ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 



Sir Walter Ralegh, ..... Frontispiece 



Sir Walter Ralegh, the son of a Devonshire country- 

 gentleman, was born near Budleigh Salterton, South 

 Devon, about 1552. Sir Humphrey Gilbert was 

 his half brother by his mother's first marriage. In 

 1569 he joined the Huguenots in France as a 

 volunteer. He was at Oriel College, Oxford, in 

 1572. In September 1578 he assisted Sir Hum- 

 phrey Gilbert in fitting out his first expedition at 

 Dartmouth, and himself commanded the * Falcon ' 

 of 100 tons. The expedition returned in 1579. 

 From June 1580 to December 1581 he saw service in 

 Ireland, and being then sent with despatches to the 

 Court at Greenwich, he quickly sprang into favour 

 with Elizabeth. He was knighted in 1584, and in 

 1585 was appointed Warden of the Stannaries, lord 

 lieutenant of Cornwall and vice-admiral of Cornwall 

 and Devon. He sat as member for Devonshire in 

 Parliament in 1585-86, and in 1586 he was granted 

 40,000 acres of land in Munster. On the 25th 

 March 1584 he was granted a patent * for the dis- 

 covering and planting of new lands and Countries,' 

 and as a result he founded the first English colony 

 of Virginia. The accounts of the various expedi- 

 tions to Virginia sent out by him are given in 

 Hakluyt, Vol. VIII., pp. 289 seq. He is said to 

 have spent over ^^40,000 (about j^ 3 20,000 of 

 our money) in his Virginian expeditions. About 



