School History of North Carolina Part 5

8. What was furnished to him on his arrival in England? Did he at once go back to relieve the colonists?

9. Why did not Governor White immediately return to his suffering people?

10. What became of the "Spanish Armada"? How did Governor White become engaged in this conflict?

11. How long was Governor White away from Roanoke? What did he find on his return? What is supposed to have been the meaning of the word "Croatan"? What did Governor White find?

12. Where is "Croatan"? Can you locate it on the map? Did Governor White go to this place to seek his people? Was any settlement on Roanoke at this time? What effort did Raleigh make to find these people?

CHAPTER IX.

THE FATE OF RALEIGH.

A. D. 1590 TO 1653.

The story of the attempted settlement on Roanoke Island is the story of one of the world's tragedies. Misfortune seemed to be the doom, not only of the colonists, but of many gallant men who sought to aid Sir Walter Raleigh in his enterprise. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, with two of his s.h.i.+ps, was the first to perish at sea; Sir Francis Drake and his compeer, Sir John Hawkins, both died of pestilence in the West Indies; and, to the baffled and broken- hearted originator of the scheme, the coming years were black with disaster and death.

2. With the loss of Governor White's colony, Raleigh found that his expenditures had greatly impaired his wealth. He had lost more than two hundred thousand dollars (40,000 sterling), and, no longer able to fit out costly and fruitless expeditions, was forced to solicit aid from others, joining them in the rights and privileges granted him by the queen in his charter.

[NOTE--It must also be remembered that money in the sixteenth century was worth at least five times more than at present.

Forty thousand pounds expended by Sir Walter Raleigh would, at that time, purchase about what one million dollars would now command in England or the United States. ]

1603.

3. But Raleigh found his greatest disaster in the death of Elizabeth. After ruling England so wisely and well for more than fifty years, she died on March 24th, 1603. This great queen left her throne to one of the most paltry and contemptible of men.

4. King James I, was an ungainly Scotch pedant, who was incapable of appreciating heroism and manliness in others, because of his own deficiency in all such qualities. He lavished favors and t.i.tles on unworthy favorites, and incurred the contempt of wise men for his follies and vices.

1618.

5. Sir Walter Raleigh had long treated the Spaniards as the enemies of his country. The King of Spain hated him on that account, and King James, to please His Catholic Majesty and secure the marriage of Prince Charles to a Spanish princess, caused the great lawyer, Sir Edward c.o.ke, to procure the wrongful conviction of Raleigh, his greatest subject. After lying in prison for twelve years under this conviction, Raleigh was released by King James, and although not pardoned, was put in command of an expedition to the coast of Guiana. The expedition was unsuccessful, and on his return, to satisfy the King of Spain, James signed the warrant for Raleigh's execution upon his former sentence. Accordingly, Raleigh was beheaded, at the age of sixty-five, as a traitor to the land for whose good he had accomplished more than any one else in all its limits.

[NOTE--Sir Walter Raleigh occupied the twelve years of his imprisonment in writing a "history of the world." This work gave great offence to King James, who endeavored to suppress its circulation. When Raleigh was carried to execution, while on the scaffold, he asked to see the axe. He closely examined its bright, keen edge, and said, with a smile: "This is a sharp medicine, but a sound cure for all diseases." He then laid his head composedly on the block, moved his lips as if in prayer, and gave the signal for the blow. ]

6. Thus suffered and died the man who first sent s.h.i.+ps and men to the soil of North Carolina. That he failed in what he desired to accomplish should not detract from the grat.i.tude and reverence due to his memory. If incompetent and unworthy agents, and the accidents of fortune, thwarted him in his designs, the fault is not his. He was the greatest and most ill.u.s.trious man connected with our annals as a State, and should ever receive the applause and remembrance of our people.

7. After the death of Sir Walter Raleigh no more efforts were made to plant a colony at Roanoke. The spot was never favorable for such a purpose. No coast in the world is much more dangerous to s.h.i.+ps than that of North Carolina. Cape Hatteras is even now the dread of all mariners. It is visited by many storms, and sends its deadly sandbars for fifteen miles out into the ocean to surprise and wreck the ill-fated vessel that has approached too near the coast.

8. Governor Lane, while at Roanoke, discovered the broad, deep inlet and safe anchorage at Hampton Roads, within the present limits of Virginia. This port lies, but little to the north of that inlet which Amadas and Barlowe entered on the first English visit to Carolina. Into Hampton Roads, in 1607, went another colony, sent over by men who had succeeded the unfortunate Raleigh in the royal permission to plant settlements in America.

To the genius and bravery of the leader, Captain John Smith, was due the permanence of the settlement at Jamestown. The name of "Virginia," which had been applied to all the territory claimed by England under the discoveries of Gilbert and Raleigh, was then confined to the colony on James River.

9. In the course of a few years many places on the Atlantic coast were occupied by expeditions sent out from England and other countries of Europe. Those of England, at Plymouth, of the Dutch, at New Amsterdam, and of the Swedes, in New Jersey, were speedily seen, while yet roamed the Tuscarora in undisturbed possession of North Carolina.

10. As Virginia grew more populous there were hards.h.i.+ps and troubles concerning religion. Men and women were persecuted on account of their religious practices. If people did not conform to the "English" or Episcopal Church they were punished by fine and imprisonment. Sometimes cruel whipping became the portion of men who were found preaching Quaker and Baptist doctrines.

11. Sir William Berkeley, who was Governor of Virginia, had no authority over men who dwelt in the region south of a line a few miles below where the s.h.i.+ps approached the inland waters of Virginia. When this became known many people around the Nansemond River and adjacent localities went southward, towards the Albemarle Sound, seeking homes where the tyrant of Virginia had no jurisdiction.

1653.

12. For this cause Roger Green, a clergyman, in 1653, led a considerable colony to the banks of the Chowan and Roanoke Rivers; but even before this, there were probably scattered settlements over most all the region north of the Albemarle Sound, of which we have no reliable account.

QUESTIONS.

1. What is said of the attempted settlement upon Roanoke Island?

2. What had the expedition cost Raleigh?

3. What was Raleigh's greatest loss?

4. Who succeeded Queen Elizabeth? What kind of a man was King James I. ?

5. What new trouble came upon Raleigh? Describe his conviction and death.

6. How should the people of North Carolina ever think of Sir Walter Raleigh?

7. Were any further efforts made to plant a colony at Roanoke?

What is said of the place?

8. What safe anchorage had Governor Lane discovered? What colony entered Hampton Roads in 1607? What town was settled in Virginia, and by whom? To what locality was the name "Virginia"

then confined?

9. Mention some settlements made on the Atlantic coast about this time.

10. What persecutions were common in Virginia?

11. Over what section of country did Governor Berkeley have no authority? When this became known to the people what did many of them do?

12. What settlement was made by Roger Green, and when? Were there any settlements in North Carolina before this time?

CHAPTER X.

KING CHARLES II. AND THE LORDS PROPRIETORS.

A. D. 1663.

After the discovery of North Carolina, in 1584, by Amadas and Barlowe, many years had gone by before the period now reached in this narrative. Not only had James succeeded Elizabeth, but Charles had succeeded James and had been beheaded as a traitor to the land he pretended to rule. Cromwell had lived, ruled and died, and Charles II. was on the throne of his fathers, and thus again royal bounties became possible and fas.h.i.+onable.

2. Many men in England had heard of the goodly land which was being peopled around Albemarle Sound, beyond the jurisdiction of Governor Berkeley. He, too, with his bitter and envenomed soul, took part in a scheme which was to give him some authority over the refugees who had imagined themselves beyond the reach of his cruel rule.

1663