They answered him that they lived all, but hitherto in some scarcity, and as yet could hear of no supply out of England: therefore they requested him that he would leave with them some two or three ships, that, if in some reasonable time they heard not out of England, they might then return themselves. Which he agreed to. Whilst some were then writing their letters to send into England, and some others making reports of theaccidents of their travels each to other,—some on land, some on board,—a great storm arose, and drove most of their fleet from their anchors to sea; in which ships at that instant were the chiefest of the English colony. The rest on land, perceiving this,hasted to those three sails[208] which were appointed to be left there; and, for fear they should be left behind, they left all things confusedly, as if they had been chased from thence by a mighty army. And no doubt so they were; for the hand of God came upon them for the cruelty and outrages committed by some of them against the native inhabitants of that country.
Immediately after the departing of our English colony out of this paradise of the world, the ship above mentioned, sent and set forth at the charges of Sir Walter Raleigh, and his direction,arrived at Hatorask;[209] who, after some time spent in seeking our colony up in the country, and not finding them, returned with all the aforesaid provision into England.
About fourteen or fifteen days after the departure of the aforesaid ship, Sir Richard Grenville, general of Virginia, accompanied with three ships well appointed for the same voyage, arrived there; who, not finding the aforesaid ship, according to his expectation,nor hearing any news of our English colony there seated and left by him Anno[210] 1585, himself travelling up into divers places of the country, as well to see if he could hear any news of the colony left there by him the yearbefore, under the charge of Master Lane, his deputy, as also to discover some places of the country. But after some time spent therein, not hearing any news of them, and finding the places which they inhabited desolate, yet unwilling to lose the possession of the country which Englishmen had so long held, after good deliberation he determined to leave some men behind to retain possession of the country. Whereupon he landed fifteen men in the Isle of Roanoke, furnished plentifully with all manner of provision for two years, and so departed for England.
IV.—The Second English Colony in Virginia.
In the year of our Lord 1587, Sir Walter Raleigh, intending to persevere in the planting of his country of Virginia, prepared a new colony of one hundred and fifty men to be sent thither, under the charge of John White, whom he appointed governor; and also appointed under him twelve assistants, unto whom he gave a charter, and incorporated them by the name of Governor and Assistants of the City of Raleigh in Virginia.
Our fleet—being in number three sail, viz., the admiral,[211] a ship of one hundred and twenty tons,a fly-boat,[212] and a pinnace—departed the six and twentieth of April from Portsmouth, and the same day came to an anchor at the Cowes, in the Isle of Wight, where we staid eight days.…
The two and twentieth of July, we arrived safe at Hatorask, where our ship and pinnace anchored. The governor went aboard the pinnace, accompanied with forty of his best men, intending to pass up to Roanoke forthwith, hoping there to find those fifteen Englishmen which Sir Richard Grenville had left there the year before, with whom he meant to have conference concerning the state of the country and savages; meaning, after he had so done, to return again to the fleet, and pass along the coast to the Bay of Chesapeake, where we intended to make our seat and fort, according to the charge given us among other directions in writing, under the hands of Sir Walter Raleigh. But, as soon as we were put with our pinnace from the ship, a gentleman by the name of Ferdinando, who was appointed to return for England, called to the sailors in the pinnace, charging them not to bring any of the planters back again, but to leave them in the island, except the governor, and two or three such as he approved, saying that the summer was far spent, whereupon he would land all the planters in no other place. Unto this were all the sailors, both in the pinnace and ship, persuaded by the master;wherefore it booted not[213] the governor to contend with them, but [we] passed to Roanoke;and the same night at sunset went a-land[214] on the island, in the place where our fifteen men were left: but we found none of them, nor any sign that they had been there, saving only we found the bones of one of those fifteen which the savages had slain long before.
The three and twentieth of July, the governor, with divers of his company, walked to the north end of theisland, where Master Ralph Lane had his fort, with sundry necessary and decent dwelling-houses, made by his men about it the year before, where we hoped to find some signs or certain knowledge of our fifteen men. When we came thither, we found the fort razed down, but all the houses standing unhurt, saving that the nether rooms of them, and also of the fort, were overgrown with melons of divers sorts, and deer within them feeding on those melons: so we returned to our company, without hope of ever seeing any of the fifteen men living.
The same day, order was given that every man should be employed for the repairing of those houses which we found standing, and also to make other new cottages for such as should need.