he ceremony was complete. The grant gave Sir Humphrey Gilbert
jurisdiction for two hundred leagues in every direction, so that the
limits included Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, part of Labrador, as well as
the islands of Newfoundland, Cape Breton, and Prince Edward Island--a
right royal principality.

This Sir Humphrey Gilbert, the first settler in Newfoundland, who, with
some two hundred fifty followers from Devonshire, had arrived with the
view of making the western wilderness a home for Englishmen, was a son
of Sir Otho Gilbert, of Compton castle, Torbay. His mother was a
Champernoun of purest Norman descent, and "could probably boast of
having in her veins the blood of Courtneys, Emperors of Byzant." Sir
Otho had three sons by this lady, John, Humphrey, and Adrian, who all
proved to be men of superior abilities. They were all three knighted by
Elizabeth, a distinction which, coming from the hands of the great
Queen, marked its recipient as a gentleman and a brave warrior. Sir Otho
died, and his widow married Walter Raleigh, a gentleman of ancient blood
but impoverished, and at the time living at Hayes, Devon. To her second
husband the fair Champernoun bore a son whose fame was destined to be
world-wide, and who, in a period more prolific of great men and great
events than any before or since, played a gallant part, and was also
knighted, as Sir Walter Raleigh, by Queen Bess. Thus Sir Humphrey
Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh were half-brothers, each being trained in
the simple and manly yet high-bred ways of English gentlemen. When
Humphrey Gilbert grew up he embraced the profession of arms, and won
high distinction in Continental and Irish wars. At length, in his mature
manhood, he and his distinguished half-brother Raleigh formed the design
of first colonizing Newfoundland, and then the neighboring islands and
continent. Hence we find him on August 5, 1583, standing on the beach in
the harbor of St. John's. Sir Walter Raleigh had embarked on the same
expedition, but a contagious disease broke out on board his ship which
compelled his return.

The enterprise of Sir Humphrey Gilbert was worthy of a heroic and
patriotic nobleman. It was, nevertheless, doomed to end in disaster and
death. In prosecuting further explorations one of Sir Humphrey's vessels
was wrecked and the whole crew perished. The little fleet had struggled
with contrary winds for many days. Eventually the Delight, the largest
vessel, drifted into the br