ompare to Youe.

ranked among the most accomplished soldiers of his times. In the destruction of the Spanish fort at Somerwick he has been charged with inhumanity; but the authorities clearly shew that his participation in the action was in obedience to orders, and that the blame must rest upon the Lord Deputy himself. The campaign was pregnant with great results to Ralegh. During its continuance he ingratiated himself in the favor of Leicester and had a serious difficulty with Lord Grey. On his return to England he was brought under the immediate notice of the Queen, by an act of gallantry which is related by several of the writers of the period as a fact, and which illustrates at once the quickness of Sir Walter's wit, and his correct appreciation of one of the weaknesses of Elizabeth's character. The difficulty with the Lord Deputy, was investigated by the Council, and Ralegh defended himself with such marked ability, that the occasion, in connection with the favor of the powerful earl, gave him admission to Court, and he soon gained the ear, and enlisted the good feeling of the Queen.

About this time,-1583,-a second expedition was set on foot by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, whose patent had nearly expired. Ralegh contributed a ship; and, in the capacity of vice-admiral, set sail in company with his brother-in-law. Soon after leaving Plymouth, however, a contagious sickness broke out among his crew, and he was forced to abandon the voyage and put back. The rest of the fleet reached and took possession of the coast in the vicinity of St. Johns, Newfoundland. In the succeeding year Ralegh obtained a patent from the

Queen similar to that held by Gilbert, and immediately thereafter equipped two barks, the command of which was entrusted to Captains Philip Amadis and Arthur Barlow. The expedition sailed upon the 27th April, 1584, and made the land in the neighbourhood of Cape Fear, early in the month of July. Barlow's account of the beauty and fertility of the country, seems to have delighted the Queen, as much as it gratified Ralegh; and she evinced her pleasure and vanity at the same time, by bestowing upon it the name of Virginia. The following year he despatched a fleet of seven sail, and the first AngloAmerican colony was planted upon the shores of North Carolina, under the Governorship of Mr. Ralph Lane. The supplies which had been sent out for the relief of the settlers not having reached them as early as was expected, they became alarmed, and Sir Francis Drake happening to touch at Roanoke on his return from St. Domingo, they availed themselves of the opportunity and returned to England.* Meanwhile Ralegh despatched two more expeditions to Virginia, and Grenville, who had command of one of them, left fifteen men at Roanoke. Subsequently he sent out a colony of one hundred and fifty men under the charge of Mr. John White, and, with him, twelve assistants, who were incorporated under the name and style of the Governor and Assistants of the "Citie of Ralegh."-They found the site of Lane's colony overgrown with weeds, and learned that a

*Lediard, vol. 1st, p. 225, says that Ralegh went over in this ship himself, but neither Smith nor Hakluyt support the assertion. Indeed it seems clear that he never was in Virginia, unless his touching at Newfoundland on his return from the last Guiana Expedition can be construed into a visit to that Province.

portion of the colonists who had remained had been slaughtered by the natives, and that the rest were dispersed through the country. The settlers fearing a shortness of supplies, petitioned the Governor to return to England and take measures for their support. On his arrival, he found Ralegh actively engaged in assisting in preparations for the repulse of the threatened Spanish Invasion, but even under the pressure of his great engagements he fitted out a pinnace and fleet for the relief of the colonists, which he entrusted to Grenville. Grenville was commanded by the Queen not to leave England at such a juncture, and another expedition was prepared. The Captains who commanded it preferred, however, to cruise for prizes, and this disobedience of orders resulted in their capture by a superior French force from Rochelle. The pressing nature of public affairs prevented Ralegh from doing anything further for the relief of the colonists, and the subsequent descent upon Spain in which he was appointed to a command made it necessary to assign his Virginia patent to the "London Company," by which agreement he provided in the fullest manner for the relief of the settlers.

We have thus minutely traced the connection of Ralegh with the discovery and settlement of Virginia, because it is one of the important features of his history, and enables us more correctly to estimate the degree of praise to which he is entitled, and to free him from the charge of having deserted those, who in reliance upon his promises, had settled in a strange land.

When he embarked in this great scheme, Ralegh was about thirty years old. It is stated by Oldys, that

while yet a very young man, his favorite studies and topics of conversation, were the discoveries of Columbus, and the conquests of Cortéz, Pizarro, and other distinguished Spaniards who illustrated the reigns of the Emperor Charles and Philip II. These great enterprises greatly interested and strengthened an imagination naturally ardent. They directed the mind of Ralegh into channels calling for its largest grasp, and offered to his eager ambition, a dazzling and magnificent result. The attention of the whole christian world had been directed to the progress of discovery. Expedition succeeded expedition in the search for that new route, which was to lead to the golden realms of Cathay, and pour the spoils of the orient into the lap of expectant Europe. The adventurous navigator spread his sails to the winds that bore him westward, with a bold and hopeful heart, and the strange perils of a long voyage, made more fearful by the smallness of his ships, and the inadequacy of his supplies, were cheerfully borne; for at its close he might press the soil of a virgin world, and be the first to gather the harvest of its incalculable wealth. Sir Walter Ralegh was one of the most remarkable of this band of ocean Pioneers. A man of expanded views, and cultivated mind; versed in those sciences which while they suggested such designs, rendered him an apt agent in their successful prosecution; and uniting an enterprising spirit with an undaunted heart, all the energies of an ardent and hopeful nature, were enlisted in an undertaking worthy of the man, and characteristic of the age. His views in engaging in the cause of Discovery were to some extent nobler than those which

influenced many of the adventurers of the time, with the most of whom, even the greatest, Discovery was but the search after gold,-and Colonization, the means of securing it. Commerce unfolded her white wings too slowly for the quick spirit of adventure, and her rewards were not brilliant enough for ambition, or speedy enough for gain. While however we believe that many of the results to which Ralegh looked were of distant and gradual development, such as the growth of a colony, the conversion of aboriginal tribes, and the extension of trade, we cannot but admit that perhaps the most powerful magnet which drew him on in this enterprise, was the reasonable hope that the far land of whose existence and position he had satisfied himself, would yield in its mineral wealth a more speedy and brilliant reward for his laborious and costly undertaking.* This expectation was fairly inferable from the accounts of Landonière, Pedro Morales, Burgoignon and Lane, and was strengthened by the specimens of ore which had been obtained by Frobisher and Gilbert; and we are justified in the opinion which we express, as to the motives of Ralegh, both from his immature age, and the qualities of mind which his previous life was calculated peculiarly to develop. Colonization was as grand an idea in 1589 as in 1584, and although the dangers which threatened England at the time of his assignment, imposed of necessity a temporary check upon the prosecution of his schemes; yet we incline to the opinion that a feeling of disappointment, and a shaken faith in the mineral wealth of Virginia, influenced him in the

*Ralegh expended over £40,000 in his Virginia expeditions.