THE FATE OF RALEIGH.
A. D. 1590 TO 1653.
The story of the attempted settlement on Roanoke Island is the
story of one of the world's tragedies. Misfortune seemed to be
the doom, not only of the colonists, but of many gallant men who
sought to aid Sir Walter Raleigh in his enterprise. Sir Humphrey
Gilbert, with two of his ships, was the first to perish at sea;
Sir Francis Drake and his compeer, Sir John Hawkins, both died of
pestilence in the West Indies; and, to the baffled and broken-
hearted originator of the scheme, the coming years were black
with disaster and death.
2. With the loss of Governor White's colony, Raleigh found that
his expenditures had greatly impaired his wealth. He had lost
more than two hundred thousand dollars (£40,000 sterling), and,
no longer able to fit out costly and fruitless expeditions, was
forced to solicit aid from others, joining them in the rights and
privileges granted him by the queen in his charter.
[NOTE--It must also be remembered that money in the sixteenth
century was worth at least five times more than at present.
Forty thousand pounds expended by Sir Walter Raleigh would, at
that time, purchase about what one million dollars would now
command in England or the United States. ]
1603.
3. But Raleigh found his greatest disaster in the death of
Elizabeth. After ruling England so wisely and well for more than
fifty years, she died on March 24th, 1603. This great queen left
her throne to one of the most paltry and contemptible of men.
4. King James I, was an ungainly Scotch pedant, who was incapable
of appreciating heroism and manliness in others, because of his
own deficiency in all such qualities. He lavished favors and
titles on unworthy favorites, and incurred the contempt of wise
men for his follies and vices.
1618.
5. Sir Walter Raleigh had long treated the Spaniards as the
enemies of his country. The King of Spain hated him on that
account, and King James, to please His Catholic Majesty and
secure the marriage of Prince Charles to a Spanish princess,
caused the great lawyer, Sir Edward Coke, to procure the wrongful
conviction of Raleigh, his greatest subject. After lying in
prison for twelve years under this conviction, Raleigh was
released by King James, and although not pardoned, was put in
command of an expedition to the coast of Guiana. The expedition
was unsuccessful, and on his return, to satisfy the King of
Spain, James signed the warrant for Raleigh's execution upon his
former sentence. Accordingly, Raleigh was beheaded, at the age
of sixty-five, as a traitor to the land for whose good he had
accomplished more than any one else in all its limits.
[NOTE--Sir Walter Raleigh occupied the twelve years of his
imprisonment in writing a "history of the world." This work gave
great offence to King James, who endeavored to suppress its
circulation. When Raleigh was carried to execution, while on the
scaffold, he asked to see the axe. He closely examined its
bright, keen edge, and said, with a smile: "This is a sharp
medicine, but a sound cure for all diseases." He then laid his
head composedly on the block, moved his lips as if in prayer, and
gave the signal for the blow. ]
6. Thus suffered and died the man who first sent ships and men to
the soil of North Carolina. That he failed in what he desired to
accomplish should not detract from the gratitude and reverence
due to his memory. If incompetent and unworthy agents, and the
accidents of fortune, thwarted him in his designs, the fault is
not his. He was the greatest and most illustrious man connected
with our annals as a State, and should ever receive the applause
and remembrance of our people.
7. After the death of Sir Walter Raleigh no more efforts were
made to plant a colony at Roanoke. The spot was never favorable
for such a purpose. No coast in the world is much more dangerous
to ships than that of North Carolina. Cape Hatteras is even now
the dread of all mariners. It is visited by many storms, and
sends its deadly sandbars for fifteen miles out into the ocean to
surprise and wreck the ill-fated vessel that has approached too
near the coast.
8. Governor Lane, while at Roanoke, discovered the broad, deep
inlet and safe anchorage at Hampton Roads, within the present
limits of Virginia. This port lies, but little to the north of
that inlet which Amadas and Barlowe entered on the first English
visit to Carolina. Into Hampton Roads, in 1607, went another
colony, sent over by men who had succeeded the unfortunate
Raleigh in the royal permission to plant settlements in America.
To the genius and bravery of the leader, Captain John Smith, was
due the permanence of the settlement at Jamestown. The name of
"Virginia," which had been applied to all the territory claimed
by England under the discoveries of Gilbert and Raleigh, was then
confined to the colony on James River.
9. In the course of a few years many places on the Atlantic coast
were occupied by expeditions sent out from England and other
countries of Europe. Those of England, at Plymouth, of the
Dutch, at New Amsterdam, and of the Swedes, in New Jersey, were
speedily seen, while yet roamed the Tuscarora in undisturbed
possession of North Carolina.
10. As Virginia grew more populous there were hardships and
troubles concerning religion. Men and women were persecuted on
account of their religious practices. If people did not conform
to the "English" or Episcopal Church they were punished by fine
and imprisonment. Sometimes cruel whipping became the portion of
men who were found preaching Quaker and Baptist doctrines.
11. Sir William Berkeley, who was Governor of Virginia, had no
authority over men who dwelt in the region south of a line a few
miles below where the ships approached the inland waters of
Virginia. When this became known many people around the
Nansemond River and adjacent localities went southward, towards
the Albemarle Sound, seeking homes where the tyrant of Virginia
had no jurisdiction.
1653.
12. For this cause Roger Green, a clergyman, in 1653, led a
considerable colony to the banks of the Chowan and Roanoke
Rivers; but even before this, there were probably scattered
settlements over most all the region north of the Albemarle
Sound, of which we have no reliable account.
QUESTIONS.
1. What is said of the attempted settlement upon Roanoke Island?
2. What had the expedition cost Raleigh?
3. What was Raleigh's greatest loss?
4. Who succeeded Queen Elizabeth? What kind of a man was King James I. ?
5. What new trouble came upon Raleigh? Describe his conviction
and death.
6. How should the people of North Carolina ever think of Sir
Walter Raleigh?
7. Were any further efforts made to plant a colony at Roanoke?
What is said of the place?
8. What safe anchorage had Governor Lane discovered? What colony
entered Hampton Roads in 1607? What town was settled in
Virginia, and by whom? To what locality was the name "Virginia"
then confined?
9. Mention some settlements made on the Atlantic coast about this
time.
10. What persecutions were common in Virginia?
11. Over what section of country did Governor Berkeley have no
authority? When this became known to the people what did many of
them do?
12. What settlement was made by Roger Green, and when? Were
there any settlements in North Carolina before this time?