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 On the same night, being ahead of the Hind, the Squirrel's lights were noticed to have disappeared. The vessel had gone down with all hands. The Hind arrived at Falmouth on the 22nd of September.

Hakluyt has preserved the journals of four Bristol ships which made successful sealing voyages to Newfoundland and Cape Breton in 1593 and 1594.

The mantle of Sir Humphrey Gilbert fell upon his half-brother, Walter Ralegh. This illustrious Englishman was the embodiment of all that was best in the chivalry, the culture, and the enterprise of the Elizabethan age. Born at Hayes, near Sidmouth, in 1552, Ralegh was educated at Oxford, and passed six years of his life in Huguenot camps in France, probably serving in the battles of Jarnac and Moncontour. He then saw service in Ireland; and in 1582, at the age of thirty, he was received into high favour by the queen. His greatness then began, and in 1584 he leased Durham House in the Strand. He was knighted in 1585, and became Captain of the Queen's Guard and Lord Warden of the Stannaries in the following year.

On the 25th of March, 1584, Sir Walter Ralegh received letters patent for the discovery and settlement of the region then vaguely known as Norumbega, the coasts of which had been discovered by the English in 1498, as shown by the map of Juan de la Cosa. Ralegh first sent two vessels, under Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe, to proceed to their destination by way of the West Indies, and thus avoid the storms of the North Atlantic. They sailed on the 27th of April, 1584, touched at the Canaries and at one of the West India islands, and, on the 18th of July, landed on a low and sandy beach, and took possession. The country received the name of Virginia, in honour of the great queen, but the spot where they landed is in North Carolina. They found a broad, wooded island, with great abundance of wild grapes. Seven leagues farther on was the village of Roanoak, consisting of a hundred houses of cedar. A banquet was given them by the king, and they returned to England with two natives.

Ralegh's second expedition was on a larger scale. It was commanded by the renowned Sir Richard Greyvile, and consisted of five vessels — the Tiger, of 140 tons, the Lion, of 100 tons, the Elizabeth, of 50 tons, the Dorothy, a small barque, and the fly-boat Roebuck. Among the volunteers were Ralph Lane, the Governor of Kerry,