mmmmmL DA 86 .22 R2 R3 A** V ^ ° A <* •"."* ,G ,0' ^ ; , > / \ THE RALEIGH CALENDAR. A Chronological Compendium of the Principal Events in the Life of Sir Walter Raleigh. Read by W. J. PEELE, o F Ra.eigh, at the Fourth A NNUAL Meeting of the Literary and Historical Association, November 12, 1903. 1552— Walter Raleigh was bora in the county of Devon South England, at an old country house or manor' called Hayes." He was the son of Walter Raleigh of Eardel and Katherine Gilbert, his wife. She was also, by her first husband the mother of the celebrated Sir Humphrey Gilbert, with whom Raleigh was asso- Tnaa S^ ? ***"* ° Ut Ms earlier A merican expeditions. T566— Entered College at Oxford, England, where he re- mained for three years, distinguished especially in oratory and philosophy. 1569— Went to France as a volunteer, fighting six years in that country for the liberties of the Huguenots under the famous Admiral Coligny, the first citizen of -trance and the first victim of the massacre of St. -Bartholomew's Day. 1575— Returned to England. Studied and practiced naviga- tion and ship-building for several years, in which arts he became a master; and in the meantime he made himself familiar with the West Indies and with the American coasts and waters. 1578— Accompanied (according to some authorities) his half brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in an expedition to the St. Lawrence, in North America. 1580— Was commissioned captain of an hundred foot soldiers ' fight the Irish rebels and their Spanish and Italian allies. His pay was only eighty cents a day— but in two years he was the most famous soldier in Ireland and attracted, by his valor and success, the notice of Queen Elizabeth. 4 ^ 4^ 50 Historical and Literary Activities in N. C. 1581 — Was introduced at the Queen's court where he con- tinued to grow in favor until he became her most trust- ed adviser in military and naval affairs and the most active organizer of her forces against the Spanish. 1583 — Fitted out, with the aid of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, his half brother, an expedition to New Foundland. The Queen and the public service requiring his pres- ence in England, Gilbert was placed in command, and, after remaining on the desolate shores of that Island for thirty days, the expedition sailed for Eng- land. J t lost on its return voyage its brave command- er in a great storm ; but his last words, uttered from his sinking ship, are the best seaman's motto that has come down to us : "Be of good cheer, friends, we are as near heaven by sea as by land." 1584 — March 25. Obtained charter from Queen Elizabeth under which the several settlements on Roanoke Is- land were made — being the first settlements of the English race in America, the beginning of the Amer- ican nation, and the seeds of Jamestown and Ply- mouth. The charter was the beginning of English law in America. Emigrants to the lands that should be dis- covered and possessed. under its authority were, by its provisions, guarant eed the rights a nd liberties th ey enjoyed in England . 1581 — April 27. Dispatched an expedition of two ships un- der the command of Amidas and Barknve with au- thority to explore and take possession of such lands, (not under the dominion of any Christian Prince) as they should discover. 1584- — July 4.* The expedition arrived off the coast of what is now known as North Carolina about one hun- dred and twenty miles south of an inlet not far from Roanoke Island. {3p* July 7. This inlet was entered and a landing effected on a part of the "Banks." The English took formal possession in the name of Elizabeth, the Queen, and * Dates from July 4, 1584. to December, inclusive, are approximate, having been obtained by estimation. The Raleigh Calendar. 51 Sir Walter Raleigh the governor of the newly dis- covered land ; and- the Queen called it "Virginia," in honor of herself the virgin queen of England. The country embraced under this name extended from the 34th to the 45th degree Forth latitude— that is from the region of Cape Fear to that where Maine touches Canada on the Atlantic. July 10. They were first visited by the Indians who caught for them fish, which are still abundant in those waters. July 11. They made friends with Granganimeo r the brother of Wingina, the king of that country ; the near- est mainland of which the Indians called Dassa- monque-peak. July 16. They visited Roanoke Island, the cradle of American civilization, and the birth place of Virginia Dare the first child of English parents born in Amer- ica—nature's best protected spot on the American coast in which to have begun the hitherto untried ex- periment of English colonization; for the Chesapeake had been explored and sketched by the Spaniards, but the Sound section of North Carolina, behind its frown- ing barriers of sand, was terra incognita. August. They sailed for England taking with them the two Indians, Manteo, the friend, and Wanchese, the enemy, of the white race. September 15. The expedition returned to England. Barlowe published an account of it which Raleigh used, with the other accounts brought back, to thrill the English people with the fever of emigrating to America— a fever which has never fallen from that dav to this. _ December. Was knighted "Sir Walter Raleigh by Queen Elizabeth in honor of his exploits and discov- eries. 1585— April 9. Raleigh's second expedition set out from Plymouth for the shores of "Virginia" (North Caro- lina) under the command of his cousin, the celebrated Sir Richard Grenville. It consisted of one hundred and eight colonists and five little ships, the largest being of one hundred and forty tons burden, the 52 Historical and Literary Activities in N. C. smallest, fifty. Among the other famous men in this expedition was Thomas Cavendish, who afterwards circumnavigated the globe, Hariot, the mathematician and historian, and Ralph Lane, the explorer of East- ern North Carolina, and the first governor of an Eng- lish Colony in America. June 20. The vessels came in sight of "Florida," the name by which some explorers called so much of the continent as is now embraced within the limits of the South Atlantic States, and under which the Span- ish claimed the land from Key West to Nova Scotia. June 23. Sailing up the coast to what is now North Carolina they barely escaped shipwreck on a "breach called the Cap of Feare." Probably cape Look-out. June 24. They came to anchor in a harbor where they "caught in one tide so much fish as would have yield- ed twenty pounds in London." June 26. They came to anchor at Wokoken, where one of the ships was wrecked in the attempt to run her over the bar of the inlet— the first recorded ship- wreck in the region of Hatteras. Sept. 3. Was written the first letter by an English- man in America ; it was from the "New Fort in Vir- ginia" (Fort Raleigh on Roanoke Island) and writ- ten by Ralph Lane to Richard Hackluyt, of London. _ Lane's colony remained in "Virginia" (North Caro- lina) one year wanting five days, but lost onlv four of its number, and these died from natural causes. " 1585-6— During his occupation Lane explored the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds and their principal tributaries. He ascended the Roanoke River, called by the In- dians, Monatoc, about as far as Weldon. He explored the Chowan, called by the Indians Chowanoke, as far as Wyanoke Ferry, at the junction of the Black Water and Nottoway Rivers. He went North as far as the Elizabeth River and reported to Raleigh its commod- ious^ harbors and the deep waters of the Chesapeake. Hariot wrote the best account of these expeditions and a description of the principal food plants and ani- mals which were found; and DeBry, in 1588 and in 1590, published a book illustrated with maps, pic- The Raleigh Calendar. 53 tures and drawings of the sound section of North Carolina, its inhabitants and its food plants and ani- mals. The originals of these illustrations were made by John White, a painter, whom Sir Walter Raleigh, with the special approval of the Queen, and at his own cost, sent to our shores for this purpose. The book is the joint product of White, Hariot and DeBry, and is the most definite and valuable early English publication that was ever published of any part of America. With Barlowe's and Lane's narratives, it is the main source of the history of the earliest efforts to colonize America by the -English. 1586 — June 19. Lane and his colony sailed for England in the fleet of Sir Francis Drake. They had been doing well and were reasonably contented, but the sight of English ships and sailors made them home- sick and a terrible storm, such as still rage around Hat- teras, completed their demoralization. They landed in England, and Raleigh introduced from our shores the use of tobacco in England and the culture of pota- toes in Ireland. Shortly after the departure of the colonists, a ship loaded with provisions for them ar- rived at Wokoken, but soon sailed away for England. A fortnight later Sir Richard Grenville arrived and, finding none of Lane's colony, he left fifteen men on Roanoke Island to hold possession of the country until they could be relieved by a stronger force. No white man ever beheld their faces again. The destruction of these men first proved to the Indians that the Eng- lish were not invulnerable and begun the long battle between the two races. 1587 — May 8. Raleigh's Fourth expedition sailed from Ply- mouth for the shores of North Carolina. It consisted of three vessels with their crews and one hundred and fifty colonists, of whom 91 men, 17 women and 9 chil- dren remained. The emigrants were under the com- mand of their governor, John White ; they were fated to become what is known in history as the "Lost Colony." July 16. They landed on that part of the "Banks" then known as the Island of Croatan lying to the South of Cape Hatteras. 54 Historical and Literary Activities in N. C. T ,1, 22 They arrived at Hattorask Inlet and passed J tver to Reanoke Island where they toned the fate of the fifteen men left there by Grille. , Angust 13. Manteo was christened "Lord of ^ Roanoke Tnd Dasamonque-peak" by command of Sir Walter Av^st ts. Was born Virginia Dare the first child of AS* "51- Jobn White sailed for England leaving his little colony to its unknown fate in the wilds of America. For three centuries the ingenni^ of poets and historians has been exercised to discover its history, but the woods have not given up their se ere Perhaps the Red men of Croatan Island «i- %li inland" to what is now Robeson Conn y and carried the "Lost Colony" with them. There still ides in that region a tribe of Indians o mixed blood calling themselves by the mystic name of Croa tan and there still exists among them a tradition that they came from a region called Roanoke. 1588-Early in the year, Raleigh fitted out an expedition to 16 Se White's colony and placed it under the com- mand of Sir Richard Grenville, but, on account of the war with Spain, it was not permitted to sail April 22. Sent a second relief expedition consisting of two little ships loaded with provisions, but they were cantured and stripped by pirates. ^England being now menaced by the great invasion from Spain, Raleigh assigned his principal intereste iu "Virginia" to Sir Thomas Smith, Richard Hack *" Inyt and others, who afterwards became, under Us «r ^ration, the chief promoters of the settlement at Jamestown in what is now the State of *»»*■* Aug. The Spanish Armada was, under Raleigh . advice attacked at sea and destroyed before it could effec the invasion of England. He was the real author o this victory which was the turning point of England greatness and Spain's decline. It was -the demo- tion of the Armada that he reached the highest point The Raleigh Calendar. 55 of his fortune and favor with the Queen. He was as great and brave as ever in the sea fight in the harbor of Cadiz, and, in his expedition up the Oronoko River was as zealous as ever for the extension of the Queen's empire in America, but he did not have the same in- fluence in the government nor receive the same recog- nition for his public services. 1589 — Co-labored with his friend the poet Spencer and was the subject and inspiration of the best English poetry since Chaucer. He was Spencer's patron, introduced him to the Queen and procured him the leisure to write and the means to publish the poems which made their author famous. It was with Spencer that Raleigh for the next two years cultivated his natural fondness for literature which in the after years resulted in his "History of the World" and other literary works. 1590 — March 20. The fifth expedition being the second un- der John White, sailed from Plymouth for Roanoke Island. August 15. The ships came to anchor at "Hattorask Inlet" which was then reckoned to be 36 degrees and 20 minutes North latitude, and this reckoning locates this inlet North of Roanoke Island.. August IT. White went with a party of men to Fort Raleigh, but found it dismantled and deserted. The colony had vanished ; only the name "Croatoan" carved on a tree could give a clue to its new abode ; and he, who "joyed" in this "certain token of their being safe" left the country without making an honest search for their recovery. He who had before deserted his colony, could now be satisfied with only a "token" of their safety. August 18. (The anniversary of the birth of Virginia Dare.) The expedition sailed away and the "Lost Colony" was "lost" in the deep solitudes of North" Carolina's forests — affording the first of the many lost chapters of our history. 1591 — November. Raleigh wrote an account of the famous sea fight between his ship the "Revenge" under the command of his cousin, Sir Richard Grenville, and a Spanish fleet of fifteen vessels. This is one of his 56 Historical and Literary Activities in N. C. best pieces of prose literature, and the subject of it EugW's bravest sea-fight-the Thermopylae of naval warfare. , . -, <• 1592-Married Elizabeth Throckmorton the Queen's maid of honor and forfeited the favor of the Queen who was herself reputed to he in love with him He was de- barred frl her Court for five years, but he did net eease to serve his country. T™dnn 1592-July 28. Was imprisoned in the Tower of London 1 on account of the anger or jealousy of Qneen Bh» beth During his imprisonment an expedition he had fi ted out captured the Spanish plate-ship the Ua*. de Dies with its cargo valued at two and a half mil- Sent 0I 21 Was released from prison as the only man in England who could save the treasure of the great prize- ship from the plunder of his owu countrymen The 1 • +^v +i 1P linn's share of what he Queen, as sovereign, took the lion s snare o recovered. . ~ . • 1594-Sent a ship to get information concerning Guiana, in South America, which the Spanish had then lately an- nexed to their dominions and named the New El 1595-FeVy °6. Sailed with an expedition to explore and take possession of Guiana. March 22 Anchored off the Island of Trinidad and shortly took possession of it as a base of operations from which to explore the Continent. This Island still belongs to Great Britain. April. Began his famous voyage up the Oronoko River which he explored for four hundred miles from its a °TLi S expedition remained in Guiana, Trinidad, and the American waters for several months. He was re- ported sailing along the coast of Cuba in the month of July and he landed in England sometime in October. He told the Spanish Governor of Trinidad that he was on his way to Us settlement in "Virginia but there is no record that he touched our coast. December. Published an account of his explorations The Raleigh Calendar. 57 which were speedily translated into Latin and German and circulated over Europe. 1596 — Sent another expedition to Guiana which explored the South American coast as far south as the Amazon. Of this also he published- an account, written, as was the other, in some of the best prose of the Elizabethan period ; in both he set forth to the English people the boundless wealth of America and the advantage and practicability of colonizing it. Of the vast territory in the region of the Oronoko and the Amazon which Raleigh urged England to seize, it now holds British Guiana — a country about one and half times the size of North Carolina. June 21. Led the English to victory in the great naval battle of Cadiz. This fight placed him on the pin- nacle of his fame as commander of warships, re-instat- ed him in the counsels of his Sovereign, and made Great Britain, for the first time, Mistress of the Seas. 1597 — Sent another expedition to Guiana' which obsequiously confirmed his own previous accounts. It returned without adding any new information, or materially advancing the policy of exploration and conquest which lay next to his heart. It was shrewdly sur- mised that the Spanish, failing in open warfare, were beginning to try the effect of gold upon his subordi- nates as well as his superiors in office. Sept. Stormed, at the head of a small force, the town of Fayal in the Azores. It was his last battle and only added another spark to the envy of him which now in- creased with his fame. 1602 — Nov. 4. Had his last interview with Queen Eliza- beth. 1603 — Despatched two expeditions to America, the last of five which he sent at his own charge to search for the "lost colony/' March 30. The Queen died, and with her perished Ra- - leigh's hopes of preferment and even of personal safety. He had spent his years of freedom in oppos- ing "the tyrannous ambition of Spain," and now his well-beloved England was to be governed by a mon- arch, James I, who had taken into his counsels the 58 Historical and Literary Activities in N. 0. mercenaries of Spain-the country with which Ra- leigh was even then urging war. He also wrote a letter denouncing Cecil, James' chief officer and ad- viser and one who was then privily receiving jive thousand crowns a year from the Spanish Government. July 17. Was arrested on the charge of treasonable conspiracy with the Spanish Government. July 18 Was imprisoned in the Tower to await his trial which could not commence at once on account of the great plague which was then raging m London. Nov 17. He was brought to trial at Winchester on the charge of high treason and convicted on the same day. The prosecution was conducted by the famous law writer, Coke. Raleigh plead his own cause, the laws of England not allowing him to have counsel for his defense; nor was he confronted by the witnesses against him. The jury was packed, the testimony against him was perjured, the Court was subservient to the Crown, and at least one member of it, Cecil, was in the pay of the Spanish Government Immed- iately after his conviction he was roundly abused from the bench by Chief Justice Popham, who presided over the Court, and then 'sentenced to death. But he was not then executed. Popular favor which he had sac- rificed some years before by acepting from Queen Elizabeth a monopoly of the tax on wines and liquors was in a measure now restored to (him on account ol his persecution and misfortunes. England would not believe, though a court record had spoken the lie., that the great enemy of Spain who had spoiled her by land and ruined her prestige on the seas, would betray into her power his own country. _ Dec 10 His sentence was commuted to imprisonment. The man of action and exploit was now caged for his long confinement. He was stripped of his vast pos- sessions that they might enrich the fawning favorites of the king. . 1604— In prison he took up the study of physical sciences, especially the properties of medicinal herbs, and his cell became the resort of learned men. He was visited by those concerned in bis plans for colonizing America, The Raleigh Calendar. 59 among them his friend Hariot who .wrote the most intelligent account of Lane's expedition. Hackluyt, patriot and historian, also the principal assignee of his franchises and interests in "Virginia," more than any other man caught the spirit of his enterprise and kept popular interest alive, until King James was forced by public sentiment or tempted by his own lust for fame and dominion to give his sanction to sending a colony to America. 1606— The most persistent efforts were made to set Raleigh at liberty, as his colonizing scheme again grew into favor. Queen Anne, of England, and the King of Denmark, and James' oldest son, Henry, used their utmost efforts in his behalf, but without avail. 1606 — Apr. 22. James granted a new charter to the two companies who now proposed to undertake the coloni- zation of "Virginia." Among the four named corpor- ators of the Company which settled Jamestown stands the name of Raleigh Gilbert, doubtless a nephew of the great explorer, after whom he ivas named. The treas- urer and general manager of this company was Sir Thomas Smith who had acted in the same capacity over the company by which the settlements on Roanoke Island were effected: Of the nineteen corporators of the "City of Raleigh" which John White was enjoined to bwild in 1581 , ten were among those who subscribed to the Jamestown expedition. Raleigh in prison, the men he had inspired iu ere still the chief promoters of American colonization. 1607 Jan. 1. The expedition under Captain Newport known as the Jamestown expedition set sail for Roan- oke Island, but was driven by a storm into the Chesa- peake Bay, the shores of which, twenty years before, Raleigh had designated for the settlement of the lost colony. This Chesapeake country was within the limits of the territory granted him by Queen Eliza- beth, and his grant was kept in force in the hands of his assignees until it was revoked by James to pave the way for that monarch to possess himself of the fruits of Raleigh's labors and at the same time belittle so much of his fame as he could not appropriate. 60 Historical and Literary Activities in N. 0. The people of the nineteen States and five parts of States embraced in the territory of Raleigh s Vvr- ainia" on this side of the Mississippi, owe to him their first debt of gratitude for the land they occupy. It is fitting that North Carolina, on whose soil his far- reaching experiments were made, should have taken the lead in erecting suitable memorials of his labors but the other States, and Virginia especially, should be proud to follow the State which more than a cen- tury ago named its capital in his honor. 1614-Published his "History of the World' '-a book com- mended by Cromwell and studied by Milton. Ra- leigh's royal persecutor objected to its circula- tion on the ground that its criticism of the an dent Assyrian" kings and of Henry VIII of England might be construed into a reflection on James own government. The notion that only a king was com- petent to sit in judgment on the conduct of a king, with the similar fallacies inherited from him by his son Charles I, cost the latter first his crown and then his head. 1616— March 19. Was released from the Tower after an im- prisonment for more- than twelve years broken m health and no longer fitted to endure the activities which had made him famous, but in spirit he was as undaunted as ever, and immediately began to fit out an expedition to America. Hi, enthusiasm seemed to suit the purposes ol the king who was bent on marrying his son Charles into the royal family of Spain and hoped that the fear of the great "sea-rover" might succeed where diplomacy had failed. . , 1617— June 12. Sailed out of Plymouth harbor on his last voyage for America. His expedition had been partly appointed by his enemies and not without design: One ship deserted him before he was half across the Atlantic ; another was lost in a storm ; others still were hulks of disease commanded by disloyal captains and manned by men whom he called mere "scum. 1 here is no better picture in English history than that oi this old man, broken in health, racked by fever, long The Raleigh Calendar. 61 separated from the kindred spirits of his dauntless manhood, steadily setting his face toward the sunset to make his last play for a continent which the vanity and treachery of his king cast away. ~Nov. 17. Anchored in the mouth of Cayenne River in the Island of Trinidad. On the mainland the Indians still remembered him though it was more than twenty years since his first visit, and flocked to the coast when they heard he had returned. Himself too feeble to lead, he dispatched his son and his old friend Captain Keymis, with a party of men, up the Oronoko to search for a mine the Spanish and the Indians had told him existed somewhere in that region. Dec. 31. The party were attacked by the Spanish near San Thome and in the fighting which followed the younger Raleigh was killed at the head of his com- mand. 1618 — The Oronoko expedition returned and brought with it the certain tidings of its failure and disasters and also a letter which proved that the king of England had warned the Spanish Government of Raleigh's ap- proach. The great navigator saw now that he had been betrayed into a death trap. Reproached by him for his ill-success, Keymis com- mitted suicide. In a counsel of the remaining cap- tains, Raleigh proposed that they revictual the ships in Virginia and return to search for the mine, but two of them deserted, leaving him without sufficient force to contend with his daily increasing enemies. All his resources exhausted at last he sailed homeward by way of New Foundland, but there is no record that he passed near enough to our shores to behold the land he had spent more than a million dollars to colonize as measured in the currency of these times. June 21. Arrived at Plymouth in his flag-ship the Destiny and shortly thereafter was arrested. The king held out his execution as an inducement to the proposed marriage of his son Charles to the Spanish Infanta. The wily Spaniards were shrewd enough 62 Historical and Literary Activities in N. C. to have the execution come off first, and the marriage never come off at all. Oct. 15. The king of Spain declined James' offer to turn Raleigh over to him to be executed, but requested that the business be done by the English King, and as soon as possible. Oct. 28. Raleigh was condemned to die on the old charge of treasonable conspiracy with the govern- ment whose head was now demanding his death for the invasion of Spanish territory. Oct. 29. Was executed in the 67th year of his age, Sir Walter Raleigh, soldier, navigator, explorer, au- thor, poet, philosopher and patriot, the statesman who wrested our continent from Spain, the pioneer who first planted the seeds of law and liberty and Anglo- Saxon civilization in America, the hero-martyr of English colonization on our shores. His name and fame are indissolubly linked with North Carolina. He made the first chapter of her history, which is also the first, chapter of Anglo-American history, and one day the English speaking race on this continent, with the Carolinians in the lead, will call its brethren across the seas and go back to the Island ( where it began its conquering march to do honor to the man who gave himself and all he bad for its advancement. RD -23. To ,o i v . < • 'bK 0' 4 o^ 4?^ ,^ c < k J ■ <- , •* G* ^o * *°-v 4 Ok "b o ^ ^ ^ 'jSlfe'* ^ / A r ., '• jsk&. /\ ; -W^ : /% llpf /\ .? •0 V t k ST. AUGUSTINE Jffl/J%?> * V* '^^1)%*- *^> « bt «u^