the said princes, or other so complaining, may hold us and themselves fully contented. And that if the said WALTER RALEGH, his heirs and assigns, shall not make or cause to be made satisfaction accordingly, within such time to be limited, that then it shall be lawful to us, our heirs and successors, to put the said WALTER RALEGH, his heirs and assigns and adherents, and all the inhabitants of the said places to be discovered (as is aforesaid) or any of them, out of our allegiance and protection, and that from and after such time of putting out of protection of the said WALTER RALEGH, his heirs, assigns and adherents, and others so to be put out, and the said places within their habitation, possession and rule, shall be out of our allegiance and protection, and free for all princes and others, to pursue, with hostility, as being not our subjects, nor by us any way to be avouched, maintained or defended, nor to be holden as any of ours, nor to our protection or dominion, or allegiance any way belonging; for that, express mention of the clear yearly value of the certainty of the premises, or any part thereof, or of any other gift, or grant by us, or any our progenitors, or predecessors, to the said WALTER RALEGH, before this time made in these presents be not expressed, or any other grant, ordinance, provision, proclamation, or restraint to the contrary thereof, before this time given, ordained, or provided, or any other thing, cause or matter whatsoever, in any wise notwithstanding. In witness whereof, we have caused these our letters to be made patents. Witness ourselves, at Westminster, the five and twentieth day of March, in the six and twentieth year of our reign.

[The portion of time back to which this charter carries us, embraces ore of the most exciting as well as brightest periods of English history in the reign of the "Virgin Queen ;" and of the characters presented to our notice, the most interesting to North Carolinians is that of the very remarkable man whose enterprise first planted on our shores a colony of Englishmen.

The State in which he placed the little handful of men who were the pio

neers in America, of English colonization, has rendered its tribute of respect to the name of RALEIGH by conferring it upon her capital; and we would fain justify our countrymen by showing that they have but rendered honor where it was due. It is therefore hoped that to a story of which North Carolina is to be the subject, a brief sketch of the life and character of Sir Walter Raleigh will form no inappropriate introduction.] VOL. I.-2.

THERE is ever to a generous mind something painful in contemplating the fallen fortunes of a man who.once has "towered in his pride of place." Our sensibilities are touched when we look upon the buried greatness even of one whose own unworthiness has made him "totter to his fall." Who, for instance, can dwell unmoved upon the picture of a Bacon illustrating the truth of a sentiment penned by himself almost as if with prophetic vision "Of all men he is most miserable who follows at the funeral of his own reputation?" The contrast is so great between the honors rendered to elevated station, and the insult and neglect attendant upon altered fortunes, that in its contemplation even this world's pity divests itself for a time of its hypocritical mockery, and for once is honest in the expression of its sympathy. And if this be so, when "even-handed justice" is constrained to mingle condemnation with our pity, how much more is there to touch the sensibilities of our nature, when envy and persecution,

fraud and falsehood, have all combined to drag a noble spirit to the dust, and in their infernal success call upon us to look on the decayed, nay, ruined fortunes of one whose heaviest crime has been that. God made him a greater man than his fellows? Such was the treatment that Sir Walter Raleigh received; and one might almost think that like his illustrious contemporary Bacon, he too was endowed with the spirit of prophetic anticipation, In his early offerings to the muse, he has left on record a sentiment which his own sad history proved to be no poetic fiction:

"Tho' sundry minds in sundry sort do deem,

Yet worthiest wights yield praise for every pain;
But envious brains do naught, or light, esteem,

Such stately steps as they cannot attain :

For whoso reaps renown above the rest,

With heaps of hate shall surely be oppress'd."

Of the earlier years of Raleigh, no more need be said than that he was born in the year 1552, of an ancient and reputable family in Devon, and was sent to Oxford for his education. One of the wisest men that England ever produced has borne testimony to the genius and wit of the young student, and it is therefore no waste of time to follow the fortunes of one whose powers commanded the admiration of Bacon. His college life, however, exhibited little more than that remarkable union of the habits of a scholar with those of an active man of the world, which through his whole career characterized him. In his case, too, as in that of other distinguished men, his early reading gave color to the future complexion of his life.

The conquest of the Spaniards in this hemisphere furnished in his day a new story. Raleigh was much too imaginative not to be pleasurably excited by the romance embodied in the tales of Montezuma and the Inca, the chivalric boldness of Cortes and Pizarro; and as he was pre-eminently fitted for action, he felt that a field was open on this yet unknown continent for the exercise of his loftiest powers. Thus was he unconsciously preparing himself to become one of the boldest maritime adventurers of his age and nation.

Young, handsome, brave, accomplished and intelligent (for he was all this), the first field in which we find him playing the part of man, was France. It was at the period when the Protestants,

under the great Prince of Condé and Admiral Coligni, were struggling for religious liberty. Elizabeth, on more accounts than one, was not an indifferent spectator of this contest. She gave permission to Henry Champernon, who was a near kinsman of Raleigh, to raise a troop of a hundred gentlemen volunteers, and to pass over to the continent. The French historian, De Thou, has left a description of the appearance they made in the camp of the Protestants: "A gallant company," says he, "nobly mounted and accoutred, and bearing for a motto on their standard, 'Let valor decide the contest."" Of this troop was Raleigh, and one who knew him then, speaking of his education and bearing, writes, "it was not part, but wholly gentleman—wholly soldier." In this school he remained for more than six years, bearing well his share in some of the most memorable actions of the times, until the peace of 1576, when he returned to England. Very soon after this we find him in the Netherlands, a volunteer under the Prince of Orange against the Spaniards.

Raleigh must not, however, be considered a mere soldier of fortune, ready to draw his sword in any quarrel. Both in the Low Countries and in France, the principle for which he contended was the same. He was armed in the cause of liberty, and in both instances he was indirectly defending his country; for in both he had gone forth under the sanction of Elizabeth, and fought under the English standard.

Among his fellow-soldiers was one who, remarkable as much for his eccentricity as for his valor, had traveled far and fought in many lands, and in whom great versatility of genius was not without its usual accompaniment, a wonderful facility in devising multifarious projects. One of his many schemes was the establishment of a colony in America. When he adverted to this, he touched a chord in Raleigh's bosom which instantly gave a responsive vibration. Amid the toils of the camp, the young volunteer had never neglected the cultivation of his mind: he was a soldier student, and had mastered all that was then known on the subjects of cosmography and navigation. His half-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, had obtained a patent for colonizing in North America leaving the army, Raleigh joined him to try his fortune on our shores. A combination of disasters, however, defeated

the undertaking, and he returned home without having seen this country, and with no other advantage than that derived from the lessons of his brother, one of the most experienced seamen of his age. Scarcely had he reached England, however, before he found himself in another scene of activity and war. Spain had stirred ' up the spirit of rebellion in Ireland. Raleigh now had a name as a soldier, and we find him at the seat of war in command of a company. Here it was that his remarkable talents first shone forth with a lustre that challenged notice. He found himself in various important trusts, and well did he execute them all. Uniting the sagacity and ripe judgment of age with the daring courage and uncálculating generosity of youth, he would now defeat the enemy by superior tactics, and now rush single-handed to the rescue of a friend, and bring him off in triumph at the peril of his life. The rebellion was suppressed, and Raleigh, with a reputation of the highest order among those who had stood by his side as soldiers, returned with no recommendations but those his own talents and attainments had procured, to play his part at a most eventful period among men more splendid than any other court in Europe at that day could boast.

And now we must digress from our narrative long enough to present a picture of the "Virgin Queen," and those whom she had gathered around her for the support of her throne.

Of Elizabeth herself, perhaps no more comprehensive character was ever sketched than that which came from the pen of her secretary, the younger Cecil, after the grave had secured him against the possibility of her resentment. She was, as he said, "more than a man, and in troth somewhat less than a woman." In the masculine vigor of her understanding, and the lion-hearted boldness which she inherited from her father, she exhibited qualities belonging to the sterner sex; and was often more than many men would have been under the circumstances;-while her feminine weaknesses went far beyond those of most women. The distinguishing features of the better part of her character were her admirable power of discriminating true mental strength; and of attaching to her service the devoted labors of the best minds in her kingdom. The individual who can do these things belongs not to the ordinary class. When seated at the council board, we