He soon

was young, rich, handsome and fascinating in his address. became a great favorite of the maiden queen, and she gave him a commission making him lord of all the continent of North America lying between Florida and Canada.

The whole of that part of the continent claimed by Great Britain without any well defined boundaries, was called Virginia, in honor of the virgin queen. Two ships were sent out to make discoveries. They were commanded by experienced officers, and sailed from London in April, 1584, and in July reached the coast of North Carolina, on which a landing was effected. Here they remained until September, when they returned to England, and gave such a glowing description of the country which they had visited, that seven ships were immediately fitted out, conveying one hundred and eighty men, who sailed as colonists to the New World. As the ships neared the Carolina coast, they came within sight of the beautiful island of Roanoke. Charmed with the climate, with the friendliness of the natives, and with the majestic growth of the forest trees, far surpassing anything they had seen in the Old World, they decided to locate on this island. Most of the colonists were men unaccustomed to work, and who expected that in some unknown way, in the New World, wealth would flow in upon them like a flood. Not realizing their fond hope, they became disheartened, and when the supply ships arrived bringing abundant supplies, they crowded on board and returned to England. Fifteen, however, consented to remain and await the arrival of fresh colonists from the mother country.

In the year 1587 Raleigh sent out another fleet, carrying a number of families destined to augment the Roanoke colony, but when they arrived, no trace of the fifteen men who remained on the island could be found, they having been murdered by the Indians, and it was only by the promise of the commander to hasten back to England and return with reinforcements that they could be prevailed upon to remain upon the island. Shortly after the fleet sailed on the homeward voyage an event occurred which is worthy of note in a history of this country. This was no less than the birth of the first white child in North America. The child was the daughter of Ananias and Eleanor Dare. She was christened "Virginia," in honor of their adopted country. She was born August 18th, 1587. Her fate is involved in the mystery which enshrouds the fate of the entire colony. Scarcely had the ships returned to Europe when a war broke out between England and Spain, and the "Island Empire" brought every available force to bear upon her powerful rival, both on land and sea. The invincible Armada had to be overcome and the safety of England secured, before Raleigh could send aid to his colony on Roanoke. It was 1590 when the vessels were dispatched, and when they arrived at the island the commander was alarmed to find that the colony had forever disappeared. What their fate was must ever remain a profound mystery.

Some

That they all fell victims to savage ferocity is most probable. writers have indulged the idea that they were merged into the tribe of Tuscarora Indians; but while humanity may dictate such a hope, "credulity must entertain a doubt of the hypothesis." This was the last attempt of the noble Raleigh to colonize America. Thus he saw the cherished hope of his life a signal failure. Soon after, an ignominious death upon the scaffold put an end to all his ambitions.

THE ABORIGINES OF AMERICA.

With the discovery of America were discovered the Indians inhabiting the continent-nations having an unwritten history. Who the first inhabitants were we do not know; for all the ages through which the New World passed, prior to its discovery by Columbus, are destitute of history and chronology. But that a race, far superior to the Indians, once existed on this continent, there can not be the least doubt. From the Atlantic on the east to the Pacific on the west, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf, in every portion of the continent, we trace them by their vast monumental ruins, rivaling in magnitude those of the eastern continent. Here they built cities which may have flourished while the Pyramids were being built, or they may have been in ruins when Cleopatra's needle was being fashioned. But who were they? What their origin and what their fate? Alas! we shall never know. Contemporary history furnishes no aid, for they were isolated from all the world beside. They have disappeared from the earth with not a vestige of history left behind them.

"Antiquity appears to have begun,

Long after their primeval race was run.'

Campbell.

Whether they were the ancestors of the Indians is a question; it is not probable that they were. Perhaps no problem has ever attracted so much attention from historians and scientists as that of the origin of the American Indians.

Hundreds of thousands of individuals existing in all the various stages of society, from the lowest stage of barbarism to that of the half-civilized state, were found roaming over the vast domain of both the Americas. They were altogether ignorant of the country from which their ancestors had come, and of the period at which they had been transplanted to the New World; and although there were traditions among them seeming to cast some light upon those subjects, yet when thoroughly investigated they tended rather to bewilder than to lead to any satisfactory conclusions; and the origin of these nations has ever been a subject of curious speculation among the learned. Conjecture has succeeded conjecture, hypothesis has yielded to hypothesis, as wave recedes before wave; still it remains involved in a labyrinth of inexplicable difficulties, from which the most

Of the many

ingenious minds will perhaps never be able to free it. theories which have been advanced, we select the following:

Gregoria Gracia, one of the first missionaries in Mexico, after long association with them, has formed the opinion that they are the descendants of many nations, and therefore thinks it absurd to attempt to trace their origin to any one nation.

John De Laet, a celebrated Flemish writer, maintains that America received its first inhabitants from Scythia. "The resemblance" of the North American Indians, in features, complexion, customs, and mode of life is more nearly like those of the ancient Scythians than any other

nation.

Moreaz, in his history of Brazil, says that the continent was certainly peopled by the ancient Carthagenians.

George Huron, like Laet, supposes that the primitive American colonies were Scythian, but is of opinion that the Phoenicians and Carthagenians subsequently reached the continent, and still later that the Chinese and other eastern peoples reached these shores, either voluntarily or have been driven on the coast by tempests. He thus accounts for the difference

existing among the numerous tribes.

Charlevoix is clearly of the opinion that they are of Tartar extraction, and Adair says he has been forced to believe that they have descended directly from the Israelites.

Major Carver, who was an officer in the Provincial army, supports the theory that they have descended from the Tartars and Chinese. He is the first writer, with whose writings the author is acquainted, to maintain the theory that they reached America by way of Behrings Straits, a theory since advocated by Mr. Jefferson and many others.

Dr. Robertson, the able philologist, traces their origin to the Tartars, by a similarity of language. He says that many of the names of American chieftains are of Tartar origin, for instance: Tartarax, who formerly reigned in Quiavira, means the Tartar; Manew, the founder of the Peruvian empire, most probably came from the Manchew Tartars; Montezuma, the title of the Mexican emperors, is of Scythian origin, for according to some authors, it was the appellation of the Scythian chieftains. But the most recent of all is that of Mr. Wallace, who claims that they are the remains of the inhabitants of a great Pacific continent now submerged, and that they escaped to America at the time of the subsidence of their native continent. In opposition to this theory Rev. Wyatt Gill, for many years a missionary to the Hervey Islands, Polynesia, declares that there is not the least resemblance in feature, complexion, mode of life or language existing between the South Sea Islanders and the Indians of North America.

Then, among this maze of theories are we nearer a solution of the vexed problem than we were before a solution had been attempted?

That they came from Europe is altogether improbable; that they are descended from the Israelites has little or nothing to support it, whilst it is highly probable that they are descended from some of the tribes of Southern Asia.

That they are the descendants of the ancient Scythians, seems to the author to be the most probable. The following facts appear to be almost conclusive:

First. Both the Scythians and Indians belong to the Ganowanian, or bow-and-arrow family of men. It will be remembered by those who claim them to be the descendants of the tribes of North-eastern Asia, that those tribes are spearmen.

but

Second. The Scythians wandered over a wide extent of country, not tilling it, they claimed no property in land; the Indians did the same, and both held in abhorrence and scorn the confinement of a fixed habitation.

Third. The entire absence of anything like a fixed system of law, except that the strictest honesty characterized both.

Fourth. The dress of both was similar, being made from the skins of the animals belonging to the fauna of their respective countries.

Fifth. War was the delight of both, and mercy and humanity were alien to their warfare.

Sixth. Mounds, or tumuli, which constitute the remains of the earliest inhabitants of America, are found nowhere in Asia except in ancient Scythia, beyond the Indus. Herodotus, "the father of history," says the Scythians threw earth upon the tombs of their deceased relatives until they resembled a high mound or artificial mountain.

Seventh. The same author informs us that the Scythians were the only people of antiquity who practiced the barbarous custom of scalping their enemies, a custom universally practiced by the Indians of North America.

Eighth. The Scythians were divided into tribes, just as the Indians

were.

Ninth. The similarity that (according to Dr. Robertson) exists between many words in use by both.

Tenth. The fact that they were thoroughly acquainted with the architecture of Southern and Western Asia is fully attested by the ruined structures of Mexico and Central America.

From the foregoing it would seem that the evidence is largely in favor of the claim that the Indians of North America are the descer dants of the ancient Scythians. What the labors of archæological societies and the researches of antiquarian societies may develop upon the subject, remains yet to be seen. It is doubtful, however, whether a satisfactory solution of the mysterious problem will ever be reached.

Such were the inhabitants of the New World, who for two hundred years disputed the possession of this country with the Anglo-Saxon, but

who have been driven before the march of civilization to the western confines of the continent, where their final extinction as a race is only a question of time.

SETTLEMENT AT JAMESTOWN.

We have not space, in a work of this character, to notice in detail that interesting portion of history known as the Period of Voyage and Discovery. The world was ready for great events. With the fifteenth century came the revival of learning in Europe; Copernicus had systematized the universe; Vasco de Gama had doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and Portuguese navigators were steering their ships over Indian seas. The Turks had entered Europe and made Constantinople the capital of the Mohammedan world; Amerigo Vespucci's first account of the Western World had been published and eagerly read all over Europe; Grecian scholars had "crossed the Alps" and laid the foundation for that intellectual development which was to dispel the darkness and gloom that had enshrouded Europe during the long centuries of the Dark Ages. The printing press came just in time to supply the demand which the thirst for knowledge had created, and now the next great event in the world's history was to be the founding of a permanent English settlement in the New World.

One hundred and fifteen years had passed away since the discovery, and it was now the year 1606. In that year James I., who had succeeded his cousin Elizabeth on the English throne, granted to a company of wealthy London merchants a patent for all that part of the American continent lying between the thirty-fifth and fortieth degrees of north latitude. The London Company, as the corporation was styled, had, as the effect of its creation, the founding of a colony on the Atlantic coast of Virginia. An expedition was at once fitted out, and one hundred and five colonists bade adieu to the shores of the Old World to find a home on the shores of the New. On the 26th day of April, 1607, they reached the entrance to Chesapeake Bay, and to the points on either side they gave the names of Charles and Henry, in honor of the sons of King James. Further within the bay, on another point, they bestowed the name of Point Comfort, because of the comfortable anchorage they found there. Captain Christopher Newport, an experienced navigator, steered them up a beautiful river which, in honor of the king, they called James river. The voyage was continued up the river about fifty miles, when they landed, May 13th, began the erection of houses, and Jamestown was founded. A distinguished historian has said, "This is the most important event recorded in profane history." Here was planted the germ from which was to spring the grandest republic the world has