JOHN CABOT DISCOVERS THE MAINLAND OF NORTH AMERICA. ENGLAND AND SPAIN UNFRIENDLY TO EACH OTHER. ENGLISH SEA CAPTAINS CAPTURE SPANISH VESSELS. SIR WALTER RALEIGH'S FAMILY AND EDUCATION. RALEIGH THE SOLDIER. HE WINS THE FAVOR OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. RALEIGH'S DRESS; DISPLAY IN COURT LIFE. HE SENDS TWO VESSELS TO AMERICA. HIS FIRST COLONY LANDS ON ROANOKE ISLAND. A VAIN SEARCH FOR GOLD. TIMELY ARRIVAL OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. THREE AMERICAN PRODUCTS TAKEN TO ENGLAND. AN AMUSING STORY ABOUT RALEIGH. RALEIGH'S SECOND ATTEMPT TO PLANT A COLONY IN THE NEW WORLD. GOVERNOR WHITE RETURNS TO ENGLAND. HE SAILS TWO YEARS LATER FOR VIRGINIA. CROATOAN. RALEIGH IMPRISONED AND BEHEADED.
1. Tell in your own language what was done by John Cabot and his son.
2. Why did Raleigh when a boy hate Spain?
3. Write an account of the failure of Raleigh's first and second colonies, and give their dates.
4. What did Raleigh try to do? What did he succeed in doing?
John Smith and the Settlement of Jamestown
About twenty years after the failure of Raleigh's attempt to plant a settlement in America, another effort was made by a body of merchants and wealthy men called the London Company. Their purpose was to discover gold, of which Englishmen were then dreaming, just as the Spaniards had dreamed years before when they sailed under the leadership of Columbus, Pizarro, Cortez, and De Soto. As a beginning for the new colony, which was destined to be the first permanent English settlement in America, the London Company sent out one hundred and five men, who set sail from London on New Year's day, 1607, in three frail vessels. They were not sturdy, self-reliant men such as give strength to a new enterprise. On the contrary, about half of them were "gentlemen," who felt themselves above working with their hands. They were coming to America to pick up a fortune, and then return to England to live at ease the rest of their lives. As we shall see, such colonists were unfit for the rough and rugged life which awaited them in the wild woods of a new country.
Instead of sailing straight across the Atlantic they took a very much longer route, directing their course down the coast of France and Spain to the Canaries and from these islands to the West Indies. Here they stopped a long time. The result was that they were about four months on the tiresome voyage, and had used up nearly all their provisions before reaching their journey's end.