146 ST NICOTINE 



and a host more of England's sturdy sons, sailed the 

 Spanish main, bent upon achieving fame or fortune, yet 

 caring little what lot befell them if only renown were won 

 for their idolised Queen Bess. They encountered the 

 mild Indian, and explored a portion of his glorious land, 

 teeming with a rich luxuriance of vegetation such as their 

 eyes had never before beheld. But what of El Dorado, 

 the famed city of gold and precious stones, hemmed in by 

 golden mountains, whose splendour and immense treasure 

 beckoned them onward ? Alas ! the gorgeous phantasm of 

 the New World, like the glories of the setting sun, melted 

 away before their advancing steps. And yet many a poor, 

 dispirited wayfarer in the pursuit of the alluring ignis 

 fatuus found comfort and consolation in the humble weed 

 which the natives supplied to him and taught him how to 

 use. In testimony whereof, listen to honest Jack Brimble- 

 combe in Westward Ho ! ' Heaven forgive me ! but 

 when I get the leaf between my teeth, I feel tempted to sit 

 as still as a chimney and smoke to my dying day.' And 

 faithful old Yeo pours forth his pent-up gratitude for the 

 comfort he derives from the Indians' herb in a stream of 

 consolation for the lonely and afflicted, assuring us that when 

 all things were made none was made better than this. And 

 here he enumerates the blessing breathed upon the weary 

 and worn traveller in those far-off lands by the herb, like 

 unto which there is not another under the canopy of 

 heaven. 



In the summer of 1584, Raleigh, his imagination aglow 

 with brilliant colonisation schemes which should eclipse 

 those of Spain, sent out an expedition to explore the coast 

 of the new continent. On July 13, the party, under 

 Captains Amadas and Barlowe, took possession of the 

 territory which Raleigh subsequently named Virginia, in 



