persons, in the island of Roanoke, an incommodious station, without
any safe harbour, he committed the government of it to Mr. Ralph Lane;
and, on the 25th of August, sailed for England.[5]

[Footnote 5: Robertson. Chalmer. Stith.]

{1586}

[Sidenote: Colonists carried back to England by Drake.]

An insatiate passion for gold, attended by an eager desire to find it
in the bowels of the earth, for a long time the disease of Europeans
in America, became the scourge of this feeble settlement. The English
flattered themselves that the country they had discovered could not be
destitute of those mines of the precious metals with which Spanish
America abounded. The most diligent researches were made in quest of
them; and the infatuating hope of finding them stimulated the
colonists to the utmost exertions of which they were capable. The
Indians soon discerned the object for which they searched with so much
avidity, and amused them with tales of rich mines in countries they
had not yet explored. Seduced by this information, they encountered
incredible hardships, and, in this vain search wasted that time which
ought to have been employed in providing the means of future
subsistence. Mutual suspicion and disgust between them and the natives
ripened into open hostility; and, the provisions brought from England
being exhausted, they were under the necessity of resorting for food
to the precarious supplies which could be drawn from the rivers and
woods. In this state of distress, they were found, in June, by Sir
Francis Drake, who was then returning from a successful expedition
against the Spaniards in the West Indies. He agreed to supply them