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

‘ [94] and treason, and such as lived after the manner of the

Chap. III.} 1584

golden age.’ They had no cares but to guard against the moderate cold of a short winter, and to gather such food as the earth almost spontaneously produced. And yet it was added, with singular want of comparison, that the wars of these guileless men were cruel and bloody; that domestic dissensions had almost exterminated whole tribes; that they employed the basest stratagems against their enemies; and that the practice of inviting men to a feast, that they might be murdered in the hour of confidence, was not merely a device of European bigots, but was known to the natives of Secotan. The English, too, were solicited to engage in a similar enterprise, under promise of lucrative booty.

The adventurers were satisfied with observing the general aspect of the new world; no extensive examination of the coast was undertaken; Pamlico and Albemarle Sound and Roanoke Island were explored, and some information gathered by inquiries from the Indians; the commanders had not the courage or the activity to survey the country with exactness. Having made but a short stay in America, they arrived in September in the west of England, accompanied by Manteo and Wanchese, two natives of the wilderness; and the returning voyagers gave such glowing descriptions of their discoveries, as might be expected from men who had done no more than sail over the smooth waters of a summer's sea, among ‘the hundred islands’ of North Carolina.¹ Elizabeth, as she heard their reports,