discoveries, and take possession of lands unsettled by Christian princes or their subjects.

In 1583, a fleet of five ships was equipped with every thing necessary for founding a colony. About 260 men, including shipwrights, masons, smiths, and carpenters, besides "mineral men and refiners," embarked in the expedition. The fleet reached Newfoundland on the 30th of July. Gilbert took possession of the harbor of St. John's and the countries in the vicinity, and then, with three ships, proceeded on a voyage of discovery to the southward. One of these vessels was wrecked soon after, and of one hundred men on board, only twelve escaped. Depressed in spirit, Sir Humphrey determined to return to England. But his little bark was encountered by a furious storm, and foundered. Gilbert may be regarded as the father of the western colonization of the English; and his sad fate excites commiseration. He was a chief ornament of a

golden age.

Sir Walter Raleigh.

The successor of Gilbert in his colonial projects, was his half-brother, the celebrated Sir Walter Raleigh. He easily procured, in 1584, a renewal of the patents in terms quite as ample. Two ships were equipped, and being too much engaged in court intrigues to conduct the expedition himself, he intrusted it to the command of Captains Philips and Barlow. Proceeding by the circuitous route of the Canaries and West India islands, they approached the coast of Florida. They were delighted with the odor which was wafted from the land long before it was in sight. Sailing along the coast about forty leagues, they came to a river, where they landed and took possession of the country in the name of the queen and their employers. This was an island on the coast of North Carolina, called Wocoken. The Indians were friendly, and a large number of their chiefs visited the adventurers. A pewter dish caught the fancy of the principal sachem, and the English obtained twenty deer-skins for it. The sachem made a hole in the rim, and suspended it from his neck as a breastplate, intimating by signs that it would protect him from the arrows of his enemies. For a copper kettle, he gave fifty valuable skins; but no offers could induce the English to sell them swords or other arms. Philips and Barlow returned to England in September, taking with them two chiefs, Manteo and Wanchese. They represented that the country was a perfect paradise, and the queen, charmed with the description, gave it the name of Virginia.

A second expedition was fitted out under the direction of Raleigh, with the object of colonizing the new country. Seven vessels and one hundred and eight men were placed under the command of Sir Richard Grenville, surnamed "the Brave." This fleet sailed from Plymouth on the 9th of April, 1585, and after touching at the Canary islands and Porto Rico, arrived at Wocoken in June. Here the admiral's ship was wrecked, but he and his crew saved.

Ralph Lane, a brave but imprudent officer, accompanied the expedition as governor of the colony. Several distinguished men, among whom

were the famous navigator Cavendish, and Hariot the mathematician, were also on board the vessels. The admiral, attended by several of his

officers, and a guard of soldiers, went over to the continent on the 11th of July, and came to the town of Secotan, where they were hospitably entertained by the natives. At one of the Indian towns a silver cup was stolen, and its restoration being delayed, Grenville ordered the village to be burned and the standing corn to be destroyed. This was a hasty and extreme measure, and its consequences were destined to be severely felt by the colonists.

In August, Grenville, who had merely undertaken to conduct the naval armament, returned to England. The colonists seem to have arrived with. extravagant expectations and without a fixed plan. The plough was the last resource. Lane, by means of a captive chief, received glowing accounts of a country in the interior, abounding in gems of the rarest kind, and resolved to explore it. He advanced to the north as far as Cape Henry, without meeting any opposition from the natives; but on making known his intention to proceed to the westward, up the river Albemarle, Wingina, the powerful king of the country, became alarmed, and notified the neighboring princes, that the English designed to make a conquest of the whole country. Orders were forthwith despatched to the surrounding tribes to destroy all their corn and provisions, and retire with their wives and children from the banks of the Albemarle, that the English might find no subsistence.

Wingina, however, concealed his scheme, and encouraged the English to prosecute their explorations, by representing that there was plenty of gold in the mountains at the head of the Albemarle. By this stratagem it was hoped the adventurers would be famished before they could get back to Roanoke.

Lane took little provision with him. As he advanced he found the whole country abandoned, and observed that the natives gave notice of his approach by making signal-fires, and fled with all their movable effects. After rowing up the river for four days, the party was reduced to great straits, and were compelled to return to Roanoke, where they arrived on Easter-day, 1586. Here they found Wingina and his Indians, who still professed friendship for the English, but immediately entered into a conspiracy to destroy them.

Their plan was to surprise and set fire to the town while the people were chiefly scattered about in hunting parties, and to overpower the several detachments by superior numbers. This conspiracy was discovered to Lane, by Skyes, the son of Menatanon, an Indian prince with whom the commander was on terms of intimacy. Lane resolved to anticipate Wingina; and on the last of May, being admitted to a conference with

him and an assemblage of his chiefs, he gave a signal to his men, who fell upon the Indians and put them all to death.

HE immediate danger was thus averted; but the enmity of the natives was henceforth unappeasable, and the strangers began seriously to ponder their situation. Of their golden dreams they saw no prospect or chance of fulfilment, while absolute want stared them in the face; the supplies promised at Easter had not arrived in June; and they were in momentary dread of

perishing either by famine or the arrows of the savages. At this desperate juncture, a fleet of twenty-three vessels was seen in the offing; and after some alarm lest it should prove a hostile squadron, the joyful announcement was made, of its being that of Sir Francis Drake, returning from his victorious expedition against the Spanish main. That gallant officer readily agreed to give them a store of provisions, a sloop of seventy tons, and other small craft, with which they might either explore the coasts or return to England; the latter, it is probable, being the real object. A violent storm, however, destroyed these vessels, thus defeating the arrangement; and Lane, upon the earnest entreaty of the settlers, contented himself with obtaining a place on board the fleet, by which he and his adventurers might be conveyed home.

HE conclusion that Raleigh had deserted them was quite unfounded. A few days after this hasty departure, there arrived a brig of one hundred tons, provided with every thing needful for their wants; but to the utter amazement of the crew, there were no colonists to supply. After sailing about some time, and satisfying themselves of the fact, they too returned to Europe. This was another hasty step; for a fortnight had not elapsed, when Sir Richard Grenville appeared, bringing three well-apappointed ships, laden with every means of supporting and enlarging the colony. His dismay may be conceived when neither the vessel previously despatched, nor one Englishman, could be found within those savage precincts. He therefore left merely fifteen men to erect a fort, and keep a certain hold of the country till farther reinforcements could be sent out.

These failures and disasters could not discourage Raleigh. In the beginning of the year 1587, he fitted out three ships, with one hundred and fifty men, besides mariners, under the command of Captain John White, whom he appointed governor, with twelve assistants, incorporating them by the name of "The Governor and Assistants of the City of Raleigh, in Virginia." This fleet sailed from Portsmouth, on the 28th of April, 1587, and after touching at Santa Cruz, reached Cape Fear on the 16th of July, and Cape Hatteras on the 22d. A party of men was sent on shore at Roanoke to search for the fifteen men left by Grenville, but could find no signs of them except the bones of one man, supposed to have been killed by the natives. At the north end of the island a fort was found, which had been erected by Lane, and the houses of the colonists were still standing, but somewhat dilapidated.

A number of the colonists, led by Captain Stafford, visited the island of Croatan, with Manteo, the Indian interpreter, whose relatives dwelt there; and they were kindly welcomed by the natives. On the 13th of August, Manteo was baptized and constituted "Lord of the Island of Roanoke, and of the opposite continent of Desamongapeak, as Sir Walter Raleigh had ordered;" and on the 18th of the same month, Mrs. Eleanor Dare, wife of Ananias Dare, one of the Court of Assistants, and daughter of Governor Dare, gave birth to a daughter who was baptized Virginia. She was the first child born of European parents on American soil. When the governor subsequently went to England, she remained with her parents and died in the land of her birth.

In the meantime, Governor White had provoked the hostility of the Indians by attacking a party belonging to a friendly tribe, and all hope of conciliatory arrangements was lost. As winter approached, and the vessel was about to return to Europe, the colonists began seriously to consider their situation. Foreseeing that they would have to depend upon what they could raise for supplies, they earnestly entreated White to