account of the river now called Roanoke, which, he described as rising from a rock so near the sea, that, during high winds, the surge beat over the spring. The governor sanguinely concluded this sea to be the gulf of Mexico, the Pacific Ocean, or some arm that opened into it. Their heads being filled with these chimerical ideas, the English formed various schemes, and undertook a fatiguing and hazardous journey up that river, at the instigation of Wingina, to visit the Moratuck Indians, the great nation called the Morjoacks, a number of other warlike tribes, and a great king, who dwelt at some days journey from the head of the river. So eager were they, and so resolutely bent on discovery, that they could not be induced to return, as long as they had a pint of corn a man, left, and two mastiff dogs, (which they boiled with sassafras leaves) that might afford them sustenance on their way back. However, after several days, having vainly undergone great hardship and danger, they at last returned, and joyfully reached their habitations on Roanoke island.

The death of Granganameo had caused a great alteration in the affairs of the colony. His credit with Wingina, his brother, and the interest of Ensenore, their father, had restrained the king's malice and perfidy within some bounds; but, on the death of Granganameo, he changed his name to that of Pennissassan, and became a secret, but a bitter enemy to the English. To his machinations, were chiefly owing the hardships they had undergone in their journey to the Chowanocks. He had given secret intelligence to those Indians, of the approach of governor Lane; and had sown seeds of discord, between the white and red people. But a rumor being spread, that governor Lane and his party were all

slain, or starved in their journey up Monattuck, he began to blaspheme the God of the English, and endeavoured, by all the devices in his power, to annoy and distress them.

Ensenore, his father, the best friend the English had, after the death of Granganameo, lost all his ability to serve and assist them. But their return with the son of Menatonon, (one of the greatest Indian kings) as a prisoner, joined to the testimony of Manteo, and the other Indians who had accompanied them, showing how little the English valued any people they met with, or regarded toils, hunger or death, restrained, for a while, his devices, and brought Ensenore again into credit and

esteem.

The king of the Chowanocks, soon after, sent a present of pearl to governor Lane, and Okisko, king of the Weapomeaks, who possessed all the country between Chowan river and Albemarle sound, up to the bay of Chesapeake, came, attended with twenty of his chief.tains, who, with their king, acknowledged their subjection to the king of the English. This circumstance, and the persuasions of Ensenore, induced Wingina to seek, at least in appearance, the friendship of the English. He came with his people, planted their fields, and made weirs for them, when they were near famishing. This good understanding was not, however, of long duration. The death of Ensenore put an end to it. For Wingina, under pretence of celebrating his father's funeral rites, laid a scheme of assembling sixteen or eighteen hundred Indians. With this force he intended to cut off all the English at once. But his design was discovered to governor Lane, by his prisoner Okisko, the son of a king of the Chowanocks. The

governor in his turn, endeavored to seize on all the canoes on Roanoke, with the view to secure the Indians on the island. They took the alarm, and a small skirmish ensued, in which five or six Indians were slain, and the rest effected their escape. A mutual distrust succeeded, until Wingina, being entrapped by the English, and killed, with eight of his men, the Indians were intimidated into a peaceable demeanor.

The colonists having been inattentive to the culture of the ground, and the provisions which they had brought from England, being nearly exhausted, they found themselves under the necessity of imitating the natives, and resorting for food to the precarious supplies afforded them by the water and woods. This resource proved insufficient; and governor Lane sent parties of his men in different directions, to procure subsistence. Some went to the main to support themselves on roots and oysters. Twenty men were sent, under the orders of captain Strafford, towards the Croatans, a nation of Indians then living on the southern shore of cape Lookout; and a Mr. Prideaux, went with twenty others, to cape Hatteras, to shift for themselves, and espy any sail passing by the coast, from which relief might be expected.

These two detachments had not been long out, when one of captain Strafford's men returned to the island, bringing information of the approach of a fleet of twentythree sail; and on the following day, the captain himself came, and handed to governor Lane, a letter from Sir Francis Drake. The adn.irl was on his return from a successful expedition against the Spaniards, in South America, having taken Carthagena and the capital city of Hispaniola, burnt the forts of St. Augustine and St. N. CAROLINA. 3

Helena, on the coast of Florida, and done much other injury to the enemy. He had been ordered to visit, on his return, the colony of Virginia, and to afford it protection and assistance. He agreed to supply governor Lane with one hundred men, a small vessel, and provisions for four months. But, before he could afford this relief, his scheme was defeated by a sudden and violent storm, which forced out to sea, among many other ships, that, on board of which were the men and provisions, destined for the colony.

Discouraged by this misfortune, and worn out with fatigue and famine, the colonists unanimously determined on abandoning the country in the summer; or as soon as the discoveries they could make, would justify their return.

For this purpose, a ship of one hundred and seventy tons, with sufficient provisions, was detached from the fleet; but, as she was of too great a burden to lie, with safety, in any of the harbors of the colony, and there was too great a danger in suffering her to ride in an open road, they prevailed on Sir Francis to take them on board of the fleet, which sailed for England on the 19th of June; and they landed in Portsmouth, in the latter part of the following month; the colonists having remained about one year in Virginia.

Such was the inauspicious result, of the first attempt to plant an English colony, on the continent of North America. The nation derived from it no other advantage, than some knowledge of the country and its inhabitants, and of the introduction into England of a nutritive root, the cultivation of which, has since been wonderfully extended, principally in Ireland; and which furnishes now, a welcome dish to the table of the wealthy,

and a cheap food on that of the poor: and that of a weed of singular strength and power, tobacco, the use of which, gradually extended itself to every class of society and the demand for which has become almost universal.

Harriot, a man of science and observation, who accompanied governor Lane, published, on his return, a short treatise, in which, he described with great accuracy, the climate, soil, and productions of the country.

According to his account, the natives were generally well proportioned, straight and tall, their eyes black, or of a dark hazle, the white part streaked with red; their complexion was tawney, their bodies being kept daubed with bear's grease, blackened with burnt coals, or reddened with the powder of a root, which they obtained from the Indians, who dwelt in the hilly part of the country.

They believed in one eternal Supreme God, the creator of the world, and in the immortality of the soul. They had an idea of a future state of rewards and punishments, and imagined that there were Gods of an infe rior order, who had assisted the Supreme one, their creator, in the foundation of the world: and that mankind had sprung from a woman, who had conceived in the em braces of one of the Gods. They founded these doctrines, on the authority of two persons, who had risen from the dead. The influence of these tenets, however, on their priests and chiefs, was much weaker than on the common people. The former, like the great in civilised countries, freeing their consciences from the shackles of a creed, and their actions from the restraints of religion, and sometimes of morality.

They were not, however, so firm in these opinions, as to close up their minds against information. They