Scheme of colonization—Preparation—The sailing—Queen's interest—Death of Sir Humfrey Gilbert—Another charter obtained—King Wingina—Hospitality—Sir Richard Grenville—Difficulties of first colonists—Personal outfit—Misfortune.

Court life, for all its brilliance and excitement, did not monopolize Ralegh's attention. He had gained wealth and position: he was near the Queen. That did not suffice him. He was a man of imagination, who could never rest content with the attainment which, as man of action, he had achieved. Rarely have the two qualities been so often combined as they were in the Elizabethan times, and rarely, even then, were they combined with such force and in so high a degree as they were in great Ralegh. He bent his energies on the scheme for colonization. The old idea was that Paradise lay somewhere on the surface of the world; all through the Middle Ages the dream existed. Columbus thought that the earth was probably shaped like a pear, not spherical but elongated, and "on the summit of the protuberance was situated the earthly Paradise, 'whither no one can go but by God's permission.'"

That dream continued. It came to Marlowe and obsessed him. But Marlowe dreamed of no mediÆval Paradise.

"Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed
In one self-place; for where we are is hell
And where hell is there must we ever be."

And his god was power; his demi-god, the man who, like Scythian Tamburlaine, lived—

"Threatening the world with high astounding terms
And scourging kingdoms with his conquering sword."

There was no limit set to the enterprise of man's energy; his power was measureless and divine. Only in the realm of beauty his step might falter; beyond all achievement, and all the beauty of achievement, there would always hover—

"One thought, one grace, one wonder at the least
Which into words no virtue can digest."

Marlowe wrote intoxicated with this elixir of infinite possibility. The sea-dogs, men of action, seemed almost to be realizing his dreams, fighting the next ship that met them, like Drake always sailing a little further on, coming home with spoils and tales of wonder, and starting out in search of fresh adventures; or there were men like Frobisher, who combined the buccaneer with the spirit of the scientist, and who were anxious to learn new geographical facts; or men like Gilbert, who were serious-minded enough to be whole-hearted in the cause of science; or men like Ralegh, in whom all these elements seem to have been struggling. This paradise of unknown lands worked in all ways upon his mind. Not Columbus before him, not Balzac after him, realized more keenly the power of money. He saw, with Gilbert and the industrious Hakluyt, the value of geographical knowledge, but what fired his imagination was the vision of another Empire across the seas, and that vision he was impatient to realize. He inspired the painstaking Hakluyt, and he quietly made it his life's purpose to further the project. It was Ralegh who grasped the true meaning of the vague aspirations and whose personality was big enough to set the first slow forces at work. His immediate schemes failed, but without those initial failures Captain John Smith would never have succeeded, as he did succeed some fifteen years later, in founding the colony of Virginia, from which has at length grown, in the space of four hundred years, the present American nation. So are our dreams of Paradise materialized into fact.

The attempt which Gilbert and Ralegh had made at colonization in 1578 had failed.

But Ralegh, in his influential position, saw a means of turning his scheme to advantage. As has been seen, the unrest of the Catholic party was becoming more and more acute, until it reached its climax in the Babington conspiracy and the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. Ralegh saw his opportunity. He knew as well as Walsingham that there were a large number of Catholic gentlemen who were desirous of remaining loyal to their country and loyal to their religion. The wish was as sane as it was difficult to realize. Naturally (and rightly from their point of view) the Jesuits and other Catholics, whose enthusiasm made them fanatical, hated these moderate gentlemen, and called them Schismatics. Ralegh saw how they might be employed to the advantage of his scheme, just as a few years previously, when the overcrowding of London was troubling Burghley, that overcrowding suggested the immediate material of his scheme. He suggested to Walsingham a solution of the difficulty, that these gentlemen should form a separate kingdom, should found the colony in Virginia. In June, 1582, Sir George Gerrard and Sir Thomas Peckham were empowered to do this. The new plan was set in motion in spite of Papal warnings and even Papal veto. Two ships were sent to spy out the land that summer, and in the spring of the following year all was at length in readiness for actual sailing. Ralegh himself intended to be vice-admiral,[A] but the Queen forbade him to join the expedition. He had, however, constructed, on plans of his own devising, an immense sailing-vessel of 200 tons, which was called the Bark-Ralegh (not to be confused with the flagship of the fleet which repulsed the Armada five years later, called the Ark-Ralegh). The other vessels were the Delight alias the George, of 120 tons, "which was the Admirall;" the Golden Hinde of 40 tons, "which was the Reare Admirall; "the Swallow, of 40 tons, and the Squirrill, of 10 tons. "We were in number," writes Mr. Edward Hayes, gentleman, who sailed on the Golden Hinde, "in all about 260 men: among whom we had of every faculty good choice, as Shipwrights, Masons, Carpenters, Smithes and such like, requisite to such an action: also Minerall men and Refiners. Besides for solace of our people and allurement of the Savages, we were provided of Musike in good variety: not omitting the least toyes, as Morris dancers, Hobby horsse, and Maylike conceits to delight the savage people whom we intended to winne by all faire meanes possible. And to that end we were indifferently furnished of all petty haberdasherie wares to barter with those simple people."

On June 11 the expedition sailed from Causon Bay. The day was Tuesday. Misfortune came very soon upon them. On Thursday evening the news was signalled from the Bark-Ralegh that the captain and to a subordinate command, deserted the expedition for some reason unknown." But it is not at all probable that he ever started.—"The English Voyages," p. 58. very many of the men were fallen sick; and at midnight, "notwithstanding we had the wind East, faire and good," the vice-admiral forsook them. The reason Mr. Hayes could never understand, he says in his account, and adds, "Sure I am, no cost was spared by their owner Master Ralegh in setting them forth: Therefore I leave it unto God." Sir Humfrey Gilbert was not so philosophic about the desertion; he wrote to his brother-admiral, Sir George Peckham, in wrath: "The Bark-Ralegh ran from me in fair and clear weather, having a large wind. I pray you solicit my brother Ralegh to make them an example to all knaves."

After this defection the Golden Hinde took the place of the Vice-Admiral, and hoisted her flag from the mizzen to the foretop. As they sailed northward they were "incumbered with much fogge and mists in maner palpable," so that great difficulty was experienced by the ships in keeping in touch one with the other. The danger of separation always threatened sailing vessels, and elaborate devices and instructions were always prepared to lessen its likelihood and to face the emergency. But on July 20 the Swallow and the Squirrill became separated from the company, and were not discovered again until the Newfoundland coast was reached on August 3. Soon after another misfortune occurred owing to the unruliness of the men on the Squirrill, who could not be restrained from plundering a fishing-boat. This bad act was sufficient to wreck the success of the expedition, and caused much dissatisfaction among the sailors, who were always superstitious. Moreover, the men's unruliness was a serious danger on such an expedition, apart from the question of God's wrath, which Mr. Hayes feared, and which fell upon the Squirrill and requited the ill-doers with death.

On August 5 Sir Humfrey Gilbert took possession of the harbour of St. John, and invested the Queen's Majesty with the title and dignity thereof. The arms of England, engraved in lead, were fixed upon a pillar of wood and erected. Men were sent to explore the land, and to make maps of it, while the ships were being overhauled and repaired. The report only survives; the maps were lost when the general died.

On August 27 they set sail again, and on the next day a great wind arose, bringing with it rain and thick mist, and drove the vessels upon the sands and flats. The Admirall struck; her stern and hinder parts were broken in pieces by the waves; the men leapt into the sea. "This was a heavy and grievous event to lose at one blow our chiefe shippe fraighted with great provision, gathered together with much travell, care, long time, and difficultie. But more was the losse of our men which perished to the number almost of a hundreth soules." Among the drowned was Budaeus, a learned man who was minded to record in the Latin tongue the gests and things worthy of remembrance; Daniel, a refiner of metals; and Captain Maurice Brawn, a virtuous, honest, and discreet gentleman. A few men, however, managed to keep afloat in a small boat for six days, and though two of them died of starvation, the others were rescued. This disaster brought dismay to the company and they lost courage. Winter, too, was drawing on, provisions were becoming scant, their clothes were worn out. Accordingly, Sir Humfrey Gilbert determined to make for home. "Be content," he said to the men, "we have seen enough: and take no care of expence past: I will set you forth royally the next Spring if God send us safe home. Therefore I pray you let us no longer strive here, where we fight against the elements." But calamity did not forsake them. Sir Humfrey Gilbert did not reach home. Before the expedition sailed in June, Elizabeth for her own reasons had persisted in denying Sir Humfrey the right to accompany his expedition; but his step-brother, Sir Walter Ralegh, had continued to use his influence to obtain permission, and the requisite permission had at last been granted.

"Brother,

"I have sent you a token from her Majesty, an ancor guided by a lady, as you see; and further, her Highness willed me to sende you worde that she wished you as great good-hap and safty to your ship, as if her sealf were ther in parson; desiring you to have care of your sealf as of that which she tendereth; and therefore for her sake, you must provide for hit accordingly.

"Farther, she commandeth that you leve your picture with me. For the rest I leve till our meeting, or to the report of this bearer, who would needs be the messengre of this good newse. So I committ you to the will and protection of God, who send us such life or death as He shall please or hath appointed.

"Richmonde this Friday morning.
"Your treu brother
"W. Ralegh"

The letter shows the Queen's interest and concern—her attitude towards the gentlemen who adventured their lives for the glory of her kingdom. But good-hap and safety were not vouchsafed to Gilbert's ship. The will and protection of God did not send life; death had been appointed.

They reached the Azores without mishap, except that the general caused himself great pain and inconvenience by treading upon a nail. The last conference took place on the Golden Hinde, on September 3, when he made merry with the company on board; his hopes of success ran high for the enterprise, he vowed to undertake once more the next spring. They were now coming near to England and the end of their distresses. But they met with foul weather, and terrible seas, breaking short and high, pyramid-wise. "Men which all their lifetime had occupied the Sea, never saw more outragious Seas." Upon the main-yard of the Golden Hinde appeared an apparition of a little fire by night. The little fire is an evil omen, and is called Castor and Pollux. "Munday the ninth of September, in the afternoon, the Frigat was neere cast away, oppressed by waves, yet at that time recovered: and giving forth signes of joy, the Generall sitting abaft with a book in his hand, cried out unto us in the Hinde (so oft as we did approach within hearing), 'We are as neare to Heaven by sea as by land.' Reiterating the same speech, well-beseeming a souldier, resolute in Jesus Christ, as I can testifie he was."

Sir Humfrey Gilbert was seen no more. Sitting abaft with a book in his hand — that was the last sight of him, and those were his last words, the great saying of a great sailor. For at midnight the lights of his vessel suddenly disappeared. The frigate was devoured and swallowed of the sea. So died Sir Humfrey Gilbert in the prime of his manhood at the age of forty-four.

The Golden Hinde managed to reach the coast of England, and brought the bad news of disaster to Sir Walter Ralegh, his step-brother, and to Adrian Gilbert, his younger brother.

They wasted no time in grief or mourning. They paid proper respect to the memory of the brave dead, and immediately made renewed efforts to further the enterprise to which their brother had devoted his life.

Within six months Ralegh obtained another charter from the Queen with larger powers. He and Adrian Gilbert and John Davies were incorporated under the new charter as "The College of the Fellowship for the Discovery of the North-west passage." That was the dream of the dead navigator. Ralegh always had a greater purpose in view, and the charter was later extended by clauses giving him powers to colonize. Directly these first steps were taken, a month after the charter's final signing, Ralegh despatched two captains, Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlow.

Captain John Smith gives an account of their voyage in his "History of Virginia." (John Smith it was who, profiting by initial failures, succeeded some years later in the fulfilment of the great scheme.) "The 27 of Aprill," he writes, "they set sail from the Thames, the tenth of May passed the Canaries, and the tenth of June the West Indies: which unneedful Southerly course (but then no better was knowne) occasioned them in that season much sicknesse." His interpolation—then no better was known—is significant. It throws a clear light on the difficulties with which these early colonizers were called upon to cope; they had not yet learned the best way even of reaching their destination.

However, on the 2nd of July the two captains arrived at Florida, "where they felt a most delicate sweete smell, though they saw no land, which ere long they espied, thinking it the Continent: an hundred and twenty miles they sailed not finding any harbour." That again is significant, taking into consideration the limited room on a sailing vessel for food and other necessaries. When they came to land, they had not yet the means of knowing anything about that land whatsoever. At length they discovered that they were upon an island, the island of Wokokon. It was fertile past all belief. Grapes grew in profusion right down to the water's edge, that the very surge of the sea sometimes over-flowed them. In the valleys tall cedars grew, and from the black cedars great cranes flew in white flocks, when the men discharged their muskets, "with such a cry as if an army of men had shouted together." The island was thickly wooded with other trees of excellent smell and quality; and in the woods there were conies and deere and fowle in incredible abundance. For three days none of the people were seen. On the third day, in a little boat, three of them appeared and showed no sign of fear. One of them stopped and conferred with the sailors, who gave him a shirt and a hat, meat and wine, which he liked. Then he went away; but soon returned with his boat quite full of fish, which he gave to the sailors. He had come from the mainland.

Next day the king's brother visited the ships, with forty or fifty men, "proper people and in their behaviour very civill." The king's brother's name was Granganamen. Soon after the king himself, Wingina, came. A mat was spread for him on the sea shore, and he sat down upon it. When the sailors came to him, he stroked his head and breast, and he stroked their heads and breasts, to express his love. He made a long speech, and divers toys, "which he kindly accepted," were presented to him. Especially a pewter pleased the king's fancy. He drilled a hole in it and hung it round his neck. It made him a capital breastplate, for which he was ready to give, and gave, twenty skin of deer, worth twenty crowns. He was so pleased with his bargain and treatment that a few days later he brought his wife and children on board. During all their stay in his kingdom, which was called Wingandacoa, King Wingina sent them almost every day a brace of bucks, conies, hares, fish and vegetables. The soil was fertile, as the woods were plentifully stocked with game—for the sailors put some peas in the ground, and in ten days they had grown to the height of fourteen inches.

They had, indeed, found the Land of Promise; and the people who inhabited the land were as friendly as their king. A party went on a little expedition to the island of Roanoak, which was distant some seven leagues. There the wife of the chief man, who was absent, welcomed them with much courtesy. She had their clothes taken off and washed; she had their feet bathed in warm water, while she herself attended to the preparation of food. While they were eating, warriors entered the room armed with bows and arrows. The sailors, fearful of treachery, grasped their muskets. There was no need for alarm, however. The woman saw their fear, and ordered the warriors immediately to snap their bows and arrows across their knees.

Hospitality could go no farther. The whole account of the land "luxuriant to the water's edge, and of their joyous reception by the Indians, makes the dreams of the pastoral poets seem true," as Professor Raleigh puts it. Indeed, the people were such as live after the manner of the Golden Age. Such, too, the Burmese were found to be some three hundred years later; they had the same childlike simplicity, the same earnest kindliness; they, too, were unspoiled and happy. The Indians were regarded as savages; they were not closely observed or sympathetically described by these stout-hearted adventurers, as the Burmese have been by Fielding Hall in his notable books. Their subsequent history bears out the resemblance. The Indians, simpler, more childish people—savages in fact—came into contact with a sterner younger civilization. Their history is known. The history of the subject Burmese is still in the making.

Captain Amadas and Captain Barlow returned in September. They brought with them two of the natives, many skins, and pearls as big as peas, which they duly delivered to Sir Walter Ralegh. He was overjoyed with the success of their voyage, and he obtained permission from the Queen to call his new land of Wingandacoa, Virginia, in her honour. He ordered a new seal of his arms to be cut, engraved with the legend, "Propria insignia Walteri Ralegh, militis, Domini et Gubernatoris Virginiae."

In the spring of the following year his colonizing fleet was ready. The command of the expedition was given to Sir Richard Grenville, the valiant, as John Smith calls him. The colony was to be under the management of Captain Ralph Lane. Sir Richard Grenville was not the man for the business, and the expedition would have had a very different result had Sir Philip Sidney undertaken its command, as it was intended that he should. Sir Richard was supreme as a fighter: his tactics were to hit first, and to hit hardest, and never to give way. He was indomitable, but more than sheer bravery was necessary for the undertaking, and more than sheer bravery Sir Richard Grenville did not possess.

The fleet of seven ships departed from Plymouth in April, and, without any serious mishap, they arrived on May 12 at the Bay of Moskito in the island of St. John's, where they cast anchor, and where in seven days they were joined amidst great rejoicing by Master Candish, captain of one of the ships which had been separated in a storm. The island of St. John was in possession of the Spaniards. It is probable that Sir Richard Grenville hated the Spaniards more than he loved the project of colonization; for in St. John he stayed till the end of May. He built a fort, and succeeded in capturing two Spanish frigates, one of which was well freighted with treasure, and having ransomed the Spaniards of account for good round sums, he went on his way to Isabella, on the north side of Hispaniola. Here again they delayed, hoping, as it would seem, for an opportunity to attack the Spaniards in possession; but the Spaniards, overawed, as the writer thinks, by their numbers, exhibited only the greatest courtesy. So they sailed on June 7, and eventually arrived a fortnight later at Wokokon, after having narrowly escaped complete shipwreck "on a breach called the Cape of Fear."

The colony was now on the verge of plantation. But the men did not see the immense need of living at amity with the natives, that they might win their support and trust, without which their task would be insuperable in difficulty. They had hardly lived among them for two days before strife broke out, in which, of course, the Englishmen were easily victorious. For it appears that a silver cup was missed, and theft was suspected. For this trivial reason the town of Aquascogok, which was supposed to shelter the culprit, was burned, and all the neighbouring cornfields were laid waste. Enmity was thus kindled, and the fire of enmity cannot easily be extinguished.

After that Sir Richard Grenville sailed away with his convoy, and passing on his way home a richly laden Spanish ship of three hundred tons, he boarded her (note the prodigious daring of the fellow!) with a boat made with boards of a chest, "which fell asunder and sunk at the ship's side as soon as ever he and his men were out of it." That was on the last day of August: on September 18 he sailed into Plymouth harbour, well-contented with his prize, "and was courteously received by divers of his worshipful friends."

But Ralph Lane was left behind in Virginia with his colonists, to the number of some hundred house-holders, and the hostile natives. From the New Fort he writes an enthusiastic letter, on September 3, to Master Richard Hakluyt. His report of the fertility of the country is more glowing even than the account of Amadas and Barlow, or than Ralegh himself could have dared imagine in his brightest dreams. "It is the goodliest and most pleasing territory of the world; for the continent is of a huge and unknown greatness, and very well peopled and towned, though savagely: and the climate is wholesome, that we had not one sick since we touched the land here." Horses and kine and sufficient Englishmen are alone needed, and no realm in Christendom would be comparable with Virginia. The men set to work to build themselves a settlement, making use of the equipment with which each man was provided.

Captain John Smith, who succeeded, some thirty years later, in erecting the colony on the ruins of these previous failures, gives an exact outfit, with the cost of each article, which a colonist would require. He could learn from the experience of others, and was wise enough to tabulate his own experience in minute lists that others might learn from him. Lane's colonists could not have been so well provided. They must have lacked many little necessaries which the wisest forethought could not have provided, they must have encumbered themselves with much that was comparatively useless. Here are some articles of personal outfit which John Smith—and John Smith knew—deemed indispensable. They read quaintly with their prices:—

Lane's colonists remained exactly one year in Virginia. Their life was varied and exciting. At first the Indians, in spite of the silver cup and the summary vengeance for its theft, were still inclined towards friendliness. Their kings visited New Fort. Menatonou, King of Chawanook, was especially well-disposed. He was a "man impotent in his limbs, but otherwise, for a savage, a very grave and wise man, and of a very singular good discourse in matters concerning the state, not only of his own country and the disposition of his own men, but also of his neighbours round about him as well far as near, and of the commodities that each country yieldeth." Among other things, he told Lane where pearls in large quantities could be found, and Lane devised a plan for making an expedition to that river of Moratoc.

And from this plan, which Lane records in full in a subsequent letter to Ralegh, peers out the mistake in judgment which brought disaster upon this first enterprise. These colonists had too much the spirit of Sir Richard Grenville. They were too adventurous, and esteemed the natives of too little account. Instead of quietly settling and making their base secure, while the Indians became gradually used to their presence, they must needs be hurrying further inland in pursuit of immediate and enormous wealth. Theirs was too much the spirit of the lion-hearted freebooter and not enough the spirit of the determined settler.

Misfortune awaited them. For there lived an old king in this land of fabulous wealth by the swift river of Moratoc or Moratico. Ensenore was his name, and he was friendly to the English. Not so his son Pemisapan. And at this crucial time Ensenore died and Pemisapan took his place at the head of the province, and immediately began his endeavours to undermine the little influence which the English had already gained among the neighbouring peoples. The position of the colonists became one of extreme danger in consequence. They found that they must not only struggle against the elements to secure food and shelter, but also fight for their lives against the inhabitants. They had expected support from England in the spring, with reinforcements of every kind. None, however, came, and probably the fear of isolation, brought about by events of which they had heard nothing, was added to their other fears. Small wonder then that, when Sir Francis Drake came to them with twenty tall ships, they should clamour to leave the perilous spot and return to England. They returned in June, Drake's fleet laden with the spoils he had garnered from the sack of the Spanish cities, St. Iago, St. Domingo, Carthagena, St. Anthony, and St. Helens. With them, too, they are said to have brought, for the first time, specimens of the plant Nicotiana, of which Ralegh discovered the sovereign virtues, and which, in despite of King James from Scotland and his counterblast, has soothed many millions of honest Englishmen.

A fortnight after the colonists departed, fearing that they were forsaken, the ship of a hundred tons which Ralegh had stored with provisions and other necessaries arrived, and a month after Sir Richard Grenville came with three ships, and found neither colonists nor the ship which Ralegh had sent out for their relief. Accordingly, after he had searched long in vain and made certain explorations on his own initiative, he landed fifteen brave men to retain possession of the country for England and sailed home. Nothing more was heard of the fifteen brave men.

So ended the first series of attempts to found an English colony in Virginia, doubtless, efforts which themselves just failed of success, but without which the final colonization of Virginia would have been impossible.

CHAPTER VII