CHAPTER VI

THE GREAT ENTERPRISE

Scheme of colonization-Preparation-The sailing-Queen's interest-Death of Sir Humfrey Gilbert-Another charter obtained -King Wingina-Hospitality-Sir Richard Grenville-Difficulties of first colonists-Personal outfit-Misfortune.

OURT life, for all its brilliance and excitement,

COURT

did not monopolize Ralegh's attention. He had gained wealth and position: he was near the Queen. That did not suffice him. He was a man of imagination, who could never rest content with the attainment which, as man of action, he had achieved. Rarely have the two qualities been so often combined as they were in the Elizabethan times, and rarely, even then, were they combined with such force and in so high a degree as they were in great Ralegh. He bent his energies on the scheme for colonization. The old idea was that Paradise lay somewhere on the surface of the world; all through the Middle Ages the dream existed. Columbus thought that the earth was probably shaped like a pear, not spherical but elongated, and "on the summit of the protuberance was situated the earthly Paradise,' whither no one can go but by God's permission.'"

That dream continued. It came to Marlowe and obsessed him. But Marlowe dreamed of no mediæval Paradise.

"Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed

In one self-place; for where we are is hell
And where hell is there must we ever be."

And his god was power; his demi-god, the man who, like Scythian Tamburlaine, lived

"Threatening the world with high astounding terms

And scourging kingdoms with his conquering sword." There was no limit set to the enterprise of man's energy; his power was measureless and divine. Only in the realm of beauty his step might falter; beyond all achievement, and all the beauty of achievement, there would always hover

"One thought, one grace, one wonder at the least
Which into words no virtue can digest."

Marlowe wrote intoxicated with this elixir of infinite
possibility. The sea-dogs, men of action, seemed
almost to be realizing his dreams, fighting the next
ship that met them, like Drake always sailing a little
further on, coming home with spoils and tales of wonder,
and starting out in search of fresh adventures; or there
were men like Frobisher, who combined the buccaneer
with the spirit of the scientist, and who were anxious
to learn new geographical facts; or men like Gilbert,
who were serious-minded enough to be whole-hearted
in the cause of science; or men like Ralegh, in whom
all these elements seem to have been struggling. This
paradise of unknown lands worked in all ways upon his
mind. Not Columbus before him, not Balzac after him,
realized more keenly the power of money.
He saw,
with Gilbert and the industrious Hakluyt, the value of
geographical knowledge, but what fired his imagination
was the vision of another Empire across the seas, and
that vision he was impatient to realize. He inspired
the painstaking Hakluyt, and he quietly made it his
life's purpose to further the project. It was Ralegh
who grasped the true meaning of the vague aspirations

SCHEME OF COLONIZATION

73

and whose personality was big enough to set the first slow forces at work. His immediate schemes failed, but without those initial failures Captain John Smith would never have succeeded, as he did succeed some fifteen years later, in founding the colony of Virginia, from which has at length grown, in the space of four hundred years, the present American nation. So are our dreams of Paradise materialized into fact.

The attempt which Gilbert and Ralegh had made at colonization in 1578 had failed.

But Ralegh, in his influential position, saw a means of turning his scheme to advantage. As has been seen, the unrest of the Catholic party was becoming more and more acute, until it reached its climax in the Babington conspiracy and the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. Ralegh saw his opportunity. He knew as well as Walsingham that there were a large number of Catholic gentlemen who were desirous of remaining loyal to their country and loyal to their religion. The wish was as sane as it was difficult to realize. Naturally (and rightly from their point of view) the Jesuits and other Catholics, whose enthusiasm made them fanatical, hated these moderate gentlemen, and called them Schismatics. Ralegh saw how they might be employed to the advantage of his scheme, just as a few years previously, when the overcrowding of London was troubling Burghley, that overcrowding suggested the immediate material of his scheme. He suggested to Walsingham a solution of the difficulty, that these gentlemen should form a separate kingdom, should found the colony in Virginia. In June, 1582, Sir George Gerrard and Sir Thomas Peckham were empowered to do this. The new plan was set in motion in spite of Papal warnings and even Papal veto. Two ships were sent to spy out

the land that summer, and in the spring of the following year all was at length in readiness for actual sailing. Ralegh himself intended to be vice-admiral,* but_the Queen forbade him to join the expedition. He had, however, constructed, on plans of his own devising, an immense sailing-vessel of 200 tons, which was called the Bark-Ralegh (not to be confused wth the flagship of the fleet which repulsed the Armada five years later, called the Ark-Ralegh). The other vessels were the Delight, alias the George, of 120 tons, "which was the Admirall;" the Golden Hinde, of 40 tons, "which was Reare Admirall;" the Swallow, of 40 tons, and the Squirrill, of 10 tons. "We were in number," writes Mr. Edward Hayes, gentleman, who sailed on the Golden Hinde, "in all about 260 men: among whom we had of every faculty good choice, as Shipwrights, Masons, Carpenters, Smithes and such like, requisite to such an action: also Minerall men and Refiners. Besides for solace of our people and allurement of the Savages, we were provided of Musike in good variety: not omitting the least toyes, as Morris dancers, Hobby horsse, and Maylike conceits to delight the savage people whom we intended to winne by all faire meanes possible. And to that end we were indifferently furnished of all petty haberdasherie wares to barter with those simple people."

On June 11 the expedition sailed from Causon Bay. The day was Tuesday. Misfortune came very soon upon them. On Thursday evening the news was signalled from the Bark-Ralegh that the captain and

* Professor Raleigh writes: "Ralegh, who never took kindly to a subordinate command, deserted the expedition for some reason unknown." But it is not at all probable that he ever started." The English Voyages," p. 58.

SAILING OF THE EXPEDITION

75 very many of the men were fallen sick; and at midnight, "notwithstanding we had the wind East, faire and good," the vice-admiral forsook them. The reason Mr. Hayes could never understand, he says in his account, and adds, "Sure I am, no cost was spared by their owner Master Ralegh in setting them forth: Therefore I leave it unto God." Sir Humfrey Gilbert was not so philosophic about the desertion; he wrote to his brother-admiral, Sir George Peckham, in wrath: "The Bark-Ralegh ran from me in fair and clear weather, having a large wind. I pray you solicit my brother Ralegh to make them an example to all knaves."

After this defection the Golden Hinde took the place of the Vice-Admiral, and hoisted her flag from the mizzen to the foretop. As they sailed northward they were "incumbered with much fogge and mists in maner palpable," so that great difficulty was experienced by the ships in keeping in touch one with the other. The danger of separation always threatened sailing vessels, and elaborate devices and instructions were always prepared to lessen its likelihood and to face the emergency. But on July 20 the Swallow and the Squirrill became separated from the company, and were not discovered again until the Newfoundland coast was reached on August 3. Soon after another misfortune occurred owing to the unruliness of the men on the Squirrill, who could not be restrained from plundering a fishingboat. This bad act was sufficient to wreck the success of the expedition, and caused much dissatisfaction among the sailors, who were always superstitious. Moreover, the men's unruliness was a serious danger on such an expedition, apart from the question of God's wrath, which Mr. Hayes feared, and which fell upon the Squirrill and requited the ill-doers with death.