SIR WALTER RALEIGH.

Sir Walter Raleigh was a brave English knight, the friend of Sir Philip Sidney, and like him renowned for his chivalry. The story is told that when he was a young man he happened one day to be standing on a street down which Queen Elizabeth was passing, and as she came to a crossing that was very muddy, Raleigh stepped to her side and taking off his cloak laid it down for her to walk upon. This act of courtesy was the first thing that made the queen notice him, and she immediately took him into her favor and helped him all she could, and her kindness was well bestowed, for Raleigh was always the courteous, noble-minded gentleman, ready to do any one a kindness, rich or poor, high or low, and to serve his friends and his country as far as was in his power. For a long time after the visit of the Cabots, Englishmen thought very little about the New World, but at length one or two voyages were made there, and after this people began to think that perhaps it would be a good thing to try to make settlements there.

Raleigh was among the first Englishmen who formed plans for the settlement of America, and as he was a great favorite of the queen, he had very little trouble in carrying his plans out. He was also very rich, and after obtaining permission from Queen Elizabeth to settle North America, he sent out two vessels under command of Amidas and Barlow. The ships reached the coast of Carolina in the month of July, 1584, and took possession of the country in the name of the queen. The land seemed to the voyagers like a glimpse of Paradise. They spoke with delight of the "sweete-smelling timber trees," and the abundance of grapes, and of the shady bowers which echoed to the music of wild birds, and of the gentle manners of the natives who seemed to live "after the manner of the golden age." They spent some weeks there trading with the natives, but did not try to make a settlement, and then returned to England, taking with them a cargo of furs and woods.

The queen was delighted to hear that the new country was so rich and beautiful as these sailors described it to be, and said that because it was discovered while she was queen her reign would be forever famous; the name given to the country was Virginia, in honor to the queen, who was unmarried. The sailors said that Virginia had a good soil and fine climate, and that the Indians were very kind and friendly. Raleigh was delighted to hear this, and immediately sent out another expedition which was to settle on Roanoke Island. But when the settlers arrived there they found that the Indians were not so friendly as at first; they got into a great deal of trouble with them, and as they had been getting all their food from the Indians they came very near starving. Instead of planting corn and grain they spent their time in searching for gold and silver mines, and just as they were about to give up in despair, a vessel stopped there on its way to England and the captain took them all back home again.

But Raleigh was not discouraged; he sent out another company, two years afterwards (1587), under John White. This company also settled on Roanoke Island and laid the foundations of the "City of Raleigh." And here, on this wild American island, where a few years before many brave Englishmen had been killed by the savage Indians, where there were only rough log-houses to live in, and where fierce wild animals roamed through the gloomy forests, was born one day a little baby girl. She was the granddaughter of Captain John White, the governor of the colony. This little girl was the first child born in America of English parents, and she was named "Virginia Dare." Some time after White had to go back to England for provisions; he was away three years, and when he returned to Roanoke every trace of the colony had disappeared. And to this day no one knows what ever became of the colonists, and of little Virginia Dare. It is supposed that they might have been carried away by the Indians and spent their lives as captives, but no one knows whether Virginia Dare grew up as an Indian maiden, far away from her friends and not knowing that she was the child of white parents, or whether, with all the rest of the colony, she perished by the hands of the Indians. All we know is that, more than three hundred years ago this little English maiden came to live a while on the Island of Roanoke, and that then she vanished as utterly as do the rain drops that fall into the sea, and only her name is remembered.