In August White wished to send home two of the assistants to represent
the state of the colony, but, for some reason, none of them were
willing to go. The wish of the colony generally seemed to be that
White himself should undertake the mission. After some demur, chiefly
on the ground that his own private interests required his presence in
the settlement, White assented, and on the 27th of August he
sailed....

Soon after White's return Raleigh fitted out a fleet under the command
of Grenville. Before that fleet could sail Raleigh and Grenville were
called off to a task even more pressing than the relief of the
Virginia plantation. Yet, notwithstanding the prospect of a Spanish
invasion, White persuaded Raleigh to send out two small vessels, with
which White himself sailed from Bideford on the 25th of April, 1588.
The sailors, however, fell into the snare so often fatal to the
explorers of that age. In the words of a later writer, whose vigorous
language seemed to have been borrowed from some contemporary
chronicler, the captains, "being more intent on a gainful voyage than
the relief of the colony, ran in chase of prizes; till at last one of
them, meeting two ships of war, was, after a bloody fight, overcome,
boarded and rifled. In this maimed, ransacked, and ragged condition
she returned to England in a month's time; and in about three weeks
after the other also returned, having perhaps tasted of the same fare,
at least without performing her intended voyage, to the distress, and,
as it proved, the utter destruction of the colony of Virginia, and to
the great displeasure of their patron at home."

Raleigh had now spent forty thousand pounds on the colonization of
Virginia, with absolutely no return. In March, 1589, he made an
assignment, granting to Sir Thomas Smith, White and others the
privilege of trading in Virginia, while he proved at the same time
that he had not lost his interest in the undertaking by a gift of a
hundred pounds for the conversion of the natives. The unhappy
colonists gained nothing by the change. For a whole year no relief was
sent. When, at length, White sailed with three ships, he or his
followers imitated the folly of their predecessors, and preferred
buccaneering among the Spaniards in the West Indies to conveying
immediate relief to the colonists. On their arrival nothing was to be
seen of the settlers. After some search the name Croaton was seen
carved on a post, according to an arr