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.]

{1586}

[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