TO THE 598-17 HISTORY OF THE COLONY AND ANCIENT DOMINION OF VIRGINIA. BY CHARLES CAMPBELL. IN ONE VOLUME. RICHMOND: B. B. MINOR, PUBLISHER. MDCCCXLVII. ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1847, BY CHARLES CAMPBELL, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Eastern District of Virginia. WM. MACFARLANE, PRINTER. HISTORY OF VIRGINIA. CHAPTER I. 1492-1591. Early voyages of Discovery; Madoc; The Northmen; Co lumbus; John Cabot; Sebastian Cabot; Sir Humphrey Gilbert; Walter Raleigh; Expedition of Amidas and Barlow; They land on Wococon Island; They return to England; The new country named Virginia; Grenville's Expedition; Colony of Roanoke; Lane Governor; The Colony abandoned; Tobacco; Grenville returns to Virginia; Leaves a small Colony at Roanoke; Sir Walter Raleigh sends out another Expedition; City of Raleigh Chartered; White Governor; Roanoke found deserted; Virginia Dare, first child born in the Colony; White returns for supplies; The Armada; Raleigh as signs the Colony to a Company; White returns to Virginia; Finds the Colony extinct; Death of Sir Richard Grenville. Portuguese, French and Spanish navigators now visited North America, with what motives, adventures and success, it is not necessary to relate here. [1583.] Sir Humphrey Gilbert, commissioned by Queen Elizabeth and assisted by his half-brother, Walter Raleigh, fitted out a small fleet and made a voyage to Newfoundland, where he landed and took formal possession of the country. This intrepid navigator embarking to return in the Squirrel, a vessel of only ten tons, was lost in a storm. When last seen by the company of the Hind, Sir Humphrey, although surrounded by imminent perils, was seated calmly on deck, with a book in his hand, and was heard to exclaim, "Be of good cheer, my friends, it is as near to Heaven by sea as by land.” Not daunted by the fate of his heroic kinsman, Raleigh persisted in the design of efThe discoveries attributed to Madoc, the fecting a settlement in America, and being Welsh prince, have afforded a theme for the now high in the Queen's favor, obtained letcreations of poetry; those of the Northmen ters patent for that purpose, dated March 25th, of Iceland, better authenticated, still engage 1584. Aided by some gentlemen and merthe dim researches of antiquarian curiosity. chants, particularly by his gallant kinsmen, The glory of having made the first certain Sir Richard Grenville, and Mr. William Sandiscovery of the New World, belongs to Co-derson who had married his niece, Raleigh lumbus. It was, however, the good fortune succeeded in providing two small vessels. of the Cabots, to be the first who actually These were put under command of Captains reached the main land. It was in 1492, that Philip Amidas and Arthur Barlow. Barlow the Genoese navigator first landed on the had already served with distinction under shores of St. Salvador. [1497.] Giovanni Raleigh in Ireland. The two vessels left the Gaboto, in English, John Cabot, a Venetian Thames on the 27th of April, 1584. Pursumerchant, resident at Bristol, with his son, ing the old circuitous route by the Canaries, Sebastian, a native of that city, having ob- they reached the West Indies. After a short tained a patent from Henry VII., sailed un- stay there, they sailed North, and early in der his flag and discovered the main conti- July, as they approached the coast of Florida, nent of America, amid the inhospitable rigors the mariners were regaled with the odors of of the wintry North. It was more than a a thousand flowers wafted from the fragrant year subsequent, that Columbus, in his third shore. Amidas and Barlow, passing one voyage, set his foot on the main land of the hundred and twenty miles farther, landed on South. [1498.] Sebastian Cabot again cross-the island of Wococon, in the stormy reed the Atlantic and coasted from the 58th degree of North latitude, along the shores of the United States, perhaps as far as to the Southern boundary of Maryland. * See in "Memorials of North Carolina," by J. Seawell Jones, a graphic description of this island, and of the circumstances of the landing there. This writer, who evinces |