teen hurt. But in the end he entered and took one of the Spanish ships, which was so sore shot by us under water, that before they could take out her treasure, she sunk; so that we lost thirteen pipes of silver, which sunk with her, besides much other rich merchandise. And in the meantime the other Spanish ships being pierced with nine shot under water, got away, whom our Vice-Admiral intended to pursue; but some of their men in the top made certain rocks, which they saw above water near the shore, to be gallies of Havana, and Carthagena, coming from Havana, to rescue the two ships, wherefore they gave over their chase, and went for England. After this intelligence was given us by this our prize, he departed from us and went for England. On Saturday, the nineteenth of September, we came to an anchor near a small village on the north side of Flores, where we found riding five English men-of-war, of whom we understood that our Vice-Admiral and prize were gone thence for England. One of those five was the Moonlight, our consort, who, upon the first sight of our coming into Flores, set sail and went for England, not taking any leave of us. On Sunday, the twentieth, the Mary Rose, admiral of the queen's fleet, wherein was General Sir John Hawkins, stood in with Flores, and divers other of the queen's ships, namely, the Hope, the Nonpareil, the Rainbow, the Swiftsure, the Foresight, with many other good merchant ships of war, as the Edward Bonaventure, the Merchant Royal, the Amity, the Eagle, the Dainty of Sir John Hawkins, and many other good ships and pinnaces, all attending to meet with the king of Spain's fleet, coming from Terrafirma of the West Indies. The twenty-second of September we went aboard the Rainbow, and towards night we spake with the Swiftsure, and gave him three pieces. The captains desired our company; wherefore we willingly attended on them, who at this time, with ten other ships, stood for Fayal. But the general, with the rest of the fleet, were separated from us, making two fleets, for the sure meeting with the Spanish fleet. On Wednesday, the twenty-third, we saw Gratiosa, where the admiral and the rest of the queen's fleet were come together. The admiral put forth a flag of counsel, in which was determined that the whole fleet should go for the main, and spread themselves on the coast of Spain and Portugal, so far as conveniently they might, for the sure meeting of the Spanish fleet in those parts. The twenty-sixth we came to Fayal, where the admiral, with some other of the fleet anchored, other some plyed up and down between that and the Pico until midnight, at which time the Antony shot off a piece, and weighed, showing his light; after whom the whole fleet stood to the east, the wind at northeast by east. On Sunday, the twenty-seventh, towards evening, we took our leave of the admiral and the whole fleet, who stood to the east. But our ship, accompanied with a fly-boat, stood in again with St. George, where we purposed to take in more fresh water, and some other fresh victuals. On Wednesday, the thirtieth of September, seeing the wind hang so northerly, that we could not attain the island of St. George, we gave over our purpose to water there, and the next day framed our due course for England. October. The second of October, in the morning, we saw St. Michael's Island on our starboard quarter. The 23d, at 10 of the clock, before noon, we saw Ushant, in Brittany. On Saturday, the twenty-fourth, we came in safety, God be thanked, to an anchor in Plymouth. [This ends our documentary history of the earlier attempts at colonization under Raleigh and his associates. We now proceed in our effort to condense, into the form of continuous narrative, the facts gathered from the materials we have presented to the reader, in the previous pages.] NARRATIVE. 15841591. CHAPTER I. First English Colony in America planted in North Carolina.-Sir Walter Raleigh.Expedition of Amadas and Barlowe in 1584.-Inlet at which they probably entered not Ocracoke. -Interview and friendly intercourse with the natives. - River "Occam."-Roanoak Island.-Return of the expedition to England with two of the natives. Name of Virginia applied by Queen Elizabeth to the lands discovered.— Second expedition, under Sir Richard Greenville, sent by Raleigh in 1585.-Its arrival at Roanoak Island.-Sir Richard's return to England.-The command devolves on Ralph Lane.-Discoveries of the colonists.-Plot of the savages to massacre the English.-Defeated by Lane.—Return of the expedition with Sir Francis Drake, after one year's residence in Carolina. THAT portion of the United States included within the limits of North Carolina, may justly claim the honor of having received the first English colony that was planted in the western hemisphere. The story of its trials, its disasters, and final failure, carries us back to a memorable period in England's history; and derives additional interest from its association with the life of one of the most remarkable men in an age when remarkable men were by no means uncommon. The reign of Elizabeth and the career of Sir Walter Raleigh, present to the historian of North Carolina the first actors in the early scenes of which that State has been the theatre. It was the lot of Sir Walter Raleigh (as it commonly is that of public men possessing great energy of character) to occupy no middle position in the eyes either of friend or foe. The exaggerations of friendship raised him perhaps as much above the dead level of humanity as the revilings of hatred placed him below it. The devoted affection of his adherents was equaled only by the intense enmity of his foes. And yet, after all due allowance is made for partiality on the one hand, and prejudice on the other, the dispassionate mind settles down in the conviction that Sir Walter Raleigh was, both morally and intellectually, a very remarkable man. Truly has it been said that "no Englishman of his age possessed so various or so extraordinary qualities."* Remarkable for the boldness of his designs, he sought only large and magnificent results; and to produce these, he called into exercise the calmest self-possession, the most indomitable courage, a perfectly wonderful faculty of meeting unexpected obstacles with means and expedients adopted at the moment, and an industry that never tired in the pursuit of his end. Thoroughly loyal, as we believe, and with a heart devoted to the prosperity of his country, he brought to his task as a legislator and statesman, the soundest practical wisdom, united to a comprehensiveness of design which by its very magnitude often startled his more timid companions. The power of Spain was then at its height, and was the only dangerous rival to the splendid career of England in the course of nautical enterprise on which she was then just entering. All Raleigh's plans aimed, therefore, at the humiliation of Spain, and probably no Englishman of his day contributed more than he did with sword and tongue and pen to establish the supremacy of his country over her haughty rival. A judicial murder at length closed, on the scaffold, the career of this gifted man, who to the last exhibited the qualities which ennoble human nature. But we have already spoken of him so fully on a previous page, that no more need be said here; and we trust an apology for the little that has been offered will suggest itself in the thought, that it scarcely seems meet to commence a history of North Carolina without some notice, however brief, of the character of a noble, though not faultless man, who planted the first English colony on our shores, and whose remembrance has been honorably and gratefully perpetuated in the name of her capital, by the State which he first sought to bring within the pale of civilization. It was a just and appropriate tribute paid by posterity to his fair fame, alike honorable to the 1 Bancroft, 123. memory of him on whom it was conferred, and to those who, too far removed from his times to be affected by prejudice, were better fitted, calmly and dispassionately, to appreciate the virtues of a great man, whose very faults, for the most part, flowed from the excess of his noble and generous emotions. "The 27 day of Aprill, in the yeere of our redemption, 1584," (so runs the record*) two barks, under the respective commands of Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe, and "well furnished with men and victuals," sailed from the west of England on a voyage of discovery to that large portion of the continent of America, afterward known under the general name of Virginia. These barks had been fitted out, and the voyage undertaken at the sole charge of Sir Walter Raleigh, whose active mind and enterprising spirit prompted him readily to enter into the schemes of distant colonization, which at that time agitated in a greater or less degree nearly all the maritime powers of Europe. It was only in the previous year that his step-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, had perished, on his return voyage from the northern part of our continent; but, undismayed by the sad event, Raleigh resolved to seek on our more southern shores a milder climate, and there to colonize. It was not difficult to obtain from the queen of England the necessary patent. Elizabeth was too wise to discountenance an extension of her dominions; and the wild dreams of immense wealth to be gathered from the new world doubtless afforded a stimulus alike potent both to sovereign and subjects. By this patent, which was to continue six years, Raleigh was made lord proprietor of his discoveries, with almost unlimited powers.† On the fourth of July, according to the calendar of that day, the two barks arrived upon the coast of North Carolina. The land which was thus first made was situated between Cape Lookout and Cape Hatteras, and is now known as Ocracoke Island, in the county of Carteret. Finding no entrance from the sea, the barks sailed along the coast, a distance of one hundred and twenty miles, and entered, with some difficulty, the first inlet that was found, probably New inlet, or some other near it, now filled up * 3 Hakluyt, 246.-Ante. p. 70. † 1 Hazard's State Papers, pp. 33-38.-Ante, p. 11. |