Sir Walter Raleigh, while yet a young man, fought for years on the side of the Huguenots in the French civil wars, and afterward in the war in Ireland. On his return from Ireland, it is said that he won the Queen's favor by throwing his new plush cloak into a muddy place in the road for her to walk on. He fitted out ships and fought against the Great Armada, or fleet, of Spain, when that country tried to conquer England. He was a great statesman, a great soldier, a great seaman, and an excellent poet and historian. He is said to have first planted the potato in Ireland. King James I kept him in prison in the Tower for more than twelve years, and then released him. In 1618 the same king had this great man put to death to please the King of Spain. When Raleigh was about to be beheaded, he felt of the edge of the axe, and said, "It is a sharp medicine to cure me of all my diseases."

Sir Walter Raleigh was the first that landed a colony of English people on the land that is now the United States. Having received from Queen Elizabeth a charter which gave him a large territory in America, he sent out an exploring expedition in 1584, ninety-two years after the discovery by Columbus. This expedition was commanded by two captains, named Amidas and Barlowe. They landed on the coast in that part of America which we now call North Carolina. The country pleased them very much. They wondered at the wild grape-vines, which grew to the tops of the highest trees, and they found the American Indians very friendly. They stayed about six weeks in the New World, and, everything here being strange to their eyes, they fell into many mistakes in trying to describe what they saw and heard. When they got back to England, they declared that the part of America they had seen was the paradise of the world.

Raleigh was much encouraged by the accounts which his two captains gave of the new country they had found. It was named Virginia at this time, in honor of Queen Elizabeth, who was often called the "Virgin Queen." But the name Virginia, which we apply to two of our states, was then used for nearly the whole eastern part of what is now the United States, between Maine and Georgia.

In 1585, the year after the return of the first expedition, Raleigh sent out a colony to remain in America. Sir Richard Grenville, a famous seaman, had command of this expedition; but he soon returned to England, leaving the colony in charge of Ralph Lane. There were no women in Ralph Lane's company. They made their settlement on Roanoke Island, which lies near to the coast of North Carolina, and they explored the mainland in many directions. They spent much time in trying to find gold, and they seem to have thought that the shell-beads worn by the American Indians were pearls. Like all the others who came to America in that time, they were very desirous of finding a way to get across America, which they believed to be very narrow. They hoped to reach the Pacific Ocean, and so open a new way of sailing: to China and the East Indies.

The American Indians by this time were tired of the settlers, and anxious to be rid of them. They told Lane that the Roanoke River came out of a rock so near to a sea at the west that the water sometimes dashed from the sea into the river, making the water of the river salt. Lane believed this story, and set out with most of his men to find a sea at the head of the river. Long before they got to the head of the Roanoke, their provisions gave out. But Lane made a brave speech to his men, and they resolved to go on. Having nothing else to eat, they killed their two dogs, and cooked the meat with sassafras leaves to give it a relish. When this meat was exhausted, they got into their boats and ran swiftly down the river, having no food to eat on the way home. Lane got back to Roanoke Island just in time to keep the American Indians from killing the men he had left there.

Sir Francis Drake came to see the colony on his return from an expedition to the West Indies. He furnished the company on the island with a ship and with whatever else they needed. But, while he remained at Roanoke, a storm arose which drove to sea the ship he had given to Lane. This so discouraged the colonists that they returned to England.

Ralph Lane and his companions were the first to carry tobacco into England. They learned from the American Indians to smoke it by drawing the smoke into their mouths and puffing it out through their nostrils. Raleigh adopted the practice, and many distinguished men and women followed his example. Some of the first tobacco-pipes in England were made by using a walnut-shell for the bowl of the pipe and a straw for the stem. It is related that, when Raleigh's servant first saw his master with the smoke coming from his nose, he thought him to be on fire, and poured a pitcher of ale, which he was fetching, over Sir Walter's head, to put the fire out.

Raleigh set to work, with the help of others, to send out another colony. This time he sent women and children, as well as men, intending to make a permanent settlement. The governor of this company was John White, an artist. Soon after White's company had settled themselves on Roanoke Island, an English child was born. This little girl, being the first English child born in Virginia, was named Virginia Dare.

John White, the governor of the colony, who was Virginia Dare's grandfather went back to England for supplies. He was detained by the war with Spain, and, when he got back to Roanoke Island, the colony had disappeared Raleigh had spent so much money already that he was forced to give up the attempt' to plant a colony in America. But he sent several times to seek for the lost people of his second colony, without finding them. Twenty years after John White left them, it was said that seven of them were still alive among the American Indians of North Carolina.