He had
accompanied his half-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, on a voyage to the
New World ten years earlier, and after Gilbert's tragic death, took over
the patent for land in America which Gilbert held. It is worth noting
that this patent provided in the plainest terms that such colonies as
might be planted in America should be self-governing in the fullest
sense--a provision also included in the patent granted to the company
which afterwards succeeded in gaining and maintaining a foothold on the
James.
Raleigh spent nearly a million dollars in endeavoring to establish a
colony on Roanoke Island--a colony which absolutely disappeared, and
whose fate was never certainly discovered; and it was not until the
Virgin Queen, after whom all that portion of the country had been named,
was dead, and Raleigh himself, shorn of his estates, was a prisoner in
the Tower under charge of treason, that a new charter was given to an
association of influential men known as the Virginia Company, which was
destined to have permanent results. On New Year's Day, 1607, an
expedition of three ships, carrying, besides their crews, one hundred
and five colonists, started on the voyage across the ocean, under
command of Captain Christopher Newport. Among Newport's company was a
scarred and weather-beaten soldier, who was soon to assume control of
events through sheer fitness for the task, and who bore that commonest
of all English names, John Smith.
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