4 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



empire for France. While religious and civil strife prevented France 

 from making an eftbrt to derive some advantage from Cartier's dis- 

 coveries during the latter half of the sixteenth century, England, under 

 the influence of that new spirit of maritime enterprise which developed 

 itself in the reign of Elizabeth, sent Sir Humphrey Gilbert to ISTewfound- 

 land and Sir Eichard Grenville to Albemarle Sound in North Carolina — 

 then a part of Virginia — to spread the dominion of the Queen and make 

 the beginning of colonial settlement. Sir Humphrey Gilbert's expedition 

 had no other results than a barren ceremony of sovereignty on a hill 

 overlooking St. John's harbour, while Ealegh's little colony, which was 

 placed on Eoanoke Island, disappeared in some mj^sterious way from 

 human ken. 



In the same reign the great Armada was scattered by the storms 

 of heaven, and by the indomitable pluck and superior seamanship of 

 the men who manned the little fleet, which won for itself so high a 

 place in English historic annals and was the beginning of that noble 

 navy which, in later centuries, made England Mistress of the Seas. 

 Drake not only robbed Spaniards on the Spanish Main and brought 

 back rich treasures in which even " Good Queen Bess " shared with- 

 out a blush, but was the first Englishman to sail around the globe 

 by Magellan's route and give to England a claim to possessions on the 

 Pacific coast of North America, which received the name of New Albion 

 on maps of the day. 



It is true that Ealegh failed in his scheme of establishing colonies in 

 the beautiful land of Virginia, of which glowing accounts were brought 

 home by English adventurers, and it was in the reigns of James the first 

 and Charles, his son, that the English actually founded permanent settle- 

 ments on the Atlantic shore of North America. But the germs of 

 Virginia and New England were planted by Ealegh, and the colonial and 

 maritime enterprise of England was stimulated bj^ such successes as were 

 won by Howard, Grenville, Hawkins and Drake wherever they met the 

 Spaniards who, until their day, were considered invincible at sea and 

 allowed to have a monopoly of the land discovered by Columbus and his- 

 successors. Englishmen at last commenced to recognize the fact that 

 their mission was on the ocean and that they could advantageously enter 

 the field of colonial enterprise in the new world, which ottered such 

 enormous possibilities to courageous pioneers and explorers. 



Nor must we forget to record among the memorable events of the 

 same reign the formation of a famous Company which entered into com- 

 petition for the rich trade of the East Indies, where, in later times, one 

 of its servants, Eobert Clive, won an Empire for England, and gave the 

 right to Queen Victoria to be crowned its Empress. 



In the seventeenth century English colonists took possession of a 

 fringe of territory on the Atlantic coast, France occupied the shores of 



