Presently land appeared, which they took to be the continent, and coasted along to the northward a hundred and thirty miles before finding a harbor.Entering the first opening, they landed on what proved to be the Island of Roanoke.The landing-place was sandy and low, but so productive of grapes or vines overrunning everything, that the very surge of the sea sometimes overflowed them.The tallest and reddest cedars in the world grew there, with pines, cypresses, and other trees, and in the woods plenty of deer, conies, and fowls in incredible abundance.
After a few days the natives came off in boats to visit them, proper people and civil in their behavior, bringing with them the King's brother, Granganameo (Quangimino, says Strachey).The name of the King was Winginia, and of the country Wingandacoa.The name of this King might have suggested that of Virginia as the title of the new possession, but for the superior claim of the Virgin Queen.
Granganameo was a friendly savage who liked to trade.The first thing he took a fancy was a pewter dish, and he made a hole through it and hung it about his neck for a breastplate.The liberal Christians sold it to him for the low price of twenty deer-skins, worth twenty crowns, and they also let him have a copper kettle for fifty skins.They drove a lively traffic with the savages for much of such "truck," and the chief came on board and ate and drank merrily with the strangers.His wife and children, short of stature but well-formed and bashful, also paid them a visit.She wore a long coat of leather, with a piece of leather about her loins, around her forehead a band of white coral, and from her ears bracelets of pearls of the bigness of great peas hung down to her middle.The other women wore pendants of copper, as did the children, five or six in an ear.The boats of these savages were hollowed trunks of trees.
Nothing could exceed the kindness and trustfulness the Indians exhibited towards their visitors.They kept them supplied with game and fruits, and when a party made an expedition inland to the residence of Granganameo, his wife (her husband being absent) came running to the river to welcome them; took them to her house and set them before a great fire; took off their clothes and washed them;removed the stockings of some and washed their feet in warm water;set plenty of victual, venison and fish and fruits, before them, and took pains to see all things well ordered for their comfort."More love they could not express to entertain us." It is noted that these savages drank wine while the grape lasted.The visitors returned all this kindness with suspicion.
They insisted upon retiring to their boats at night instead of lodging in the house, and the good woman, much grieved at their jealousy, sent down to them their half-cooked supper, pots and all, and mats to cover them from the rain in the night, and caused several of her men and thirty women to sit all night on the shore over against them."A more kind, loving people cannot be," say the voyagers.
In September the expedition returned to England, taking specimens of the wealth of the country, and some of the pearls as big as peas, and two natives, Wanchese and Manteo.The "lord proprietary" obtained the Queen's permission to name the new lands "Virginia," in her honor, and he had a new seal of his arms cut, with the legend, Propria insignia Walteri Ralegh, militis, Domini et Gubernatoris Virginia.
The enticing reports brought back of the fertility of this land, and the amiability of its pearl-decked inhabitants, determined Raleigh at once to establish a colony there, in the hope of the ultimate salvation of the "poor seduced infidell" who wore the pearls.Afleet of seven vessels, with one hundred householders, and many things necessary to begin a new state, departed from Plymouth in April, 1585.Sir Richard Grenville had command of the expedition, and Mr.Ralph Lane was made governor of the colony, with Philip Amadas for his deputy.Among the distinguished men who accompanied them were Thomas Hariot, the mathematician, and Thomas Cavendish, the naval discoverer.The expedition encountered as many fatalities as those that befell Sir Humphrey Gilbert; and Sir Richard was destined also to an early and memorable death.But the new colony suffered more from its own imprudence and want of harmony than from natural causes.
In August, Grenville left Ralph Lane in charge of the colony and returned to England, capturing a Spanish ship on the way.The colonists pushed discoveries in various directions, but soon found themselves involved in quarrels with the Indians, whose conduct was less friendly than formerly, a change partly due to the greed of the whites.In June, when Lane was in fear of a conspiracy which he had discovered against the life of the colony, and it was short of supplies, Sir Francis Drake appeared off Roanoke, returning homeward with his fleet from the sacking of St.Domingo, Carthagena, and St.
Augustine.Lane, without waiting for succor from England, persuaded Drake to take him and all the colony back home.Meantime Raleigh, knowing that the colony would probably need aid, was preparing a fleet of three well appointed ships to accompany Sir Richard Grenville, and an "advice ship," plentifully freighted, to send in advance to give intelligence of his coming.Great was Grenville's chagrin, when he reached Hatorask, to find that the advice boat had arrived, and finding no colony, had departed again for England.
However, he established fifteen men ("fifty," says the "General Historie") on the island, provisioned for two years, and then returned home.