42 HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF NEWFOUNDLAND 



Virginia 

 realized the 

 construc- 

 tive side of 

 the south- 

 ern plan, 

 1584, 



but it was 

 not per- 

 manent, 

 and the 

 ideal be- 

 hind both 

 plans was 

 imperfect. 



and Portugal ceased to play a part in the political history of 

 Newfoundland. Sir H. Gilbert's proposal of 1577, Sir 

 F. Walsingham's proposal of 1585, and Sir B. Drake's exploits 

 in 1585 are vivid reminders that the attempted coloniza- 

 tion of Newfoundland in 1583 was an incident in the Anglo- 

 Spanish war, that its emblem was a sword rather than 

 a plough, and that it was intended to destroy Spaniards as 

 well as to provide new homes and industries for Englishmen. 

 The second part — or, if we include the voyages of Fro- 

 bisher and his successors, the third part — of Sir Humphrey 

 Gilbert's plan was to create a new colony on the southern 

 coast of Northern America, and the execution of this design 

 fell to Ralegh, whose patent (1584) was copied from Gilbert's 

 patent. He, too, or at all events Sir R. Grenville and R. 

 Lane, who led the colony, regarded it as a base for attacking 

 the West Indies. The colony, which was named Virginia, 

 was planted with far greater care than Gilbert's colony (1584), 

 lasted fitfully for three years or so, and flickered out. Large 

 creative ideals, the usual delusions about Cathay, gold, 

 and silver, and a desire to retaliate against Spain, inspired 

 both Ralegh's and Gilbert's efforts; and after their failures 

 the history of colonization turned over a new leaf ; there were 

 no more colonies founded in anger, the old delusions about 

 Cathay and gold and silver melted into thin air, and the large 

 Elizabethan ideals were accompanied by small projects, which 

 after a time dimmed and obscured them. The turning-point 

 was the close of the sixteenth century. 



