Williamsburg. It will be a much better place for settlement than the location of Jamestown."

"I am willing to make an exception for the gentry if you are convinced they will be of benefit to us. You can make a recommendation to me to allow gentry to stay. I will make the final decision on a case by case basis however. Those who are willing to pledge allegiance to the NAU and study to become citizens will be given a chance to remain."

Two weeks after Prince Roger left for Jamestown King Roger obtained his first report. It arrived in one of the small observation aircraft that routinely patrolled the coasts of the NAU. Prince Roger had already prepared a rudimentary landing strip at Williamsburg and the light aircraft made use of it. The first report that came to him from Jamestown caused Roger to smile. Roger's offer to allow sailors and soldiers to immigrate if they wanted to join his forces or colony was met with great pleasure by the English enlisted men. The Officers mostly refused the offer and tried to prevent their soldiers and sailors from "defecting". More than one officer found himself locked up when he attempted to prevent the defections.

Roger was now 46 calendar years old. His small nation consisted of 4 states with European settlers. To the best of his ability he decided to keep the boundaries he knew from his uptime childhood. There were exceptions. Virginia was one state—there was no West Virginia. Both Carolina's were or would be consolidated into one state when they were settled more fully. They did show up on his rudimentary maps already as Carolina. He had plans to make use of the much better harbor in what would be named Charleston as soon as he could find settlers to build the city. Eventually Charleston would become a major seaport and navy base.

Before news of the defeat at Jamestown and sinking the three colony ships reached England Roger gained almost 500 new colonists. He and his appointed Governor of Virginia decided to only send 23 of the colonists back to England as unfit to live in the NAU. In his original timeline only 60 of those 500 were to survive the winter of 1609-1610. Roger felt he could keep almost all of them alive with his technology and assistance. This gave him a good jump start for populating the state of Virginia. Admittedly these colonists did not have the modern education Roger needed and many of them could not or would not learn the things Roger's schools were teaching the young. Many of the colonists would continue to be mere laborers but Roger needed them too. Many of them could be trained to do some of the simpler things a civilization needs such as operate wagons, farm, work in warehouses and so forth. The children however would be given the education they would need to succeed and would rapidly become important members of the population.

The infant and child mortality rate was already lower by far than normal for this time period because of Roger's health care capability. Just rudimentary cleanliness and the proper positioning of outhouses helped immensely. Add to that his advances in medical care and the development of penicillin and the use of sulfa as antibiotics meant many children and even adults who would have died now did not and became long lived assets of his nation.