The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-09-05

have censured him because. a few
days after his departure. Sir Richard
GrenVille arrived at Roanoke with
men and supplies sufficient TO have
paced the colony on its feet. But
GrenVlIle had long been overdue. and
fairness to Lane requires thu; we
should Judge his conduct bv the in
forslation which he had at the time.
not by that which we now have. 1t
Is plain that he had no intention Of
returning 10 England until driven to
II. as he said, by the Very hand Of
GOD as II Certainly Eliza
beth. Raleigh. Drake and Engiand's
other great leaders, did not regard
his course unfavona bly,. for we find
them shortly afterwards. at that SUI
preme moment in England's history
men the great rmada was bearing
down on her coast. summoning him
10 their most secret councils OF war
and entrusting him with important
commands; and in 1898, as a reward
Tor services TO the crown. we see him
~kneeilng before the great queens rep
resentatiNe TO receive the honor OF
knlghthood. Dire necessity occasioned
by causes beyond the control OF man
drove him gains his will TO his nnal
decision and put an end 10 the first
attempt 10 found an English colony
in America.
h fleet which transported Lanes
colony TO Roanoke was under the
of one of the most remark
able men in an age OF remarkable
men. Sir Richard Grenville combined
IN his character all the faults and
virtues of the age in which he lived.
Brave, loyal and ambitious, ne was
proud, ty~ranhical and cruel. Ralph
Lane complained of his "intolerable
pride n Unsuitable ambition during
the Oyage TO Roanoke, n declared
! that nv, ,aaSon Of bic ,ra " Zoo .nr
duct from first to last. the action has
been most painful and most p~erilous."
From others Of his contemporaries, as
we'll as from his own conduct, we
learn that he was a man Of very
unQuiet mind and greatly affected 20
war and that his nature was so
Very severe" that his own people
hated him for his ferceness." Blu
II his followers hated him for his
cruelty. they admired him for his
daring. No enterprise was too hazard
Gus for his courage, no hardship too
severe for his endurance. if they of
fered opportunity for either riches or
glory. To his credit let it be said
that with GrenVille the search for
wealth was a mere incident in his
search for fame. In the service of
his queen and country he counted
no odds too great if only glory and
honor waited upon success.
'1cIlNllie > career Is llllIfldttlS con-
nected with the events which We COM
today. He first became
interested III America through Sir
Humphrey Gilbert, whose untimely
death cut off prematurelv one of the
choicest spirits OF the Elizabethan
era. After Gilbert's death he allied
himself with his cousin. Sir Walter
Raleigh, by whom he was placed in
of the fleet which bore
Lanes colony across the Atlantic.
That he did not underestimate the i'm
p%ortance of the part he played in
that event is shown by the fact that
upon his return to England he wrote
to Walsingham that he had perform
ed the action directed n discovered,
taken possession of and peopled a
new country and stored it with cattle.
fruits and plants Returning from
Roanoke in 1885 he had his first brush
with Spain when he was attacked by
q Spanish man-of-war which, after
some fighting,' he overpoWered and
captured. The following year he made
a second voyage to Roanoke which
he found deserted. Leaving fifteen
men to retain possession he again
turned his PROV eastward. No good
British sailor of the sixteenth century
thought that he had done his fun duty
to the queen if he crossed the Atlantic
without carrying home some trophy
of his won from Spain.
Grenville was not the man t. form
an exception to this rule. On his
return voyage, in 1886, he touched at
the Azores long enough to attack,
capture and pillage the Spanish towns
there and to carry off for ransom a
number of important prisoners. In
all the British kingdom Spain had
no more implacable foe, nor a more
dangerous one. Not Drake himself
held her power SO cheaply or mani
tested his contempt more plainly.
Grenville's ADVENTUROUS career was
finally brought to a close by an
amazing exploit memorable even be-
You'd credit and to the height OF
some herOical fable"-an exploit COM
memorated by TennysoH in one Of tho
most stirring ballads in our language.
II was in the year 1891. Lord Thomas
Howard commanding a squadron Of