Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/31

 his fleet was overtaken by heavy storms, and these causing much damage and destruction, he decided to return to England, and while on his way the ship which he occupied foundered with all on board.

The mantle dropped by Sir Humphrey Gilbert at his death fell upon the shoulders of his half-brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, one of the most brilliant and versatile men who have performed a leading part in the annals of the world. In 1584 Raleigh obtained a charter which was the exact counterpart of the letters patent to Gilbert. It granted the same powers, privileges, and jurisdictions. In a spirit of prudence, he sent out a preliminary expedition to the coast of America, for the purpose of acquiring by actual observation the information necessary for the guidance of the greater expedition which was to follow. Unfortunately, Amadas and Barlow made a landing on the Hatteras coast, and were thus led to recommend that the territory at this point should be the site of the proposed settlement. If these two captains had first dropped anchor in the Chesapeake instead of in the modern Albemarle Sound, the successful colonization of Virginia would probably have been anticipated by a quarter of a century. The occupation by Raleigh proceeded somewhat further than the ceremony performed by Gilbert in taking possession of Newfoundland in 1583, but it was equally fruitless of a permanent settlement. In this unsuccessful attempt to secure an enduring foothold there, disasters appealing with peculiar force to the imagination occurred, but they were not sufficient to