among them; and, in the Quality of Vice-admiral, fet out to bear his Brother Gilbert Company, in this his laft Expedition to Newfoundland. The Fleet departed from Plymouth on the 11th of June 1583. My Author, who was in this Voyage, tells us, no Coft was fpared by Ralegh in Provifions and Neceffaries for the happy Accomplishment of it; yet that in two or three Days following he returned greatly diftrefs'd to Plymouth, by Reafon his whole Ship's Company was infected with a contagious Sickness. But lucky to him, perhaps, was this Vifitation; fince the Voyage proved fo fatal to those who went through it, particularly Sir Humphrey himself; who, tho' he arrived in Newfoundland in the Beginning of Auguft following; took Poffeffion of the Country in Right of the Crown of England, by digging up a Turf, and receiving it with a Hafel Wand, delivered to him according to our Law and Custom; alfo had affign'd Lands to every Man in his Company, and was got three hundred Leagues in his Way home again, with full Hopes of the Queen's Affiftance to fit out a Fleet not only for the North, but one alfo for the South next Year; yet over-hardily venturing in a little Frigat of but ten Ton Burden, called the Squirrel; he was on the Ninth of September following at Midnight, in a high Sea, fwallowed up.- * Another of * As Authors have been very defective and erroneous in their Accounts of this brave and publick-fpirited, but unfortunate Knight, Sir Humphrey Gilbert of Compton; I fhall here obferve that John Hooker, who knew him, fays he was bred at Oxford, Hooker takes Notice of his extraordinary Services in Ireland, for which he was made Colonel of Munfter; and Sir Roger Williams, in his Actions of the Low-countries, tells us he was the first English Commander who led a Regiment thither to serve the Prince of Orange against the Spaniards. But John Prince, who pretends to give us his Life among his Worthies of Devon, mentions no of the Veffels, called the Delight, but few Days before also fuffered the fame Fate; and even the rest returned not without great Hazard, Hardship, and Lofs; teaching (fays Camden) that it is a more difficult Manner to carry over Colonies to remote thing of his Land-services. The faid J. Prince quotes Sir W. Pole's MSS. to vouch this Gilbert's being knighted by the Queen at Greenwich 1577. But Hooker aforefaid fhews him to have been knighted in the Church at Drogheda, by Sir Hen. Sidney Deputy of Ireland, seven Years fooner at leaft; and agreeable thereto, we find him call'd Sir Humphrey Gilbert in a Letter of Sir Thomas Smith's, dated 1572, among Sir D. Digges's Collection before mentioned, p. 299. Laftly, another Writer of his Life, in Latin, places his laft Expedition to Newfoundland 20 Years fooner than he undertook it, if it is not the Fault rather of the Printer than the Author, Vid. Hollandi Herwologia Anglica. fol. Arnheim 1620, p. 65. As for Sir Humphrey's Writings, we have extant in Hakluyt, Vol. 3. p. 11. his Difcourfe to prove a Paffage by the North-west to Cathay and the Eaft-Indies, in ten Chapters; firft publifh'd in 4to. 1576. at the End of which he mentions another Discourse, now lost I fear; wherein he amended the ufual Errors of Sea-cards, which make the Degrees of Longitude in every Latitude of equal Bignefs; and invented a Spherical Inftrument, with a Compafs of Variation, for the perfect Knowledge of the Longitude; and laid down a precise Order to prick the Sea-cards, with certain Rules for the fhortning any Discovery, and knowing at the first Entrance of any Fret, whether it lies open to the Ocean more Ways than one, and how far the Sea ftretches itself into the Land. As for the Picture at Compton, faid by Prince to be drawn for Sir H. Gilbert; if his Author, Sir W. Pole, is no truer in his Affertion of the Queen's having given Sir Humphrey the Gold Chain represented about the Neck thereof, than he was in her having knighted him, and there are no other Signatures befides that Chain, and the Infcription of Virginia on the Globe, with the Verfes under it relating thereto; I fée not but the Picture is to be doubted, as rather meant for his Brother Ralegh, who was honoured with a Golden Chain by the Queen, and whofe Title to that Infcription on the Globe was beyond any Man's in the World. But the ftately Poem in Latin Hexameters, upon his laft Expedition, by Stephanus Parmenius Budeius, a learned Hungarian, who was drowned with him, was undoubtedly, among other English Adventurers therein nam'd, chiefly intended for his Honour. Coun Countries upon private Men's Purfes, than he and others had perfuaded themselves, to their own Lofs and Detriment; but neither thefe unfortunate Attempts by Sea hitherto, nor the Ruin of Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Eftate, nor the Lofs of his Life, nor the Hardships of all his Company befides, could teach Ralegh that Leffon: Thefe Examples and this Experience were fo far from fatiating, that they did but sharpen his Appetite to fuch honourable Dangers. And as we are affured from Family Tradition, by a late Author of his own Name and Lineage, that the Discoveries of the great Columbus, the Conquefts of Fernando Cortez, the famous Francis Pizarro, and other Leaders of the Spaniards, who under the Emperor Charles and his Son Philip II. had made the greatest and most surprising Additions to their Empire that ever Prince received, or Subjects wrought, were the favourite Hiftories that took up Ralegh's early Reading and Conversation while he was but a young Man; we may prefume they fo poffeffed his noble Genius (with perhaps alfo fome late domeftic and living Examples) that no little perfonal Oppofitions at Home, or particular Mifadventures Abroad, could ever difcourage him from the Pursuit of thefe grand and national Undertakings. But when, by his own Obfervation, he found the Spaniards had only fettled upon the middle and fouthern Parts of America, and that there were certain vaft Territories yet unknown to the North of thofe Lands, which the Spaniards already enjoyed, as fit perhaps for Settlement, and as eafy to conquer, as any they did enjoy: And when, by his Enquiries, among the most obfervant Pilots and Mariners who had failed in the Spanish Ship to the Gulph of Mexico, many of whom he had Opportunity to meet and difcourfe with in Holland Holland and Flanders, he had learnt that the Spaniards always went into the Gulph of Mexico by St. Domingo and the Ifland of Hifpaniola, where the Currents with the Trade-winds always ran together, and fet into the Bay; that they always difembogu'd, as they called it, or came out by the Havana and the Channels of Babama, which they now call the Gulph of Florida; and that, as they returned by this Gulph, they found a continued Coaft on the Weft Side trending away North, which they generally loft Sight of by standing away to the East, to make for the Coaft of Spain; Ralegh fuily determined that there was a vaft Extent of Land North of that Gulph, or Weft from the Coast of Spain, which might be well worth discovering; and, after mature Deliberation, fully refolved upon the Discovery. As foon as he had digefted his Propofal, and difplayed the Manner of profecuting it in proper Schemes, he laid them before the Queen and Council, to whom it appearing a rational, practical, and generous Undertaking, her Majefty was pleafed in the Beginning of the Year 1584, to grant him full Power to enjoy fuch Countries as he propofed to discover, by her Letters Patents. Immediately upon the Grant of this Patent, Ra legh gave his Inftructions for an American Voyage to Captain Philip Amadas and Captain Arthur Barlow, two experienced Commanders, and had got a Couple of Barks well furnished with Men and Provivifions at his own Expence, in fuch Readiness, that on the 27th Day of April following they departed * But that he now failed thither himself, or then made the Discovery, whatever he might do before, of the Country hereafter mentioned, in Person, and returned in the Beginning of 1585, as the Author of his Life, in Lives English and Foreign, tells us, vol. I. p. 90, is all Fancy and Fiction. from from the Weft of England. The 10th of May they arrived at the Canaries, and a Month after fell upon the Isles of the Weft-Indies, which, with the Reft adjoining (fays my Author, one of thofe Captains) are fo well known to yourself (directing the Account of this Voyage to his Proprietor) and to many others, that I will not trouble you with the Remembrance of them. In the Beginning of July they were faluted with a moft fragrant Gale from the Land they were feeking, and foon after arrived upon the Coaft; but failed along fome fix-fcore Miles before they could find an Entrance by any River iffuing into the Sea. At laft, difcovering one, they manned out their Boats to view the Land adjoining, where they faw Vines laden with Grapes in vast Abundance, climbing up the tall Cedars, and spreading fo luxuriantly along the fandy Shore, that the Sea often over-flowed them. On the 13th of July they took Poffeffion in Right of the Queen, and afterwards delivered the Country over to Ralegh's Ufe. They thought this Land had at first been the Continent, but found it afterwards only an Island 20 Miles long, called Wocoken; plentifully stocked with Animals, Groves of fweet-fmelling Trees, Pulfe, Grain, and efculent Roots. They observed along the Coaft, a Tract of Iflands 2 or 300 Miles long; and paffing between them, faw another great Sea, 20, 40, and in fome Places 50 Miles over, before they could reach the Continent; and in this inclosed Sea above 100 Islands of various Size, whereof one is 16 Miles long, called Roanoak, and about seven Leagues diftant, up the River Occam, from the Harbour they first entered; at which they chiefly fettled while they ftaid, finding it so pleasant and fruitful as to yield three Harvests in five Months. But they remained upon the Borders of Wocoken two Days before they beheld a human Creature; on the |