prepared againe to goe up to Roanoak, but Captaine Spicer had then sent
his boat a shore for fresh water by meanes whereof it was ten of the
clocke aforenoone before we put from our ships which were then come to
an anker within two miles of the shore. The Admirals boat [in which was
White] was halfe wey toward the shore when Captaine Spicer put off from
his ship. The Admirals boat first passed the breach, but not without
some danger of sinking, for we had a sea brake into our boat which
filled us halfe full of water, but by the will of God and carefull
styrage of Captaine Cooke we came safe ashore, saving only that our
furniture, victuals, match and powder were much wet and spoyled. For at
this time the winde blew at Northeast and direct into the harbour so
great a gale, that the Sea brake extremely on the barre, and the tide
went very forcibly at the entrance. By the time that our Admirals boate
was hailed ashore, and most of the things taken out to dry, Captaine
Spicer came to the entrance of the breach with his mast standing up, and
was halfe passed over, but by the rash and indiscreet styrage of Ralph
Skinner his Masters mate, a very dangerous sea brake into their boate
and overset them quite: the men kept the boat, some in it, and some
hanging on it, but the next sea set the boat on ground, where it beat so
that some of them were forced to let goe their hold, hoping to wade
ashore; but the Sea still beat them downe, so that they could neither
stand nor swimme, and the boat twise or thrise was turned the keel
upward, whereon Captaine Spicer and Skinner hung untill they sunke &
were seene no more. But foure that could swimme a little kept themselves
in deeper water and were saved by Captaine Cookes meanes, who so soon as
he saw them oversetting stripped himselfe, and foure other that could
swimme very well, & with all haste possible rowed unto them & saved
foure. They were 11 in all, & 7 of the chiefest men were drowned.”
This mishap so disturbed the sailors in White’s boat that they were “all
of one mind not to goe any further to seeke the planters.” But through
the persuasions and commands of White and Captain Cooke they recovered
courage, and set to work refitting both boats. Then the remaining
company, nineteen in all, put off once more. Before Roanoke Island was
reached night had fallen, and in the darkness they overshot the place of
plantation by a quarter of a mile. Toward the north end of the island
they saw the light of a great fire through the woods, and in its
direction they presently rowed. When they had come directly over against
it they let fall their grapnel near the shore and sounded a trumpet
call. This bringing no response they gave some familiar English tunes,
then sang some English songs, and “called to them friendly.” Still there
came no answer, and the hope that the colonists were here died out
within them. At daybreak they landed, and coming to the fire they found
grass and rotten trees burning, but no human beings about the place.
Then they tramped through the woods to that part of the island over
against Dasamonguepeuk, and thence returned by the water side round
about the north point till they had reached the place where White had
left the colony:
"In all this way we saw in the sand the print of the Salvages feet of 2
or 3 sorts troaden ye night, and as we entred up the sandy banke, upon a
tree, in the very brow thereof were curiously carved these faire Roman
letters
CRO
which letters presently we knew to signifie the place where I should
find the planters seated according to a secret token agreed upon
betweene them & me at my last departure from them, which was, that in
any ways they should not faile to carve on the trees or posts of the
dores [of their houses] the name of the place where they should be
seated: for at my coming away they were prepared to remove from Roanoak
50 miles into the main. Therefore at my departure from them in An 1587 I
willed them, that if they should happen to be distressed in any of those
places, that then they should carve over the letters or name a Crosse in
this forme =☩=, but we found no such signe of distresse.
"And having well considered of this, we passed toward the place where
they were left in sundry houses, but we found the houses taken downe,
and the place very strongly enclosed with a high palisado of great
trees, with cortynes and flankers very Fort-like, and one of the chiefe
trees or postes on the right side of the entrance had the barke taken
off, and 5 foote from the ground in fayre Capitall letters were graven
CROATOAN
without any crosse or signe of distresse: this done we entred into the
palisado, where we found many barres of Iron, too pigges of Lead, foure
yron fowlers, Iron sacker-shotte, and such like heavie things, throwen
here and there, almost overgrowen with grasse and weedes.
"From thence wee went along by the water side towards the pointe or
Creeke to see if we could find any of their botes or Pinnisse, but we
could perceive no signe of them, nor any of the last Falkons and small
Ordinance which were left with them at my departure from them. At our
returne from the Creeke, some of our Saylers meeting us, tolde us that
they had found where divers chests had bene hidden and long sithence
[since] digged up againe and broken up, and much of the goods in them
spoyled and scattered about, but nothing left, of such things as the
Savages knew any use of, undefaced.
[Illustration: THE LOST COLONY.]
“Presently Captaine Cooke and I went to the place, which was in the ende
of an olde trench, made two yeeres past by Captaine Amadas: wheere wee
found five Chests, that had bene carefully hidden of the Planters, and
of the same chests three were my owne, and about the place many of my
things spoyled and broken, and my bookes torne from the covers, the
frames of some of my pictures and Mappes rotten and spoyled with rayne,
and my armour almost eaten through with rust; this could bee no other
than the deede of the Savages our enemies at Dasamonguepeuk, who had
watched the departure of our men to Croatoan [the island, not the main
land so named, at Dasamonguepeuk, as on early maps]: and assoone as they
were departed, digged up every place where they suspected anything to be
buried: but although it much grieved me to see such spoyle of my goods,
yet on the other side I greatly joyed that I had safely found a certaine
token of their safe being at Croatoan, which is the place where Manteo
was borne, and the Savages of the Iland our friends.”
With these findings, the day being near spent, the party returned to
their boats and made off for the ships as fast as possible for a stormy
night threatened. They reached the ships in the evening and got aboard
with “much danger and labour,” for the storm had now fallen with high
wind and a heavy sea.
The next morning the ships were made ready immediately to sail for the
island of Croatoan, the wind being good for that place, all hands fully
expecting to come upon the colony there. But in hoisting the admiral’s
anchor the cable broke, and the anchor was lost: whereupon the ship was
driven so fast shoreward that she was forced to let fall another anchor,
and this “came so fast home” that she barely escaped running ashore by
“Kendricks mounts.” She fortunately got clear again but not without some
injury. She now had but one cable, and but one anchor left of her
equipment of four. Meanwhile the weather was becoming “fouler and
fouler.” Under these conditions, and in view of their diminishing stock
of victuals, together with the loss of a cask of fresh water that they
had been obliged to leave on shore, it was decided that the visit of
Croatoan must be given up for this time, and that, instead, the ships
must at once make for Saint John or some other island to the southward
for fresh water and new supplies. It was further proposed that the ships
should winter in the West Indies, with the hope of making “two riche
voyages of one”: and Captain Cooke of the admiral, at White’s earnest
plea, agreed that they should then return to “Virginia” and again seek
the colony at Croatoan.
But to this proposal the captain of one of the ships objected on the
ground that his vessel was too weak and leaky to attempt to continue so
long a voyage. Accordingly that night they parted company, this consort
heading direct for England, and the admiral setting her course for
Trinidad. So the Carolina coast was forsaken, and no return was made.
After various adventures the admiral ultimately reached home with White
heartbroken at his failure to reach his people, to whom he believed he
had been so near.
The “evils and unfortunate events” attending this expedition, “as well
to their owne losse as to the hindrance of the planters of Virginia,” he
wrote Richard Hakluyt, “had not chanced if the order set downe by Sir
Walter Ralegh had bene observed, or if my dayly & continuall petitions
for the performance of the same might have taken any place.” And “thus,”
he sorrowfully concludes, “you may plainely perceive the successe of my
fift & last voiage to Virginia, which was no lesse unfortunately ended
than frowardly begun, and as lucklesse to many as sinister to my self.
But I would to God it had bene as prosperous to all, as noysome to the
planters, & as joyfull to me as discomfortable to them. Yet seeing it is
not my first crossed voyage, I remaine contented. And wanting my wishes,
I leave off from prosecuting that whereunto I would to God my wealth
were answerable to my will.” With this letter, written “from my house at
Newtowne in Kylmore the 4 of February 1593,” White took leave of the
matter, committing “the planters in Virginia to the merciful help of the
Almighty.” He could do no more. From this time he seems to have remained
in retirement in Ireland till the close of his life.
Of the fate of the Lost Colony conjectures of historians have been
various. That they did actually replant themselves on the then existing
“island of Croatoan,” presumed to have been some part of the banks lying
between Capes Lookout and Hatteras, and in the present county of
Carteret, is accepted as fairly proved by White’s finding of the
inscription on the “chiefe tree” of the palisado at Roanoke. No further
clue to the mystery of their passing is to be found, unless it be in
this statement made a century and a quarter afterward by an early
historian of Carolina (Lawson, 1714): “The Hatteras Indians who lived in
Roanoke Island, or much frequented it, tell us that several of their
ancestors were white people who could talk in a book as we do.”
Perhaps a remnant that survived massacre, misery, or homesickness were,
as this statement implies, and the later Carolina historian, Hawkes,
assumed, gradually incorporated with these friendly Indians and faded
from civilization into the savage life.
XXII
JAMESTOWN
With unquenchable hopefulness Raleigh continued his quest for the Lost
Colony to the close of Elizabeth’s reign, and abandoned it only when
forced to do so by the attainder of James stripping him of his rights
and liberty. By Elizabeth’s last year he had fitted out at his own
charges five several expeditions solely for this purpose. While during
this period, 1589–1603, his marvellous energies had been directed in
many channels, he had remitted no efforts for the succour of his
colonists. While performing many parts,—courtier, captain of the queen’s
guard, statesman, member of parliament, mariner, sea-fighter, explorer,
gold seeker,—and with varying fortunes, now falling under the queen’s
displeasure, imprisoned in the Tower of London, again restored to her
favour, engaged in dazzling adventure, American colonization was ever
paramount in his thoughts.
[Illustration: A SPANISH GALLEON OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.]
And how crowded with extraordinary activities by this most versatile of
the Elizabethan men these years were, the record of his greater
achievements, mostly chronicled in the _Principal Navigations_, shows.
What he had done up to the time of White’s abandonment of the search for
the Lost Colony in 1590 we have seen. In 1591 he was the organizer of a
fleet for service against Spain’s American possessions, and was
appointed second in command under Lord Thomas Howard. But the queen
refusing to let him go out, his cousin Sir Richard Grenville was
appointed in his place; and with this expedition Sir Richard’s career
closed, he being wounded to death when off the Azores, the last of
August, in one of the most stubborn and desperate sea-fights of naval
history. The next year, 1592, Raleigh promoted the privateering
expedition under Frobisher and Burroughs which captured, among other
prizes in the West Indies, the “Madre de Dios,” greatest of the Spanish
treasure-ships then afloat. It was in this year, in July, that he was
disgraced and sent to the Tower, but in October, when the privateers had
returned with their rich prize, the queen, who had the largest share in
this privateering venture, released him, since he alone could
superintend the division of the plunder. In 1593 he matured a plan for a
voyage to the “Empire of Guiana” and the fabled “El Dorado,” the “citie
of gold,” in the unexplored northwestern part of South America, of which
the natives had told Spanish travellers, with mines far excelling those
of Peru. In 1594, in accordance with this plan, he sent out a
preliminary expedition, under an experienced navigator, Captain Jacob
Whiddon, to explore the coast contiguous to the great River Orinoco, and
also the river with its tributaries, above which “El Dorado,” or “Manoa”
as called by the Indians, was supposed to lie. In 1595 he sailed himself
for Guiana at the head of a fleet of five ships and a company of one
hundred officers, soldiers, and gentlemen adventurers. By a perilous
voyage in small boats he succeeded in penetrating the Orinoco far up to
the mouth of the Caroni, and the latter river to impassable falls, yet
two hundred miles short, as it was reckoned, of the “citie of gold.”
Upon his return to England in the summer, with some specimens of ore
which he had picked up along the way, and the son of a local king as a
pledge of friendship against his next coming, he prepared, maybe with
Hakluyt’s assistance, a glowing account of this voyage, embellished with
the tales that had been told him of the wonders of the region besides
its richness in mines: among them, the “Amazons,” a warlike race of
great women, and the “Ewaipanoma,” a headless nation, whose eyes were in
their shoulders and their mouths in the middle of their breasts, and who
wore “a long train of hair growing backward between the shoulders.” And
when this story was printed, under the inviting title, “The Discouerie
of the large, rich, and beautifull Empire of Guiana, with a relation of
the great and golden citie of Manoa, which the Spaniards call El
Dorado,” it was eagerly read and heightened his reputation. In 1596 he
sent out Captain Laurence Keymis, a companion of his first voyage, with
two well-equipped ships to renew the exploration of the Orinoco,
especially with a view to planting an English colony in the region.
Keymis returned in June with a report that confirmed Raleigh’s belief in
its great mineral wealth. But at this juncture Raleigh was engrossed in
a venture nearer home for checkmating Spain’s move of a second “Armada”
against England. He was now united with Howard and the Earl of Essex in
command of a fleet to attack Cadiz. With the ship “Warspite” he led the
van in the great fight of June twenty-one which resulted in the
destruction of the fleet intended for the descent upon England, and the
capture of the city. Later, the same year, he despatched one of the
smaller ships that had been in the Cadiz fight to Guiana, but this
voyage had no important result. In 1597 he sailed as second in command
with Essex in an expedition to strike another blow against Spain, and
this was effectively done with the capture of Fayal. In 1598 his scheme
of colonization in the fertile valley of the Orinoco had developed, and
he planned to send out a colony. But for some reason not known the
enterprise was abandoned. In 1600 he added to his several offices that
of Governor of Jersey. In 1602 he despatched his fifth expedition for
the relief of the “Virginia” colony.
This expedition was put in charge of Captain Samuel Mace, an excellent
mariner, who had already made two voyages to “Virginia.” He returned
unsuccessful and Raleigh planned to send him out again. Raleigh could
not, however, do any more at his personal cost alone. He had now
exhausted his own means in the undertaking which, as Hakluyt wrote,
“required a prince’s purse to have it thoroughly followed out.” He had
renewed his endeavours to bring the privy council into his scheme, but
without success. Elizabeth’s end was approaching and her ministers were
busy with their personal affairs, manœuvring for their own
advancement with her successor on the throne. Notwithstanding his
failure to find support his splendid hope for his “Virginia” was not
crushed. On the eve of his own downfall, which came swift upon the
accession of James, he had written, “I shall yet live to see it an
English Nation.” This faith he carried with him to the Tower of London,
into which James thrust him in December, 1603, under sentence of death
on a trumped-up charge of treason; and while in durance here he saw his
cherished hopes realized through Richard Hakluyt’s efforts.
In 1605 Hakluyt brought his arguments to bear upon various men of
condition, friendly to colonization, to induce them to join in a
petition for patents for the establishment of two plantations on the
coast of North America. The issue of this petition was James’s charter
bearing date of April tenth, 1606, by which the two companies,
subsequently designated the London and the Plymouth Companies, were
created, between whom were divided in nearly equal parts the vast
territory then known as Virginia, stretching from Cape Fear to Halifax,
and back a hundred miles inland: the company occupying the southern part
to be called the “First Colony of Virginia” and that occupying the
northern part, the “Second Colony of Virginia.”
Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Richard Hakluyt, and Edward Maria
Wingfield, as patentees, were the chief adventurers in the London or
South Virginia Company. Ten of the nineteen adventurers styled
merchants, remaining in England, at the establishment of the corporation
of “The Governour and Assistants of the Citie of Ralegh in Virginia”
became subscribers to the South Virginia Company. Sir Thomas Smith,
chief among the nineteen merchants, was made their first treasurer. Just
a year after the issue of the patent their “First Colony of Virginia,”
sailing from England in December, 1606, arrived out at Chesapeake Bay,
the region which Ralph Lane had determined as the fitter place than
Roanoke for settlement, and in which Raleigh had directed White with the
Second—the Lost—Colony to plant, as they would have done had Captain
Ferdinando been true to them. And in May, 1607, the permanent settlement
here was at last begun as Jamestown.
* * * * *
Raleigh was condemned to be executed on the eleventh of December, 1603,
but the day before he was reprieved, and he was held a prisoner in the
Tower, with this unjust sentence hanging over his head, for thirteen
dismal years. During this cruel imprisonment his great talents were
occupied in philosophic and literary work, and he wrote out his notable
_Historie of the World_. Meanwhile his statesmanlike interest in the
developing American colony continued constant and keen. At one time he
sought release for a visit to Virginia, promising to bring the king rich
returns therefrom. At length, in 1616, James liberated him for the
purpose of making another expedition to Guiana upon his pledge to find
the fabulous gold mine or else bear all the expenses of the undertaking.
Thus at liberty, while making his preparations for this voyage, he was
enabled to see Pocahontas from Virginia, who was in England that year.
He sailed on his forlorn hope in June, 1617, with a fleet of fourteen
ships and four hundred men, accompanied by his son Walter, and his
faithful friend Captain Keymis. The expedition was a tragic failure, for
his plans were betrayed to the court at Madrid, through the Spanish
ambassador, under whose influence James had fallen, and immediate steps
were taken to thwart them. The fleet were attacked by the Spaniards at a
new Spanish settlement on the Orinoco, and in the fight that ensued
young Raleigh was killed. Sir Walter himself had been detained at
Trinidad, sick with a violent fever, and when the report of this
disaster with the loss of his beloved son was brought to him, his stout
heart was broken. Upon his return to England he was rearrested at the
representation of the Spanish ambassador, on a charge of breaking the
peace with Spain. Again he was thrust into the Tower. Trial was denied
him, and the truculent James, at the behest of the king of Spain, now
ordered his execution, finding a legal cover for this judicial murder in
the original sentence of 1603. He was brought before the Court of King’s
Bench on the twenty-eighth of October, 1618, and the next morning was
beheaded on Tower Hill, meeting death with great fortitude. “Prythie,
let me see the axe, dost thou think, man, I am afraid of it?” he asked
of the executioner; “a sharp medicine, but a sound cure for all
diseases.”
* * * * *
In St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster, is the beautiful Raleigh Window,
the gift of Americans, with this inscription from the pen of James
Russell Lowell:
“The New World’s sons, from England’s breasts we drew
Such milk as bids remember whence we came;
Proud of her Past, wherefrom our Present grew,
This Window we inscribe with Raleigh’s name.”
Hakluyt’s monument is the Hakluyt Society, worthy among historical
institutions, in the membership of which Americans are united with
Englishmen, founded in England in the first half of the nineteenth
century, in a manner to continue Hakluyt’s work through the printing of
hitherto unpublished or rare accounts of voyages and travels, so to open
an easier way to a branch of knowledge which, as the founders truly say,
“yields to none in importance and is superior to most in agreeable
variety.”
THE END
INDEX
Adams, Clement, 77, 78;
narrative of Richard Chancellor’s adventures by, 109, 114, 117.
Ælfrid, King, 37.
African coast, 144, 197, 198, 200, 201, 202, 210, 211, 228, 256.
African slave trade, 197, 198, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 210, 212.
“Aid,” ship, 141;
“Ayde,” ship, in Frobisher’s voyages, 157, 158, 159, 166, 167, 169,
170, 174, 175, 177, 178, 179, 183, 185, 186.
Albemarle Sound, 10, 320.
Amadas, Philip, and Arthur Barlow, Capts., first expedition of, to
North America for Raleigh, 311–321, 322;
Amadas admiral in Raleigh’s First Colony, 322, 323, 329, 330, 353,
376.
“Amazons,” of Guiana, 383.
American colonization, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11;
Gilbert’s projects for, 5, 23, 24, 285, 307;
Raleigh’s projects for, 6, 8–9, 11, 12, 24, 25, 308, 311;
Huguenot colony, 11, 12, 206–209, 252;
Frobisher’s scheme of, 177;
footprints of, 308–321;
Raleigh’s colonies, 322–380, 381;
in South America, 384, 386.
“Angel,” ship, in Hawkins’s third westward voyage, 210.
“Anne,” ship, of fleet for Russia, 129.
“Anne Francis,” ship, in Frobisher’s third Northwestern voyage, 178,
181, 183, 184, 185, 187, 188, 189, 191, 192, 193.
Antonio, Dom, Portuguese pretender, 26, 284.
Archangel, 114, 130.
Arthur, King, 13, 36.
Ashehurst, Thomas, merchant adventurer, 92.
Atlantic ocean, 263.
Ayala, Don Pedro de, 73.
Azores, 306, 382.
B
“Baccaloas,” 75, 85, 87.
Baffin Land, 155.
Balboa, Vasco Nunez, 241.
Bahama Islands, 328.
“Bark Raleigh,” of Gilbert’s fleet for America, 288, 290.
Barlow, Arthur. _See_ Amadas and Barlow.
Barret, Capt., master of the “Jesus of Lubec,” 218, 224.
Basanière, Martin, 11.
Bay of St. Nicholas, 114.
“Bay of Severing Friends,” 263.
Beare, James, navigator, 158, 169.
“Beare,” ship, in Frobisher’s third Northwestern voyage, 178.
Bear’s Sound, 169, 187, 193.
“Benedict,” ship, of Drake’s fleet for the voyage round the world, 275.
Best, George, historian and voyager, 144;
narratives of Frobisher’s voyages by, 149, 150, 151, 154, 155, 156,
158, 159, 160, 161, 162–165, 166, 167–168;
lieutenant in Frobisher’s second voyage, 158, 168, 170;
description of natives of “Meta Incognita” by, 173, 176, 178, 179,
180, 181;
heroic exploits of, 188–191, 193.
“Best’s Blessing,” 189, 191.
“Best’s Bulwark,” 170.
Biddle, Richard, biographer, 71, 88.
Bodleian Library, 283.
Bokhara, 130, 133, 134.
“Bona Confidentia,” ship, in the Willoughby-Chancellor voyage, 105,
106, 111, 112, 113, 126;
wreck of, 127, 137.
“Bona Esperanza,” ship, in the Willoughby-Chancellor voyage, 105, 106,
108, 111, 112, 113, 126;
wreck of, 127, 137.
“Bonner,” ship, of Drake’s fleet in “Virginia,” 348.
Borough, _Stephen_, 106, 135, 136;
voyages of, to Russia, 136–138, 138–139;
Burrough’s Straits named for, 137;
in Spain, 138.
_William_, 109, 135.
Bowdoin College, 7.
Brazil, 90, 94, 198, 199, 258.
Bristol, Eng., 39, 61, 62;
the Cabot’s voyages from, 65, 66, 72;
Bristol men in American adventures, 66, 72, 91–92, 103;
Bristol Castle, 175, 177.
British Museum, 7.
Brown, Capt., of the “Delight” of Gilbert’s fleet, 301.
Buenos Ayres, 102.
“Burcher’s Island,” 152.
“Buss Island,” 194.
Butrigarius, Galeacius, 79.
Buts, Thomas, mariner, 101.
C