Chapter 2, New Atlantis, A Work Unfinished (Introduction, Discovery of Bensalem, Meeting with Governor) Summary and Analysis

The New Atlantis opens with a group of sailors sailing from Peru to China and Japan who, through storms, became lost at sea and nearly starved until they discovered new land in the South Sea. Within a day of spotting land, they reached a port in a well built city. Initially the sailors were not allowed off their boat by soldiers until a small greeting party delivered a parchment to the first mate of the ship. The parchment instructed the men not to land and to stay on the coast for only sixteen days. It also offered fresh water, food, health care, and ship repair.

The shipmates were troubled that they could not land and were perplexed...