INTRODUCTION.
CHAPTER I.
Commission of Cabot.... His voyage to America.... Claims of the French to the discovery of North America.... All further views of discovery, or settlement, relinquished by Henry VII.... Renewed by Elizabeth.... Letters patent granted to sir Humphrey Gilbert.... His voyages and death.... Letters patent granted to sir Walter Raleigh.... Voyage of sir Richard Grenville.... Colonists carried back to England by Drake.... Grenville arrives with other colonists.... They are left on Roanoke island, and destroyed by the Indians.... Arrival of captain John White.... White dispatched to England for succour.... Raleigh assigns his patent to sir Thomas Smith and company.... Patent to sir Thomas Gates and others.... Code of laws drawn up for the proposed colony by king James.
The discovery of America by Columbus, gave a new impulse, and, in some degree, a new direction to that bold spirit of adventure which characterized the hardy age in which he lived.
The accounts given by that daring and skilful navigator of the countries he had visited, and the still more flattering reports respecting them which were circulated by the companions of his voyage, while they made their deepest
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