en that Grenville had left
on Roanoke Island. In May, 1587, he sent out three ships and a hundred
and fifty householders, under command of Mr. John White, who was
appointed Governor of the colony, with twelve assistants as a Council,
who were incorporated under the name of "The Governor and Assistants
of the City of Ralegh in Virginia," with instructions to change their
settlement to Chesapeake Bay. The expedition found there no one of the
colony (whether it was fifty or fifteen the writers disagree), nothing
but the bones of one man where the plantation had been; the houses were
unhurt, but overgrown with weeds, and the fort was defaced. Captain
Stafford, with twenty men, went to Croatan to seek the lost colonists.
He heard that the fifty had been set upon by three hundred Indians, and,
after a sharp skirmish and the loss of one man, had taken boats and gone
to a small island near Hatorask, and afterwards had departed no one knew
whither.

Mr. White sent a band to take revenge upon the Indians who were
suspected of their murder through treachery, which was guided by Mateo,
the friendly Indian, who had returned with the expedition from England.
By a mistake they attacked a friendly tribe. In August of this year
Mateo was Christianized, and baptized under the title of Lord of Roanoke
and Dassomonpeake, as a reward for his fidelity. The same month Elinor,
the daughter of the Govemor, the wife of Ananias Dare, gave birth to a
daughter, the first white child born in this part of the continent, who
was named Virginia.

Before long a dispute arose between the Governor and his Council as to
the proper person to return to England for supplies. White himself was
finally prevailed upon to go, and he departed, leaving about a hundred
settlers on one of the islands of Hatorask to form a plantation.

The Spanish invasion and the Armada distracted the attention of Europe
about this time, and the hope of plunder from Spanish vessels was more
attractive than the colonization of America. It was not until 1590
that Raleigh was able to despatch vessels to the relief of the Hatorask
colony, and then it was too late. White did, indeed, start out from
Biddeford in April, 1588, with two vessels, but the temptation to chase
prizes was too strong for him, and he went on a cruise of his own, and
left the colony to its destruction.

In March, 1589-90, Mr. White was again sent out, with three ships, from
Plymouth, and reached the coast in Augu