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never lasted for long, and the terrible massacre of the Huguenots on St. Bartholomew's Day (August 24th, 1572) made a lasting peace more impossible than ever.

After he came back from France Ralegh lived for a while in London. He made friends with many of the gay noblemen who crowded to Elizabeth's Court; but he does not seem at this time to have frequented the Court, or drawn upon himself the notice of the Queen. He was much interested in the schemes for colonization put forth by his half-brother Humphry Gilbert. Humphry Gilbert was one of the first to maintain that the love of adventure which was leading so many Englishmen to cross the Atlantic might be guided to some better purpose than merely the annoyance of the Spaniards and the acquisition of plunder. Gilbert saw what England might gain by planting colonies in some of those wondrously productive and fertile lands which he had visited on the other side of the Atlantic, and how new openings to peaceful trade might in this way be found. Ralegh, who was to do more than any other man of his time to encourage colonization, from the first did all in his power to aid his half-brother's plans.

In June, 1578, Queen Elizabeth granted Gilbert a charter to discover and possess any distant lands which did not as yet belong to any Christian ruler. He was to plant a colony, which he was to hold under the Queen of England. Many gentlemen, and Ralegh amongst the number, joined Gilbert

1579]

GILBERT'S COLONIZATION SCHEMES.

11

in his enterprise; and he got together a fleet of eleven ships, which carried five hundred gentlemen and sailors. But from the very first the same causes of failure showed themselves that ruined so many kindred enterprises. There was no central authority strong enough to control the fleet. Each of the gentlemen who had joined it wished to have his own way. The sailors were for the most part criminals, who took to the sea to escape from justice-free-living adventurers, who only cared for piracy, and objected to all rule and order. With such materials it was hard to persevere through all the hardships and difficulties which must attend such an undertaking as Gilbert's. Some of the ships separated from the fleet immediately on leaving Plymouth. Then new disputes arose. Gilbert wanted to go at once to the North American coast to plant his colony; most of the others wished to begin by attacking and plundering the Spanish colonies. Gilbert was obliged to yield. On the way they met some Spanish ships. As always, a battle followed; for though Elizabeth and Philip II. might be nominally at peace, on the ocean at least there was ceaseless war between their subjects. In this struggle the English ships were worsted. The ships and the spirits of the men suffered so much by this discomfiture that at last Gilbert, to his bitter disappointment, was obliged to give up the whole undertaking, and return to England. He reached Plymouth in May, 1579,

just eight months after he had left it, having spent all his money in this futile attempt.

How far the fleet actually got during these eight months, and what Ralegh saw on his first cruise, we have no means of knowing. For a time his mind was turned away from schemes of colonization to other interests. He was now twentyseven years old, and had already seen much of life. His daring love of adventure had already shown itself, and that strong hatred of Spanish power and influence which inspired his whole life had taken deep root. After this we know more of the details of his life; for he began to draw men's attention upon him. Of these first twentyseven years we know only the dim outlines. When he first comes clearly before us he comes as the fully-formed man, with strongly-marked characteristics and well-defined tastes and interests.

CHAPTER II.,

Ralegh in Ireland.

ALEGH'S restless spirit did not allow him to remain long quiet after his return from Sir Humphry Gilbert's unfortunate expedition. In the beginning of 1580 we find him leading a company of a hundred men into Ireland to aid in the seemingly hopeless task of putting down the rebels.

Ireland was at that time in a most disturbed condition. Never since the country had been first conquered, in the days of Henry II., had order been made to prevail over the land. The efforts of the English rulers had soon been confined to the attempt to keep some order within the English Pale, as the district immediately round Dublin was called. Without the Pale the native chiefs, and the descendants of the Norman barons who had settled there when the island was first conquered, kept up a continual warfare for supremacy. The Norman families had adopted the manners and customs of the native Irish, and were as wild and uncivilized as they.

Henry VII. had tried to introduce some order; but he had hoped to persuade the most powerful of the native chiefs to own his authority by putting the government into their hands. The result naturally was that English influence grew weaker than ever. Henry VIII. could not rest content with such a state of things. He wished

to make his power felt in the country by a firm and vigorous government, and at the same time to win over the turbulent chiefs, and make them adopt English civilization and order by seeing its advantages.

This policy might in the end have met with success. But one great cause of the continual disorders in Ireland has been, that no one policy has ever prevailed long enough to accomplish anything. The even advance of the firm though conciliatory policy of Henry VIII. was disturbed by the Reformation. As a matter of course, he introduced the same ecclesiastical changes into Ireland as he had introduced into England, regarding both countries as politically one. No violent opposition was raised in Ireland either to the royal supremacy or to the dissolution of the monasteries; but when it came to changes in matters of doctrine, the case was different. The spirit of the Reformation had not influenced Ireland at all. The people clung to the old faith, all the more vehemently because of the attempts made to force the new religion upon them. Catholicism was identified with patriotism, and

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