children, coming aboard and partaking of a collation, which they seemed to enjoy. Their manners were remarkable for ease and civility. The lady was a handsome little woman, extremely bashful. She wore a leathern mantle, with the fur next her skin, and her hair, which was long and black, was confined in a band of white coral; strings of pearls, as large as peas, hung from her ears, reaching to her middle. Her children had ear-rings of the same precious material, while those of her attendants were of copper. Granganimeo was dressed much in the same fashion as his wife. On his head he wore a broad plate of metal; but, not being permitted to examine it, they were uncertain whether it was copper or gold.

A brisk trade now began with the natives; but no one was allowed to engage in it when the king's brother was present, except such chiefs as were distinguished by having plates of copper upon their heads. When this prince intended to visit the ship, he invariably intimated the number of boats which were to accompany him, by lighting on the shore an equal number of beacons. The navigators learned that about twenty years before their arrival, a vessel belonging to a Christian country had been wrecked on the coast, all hands on board perishing; out of the planks cast ashore, the people had drawn the nails and bolts, with which they had formed some edgetools, not having possessed any previous to this accident; but these were very rude, and their common instruments consisted of shells and sharp flints. Considering such imperfect means, their canoes were admirably made, and large enough to hold twenty men. When they wished to construct one, they either burned down a large tree, or selected such as had been blown down by the wind, and laying a coat of gum and resin on one side, set fire to it, by which it was hollowed out; after which they scraped and polished it with their shells; and if found too shallow, laid on more resin, and burnt it down to the required depth.

The soil of the country was rich, the air mild and salubrious, and they counted fourteen kinds of sweet-smelling trees, besides an underwood of laurel and box, with oaks whose girth was greater than those of England. The fruits were melons, walnuts, cucumbers, gourds, and esculent roots; and the woods were plentifully stocked with bucks, rabbits, and hares. After a short while, the adventurers, by invitation of the natives, explored the river, on whose banks was their principal town; but the distance to be travelled being twenty miles, they did not see the city. They reached, however, an island called Aonoak, where they found a village of nine houses, built of cedar, the residence of their friend Granganimeo, who was then absent. His wife, with whom they were already acquainted, received them with distinguished hospitality, running out to meet them, giving directions to her servants to pull, their boats on shore, and to carry the white strangers on their backs to her own house, where she feasted them with fish and venison, and afterward set before them a desert of various kinds. These people were gentle and faithful, void of all deceit, and seemed to live after the manner of the golden age.

As the surf beat high on the landing they got wet, notwithstanding their mode of transport; but this inconvenience was soon remedied; a great fire being kindled, and their clothes washed and dried by the princess' women, while their feet were bathed in warm water. The natives expressed astonishment at the whiteness of their skins, and kindly patted them as they looked wonderingly at each other. During the feast, two men, armed with bows and arrows, suddenly entered the gate, when the visiters, in some alarm, took hold of their swords, which lay beside them, to the great annoyance of their hostess, who at once detected their mistrust. She despatched some of her attendants to drive the poor fellows out of the gate, and who, seizing their bows and arrows, broke them in an instant. These arrows were made of small canes, pointed with shell

or the sharp tooth of a fish. The swords, breastplates, and war-clubs, used by the natives, were formed of hardened wood; to the end of this last weapon, they fastened the horns of a stag or some other beast, and their wars were carried on with much cruelty and loss of life.

The name of the country where the English landed was called Wingandaeoa, and of the sovereign Wingina; but his kingdom was of moderate extent, and surrounded by states under independent princes, some of them in alliance and and others at war with him. Having examined as much of the interior as their time would permit, they sailed homeward, accompanied by two of the natives, named Wanchese and Manteo, and arrived in England in the middle of September.

Raleigh was highly delighted with this new discovery, establishing, in so satisfactory a manner, the results of his previous reasoning, and undertaken at his sole suggestion and expense. His royal mistress, too, was scarcely less gratified; she gave her countenance and support to the schemes for colonization, which he begun to urge at court, and issued her command, that the new country, so full of amenity and beauty, should, in allusion to her state of life, be called Virginia.

Not long after this, Raleigh received the honor of knighthood, a dignity bestowed by Elizabeth with singular frugality and discrimination, and, about the same period, the grant of a patent to license the vending of wines throughout the kingdom; a monopoly extremely lucrative in its returns, and which was probably bestowed by Elizabeth to enable him to carry on his great schemes for the im provement of navigation, and the settlement of a colony in Virginia.

Sir Walter now fitted out a new fleet for America, the command of which he gave to Sir Richard Grenville; the fleet consisted of seven vessels; part of these were fitted out at Sir Walter's expense, the remainder by his companions in the adventure; one of whom was Thomas Candish or Cavendish, afterward so eminent as a navigator, who now served under Grenville.

On the nineteenth of April the mariners reached the Canaries, from which they steered to Dominica in the West Indies, and landed at Puerto Rico, where they constructed a temporary fort. On the twenty-sixth of June, after some delays at Hispaniola and Florida, they proceeded to Wohoken in Virginia; and having sent notice of their arrival by Manteo, one of the two natives who had visited England, they were soon welcomed by their old friend Granganimeo, who displayed much satisfaction at their return. Mr. Ralph Lane, who had been invested with the dignity of chief-governor, now disembarked with one hundred and eight men, having as his deputy Philip Amadas, one of the original discoverers. Grenville does not appear to have been sufficiently impressed with the difficulties attending an infant colony in a new country; and, accordingly, after a short stay, during which was collected a valuable cargo of skins, furs, and pearls, he returned to England, carrying into Plymouth a Spanish prize, which he had captured on the homeward voyage, of three hundred tons burden, and richly laden.

The first survey of their new country delighted the English; and the governor, in a letter to Hakluyt, who appears to have been his intimate friend, informs him that "they had discovered the mainland to be the goodliest soil under the cope of heaven; abounding with sweet trees, that bring sundry rich and pleasant gums; and, moreover, of huge and unknown greatness: well peopled and towned, though savagely, and the climate so wholesome, that they had not one person sick since their arrival."

* *

Lane fixed his abode on the island of Roanoke, and thence extended his researches eighty miles southward to the city of Secotan. He also pushed one hundred and thirty miles north, to the country of the Chesepians, a temperate

and fertile region; and northwest to Chawanook, a large province, under a mon. arch named Menatonon. These proceedings, however, were soon interrupted by the threatening aspect of affairs at headquarters. Even before the departure of Grenville for England, an accident occurred, in which the conduct of the settlers appeared rash and impolitic. A silver cup had been stolen, and a boat was despatched to Aquascogok to reclaim it. Alarmed at this visit, the savages fled into the woods, and the enraged crew demolished the city and destroyed the cornfields. A revenge so deep for so slight an injury incensed the natives; and although they artfully concealed their resentment, from that moment all cordiality between them and the strangers was at an end.

Not long after, Menatonon and his son Skyco were seized and put in irons; but the monarch was soon liberated, while the youth was retained as a hostage for his fidelity. To all appearance, this precaution had the desired effect. But the king, although an untaught savage, proved himself an adept in dissimulation. Working upon the avarice and credulity of the English, he enticed them into the interior of the country by a flattering report of its extraordinary richness and amenity. He asserted that they would arrive at a region where the robes of the sovereign and his courtiers were embroidered with pearl, and the beds and houses studded with the same precious material. Menatonon described also a remarkably rich mine, called by the natives chaumis temoatan, which was situated in the country of the Mangaoaks, and produced a mineral similar to copper, although softer and paler.

By these artful representations, Lane was persuaded to undertake an expedition by water, with two wherries and forty men. Instead, however, of the promised relays of provisions, they found the towns deserted, and the whole country laid waste. Their boats glided along silent and solitary banks; and after three days, during which they had not seen a human being, their last morsel of food was exhausted, and the governor, now aware of the treachery of Menatonon, proposed to return. His men, however, entreated him to proceed, still haunted by dreams of the inexhaustible riches of the Mangaoaks' country, and declaring they could not starve as long as they had two mastiffs, which they might kill, and make into soup. Overcome by such arguments, Lane continued the voyage; but for two days longer no living thing appeared. At night, indeed, lights were seen moving on the banks, demonstrating that their progress was not unknown, though the observers were invisible. At last, on the third day, a loud voice from the woods suddenly called out the name of Manteo, who was now with the expedition. As the voice was followed by a song, Lane imagined it a pacific salutation; but the Indian seized his gun, and had scarcely time to warn them that they were about to be attacked, when a volley of arrows was discharged into the boats. The travellers now landed and assaulted the sava ges, who fell back into the depths of the wood, and escaped with little injury; upon which it was resolved to return to the settlement. On their homeward bound voyage, which, owing to their descending with the current was performed with great rapidity, they had recourse to the mastiff broth, or, as the governor terms it, "dog's porridge," and arrived at Roanoke in time to defeat a formidable conspiracy.

The author of the plot was Wingina, who, since the death of his brother Granganimeo, had taken the name of Pemisapan. His associates were Skyco and Menatonon; and these two chiefs, pretending friendship, but concealing under its mask the most deadly enmity, had organized the plan of a general massacre of the colony. The design, however, was betrayed to Lane by Skyco, who had become attached to the English; and, aware of the necessity of taking immediate measures before Pemisapan could muster his forces, the governor gave instructions to seize any canoes which might offer to depart from the island.

In executing this order, two natives were slain, and their enraged countrymen rose in a body, and attempted to overpower the colonists, but were instantly dispersed. Not aware, however, that his secret was discovered, and affecting to consider it as an accident, Pemisapan admitted Lane and his officers to an interview, which proved fatal to him. The Virginian monarch was seated in state, surrounded by seven or eight of his principal weroanees, or high chiefs; and after a brief debate, upon a signal given, the Europeans attacked the royal circle, and put them all to death.

This alarming conspiracy had scarcely been put down, when the natives made. a second attempt to get rid of the strangers, by neglecting to sow the adjacent lands, hoping, in this manner, to compel them to leave the country. At this decisive moment, a fleet of twenty-three vessels came in sight, which turned out to be the squadron of Sir Francis Drake, who had fortunately determined to visit the colony of his friend Sir Walter, and carry home news of their condition, on his return from an expedition against the settlements in the Spanish Main. It was now long past the time when supplies had been expected from England, and Drake generously offered every sort of provisions. Lane, however, only requested a vessel and some smaller craft to carry them home, which was immediately granted; but before they could get on board, a dreadful tempest, which continued for four days, dashed the barks intended for the colonists to pieces, and might have driven on shore the whole fleet, unless, to use the language of the old despatch, "the Lord had held his holy hand over them." Deprived in this way of all other prospect of return, they embarked in Sir Francis's fleet, and arrived in England on the 27th of July, 1586.

Scarcely, however, had they sailed, when the folly of their precipitate conclusion, that Raleigh had forgotten or neglected them, was manifested by the arrival, at Roanoke, of a vessel of one hundred tons, amply stored with every supply. Deeply disappointed at finding no appearance of the colony, they sailed along the coast, and explored the interior. But all their search was in vain, and they were compelled to take their departure for Europe. This, however, was not all. Within a fortnight after they weighed anchor, Sir Richard Grenville, with three well-appointed vessels, fitted out principally by Raleigh, appeared off Virginia, where, on landing, he found, to his astonishment, everything deserted and in ruins. Having made an unsuccessful effort to procure intelligence of his countrymen, it became necessary to return home. But, unwilling to abandon so promising a discovery, he left behind him fifteen men, with provisions for two years, and, after some exploits against the Spaniards and the Azores, arrived in England.

It is asserted by Camden, that tobacco was now, for the first time, brought into England by these settlers, and there can be little doubt that Lane had been directed to import it by his master, who must have seen it used in France, during his residence there. There is a well-known tradition, that Sir Walter first began to smoke privately in his study, and the servant coming in with his tankard of ale and nutmeg, as he was intent upon his book, seeing the smoke issuing from his mouth, threw all the liquor in his face by way of extinguishing the fire, and running down stairs, alarmed the family with piercing cries, that his master, before they could get up, would be burnt to ashes. "And this," continued Oldys, "has nothing in it more surprising than the mistake of those Virginians them, selves, who, the first time they seized upon a quantity of gunpowder, which belonged to the English colony, sowed it for grain, or the seed of some strange vegetable in the earth, with full expectation of reaping a plentiful crop of combustion by the next harvest, to scatter their enemies.”

On another occasion, it is said that Raleigh, conversing with his royal mistress upon the singular properties of this new and extraordinary herb, assured

her that he had so well experienced the nature of it that he could tell her the exact weight of the smoke in any quantity proposed to be consumed. Her majesty immediately fixed her thoughts upon the most impracticable part of the experiment, that of bounding the smoke in a balance; suspecting that he was playing the traveller with her, and laying a wager that he could not solve the doubt. Upon this Raleigh selected the quantity agreed on, and having thoroughly smoked it, set himself to weighing-but it was of the ashes; and in conclusion, demonstrating to the queen the difference between this and the weight of the tobacco, her majesty could not deny that this must be the weight of what was evaporated in smoke. Upon this, Elizabeth, paying down the money, remarked, that she had heard of many laborers in the fire who had turned their gold into smoke, but that Raleigh was certainly the first who had turned his smoke into gold.

Raleigh, however, was by no means discouraged by the unfortunate results of these expeditions; but again turned his attention to his Virginian colony, the failure of which was rather owing to the precipitate desertion of Lane, than to any fault in the original plan; and he determined to make a new attempt for the settlement of a country which held out so many encouragements from its salubrious climate and fertile soil. Hariot, who accompanied Lane, had by this time published his "True Report of the New-found Land of Virginia," which created much speculation; so that he experienced little difficulty in procuring one hundred and fifty settlers. He appointed as governor, Mr. John White, with twelve assistants, to whom he gave a charter, incorporating them by the name of the "Governor and Assistants of the City of Raleigh in Virginia." These, in three vessels, furnished principally at his own expense, sailed from Portsmouth on the twenty-sixth of April, 1587, and on the twenty-second of July anchored in Hatorask harbor. White, with forty men, proceeded in the pinnace to Roanoke to confer with the fifteen colonists, left by Sir Richard Grenville; but to his dismay found the place deserted, and human bones scattered on the beech; the remains, as was afterward discovered, of their countrymen, all of whom the savages had slain. A party then hastened to the fort on the north side of the island. But here the prospect was equally discouraging No trace of a human being was to be seen; the building was razed to the ground, and the wild deer were couching in the ruined houses, and feeding on the herbage and melons which had overgrown the floor and crept up the walls. Although the governor held Raleigh's written orders to make the settlement on the bay of Chesapeake, he was obliged to abandon that plan, and commenced repairing the buildings at Roanoke. But disaster attended all their proceedings. Dissensions broke out among them; and White, either from want of firmness, or not being intrusted with sufficient authority, found it impossible to carry on his operations with success. The natives of Croatoan were friendly; those of Secota and Aquascogok, who had murdered the former colonists, completely hostile; but all were clothed alike; and before going to war, the Crotoans anxiously begged for some badge by which they might be recognised. In the confusion, this was neglected, and it led to unhappy consequences. Howe, an English sailor, while engaged in fishing, was slain by the savages, being pierced with sixteen arrows; and White, having in vain attempted to open a pacific communication with the weroansees, or chief men of Secota, and Pomeiock, determined not to delay his revenge. Guided, therefore, by Manteo, he set out at midnight, with Captain Stafford and twenty-four men, and stealing in the dark upon the natives as they sat round a fire, shot some of them dead upon the spot, while others fled shrieking into a thicket, and one savage, who knew Stafford, rushed up, calling out his name and embracing his knees. To the grief and horror of the governor, it was then discovered that they had attacked a party of friends instead of enemies.