o the inner room, when she sat
on the board standing alongside the house, and placed before us
some wheat fermented, sodden venison, and fish, sodden, boiled,
and roasted, melons, raw and sodden, roots of divers kinds, and
fruits. We were entertained with all love and kindness, and with
as much bounty as we could possibly desire. We found these people
most gentle, loving, and faithful; void of all guile and treason,
and such as live after the manner of the golden age.'

'Beyond this island, called Roanoke, a main stands, very plentiful
in fruits and other natural increase, together with many towns and
villages alongside the continent, some bordering upon the islands,
and some standing further into the land.'

'When we first had sight of this country, some thought the first
land we saw to be a continent; but after we entered into the
haven, we saw before us another mighty long sea, for there lieth
along the coast a tract of island two hundred miles in extent.'

Thus they picture the country with the rosy tint so natural to all
discoverers. They speak of the island as being sixteen miles long, which
recent surveys show nearly correct. Many of the trees, animals, and fish
were new to them, and like all travelers, they did not neglect to give a
fair embellishment in their report to Raleigh. Their stay in the country
was brief, less than sixty days, and on their return, they carried with
them two of the Indians, named Wanchese and Mantco, who were regarded as
a great curiosity by the English. They were exhibited at London to
thousands, and gave Raleigh great satisfaction, as they were the first
natives of America who had visited England.

The return of Amidas and Barlow, with their flattering report of the
discovery and beauty of Virginia, created great excitement throughout
England, and with it a desire to visit the new land. The soldiers of
fortune, of which that reign was fruitful, were ready to embark in any
cause that promised wealth or fame; and the nobility and merchants, with
sanguine views of trade and extensive domains containing the precious
metals, were ready to furnish the means to transport a colony to the new
El Dorado. It was not difficult to procure men, under such dazzling
aspects; a sufficient number was soon enrolled, but the material was not
of a kind to make a successful and permanent settlement. Disbanded
soldiers from foreign service, and