"Two ships belonging to Sir Walter's company, and in the command of Captain Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlow, brought home that important news. The magnitude and eligibility of the territory acquired by the Crown were on everyone's lips; for the accounts of those who had been eye-witnesses of the country, its productions and inhabitants, hastened onwards Raleigh's preparations for taking possession of his newly-found dominions. As soon as the good news spread among the country people in the west, hundreds of hardy adventurers offered themselves as the pioneers of colonisation in that quarter. A fleet of seven ships, of which Sir Richard took the command, was got ready with all possible despatch, and when the anchor was weighed at Plymouth on the 9th of April, 1585, there were none amongst the thousands there assembled but shared the belief that their relatives and friends were departing for a land flowing with milk and honey. The voyage was a pleasant one, being favoured with a prosperous wind, but the inveterate hostility of Sir Richard towards our national enemies, the Spaniards, led him to prolong its duration. He accordingly pursued his course by the roundabout way of the West India islands, and was rewarded by the capture of several valuable prizes during his cruise there. They did not reach the island of Wokohen, on the coast of Carolina, until the 26th of June, thus consuming valuable time on their passage. We are told they were in about 34 degrees North latitude, when, just as they were on the point of entering the roads, the admiral's ship, from some mischance or other, drove on a reef of rocks and went to pieces. It was fortunate that no loss of life heightened the gloom of this inauspicious opening. After great exertions the men rescued the crew of the doomed vessel, and proceeded for the island of Roanoke, a little farther to the northwards. The admiral went at once from that island to the continent, and, on his landing, proceeded to see what sort of country the promised land was. Whilst engaged in this survey, the natives, who were unaccustomed to the sight of beings so different from themselves in colour, costume, and bearing, crowded around, plying them with questions by signs and gestures. Sir Richard appeased their inquisitiveness with the few trifling articles he had designed for them as presents; but their appetites being rather sharpened than appeased by these acquisitions, one of the natives, instigated by the rest, entered Sir Richard's tent, and, attracted by a massive silver goblet belonging to that knight, without more ado walked off with it. The despoiled owner happened at the time to be employed in 'prospecting' the country, but on his return instantly missed the favourite piece of plate. Enraged at this mark of ingratitude when from his conciliatory kindness he had expected good faith, he adopted severe measures on the natives around. He soon after set sail to Roanoke, which all accounts concur in representing as an incommodious station, deficient in all the requisites for a good harbour, and all but uninhabited. Here, having founded a settlement, he left in it a company of 180 men. Mr. Ralph Lane, a man of experienced judgment, was elected governor of the infant colony, which ranked among its members several names not unknown to fame. Men well skilled in the different sciences were there, to instruct and improve the growing intelligence of the colony. Of these, Hariot, a mathematician of first-rate eminence in his day, is especially mentioned. Sir Richard made for home with the avowed intention of procuring a reinforcement sufficiently powerful to subdue and colonise the continent of Virginia and Carolina. His good fortune led him in his homeward voyage to fall in with a Spanish register ship, almost as richly laden as the treasure ship the Cacafuego, which had enriched, by its capture, his relative Sir Francis Drake and his crew. In this vessel, which Sir Richard engaged and boarded, was stowed away a cargo worth more than £50,000 sterling."[16]
When Sir Richard Granville had retired, the colonists wasted their time in searching for gold in place of cultivating the soil. Consequently they were in a condition of starvation when Sir Francis Drake, touching there on his way to England, rescued them from their impending fate.
"Not long after, Sir Richard Granville with three ships hove in sight. Ignorant of what had happened he landed with the confident hope of adding vigour and strength to the infant colony for whose welfare he had toiled and sacrificed; but after making the most laborious searches for the absentees, without obtaining any indications of their fate, he set sail, leaving fifteen of his crew ashore for the purpose of retaining possession. This handful of men soon became involved in hostilities with the natives, and were by them destroyed to the last man. However disheartening this unlooked-for succession of disasters might have proved to men of ordinary stamp, they only incited the elastic dispositions of Raleigh and Granville to more vigorous operations. Early, therefore, in the following year (1587), they fitted out three more ships, which were entrusted to the command of Captain John White, a native of Devonshire, a man well versed in all the difficulties and trials attending enterprises of this nature. He brought together a more numerous and determined body of adventurers than had composed the former expedition under Lane; but upon their arrival the same disadvantages which had daunted their predecessors in the colony appeared so forcibly before their senses that, deeming the continuous mass of forest and the endless savannahs of the country only fit for the abode of savages, they with one accord solicited their leader, White, to return to England and bring a fresh supply of articles, that their uncomfortable position might at least be made tolerable. He accordingly retraced his footsteps, arriving in this country at a time when the eyes of the entire nation were intent upon warfare, and, receiving no encouragement from their patrons, the unfortunate colony in Roanoke obtained no assistance; and the painful fact must be repeated, that our first settlers in Virginia were suffered to perish miserably by a famine or to fall ignominiously from the savage hatred of the tribes who surrounded them."
Kingsley is wrong in stating that Sir Richard was at sea, and assisted in the destruction of the Armada; at the time he was acting under orders to remain in Cornwall.
Three years after, in 1591, he was in command of the Revenge, as Vice-Admiral of England, in which he achieved the glorious action off the Azores in which he met his death. His object was to intercept the richly-laden fleet of the Spaniards, on its return from the West Indies; a service of the utmost importance, as thereby England stopped the sources of Philip's power.
Towards the end of August, the Admiral, Lord Thomas Howard, with six of Her Majesty's ships and as many small vessels, was at anchor at Flores, when news arrived of the near approach of the great Spanish fleet. Many of the Englishmen were ill on shore, and others were filling the ships with ballast. Imperfectly manned and ballasted as they were, there was nothing for it but to make an attempt to escape out of the trap in which they were caught, and the ships slipped their cables. Sir Richard, as Vice-Admiral, was the last to start, delaying to do so till the final moment, in order to collect those of his sick crew who were on shore; and this delay was fatal.
The two great Spanish squadrons hove in sight and intercepted him. However, he resolved to force his way through. The Spanish fleet consisted of fifty-three vessels. Eleven out of the twelve English ships had escaped. Sir Richard weighed, uncertain at first what to do. The Spanish fleet were on his weather bow, and he was advised to cut his mainsail, cast about, and run before the wind, trusting to the fleetness of his ship. But Sir Richard utterly refused to turn his back on the enemy, alleging that he would die rather than show that to a Spaniard.
The wind was light. The San Philip, a huge high-cargoed ship of 1500 tons, hove to windward, took the wind out of the sails of the Revenge, and attempted to board her. The Spanish vessels were filled with soldiers: in some two hundred, in some five hundred, in others eight hundred.
The San Philip had three tiers of ordnance, with eleven pieces on every tier.