1584]

DISCOVERY OF VIRGINIA.

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came; very handsome and goodly people, and in their bearing as mannerly and civil as any of Europe." They had friendly intercourse with the natives, and trafficked with them, exchanging tin and copper dishes for skins and dyes. After some days a few of the English ventured further up the creek, and found an island, Roanoake by name, where was a small native village. Here they were received most hospitably. The women washed their clothes, and prepared a solemn banquet for them. Roanoake was sixteen miles long, and there were many other islands in the group, all fertile and covered with goodly trees; "the soile the most plentiful, sweete, fruitfull, and wholesome of all the world." Amadas and Barlowe explored no further, but returned to England about the middle of September; and Ralegh was well satisfied with the report they brought him. Queen Elizabeth christened the new district Virginia, that it might always bring back to men the memory of their virgin Queen; and Ralegh set about at once to plan a larger expedition, which was to plant a colony in his new possessions.

Ralegh did not venture to lead this expedition himself. He was afraid to leave Court lest he should give his enemies opportunities to conspire against him. Leicester, his former patron, had grown bitterly jealous of his favour with the Queen. The expedition was therefore entrusted to Ralph Lane and Sir Richard Grenville, both men who had led stirring lives, and taken part in

Irish and Continental wars. They left Plymouth on the 9th April, 1585, taking with them Barlowe and Amadas as pilots. Neither Grenville nor Lane were fitted for the arduous task before them. Grenville was bold and impetuous, and had learnt from the Spaniards to treat the natives with cruelty, regarding them only as people to be robbed. He wanted to grow rich, either by gaining booty from the Spaniards or by robbing the natives. On the way he loitered about the seas, hoping to fall in with Spanish vessels, and when he reached Virginia, on the 26th June, he did nothing to help the colonists. His treatment of the natives may be judged by the account left of this voyage, in which, after stating that they were well entertained by the natives, the writer goes on to add: "One of our boats with the Admiral was sent to demand a silver cup which one of the savages had stolen from us, and not receiving it according to his promise, we burnt and spoiled their corn and town, all the people being fled."

Grenville also managed to quarrel with Lane, and after spending seven weeks in exploring the coast, returned to England. On the way back he captured a Spanish vessel of 300 tons, richly laden, and reached Falmouth on the 6th October.

Lane was left alone in Virginia with a hundred men. Grenville promised to return to them early in the next spring with new colonists and stores of provisions.

Ralph Lane was no better fitted than Grenville

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LANE IN VIRGINIA.

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to found a colony. He determined to establish himself on the Island of Roanoake, and built a fort which he called Port Ferdinando; but he built no dwelling-houses, he sowed no corn, and made no arrangements for supplying his colonists with provisions, but trusted to the Indians to do everything for them. He writes in enthusiastic terms of the island, calling it "the goodliest isle under the cope of heaven, so abounding with sweete trees that bring such sundry rich and pleasant gums, grapes of such greatness, yet wilde, as France, Spain, nor Italy have no greater. . . . The climate so wholesome that we had not one sick since we touched the land here. The people naturally are most courteous." Yet he made no attempt to profit by this extraordinary fertility. His one idea seems to have been to explore the country with a view of finding mines. He was led on by a tale told him by the natives of a country where a soft pale metal, either copper or gold, was to be found in such quantities that the people beautified their houses with great plates of it. But he was obliged to return before he reached this land of promise, on account of the failure of his provisions. He looked upon this as the most important part of his proceedings; for he said, "The discovery of a good mine, by the goodness of God, or a passage to the South Sea, or some way to it, and nothing else, can bring this country in request to be inhabited by our nation." This remark shows how unfit the adventurers were

to found a colony by patient labour, even in a land where nature was most bountiful.

Meanwhile the colonists, who stayed at the Fort whilst Lane explored, had been ill-treating the friendly natives. They behaved to them as though they were their slaves, and soon aroused their resentment. The natives too began to be less afraid of the white men, since they saw that "their Lord God suffered them to sustaine hunger." The chief friend of the colonists amongst the natives died; and the natives, wearied of the hard usage they received, plotted to destroy their taskmasters. Their plan was to refuse, first of all, to supply them with provisions. They foresaw that want would disperse the white men in search of food, when they would be more easily able to kill them. In truth, when the native supplies were withdrawn, the colonists were hard pressed for food that Lane had to disband his company into sundry places to live upon shell-fish. Lane's vigilance, however, prevented the plots of the natives from being successful. When it came to a trial of strength, their superior arms gave victory to the white men, and the natives fled, whilst their king was left amongst the slain.

This happened on the 1st of June, 1586; but as Grenville had never returned with his promised stores, it would have gone hard with the colonists had not chance brought them a welcome friend.

On the 8th of June, Lane was told that a fleet

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of twenty-three sail had been sighted; but whether friend or foe, was not known. The next day it was discovered that Drake himself was the leader of this fleet. He was returning laden with booty from a piratical expedition to the Southern Seas, and touched at Roanoake to visit the English colony there. He was most friendly to his countrymen in their distress. At first Lane asked him to carry the weak men among the colonists to England, and leave him some new hands, with provisions and shipping to carry them to England in August, by which time he hoped to have finished his exploration of the country. But a terrible storm seems to have frightened the colonists, and with one voice they asked Lane to beg Drake to take them all back to England with him. To this request Drake readily assented; and on the 19th of June they set sail, and the colony was deserted.

Very soon after their departure, a ship which Ralegh had sent off, laden with provisions and stores for their relief, arrived at Virginia. Not finding the colonists, it returned at once to England. A fortnight after it had left, Sir Richard Grenville arrived with three ships, fitted out also for the relief of the colonists. He travelled into divers parts of the country to see if he could hear any news of their colony; but he found "the places which they had inhabited desolate." They had "left all things confusedly, as if they had been chased from thence by a mighty army." "And no doubt so they were," adds the chronicler

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