34 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Drake's return, a resolution was arrived at to colonize. The scene of 

 the first intended settlement was Newfoundland, far to the north of all 

 territories previously occu])ied or claimed. The abortive attempts at set- 

 tlement made in 15(52 by Coligny to the southward were not encouraging 

 and had put a stop to any like attempts on the coasts of North America, 

 so that the design to form a settlement so much further north, on a 

 comparatively unknown land, of which very exaggerated statements of 

 its cold and storms were circulated by the crews who resorted to the 

 islands and banks during the fishing season did not create much enthu- 

 siasm. Conjoined with the scheme of colonization, however, was the 

 design to continue the search for a north-west passage. 



The letters patent granted by Elizabeth to Gilbert, dated on the 

 11th June, 1578. gave him full proprietory right to the lands he might 

 discover and almost unbounded power over those who might settle on 

 them. As the historian Robertson says : " With these extraordinary 

 " powers, suited to the high notions of authority and prerogative pre- 

 '' valent in England during thé sixteenth century, but very repugnant to 

 " more recent ideas with respect to the i"ights of free men who volun- 

 '' tarily unite to form a colony, Gilbert began to collect associates and 

 '• prepare for embarkation." The ditliculty of fitting out the expedition, 

 ari.sing from many causes and the fruitlessness of his first attempts 

 which exhausted his means and diminished his credit and the appi'oaching 

 lapse of the grant, which was for six years only, made Gilbert ui'ge with 

 all his ability the fitting out of a flett, so as to enable him to derive the 

 hoped for advantage of the grant. But it took two years of toil and 

 care to bring his purpose to the point of having his fleet ready to sail in 

 1583. the year before Raleigh sent off an expedition to select a suitable 

 spot for settlement, resulting in the disastrous failure to settle Virginia 

 on the tei'ritory afterwards known as JNorth Carolina, so that Gilbert 

 Avas the first designer of settlement by the English, however unsuc- 

 cessful might be his efibrts. It is to the fate of his last voyage that 

 attention is to be directed in this paper. 



The difficulties attending the collection of a fleet have been indi- 

 cated above. Among those who assisted Gilbert, the best known was his 

 half brother Walter Raleigh. A slight digression may be permitted to 

 discuss the question of the real name of one so well known. Hayes, in 

 his account of Gilbert's voyage spells it Rawley, but the name had 

 several variations, although the pronunciation was, no doubt, uniformly 

 as Haj'cs spells it. The elder Disraeli, in his thii'd volume of the "Curi- 

 osities of Literature,". says he has discovered the contemporary pronun- 

 ciation to be Rawl}^ and gives the title of a work published in 1603. 

 dedicated to Sir Walter Rawleigh ; it was written Rawly by some of his 

 contemporaries, he himself wrote it Ralegh and this spelling appears on 

 his official seal. In the face of this latter consideration, Disraeli adopted 



