Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/53

] On reaching England, White found the whole country aroused to prepare for the great invasion threatened by Philip of Spain and his Invincible Armada. Yet Raleigh was not forgetful of his colony; even amidst his engrossing cares at home, he managed to fit out, in April, two vessels with supplies; but the ships' company, eager after prize-money, sought the gains of privateering rather than the path of duty. Worsted in an engagement, they were compelled to put back, and thus they virtually abandoned the colony to ruin. The delay proved fatal; nothing further could be done at the time; Raleigh was nearly bankrupt by the heavy outlays to which he had been subjected; and it was not till 1590 that White was enabled to return and search for his family and the colony he had left. Roanoke was literally a desert; the ruins of desolate habitations, and the word "Croatan," on the bark of a tree, were all the traces that remained of the ill-fated colony. It was thought possible that they might have taken refuge with Manteo and his people; but nothing transpired ever after to point out what had been their lot.

Raleigh, who had spent nearly $200,000 in his noble efforts, was unable to do anything more. Accordingly he assigned his rights as proprietary to Sir Thomas Smith and a company of merchants in London, and engaged in other schemes especially that of penetrating into the heart of Guiana, where he fondly hoped to repair his shattered fortunes. The London, company did not succeed in inducing colonists to go to Virginia; they simply carried on a traffic of no great moment, by the agency of a few vessels, without being able to effect any settlements in the New World. Hence, in 1603, after a period of more than a hundred years from the time that Cabot discovered the Continent of North America, and twenty from the time that Raleigh sent out his first colony, not a single Englishman remained in the New World. Thus slowly did the work of colonization go on!

In the last year of the reign of Elizabeth, Bartholomew Gosnold set out in a small vessel to make a more direct course to Virginia than that which was usual by way of the Canaries and West Indies. In seven weeks he reached the coast of Massachusetts, near Nahant. Keeping to the south in search of a harbor, he discovered the promontory which he called Cape Cod; this was the first spot in New England ever trod by Englishmen. Doubling the cape, and passing Nantucket, they entered Buzzard's Bay, which they called Gosnold's Hope. On the westernmost of the islands in the Bay they determined to settle, and named it Elizabeth, after the queen. They built a fort and store-house, on a rocky islet in the centre of a small lake of fresh water, traces of which were seen by Dr. Belknap in 1797. They were delighted with the luxuriant vegetation of early summer, the fragrance of the scented shrubs, the abundance of the wild grapes and strawberries; and the natural impulse was to wish to remain