urnished it compleatly for the voyage, in which he
resolved to attend his brother as his Vice-Admiral. That fleet
departed from Plymouth the 11th of June, 1583, but after it had been
two or three days at sea, a contagious distemper having seized the
whole crew of Raleigh's ship, obliged him to return to that port;
however by this accident, he escaped the misfortune of that
expedition; for after Sir Humphry had taken possession of
Newfoundland, in the right of the crown of England, and assigned lands
to every man of his company, and failed three hundred leagues in the
voyage home with full hopes of the Queen's assistance to fit out a
fleet next year, he unfortunately perished; for venturing rashly in a
frigate of but ten tons, he was on the ninth of September that year at
midnight swallowed up in an high sea, another vessel suffered the same
fate, and even the rest returned not without great hazard and loss[5]:
but this ill success could not divert Raleigh from pursuing a scheme
of such importance to his country as those discoveries in North
America. He drew up an account of the advantage of such a design,
and the means of prosecuting it, which he laid before the Queen and
Council, who were so well satisfied with the probability of success,
that on the 25th of March, 1584, her Majesty granted him letters
patent, in favour of his project, containing free liberty to discover
such remote heathen and barbarous lands, as were not actually
possessed by any Christian prince, nor inhabited by Christian people.
Immediately upon this grant, Raleigh chose two able and experienced
captains, and furnished them with two vessels fitted out at his own
expence, with such expedition that on the 27th of April following they
set sail for the West of England, taking their course by the Canary
Islands, where they arrived on the 10th of May, towards the West
Indies; and that being in those days the best and most frequented rout
to America, they passed by the Carribbe Islands in the beginning of
June, and reached the Gulph of Florida on the 2d of July, sailing
along the shore about one hundred and twenty miles before they could
find a convenient harbour. At last they debarked in a very low land,
which proved to be an island called Wohoken; and after taking formal
possession of the country, they carried on a friendly correspondence
with the native Indians, who supplied them with a great variety of
fish and venison, and gave them furs, and deerski