Page:The Life of George Washington, Volume 1.djvu/49

 INTRODUCTION. 19 titute of many things, deemed essential to the chap.i. preservation and comfortable subsistence of a 1587. new settlement, in a country covered withwwte ' • dispatched forests, and inhabited only by a few scattered fJ^lS^. tribes of savages. With one voice they de- puted their governor, to solicit those specific aids which their situation particularly and es- sentially required. On his arrival in England, he found the whole nation alarmed at the for- midable preparations for their invasion, made by Philip II. of Spain; and Raleigh, Grenville, and the other patrons of the colony, particu- larly and ardently engaged in those measures of defence which the public danger called for, and rendered indispensable. Raleigh, how- ever, mingled with his exertions to defend his native country, some attention to the colony he had planted. Early in the year, he found 1588. leisure to fit out for its relief, a small fleet, the command of which was given to sir Richard Grenville ; but the apprehensions from the Spanish armament, proudly and confidently styled, by the monarch of that nation, the in- vincible armada, still increasing, the ships of force prepared by Raleigh were detained in port, by order of the queen, for the defence of their own country ; and sir Richard Grenville was especially, and personally, commanded not to depart out of Cornwall, where his services under sir Walter Raleigh, who was mustering and training the forces, as lieutenant of the d 2