time, and ever led to disaster and blood. Nor did Lane escape the delusion
that a passage could be found through the land to the Indies; the savages,
humoring his ignorance for their own purposes, assured him that the
Roanoke River (which rises some two hundred miles inland) communicated
with the Pacific at a distance of but a few days' journey. Lane selected a
party and set hopefully forth to traverse fifty degrees of latitude; but
ere long his provisions gave out, and he was forced to go starving back
again. He arrived at the settlement just in time to save it from
annihilation by the Indians.

But there were able men among these colonists, and some things were done
which were not foolish. Hariot, who had scientific knowledge, and was a
careful observer, made notes of the products of the land, and became
proficient in tobacco smoking; he also tested and approved the potato, and
in other ways laid the foundation for a profitable export and import
trade. John White, an artist, who afterward was put in charge of another
colony, made drawings of the natives and their appurtenances, which still
survive, and witness his fidelity and skill. Explorations up and down the
coast, and for some distance inland, were made; the salubrity of the
climate was eulogized, and it was admitted that the soil was of excellent
fertility. In short, nothing was lacking, in the way of natural
conditions, to make the colony a success; yet the Englishmen grew homesick
and despondent, and longed to return to England and English women. The
supplies which they were expecting from home had not arrived; and their
situation was rendered somewhat precarious, by the growing hostility of
the natives, who had come to the conclusion that these godlike white men
were not persons with whom it was expedient for them to associate.

At this juncture, down upon the coast suddenly swooped a fleet of over
twenty sail with the English flag flying, and no less a personage than Sir