George Bancroft, History of the Colonization of the United States, Vol. 1, 17th edition.

[101]

It was evident that Lane did not possess the quali-

Chap III.} 1586

ties suited to his station. He had not the sagacity which could rightly interpret the stories or the designs of the natives; and the courage, like the eye, of a soldier, differs from that of a traveller. His discoveries were inconsiderable: to the south they had extended only to Secotan, in the present county of Craven, between the Pamlico and the Neuse; to the north they reached no farther than the small River Elizabeth, which joins the Chesapeake Bay below Norfolk; in the interior, the Chowan had been examined beyond the junction of the Meherrin and the Nottaway; and we have seen, that the hope of gold attracted Lane to make a short excursion up the Roanoke. Yet some general results of importance were obtained. The climate was found to be salubrious; during the year not more than four men had died, and of these, three brought the seeds of their disease from Europe.¹ The hope of finding better harbors at the north was confirmed; and the Bay of Chesapeake was already regarded as the fit theatre for early colonization. But in the Island of Roanoke, the men began to despond; they looked in vain towards the ocean for supplies from England; they were sighing for the luxuries of the cities in their native land; when of a sudden it was rumored, that the sea was white with the sails of three-and-twenty

June 8.

ships; and within three days, Sir Francis Drake had anchored his fleet at sea outside of Roanoke Inlet, in ‘the wild road of their bad harbor.’

He had come, on his way from the West Indies to England, to visit the domain of his friend. With the celerity of genius, he discovered the measures which the exigency of the case required, and supplied the