existence, and no further attempt has ever been made by the French

to settle this portion of the New World. The French government paid no attention to these acts of the Spaniards, and the only punishment ever received was given by a single Frenchman, on his own responsibility. Dominic de Gourgues captured the fort which the Spaniards had built on the site of Fort Caroline, but was unable to hold it. He hung his prisoners, placing over their heads, in mockery of Menendez, “I do not this as unto Spaniards or mariners, but as unto traitors, robbers, and murderers." While the French abandoned Carolana, or French Florida, as it was sometimes called, the Spaniards retained possession, and Florida remained a Spanish colony until 1763 ( 160).

CHAPTER IV.

GILBERT AND RALEIGH.

24. English Colonization. The sympathies of a large number of the people of England were aroused in behalf of the persecuted Huguenots during the terrible religious wars. After Henry VIII., king of England, had withdrawn his nation from its connection with the Roman Catholic Church, many of England's leading citizens lent their aid to their fellow-Protestants in France. Thus the unsuccessful attempts of the Huguenots to settle Florida turned the attention of certain English noblemen to the advantages of an English colony on the American shores. When Queen Elizabeth came to the throne of England, the hatred of the English people toward Spaniards had become so intensified that the enthusiasm to obtain. from America the resources which Spain was acquiring was greatly increased (15). The idea of finding a northwest passage to India also entered, to a great extent, into the calculations of the English adventurers. At the beginning of the last quarter of the sixteenth century the time was ready for the English to begin that colonization which was finally to overpower that of the French and the Spanish.

25. Labrador. The first attempt at colonization was made by Martin Frobisher. The great thought in his mind was similar to that of Columbus; namely, a new route to India. He claimed that the finding of a northwest passage through America to Asia was "the only thing of the world, that was yet left undone, by which a notable minde might be made famous and fortunate." His fleet of three small vessels left the Thames in 1576; but one was lost in a storm, a second turned back from fear, and, with but one vessel, Frobisher reached the coast of Labrador, near the entrance to Hudson Bay.

The straits which he discovered appeared to be the passage that he sought, and a stone which he carried back to England caused great excitement, because it was thought to contain gold. This voyage was followed two years later by an expedition for the purpose of leaving a colony to search for the gold which was confidently believed to exist in great quantities on this northern coast. Icebergs crushed some of the vessels, some were lost in the fogs, but Frobisher finally reached the harbor. The idea of forming a settlement was abandoned, the vessels were loaded with the valueless cargo of earth, and returned at once. Thus the first plan of settlement by the English on the coast of America proved only an utter failure.

26. Gilbert. Sir Humphrey Gilbert was the second Englishman to plan a settlement. He obtained a favorable charter from the queen, and began to collect a body of men who volunteered to help establish the colony which he desired. He sailed in 1583, and, after having lost his largest vessel by desertion, reached Newfoundland in August. His first act was to take official possession of the island in the name of the queen, and the second to load his vessels with "ore," which was supposed to contain silver. Gilbert was not satisfied with the situation, and soon sailed again to seek the shores of the mainland. A storm wrecked the largest remaining vessel, the "ore" was lost, and the two small vessels that were left were compelled to sail for England. Gilbert's vessel, the "Squirrel," was lost on this return voyage, and he himself perished, while the "Hind" alone brought the disastrous news back to England.

27. Raleigh. Gilbert's half-brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, had been interested in his adventures, and was ready to take up the

work which he had left. He had a personal knowledge of the Huguenots of France, and his thoughts turned to Carolana, as a region with a more suitable climate than that of Labrador or Newfoundland. He obtained another patent from Queen Elizabeth, and in 1584 sent out two vessels for the New World. They sailed first for the Canaries, thence to the West Indies, and from there reached the coast of Carolana, the whole voyage taking about nine weeks. They took possession of the land, and chose as a suitable place for their settlement the island of Roanoke. They then returned to England, and carried

Sir Walter Raleigh.

such favorable reports of the land they had found that it was an easy matter to obtain emigrants. Accordingly, the next year, 1585,

Sir Walter Raleigh was born in Devonshire, England, in 1552. The part which he took in the campaign in Ireland in 1581 brought him to the attention of Queen Elizabeth, who continued to consider him as one of her favorite courtiers to the time of her death. Sir Walter was very much interested in the colonization of the "New World," and, besides his two unsuccessful attempts at Roanoke Island, in 1616 he explored the Orinoco River and the country called Guiana. On returning home, Raleigh was arrested on a charge of making an attack upon a Spanish village. He had not brought with him any of the expected gold, and, because of this, together with his unpopularity at the court of King James, he was sentenced for treason. accordingly executed, Oct. 29, 1618.

He was

seven vessels, with one hundred and eight colonists, set out for Virginia, as the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth, had named the lands. The colony was formed, the settlement made, and the fleet returned to England.

28. Roanoke Island. -The work of the colonists consisted mainly in a search for gold. The leaders obtained valuable information with regard to the geography of the region and the character of the inhabitants of the land They investigated the strange products of the soil, such as maize and tobacco, and when they returned to England carried samples with them. There

were no farmers among them however, and hunting for precious metals was of no value in furnishing food. Time was wasted in a

"Cape Charles
Cape Henry

search for the "South Sea" by sailing up the Roanoke River, and the colonists did not hesitate to deceive the Indians, and thus aroused their hostility. The strangeness of colonial life began to tell upon the men, and when Sir Francis Drake (115) entered Roanoke Inlet, in June, 1586, the colonists sought and obtained permission to return with him to England. This first settlement at Roanoke was thus suddenly brought to an end, having lasted but about a year.

ALBEMARLE SOUND

DANOKE

PAMLICO

SOUND
Cape Hatteras

29. The Second Colony. The colonists had hardly sailed for home when vessels with supplies and reinforcements arrived to find the island deserted. The commander of the fleet left fifteen men upon the island, and returned to England for further instructions from Raleigh. A second next year, 1587, better fitted to cope with the difficulties that must be encountered. Women were sent

ROANOKE ISLAND.

Cape Lookout

colony was sent over the

with the men, and some of the party were qualified to cultivate the land. The new expedition reached Roanoke in July, and decided to remain there, although the intention had been to try a new location upon Chesapeake Bay. The men that had been left at the settlement the previous year were missing, having doubtless been killed by the Indians, in retaliation for the treatment that they had received from the first colony.

Tobacco.

When the colonists returned to England in 1586, they carried with them a quantity of tobacco which they had learned to use from the Indians. Raleigh adopted the novel habit, and a story is current of the result that followed. It is related that a servant came into his master's room one day on an errand, and was terrified to find smoke coming from Raleigh's mouth. He threw a cup of ale, which he had in his hand, over his master's head, and ran out shouting that Raleigh was on fire and would soon be burned to ashes.

Governor White returned to England within a few weeks to ask for the supplies and reinforcements that the colonists deemed necessary, and left them without a leader. Before he departed, however, an interesting event took place, in the birth of his grand

daughter. This little girl, Virginia Dare, the first English child born on this continent, was named after the place of her birth.

Three years passed before the wars in Europe permitted the sending of the needed supplies. In 1587, Governor White · left a colony of eighty-nine men, seventeen women, and two children, on the island of Roanoke. In 1590, he returned to the New World to find no sign whatever of these people, among whom were his daughter and granddaughter, except a mark upon one of the trees, which was perhaps intended to direct them to a neighboring island. Nothing was found there, however, and the question has never been settled as to what became of the colonists. Either they were murdered by the Indians, or else, as recent investigations would seem to indicate, they were adopted as members of an Indian tribe. 30. Gosnold. One more attempted settlement needs mention in this connection. Bartholomew Gosnold determined to try his fortune in colonizing America, or at least in aiding in the future settlement. He sailed in a single vessel direct to the New World, instead of by the roundabout route previously used, and in May, 1602, reached land near Cape Ann (¶ 57). Passing along the coast, he missed Boston and Plymouth harbors, and, doubling Cape Cod, came into Buzzard's Bay. Giving to an island, which the Indians called Cuttyhunk, the name of his queen, Elizabeth, he prepared to leave a colony. When the time for the departure of the vessel came, the men lost heart, and the fifth attempt at colonization also proved a failure.

Indian Pipes.