The Life of George Washington, Vol. 1 | Page 8

he obtained letters patent from the Queen,
vesting in him the powers that were required; on receiving which, he,
with the associates of his voyage, embarked for America. But his
success did not equal his expectations. The various difficulties
inseparable from the settlement of a distant, unexplored country,
inhabited only by savages; the inadequacy of the supplies which could
be furnished for a colony by the funds of a few private individuals; the
misfortune of having approached the continent too far towards the
north, where the cold barren coast of Cape Breton was rather calculated
to repel than invite a settlement; have been assigned as the probable
causes of his failure.[3]
[Footnote 3: Robertson. Chalmer.]
Two expeditions conducted by this gentleman ended disastrously. In
the last, he himself perished; having done nothing farther in the
execution of his patent, than taking possession of the island of
Newfoundland, in the name of Elizabeth.
Sir Walter Raleigh, alike distinguished by his genius, his courage, and
the severity of his fate, had been deeply interested in the adventures in
which his half brother, Sir Humphry Gilbert, had wasted his fortune,
and was not deterred by their failure, or by the difficulties attending
such an enterprise, from prosecuting with vigour, a plan so well
calculated to captivate his bold and romantic temper.
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[Sidenote: Patent to Sir Walter Raleigh.]
On the 26th of March, he obtained a patent from the Queen; and, on the
27th of April, dispatched two small vessels under the command of
captains Amidas and Barlow for the purpose of visiting the country,
and of acquiring some previous knowledge of those circumstances
which might be essential to the welfare of the colony he was about to
plant. To avoid the error of Gilbert in holding too far north, Amidas
and Barlow took the route by the Canaries, and the West India islands,
and approached the North American continent towards the gulf of
Florida. On the 2d of July, they touched at a small island situate on the
inlet into Pamplico sound, whence they proceeded to Roanoke, near the
mouth of Albemarle sound.
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[Sidenote: Voyage of Sir Richard Grenville.]
After employing a few weeks in traffic with the Indians, from whom
they collected some confused accounts respecting the neighbouring
continent, they took with them two of the natives, who willingly
accompanied them, and embarked for England, where they arrived on
the 15th of September. The splendid description which they gave of the
soil, the climate, and the productions of the country they had visited, so
pleased Elizabeth, that she bestowed on it the name of Virginia, as a
memorial that it had been discovered during the reign of a virgin
Queen.[4] Raleigh, encouraged by their report to hasten his
preparations for taking possession of the property, fitted out a squadron
consisting of seven small ships, laden with arms, ammunition,
provisions, and passengers, which sailed from Plymouth on the 9th of
April, under the command of Sir Richard Grenville, who was his
relation, and interested with him in the patent. Having taken the
southern route, and wasted some time in cruising against the Spaniards,
Sir Richard did not reach the coast of North America, until the close of
the month of June. He touched at both the islands on which Amidas and
Barlow had landed, and made some excursions into different parts of
the continent around Pamplico, and Albemarle sounds.

[Footnote 4: Robertson. Chalmer. Stith.]
[Sidenote: First colony.]
Having established a colony, consisting of one hundred and eight
persons, in the island of Roanoke, an incommodious station, without
any safe harbour, he committed the government of it to Mr. Ralph Lane;
and, on the 25th of August, sailed for England.[5]
[Footnote 5: Robertson. Chalmer. Stith.]
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[Sidenote: Colonists carried back to England by Drake.]
An insatiate passion for gold, attended by an eager desire to find it in
the bowels of the earth, for a long time the disease of Europeans in
America, became the scourge of this feeble settlement. The English
flattered themselves that the country they had discovered could not be
destitute of those mines of the precious metals with which Spanish
America abounded. The most diligent researches were made in quest of
them; and the infatuating hope of finding them stimulated the colonists
to the utmost exertions of which they were capable. The Indians soon
discerned the object for which they searched with so much avidity, and
amused them with tales of rich mines in countries they had not yet
explored. Seduced by this information, they encountered incredible
hardships, and, in this vain search wasted that time which ought to have
been employed in providing the means of future subsistence. Mutual
suspicion and disgust between them and the natives ripened into open
hostility; and, the provisions brought from England being exhausted,