knighthood, as the reward of his valor, he acquired a lucrative monopoly of wines, which enabled him to continue his schemes. The prospect of becoming the proprietary of a delightful territory, with a numerous tenantry, who should yield him not only a revenue, but allegiance, inflamed his ambition; and, as the English nation listened with credulity to the descriptions of Amidas and Barlow, it was not difficult to gather a numerous company of emigrants. While a new patent was issued to John Davis for the discovery of the north-western passage, and his well-known voyages, sustained in part by the contributions of Raleigh himself, were increasing the acquaintance of Europe with the Arctic Sea, the plan of colonizing Virginia was earnestly pursued.

The new expedition was composed of seven vessels, and carried one hundred and eight colonists to the shores of Carolina. Ralph Lane, a man so much esteemed as a soldier that he was afterward knighted by Queen Elizabeth, was willing to act for Raleigh as governor of the colony. Sir Richard Grenville, the most able and celebrated of Raleigh's associates, distinguished for bravery among the gallant spirits of a gallant age, assumed the command of the fleet. In April, 1585, it sailed from Plymouth, accompanied by several men of merit, whom the world remembers: by Cavendish, who soon after circumnavigated the globe; Hariot, the inventor of the system of notation in modern algebra, the historian of the expedition; and White, an ingenious painter, whose sketches of the natives, their habits and modes of life, were taken with beauty and exactness.

To sail by the Canaries and the West Indies, to conduct a gainful commerce with the Spanish ports by intimidation; to capture Spanish vessels-these were but the expected preliminaries of a voyage to Virginia. In June the fleet fell in with the main land of Florida; it was in great danger of being wrecked on the cape, which was then first called the cape of Fear; and two days after it came to anchor at Wocoken. The largest ship, as it entered the harbor, struck, but was not lost. It was through Ocracoke inlet that the fleet made its way to Roanoke.

Manteo, who returned with the fleet from a visit to Eng

land, was sent to the mainland to announce their arrival. Grenville, accompanied by Lane, Hariot, Cavendish, and others, in an excursion of eight days, explored the coast as far as Secotan, and, as they relate, were well entertained of the savages. At one of the Indian towns a silver cup had been stolen; its restoration was delayed; with hasty cruelty, Grenville ordered the village to be burnt and the standing corn destroyed. Not long after this act of inconsiderate revenge, the ships, having landed the colony, sailed for England; a rich Spanish prize, made by Grenville on the way home, secured him a courteous welcome as he re-entered Plymouth.

The employments of Lane and his colonists, after the departure of Sir Richard Grenville, could be none other than to explore the country, which he thus describes: "It is the goodliest soil under the cope of heaven; the most pleasing territory of the world; the continent is of a huge and unknown greatness, and very well peopled and towned, though savagely. The climate is so wholesome that we have not one sick since we touched the land. If Virginia had but horses and kine, and were inhabited with English, no realm in Christendom were comparable to it."

The keenest observer was Hariot. He carefully examined the productions of the country, those which would furnish commodities for commerce, and those which were in esteem among the natives. He observed the culture of tobacco, accustomed himself to its use, and believed in its healing virtues. The culture and the extraordinary productiveness of maize especially attracted his admiration; and the tuberous roots of the potato, when boiled, were found to be very good food. The natural inhabitants are described as too feeble to inspire terror; clothed in mantles and aprons of deerskins; having no weapons but wooden swords and bows of witchhazel with arrows of reeds; no armor but targets of bark and sticks wickered together with thread. Their largest towns contained but thirty dwellings. The walls of the houses were made of bark, fastened to stakes; and sometimes consisted of poles fixed upright, one by another, and at the top bent over and fastened. But the great peculiarity of the Indians consisted in the want of political connection. A single town

often constituted a government; a collection of ten or twenty wigwams might be an independent state. The greatest chief in the country could not muster more than seven or eight hundred fighting men. The dialect of each government seemed a language by itself. The country which Hariot explored was on the boundary of the Algonkin race, where the Lenni-Lenape tribes melted into the widely differing nations of the south. Their wars rarely led them to the open battle-field; they were accustomed rather to sudden surprises at daybreak or by moonlight, to ambushes and the subtle devices of cunning falsehood. Destitute of the arts, they yet displayed "excellency of wit" in all which they attempted. To the credulity of fetichism they joined an undeveloped conception of the unity of the Divine Power, continued existence after death, and retributive justice. The mathematical instruments, the burning-glass, guns, clocks, and the use of letters, seemed the works of gods rather than of men; and the English were reverenced as the pupils and favorites of Heaven. In every town which Hariot entered he displayed and explained the Bible; the Indians revered the volume rather than its doctrines; with a fond superstition, they embraced the book, kissed it, and held it to their breasts and heads, as an amulet. As the colonists enjoyed uniform health and had no women with them, there were some among the Indians who imagined that the English were not born of woman, and therefore not mortal; that they were men of an old generation, risen to immortality. The terrors of fire-arms the natives could neither comprehend nor resist; every sickness which now prevailed among them was attributed to wounds from invisible bullets, discharged by unseen agents with whom the air was supposed to be peopled. They prophesied that "more of the English generation would come, to kill them and take their places."

The natives desired to be delivered from guests by whom they feared to be supplanted. A wily savage allured them by tales that the river Roanoke gushed from a rock near the Pacific; that its banks were inhabited by a nation skilled in refining the rich ore in which the country abounded; that the walls of their city glittered with pearls. In March, Lane attempted to ascend the rapid Roanoke; and his followers

VOL. I.-7

would not return till their provisions were exhausted, and they had eaten the dogs which bore them company.

The Indians had hoped to destroy the English by dividing them; the prompt return of Lane prevented open hostilities; but in the two following months he became persuaded that a grand alliance was forming to destroy the strangers by a general massacre. Desiring an audience of Wingina, the most dreaded of the native chiefs, Lane and his attendants were, on the first day of June, readily admitted to his presence. Immediately, and without any sign of hostile intentions by the Indians, the watchword was given; and the Christians, falling upon the king and his principal followers, put them to death.

The discoveries of Lane on the south extended only to Secotan, in the present county of Craven, between the Pamlico and the Neuse; to the north they reached the river Elizabeth, which joins the Chesapeake bay at Hampton Roads; in the interior, the Chowan had been examined beyond the junction of the Meherrin and the Nottoway; the excursion up the Roanoke did not advance beyond the present village of Williamstown. The hope of finding better harbors at the north was confirmed; and the bay of Chesapeake, so long before discovered by the Spanish, was first made known to the English. But, though the climate was found salubrious, in the island of Roanoke the men began to despond; they had waited long for supplies from England; they were sighing for their native land; when early in June it was rumored that the sea was white with the sails of three-and-twenty ships, and within three days Sir Francis Drake anchored his fleet outside of Roanoke inlet, in "the wild road of their bad harbor."

Homeward bound from the West Indies, he had come to visit the domain of his friend; and readily supplied the wants of Lane, giving him a bark of seventy tons, pinnaces and small boats, and all needed provisions. Above all, he induced two experienced sea-captains to remain and employ themselves in more extended discoveries. Everything was furnished to complete the surveys along the coast and the rivers, and in the last resort, if suffering became extreme, to convey the emigrants to England.

At this time an unwonted storm suddenly arose, and the fleet had no security but in standing away from the shore. When the tempest was over, nothing could be found of the boats and the bark which had been set apart for the colony; and Drake yielded to the unanimous desire of Lane and his men to embark with him for England. Thus ended the first actual settlement of the English in America. The exiles of a year had grown familiar with the favorite amusement of the lethargic Indians; and they introduced into England the use of tobacco.

A few days after their departure a vessel arrived, laden with all stores needed by the infant settlement. It had been despatched by Raleigh; but, finding "the paradise of the world" deserted, it could only return to England. Another fortnight had hardly elapsed when Sir Richard Grenville appeared off the coast with three well-furnished ships, and made search for the departed colony. Unwilling that the English should lose possession of the country, he left fifteen men on the island of Roanoke.

The decisive testimony of Hariot to the excellence of the country rendered it easy to collect recruits for America. Raleigh, undismayed by losses, determined to plant an agricultural state; to send emigrants with wives and families, who should make their homes in the New World; and, that life and property might be secured, in January, 1587, he granted a charter for the settlement, and a municipal government for "the city of Raleigh." John White was appointed its governor; and to him, with eleven assistants, the administration of the colony was intrusted. Transport ships were prepared at the expense of the proprietary; "Queen Elizabeth, the godmother of Virginia," declined contributing "to its education." Embarking in April, in July they arrived on the coast of North Carolina; they were saved from the dangers of Cape Fear; and, passing Cape Hatteras, they hastened to the isle of Roanoke, to search for the handful of men whom Grenville had left there as a garrison. They found the tenements deserted and overgrown with weeds; human bones lay scattered on the field where wild deer were reposing. The fort was in ruins. No vestige of surviving life appeared.