court. He was in or about his thirty-second year, of rugged manhood,
handsome, and debonair. The son of a country gentleman, well connected
through his father’s three marriages with families of prominence, and
taking young to adventure, he was early concerned in lively affairs. He
was born about the year 1552, at Hayes, near Budlegh Salterton, South
Devonshire, the second son of his father’s third wife, who was the widow
of Otho Gilbert and the mother of Sir Humphrey Gilbert. Through his
father’s first wife, who was Joan Drake, he was related to Sir Francis
Drake. His own brother was Sir Carew Raleigh, who was concerned with him
in Gilbert’s first expedition of 1578. As a boy he became interested in
seamanship and the life of the sea from talks with sailors returned from
distant voyages. At fifteen he was at Oxford, entered in Oriel College.
At seventeen he was serving as a volunteer in the French Huguenot army.
He remained in France through the next five years. Back in London in
1576, he was variously employed. The next year, or early in 1578, he was
warring in the Low Countries under Sir John Norris. Later in September
he was at Dartmouth, busied with Humphrey Gilbert in fitting out the
fleet for that year’s venture, in which he sailed in command of the
“Falcon.” In 1580 he was serving in Ireland as captain of a company, and
he had part in the awful and cruel massacre at Somerwich in November of
that year. Toward the end of 1581 he was sent home to England with
despatches from the new governor of Münster. Coming to the court he
attracted the fancy of the queen by his manly presence, bearing, and
gallantry, and he rose instantly into the royal favor. With this time is
dated the tradition of his spreading his new plush coat over a muddy way
for the queen to walk upon. He was granted lucrative monopolies,
particularly the “wine licenses,” the profits of which enabled him
liberally to prosecute the schemes of Western adventure he was then
developing.
Raleigh’s patent received the royal signature on the twenty-fifth day of
March, 1584, and only a month later, as we have seen (Chapter I), his
preliminary expedition, comprising his two barks under the experienced
captains Amadas and Barlow, charged to investigate, hasten back, and
report, had sailed off; and under the inspiration of the warm-coloured
story that these captains told upon their return in September, the first
colonization band was formed. This fascinating narrative, therefore, is
the prologue to the epic of true English colonization in America,
culminating in the permanent settlement at Jamestown.
It appears in full in the _Principal Navigations_ with this caption:
“The first voyage made to the coasts of America with two barks, where in
were Captaines M. Philip Amidas, and M. Arthur Barlowe, who discovered
part of the Countrey now called Virginia, Anno 1584. Written by one of
the said Captaines, and sent to sir Walter Ralegh knight, at whose
charge and direction the said voyage was set forth.” Barlow was the
author.
The captains set sail on the twenty-seventh of April, taking the
southern course by the West Indies toward the coast of Florida. Their
landfall, now reckoned to have been shoals out from Capes Fear and
Hatteras, was made on the fourth of July. Their approach was propitious,
for as they struck shoal water two days before, by which they were
assured that land was not far off, they “smelt so sweet and so strong a
smel as if we had bene in the midst of some delicate garden abounding in
all kinds of odoriferous flowers.” They first supposed the coast they
saw to be that of a continent and “firme land.” They ranged along it
northward some “hundred and twentie English miles,” seeking an opening.
At length they came to an inlet which they entered, “not without some
difficultie,” and dropped anchor “about three harquebuz-shot” within the
haven’s mouth. Just where this inlet was has been a matter of long
discussion by historical investigators. Some have confidently identified
it with Ocracoke, now Oregon Inlet: others with New Inlet. A later
authority (Talcott Williams) designated it as a passage long ago closed
by the drifting sands, north of Roanoke Island, and near Collington
Island. After giving thanks to God for their safe arrival thither, they
manned their small boats and went ashore on the “island of Wocokon”
(identified as Collington Island); and here forthwith performed the
ceremony of taking possession of the region “in the right of the Queenes
most excellent Majestie, as rightful Queene and Princesse of the same,”
and for Raleigh under his patent.
This ceremony over they viewed the land about them. While sandy and low
by the waterside it soon rose into fair little hills. Close by the
water’s edge were masses of grape vines. So “full of grapes” indeed was
the place that “the very beating and surging of the Sea overflowed
them.” There was such plenty “as well there as in all places else, both
on the sand and on the greene soile on the hils, as in the plaines, as
well as every little shrubb, as also climing towardes the tops of high
Cedars,” that the narrator thought that in all the world the “like
abundance” was not to be found: and he was a much-travelled man.
Ascending one of the little hills they saw the place to be an island and
not the main. Below them they beheld valleys “replenished with goodly
Cedar trees.” Upon discharging their “harquebuz-shot” such a flock of
cranes, mostly white ones, rose that their cry “redoubled by many
echoes” was “as if an armie of men had showted together.” The island was
seen to be rich in “many goodly woodes full of Deere, Conies, Hares, and
Fowle, even in the middest of Summer in incredible abundance.” The woods
contained “the highest and reddest Cedars of the world ... Pynes,
Cypres, Sarsaphras, the Lentisk, or the tree that beareth the Masticke,
the tree that beareth the vine of blacke Sinamon, of which Master Winter
[of Drake’s fleet that entered the Pacific] brought from the straights
of Magellan, and many other of excellent smel and qualitie.”
They remained at this island for two whole days before they had sight of
any natives. On the third day when on ship-board they espied a canoe
paddling toward them with three Indians in it. When it had come within
“foure harquebuz-shot” of their ships it put into the point of land
nearest to them. Two of its three occupants went up into the island,
while the other walked to and fro along the point, viewing the ships
with evident interest. Then the two captains and a few others rowed to
the shore to meet him. As they approached he made no shew of “feare or
doubt.” After he had spoken with them “of many things” which they could
not understand, he was invited by gestures to visit the ships, which he
showed was quite to his liking. On board he was entertained with a taste
of their wine and their bread, which he “liked very much,” and was given
a shirt, a hat, and some other things. When he had viewed both barks to
his satisfaction, he was sent back ashore. Again taking his canoe which
he had left in a creek he fell a-fishing not far from the ships, and in
less than half an hour he had laden his boat “as deepe as it could
swimme.” Then returning to the point of land nearest the ships he here
divided his fish into two parts, pointing one part to one of the ships
and one to the other. And so, “as much as he might,” requiting the
benefits he had received from the Englishmen, he departed from their
sight.
The next day a considerable body of natives appeared and formally made
the Englishmen welcome:
"There came unto us divers boates, and in one of them the king’s
brother, accompanied with fortie or fiftie men, very handsome and goodly
people, and in their behaviour as mannerly and civill as any of Europe.
His name was Granganimeo, and the king is called Wingina, the countrey
Wingandacoa. The maner of his comming was in this sort: hee left his
boates altogether, as the first man did a little from the shippes by the
shore, and came along to the place over against the shippes followed
with fortie men.
"When he came to the place his servants spread a long matte upon the
ground on which he sate downe, and at the other ende of the matte foure
others of his companie did the like, the rest of his men stood round
about him, somewhat afarre off: when we came to the shore to him with
our weapons, hee never moved from his place, nor any of the other foure,
nor never mistrusted any harme to be offred from us, but sitting still
he beckoned us to come and sit by him, which we performed: and being set
hee made all signes of joy and welcome, striking on his head and his
breast and afterwardes on ours, to shew wee were all one, smiling and
making shew the best he could of all love and familiaritie.
“After he had made a long speech unto us, wee presented him with divers
things, which he received very joyfully and thankfully. None of the
companie durst speake one worde all the time: onely the foure which were
at the other ende, spake one in the others eare very softly.”
The king himself, it was explained, could not appear, for he was lying
at the chief town of the country, six days’ journey off, sore wounded
from a fight with the king of “the next countrie.”
A day or two after this welcoming meeting the Englishmen fell to trade
with the natives, exchanging various trinkets for “chamoys, buffe, and
Deere skinnes.” A bright tin dish had more attractions than anything
else in their packet of merchandise. One of the natives “clapt” it on
his breast and making a hole in the rim hung it about his neck as a
shield, with gestures to indicate that it would defend him against his
enemies’ arrows. The dish was exchanged for twenty skins worth twenty
English crowns. A copper kettle was traded for fifty skins worth as many
crowns. The natives offered good exchange for hatchets, axes, and
knives, and would have given anything for swords: but with these the
Englishmen would not part. The king’s brother took a special fancy to
the Englishmen’s armor. He offered to lay a great box of pearls in gage
for a suit, together with a sword and a few other things. His offer was
declined for the reason that the captains did not want him to know how
highly they prized the pearls till they had learned in “what places the
pearls grew.” They afterward apparently satisfied themselves on this
point, when, in an exploration of a neighbouring river, they found
“great store of Muskles in which there are pearles.”
After a few days Granganimeo came aboard the ships and was entertained
like the first visitor, with wine, meat, and bread, to his great
pleasure. Another day he brought his wife, daughter, and two or three
children aboard. The wife was of small stature, “very well favoured, and
very bashful.” She was attired in a long cloak of skin with the fur
inwards. Her forehead was adorned with a band of white coral. From her
ears depended “bracelets” of pearls, each pearl, of the size of a pea,
extending to her waist. Her women attendants, who remained on the shore,
some forty of them, during her visit, had pendants of copper in their
ears, and some of Granganimeo’s children and those of other “noble” men
wore five or six in each ear. Granganimeo’s apparel was a cloak like his
wife’s, and on his head was a broad plate of gold or copper. The women
wore their hair long on both sides, the men on but one. These natives
were of a yellowish colour and generally with black hair.
Their boats were made out of whole trees, either pine or pitch trees.
Their manner of constructing them was thus: “They burne downe some great
tree or take such as are winde fallen, and putting gumme and rosen on
one side thereof they set fire unto it, and when it hath burnt it
hollow, they cut out the coale with their shels, and even where they
would burne it deeper or wider they lay on gummes which burne away the
timber, and by this meanes they fashion very fine boates, and such as
will transport twentie men.” Their oars were “like scoopes,” and “many
times they set with long pooles as the depth serveth.”
The king’s brother was very just in keeping his promises and generous
with supplies. Every day he sent to the ships a brace or two of fat
“Bucks, Conies, Hares, Fish the best of the world.” Also “divers kindes
of fruites, Melons, Walnuts, Cucumbers, Gourdes, Pease, and divers
roots,” and of their “countrey corne, which is very white, faire, and
well tasted, and groweth three times in five moneths.” The Englishmen
“proved” the soil, putting some pease into the ground; in less than ten
days, the narrator averred, they were of “fourteene ynches high.” The
natives also raised beans “very faire of divers colours and wonderful
plentie: some growing naturally, and some in their gardens”; and both
wheat and oats. The soil was declared to be “the most plentifull,
sweete, fruitfull and wholesome of all the worlde.” There were counted
fourteen or more different “sweete smeling” timber trees. The most part
of the underwoods were “Bayes and such like.” There were oaks like those
of England, but “farre greater and better.”
The narrator with seven others went “twentie miles into the river that
runneth towarde the citie of Skiwak [Indian village], which river they
[the natives] call Occam, and in the evening following ... came to an
island which they call Roanoak.” At the north end of this island was a
village of nine houses built of cedar and fortified round with sharp
trees to keep out their enemies, the entrance being “made like a turne
pike very artificially.” This village was the home of Granganimeo. As
they neared it his wife came running down to the waterside to meet them.
Granganimeo was not then in the village, and his spouse did the honours
of host most graciously. She bade some of her people to draw the
Englishmen’s boat through the beating billows to the shore; others to
carry the visitors on their backs to the dry ground; others to take
their oars to her house lest the boat might be stolen. After they were
come into her dwelling, a hut of five rooms, they were sat by a great
fire while their wet garments were washed and dried by her women, she
herself in the meantime taking “great paines to see all things ordered
in the best maner shee could,” and “making great haste to dress some
meat” for their supper. When they had comfortably dried themselves they
were conducted into an inner room where, “on the board standing along
the house,” a tempting banquet of venison, fruits, and wheat foods was
spread. The whole entertainment was marked by “all love and kindnesse,
and with as much bountie (after their maner) as they could possibly
devise.” Here, as in their other experiences, the Englishmen found the
people “most gentle, loving, and faithful, voide of all guile and
treason, and such as live after the maner of the golden age.”
Throughout the visit at Roanoke their hostess was assiduous for their
welfare. This was most energetically displayed in an incident while they
were at supper. “There came in at the gates two or three men with their
bowes and arrowes from hunting, whom when wee espied we beganne to looke
one towardes another, and offered to reach our weapons: but assoone as
she espied our mistrust shee was very much mooved, and caused some of
her men to runne out, and take away their bowes and arrowes and breake
them and withall beate the poore fellowes out of the gate againe.” When
as the evening waned the Englishmen made ready to return to their boats,
declining the hospitality of the village over night, she had the viands
left over from the supper, “pottes and all,” carried to their craft.
When they embarked and rowed off a “prettie” distance from the shore,
there to lie through the night, she was much grieved at this evidence of
mistrust, and again entreated them to rest in the houses of the village.
And when they still declined, she sent “divers men and thirtie women to
sit all night on the banke side” opposite them; and as rain began to
fall mats were sent out to them for protection against the storm. The
narrator explained that they were thus cautious because they were “fewe
men,” and if they had “miscaried” the expedition would have been in
great danger, so they “durst not adventure any thing.” Yet they had no
cause to doubt the sincerity of these natives, “for a more kinde and
loving people there can not be founde in the worlde, as farre as we have
hitherto had trial.”
On other days further explorations were made around Albemarle Sound, and
information more or less authentic was gathered from the natives as to
Indian towns, and relations between the tribes and the several kings of
the region round about. They found that beyond the islands lay the
mainland. They were told of the greatest Indian city called “Scicoak,”
on the “River Occam”: of another great town on a tributary of this
river, under a “free lord,” independent of neighbouring kings; and
another, four days’ journey southwest of Roanoke, called “Sequotan,” or
“Secotan.” The friendship of the natives increased in warmth on closer
intercourse with the Englishmen. Their interest in the English ships was
unbounded. Whenever a gun was discharged, “were it but a hargubuz,” they
would tremble “for the strangeness of the same.” Their own weapons were
principally slender bows and arrows. The arrows were small canes headed
with a sharp shell or a fish’s tooth, but “sufficient ynough to kill a
naked man.” They used swords of hardened wood, and a sort of club with
the sharp horns of a stag fastened at the heavy end. They wore wooden
breastplates for defence. When they went to war they carried with them
“their idol of whom they aske counsel as the Romans were woont of the
Oracle of Apollo.” They sang songs as they marched forth to battle
instead of sounding drums and trumpets. Their wars were “very cruel and
bloody.” For this reason, and as a result of civil dissensions that had
happened among them in recent years, the people of the region were
“marvellously wasted, and in some places the countrey [was] left
desolate.”
When the reconnoitering captains finally set sail for the return to
England they carried with them two of the natives, “lustie men,”
Wanchese and Manteo by name. Manteo afterward became of considerable
service to the first two colonies, and rose to the distinction of a
native American baron—the “Lord of Roanoak,” as will duly appear with
the development of the story of colonization in the following chapters.
XX
“VIRGINIA”
The country to which Queen Elizabeth gave the name “Virginia,” upon the
return of Raleigh’s reconnoitering captains in September, 1584, with
their flattering report, comprehended vaguely the whole of the seaboard
of North America above Florida to a point toward Newfoundland, and
inland indefinitely. In the following Spring Raleigh’s first company of
intended colonists were ready to depart for the fruitful region, the
attractions of which Captains Amadas and Barlow had set forth so
enchantingly.
This pioneer band comprised gentlemen of standing, experienced
navigators, younger sons of noble houses or gentry seeking adventure,
restless spirits with an eye for pelf, hardy sailors. Ralph Lane at the
head as governor, was a sailor-soldier of merit, and when invited by
Raleigh to this post was serving in Ireland. Captain Amadas, of the
reconnoitering expedition, was Lane’s deputy, afterward designated
“admiral of the country”—Virginia. Thomas Hariot, or Harriot, named as
surveyor, and also to be the historian of the colony, had been Raleigh’s
tutor: he became in after years distinguished as a mathematician and
astronomer, and materially advanced the science of algebra. John White,
to be the principal draughtsman, was a man of affairs as well as a
painter of some note, and was later to become governor of Raleigh’s
second colony and grandfather of the first English child born in North
America—Virginia Dare; and in his drawings, with those of the artist Le
Moine, of the Huguenot colony in Florida, 1562–1566 (afterward in London
a “servant” of Raleigh’s), we have the first accurate knowledge of the
North American Indian and of the natural history of the country. Sir
Richard Grenville, a cousin of Raleigh’s, a British naval hero, was the
general of the fleet assembled to carry the company out. Captain Thomas
Cavendish, navigator and freebooter, soon to circumnavigate the globe,
was commander of one of the ships. The two Indians, Wanchese and Manteo,
whom Amadas and Barlow brought home with them, were joined to the
company as guides.
The fleet comprised seven sail: the “Tiger,” admiral or flagship, of one
hundred and forty tons; a “Flie-boat called the Roe-bucke, of the like
burden”; the “Lyon,” one hundred tons, “or thereabouts”; the
“Elizabeth,” fifty tons; the “Dorithie,” a small bark; and two small
pinnaces. They weighed anchor and sailed out of Plymouth harbour on the
ninth of April, 1585. The outward voyage was a leisurely one, with stops
at Porto Rico, Hispaniola, and other places, and with seizures of
Spanish prizes along the way, so that their destination at Wocokon and
Roanoke Island was not reached till the end of June. Their sometimes
exciting adventures on this passage are summarily related in the diary
of one of the company, which Hakluyt gives with this unusually brief
caption: “The voiage made by Sir Richard Greenvile for Sir Walter Ralegh
to Virginia in the yeere 1585.”
The longest stop was made off Porto Rico, at the “Island of S. John de
Porto Rico.” Here a temporary fort was erected close to the seaside, and
backed by woods, and within it a pinnace was built from timber, some of
which was cut three miles up the land and brought upon trucks to the
fort, the few Spaniards on the island “not daring to make or offer
resistance.” One day while they were at this work eight horsemen
appeared out of the woods about a quarter of a mile back, and there
halting, stood silently gazing upon them for half an hour; then, a
company of ten of their men being started out in marching order, the
horsemen disappeared in the woods. Another day a sail was seen afar off
approaching their haven. Supposing her to be either a Spanish or a
French warship, the “Tiger” was made ready and went out to meet her. As
the strange craft was neared, however, she was discovered to be Captain
Cavendish’s ship of their own fleet, which had been separated from them
at sea in a storm. Thereat there was rejoicing instead of a fight, and
the ships’ guns were discharged in mutual peaceful salutes. Again, on
another day, a second and a larger band of horsemen appeared, and nearer
the fort. Twenty footmen and two horsemen, the latter mounted on Spanish
horses that had been seized, were sent against them. When the Englishmen
were within hailing distance the Spaniards displayed a flag of truce,
and made signs for a parley. Two from each side accordingly came
together on the sands between the two lines. The Spanish representatives
offered “very great salutations” to the English, but expostulated
against the Englishmen’s coming and fortifying in their country. The
English representatives assured them that their company were here only
to furnish themselves with water, victuals, and other necessities of
which they stood in need. They hoped the Spaniards would yield these to
them “with faire and friendly meanes”; but if this were not done they
were resolved to “practice force” and relieve themselves by the sword.
At this the Spaniards, with “all courtesie and great favour,” expressed
their readiness to render every assistance, and promised a supply of
provisions. And so the parley ended graciously.
[Illustration:
THE ARRIVAL OF THE ENGLISHMEN IN VIRGINIA.
From a drawing by John White, of Raleigh’s first colony, 1585.
]
The very next day the pinnace was finished and launched. Then the
general, with his captains and gentlemen, marched up into the country to
meet the Spaniards with the promised provisions. But the Spaniards came
not. Whereupon the general fired the woods roundabout, and his party
marched back to their fort. Later, the same day, they fired their fort
and all embarked to sail the next morning on their course. In the
meantime Ralph Lane, taking a Spanish frigate that they had captured,
with a Spanish pilot, had made a successful venture with twenty of his
men to “Roxo bay, on the southwest side of S. John,” after a cargo of
salt. He threw up entrenchments about a salt hut here, and quietly
loaded the frigate while “two or three troupes of [Spanish] horsemen”
stood off and “gave him the looking,” but offered no resistance. When
the fleet sailed from St. John most of the company were itching from the
stings of swarms of “muskitos” which they had got on shore.
That night at sea they took a Spanish frigate whose crew had abandoned
her upon sight of the fleet. Early next morning another was captured:
this a more profitable prize, having a “good and riche freight and
divers Spaniards of account in her.” The Spaniards were afterward
ransomed “for good round summes” and were landed at St. John.