When the reconnoitering captains finally set sail for the return to England they carried with them two of the natives, “lustie men,” Wanchese and Manteo by name. Manteo afterward became of considerable service to the first two colonies, and rose to the distinction of a native American baron—the “Lord of Roanoak,” as will duly appear with the development of the story of colonization in the following chapters.
XX
“VIRGINIA”
The country to which Queen Elizabeth gave the name “Virginia,” upon the return of Raleigh’s reconnoitering captains in September, 1584, with their flattering report, comprehended vaguely the whole of the seaboard of North America above Florida to a point toward Newfoundland, and inland indefinitely. In the following Spring Raleigh’s first company of intended colonists were ready to depart for the fruitful region, the attractions of which Captains Amadas and Barlow had set forth so enchantingly.
This pioneer band comprised gentlemen of standing, experienced navigators, younger sons of noble houses or gentry seeking adventure, restless spirits with an eye for pelf, hardy sailors. Ralph Lane at the head as governor, was a sailor-soldier of merit, and when invited by Raleigh to this post was serving in Ireland. Captain Amadas, of the reconnoitering expedition, was Lane’s deputy, afterward designated “admiral of the country”—Virginia. Thomas Hariot, or Harriot, named as surveyor, and also to be the historian of the colony, had been Raleigh’s tutor: he became in after years distinguished as a mathematician and astronomer, and materially advanced the science of algebra. John White, to be the principal draughtsman, was a man of affairs as well as a painter of some note, and was later to become governor of Raleigh’s second colony and grandfather of the first English child born in North America—Virginia Dare; and in his drawings, with those of the artist Le Moine, of the Huguenot colony in Florida, 1562–1566 (afterward in London a “servant” of Raleigh’s), we have the first accurate knowledge of the North American Indian and of the natural history of the country. Sir Richard Grenville, a cousin of Raleigh’s, a British naval hero, was the general of the fleet assembled to carry the company out. Captain Thomas Cavendish, navigator and freebooter, soon to circumnavigate the globe, was commander of one of the ships. The two Indians, Wanchese and Manteo, whom Amadas and Barlow brought home with them, were joined to the company as guides.
The fleet comprised seven sail: the “Tiger,” admiral or flagship, of one hundred and forty tons; a “Flie-boat called the Roe-bucke, of the like burden”; the “Lyon,” one hundred tons, “or thereabouts”; the “Elizabeth,” fifty tons; the “Dorithie,” a small bark; and two small pinnaces. They weighed anchor and sailed out of Plymouth harbour on the ninth of April, 1585. The outward voyage was a leisurely one, with stops at Porto Rico, Hispaniola, and other places, and with seizures of Spanish prizes along the way, so that their destination at Wocokon and Roanoke Island was not reached till the end of June. Their sometimes exciting adventures on this passage are summarily related in the diary of one of the company, which Hakluyt gives with this unusually brief caption: “The voiage made by Sir Richard Greenvile for Sir Walter Ralegh to Virginia in the yeere 1585.”
The longest stop was made off Porto Rico, at the “Island of S. John de Porto Rico.” Here a temporary fort was erected close to the seaside, and backed by woods, and within it a pinnace was built from timber, some of which was cut three miles up the land and brought upon trucks to the fort, the few Spaniards on the island “not daring to make or offer resistance.” One day while they were at this work eight horsemen appeared out of the woods about a quarter of a mile back, and there halting, stood silently gazing upon them for half an hour; then, a company of ten of their men being started out in marching order, the horsemen disappeared in the woods. Another day a sail was seen afar off approaching their haven. Supposing her to be either a Spanish or a French warship, the “Tiger” was made ready and went out to meet her. As the strange craft was neared, however, she was discovered to be Captain Cavendish’s ship of their own fleet, which had been separated from them at sea in a storm. Thereat there was rejoicing instead of a fight, and the ships’ guns were discharged in mutual peaceful salutes. Again, on another day, a second and a larger band of horsemen appeared, and nearer the fort. Twenty footmen and two horsemen, the latter mounted on Spanish horses that had been seized, were sent against them. When the Englishmen were within hailing distance the Spaniards displayed a flag of truce, and made signs for a parley. Two from each side accordingly came together on the sands between the two lines. The Spanish representatives offered “very great salutations” to the English, but expostulated against the Englishmen’s coming and fortifying in their country. The English representatives assured them that their company were here only to furnish themselves with water, victuals, and other necessities of which they stood in need. They hoped the Spaniards would yield these to them “with faire and friendly meanes”; but if this were not done they were resolved to “practice force” and relieve themselves by the sword. At this the Spaniards, with “all courtesie and great favour,” expressed their readiness to render every assistance, and promised a supply of provisions. And so the parley ended graciously.
THE ARRIVAL OF THE ENGLISHMEN IN VIRGINIA.
From a drawing by John White, of Raleigh’s first colony, 1585.
The very next day the pinnace was finished and launched. Then the general, with his captains and gentlemen, marched up into the country to meet the Spaniards with the promised provisions. But the Spaniards came not. Whereupon the general fired the woods roundabout, and his party marched back to their fort. Later, the same day, they fired their fort and all embarked to sail the next morning on their course. In the meantime Ralph Lane, taking a Spanish frigate that they had captured, with a Spanish pilot, had made a successful venture with twenty of his men to “Roxo bay, on the southwest side of S. John,” after a cargo of salt. He threw up entrenchments about a salt hut here, and quietly loaded the frigate while “two or three troupes of [Spanish] horsemen” stood off and “gave him the looking,” but offered no resistance. When the fleet sailed from St. John most of the company were itching from the stings of swarms of “muskitos” which they had got on shore.
That night at sea they took a Spanish frigate whose crew had abandoned her upon sight of the fleet. Early next morning another was captured: this a more profitable prize, having a “good and riche freight and divers Spaniards of account in her.” The Spaniards were afterward ransomed “for good round summes” and were landed at St. John.