by James Horn
Ralegh’s rising influence at court in 1582 was an important factor in the revival of Gilbert’s plans. Sir Humphrey now had a powerful advocate close to the queen who could press the case for colonization with important ministers and investors. But Gilbert had to act quickly. If he failed to make a discovery and establish a settlement in America within the next two years, his 1578 grant would expire.
Throughout the summer Gilbert set about raising money by offering vast landed estates and commercial privileges to individuals and mercantile corporations. He granted rights to millions of acres in North America (at locations yet to be discovered) to groups of English Catholics led by Sir George Peckham and Sir Thomas Gerrard. The Catholics wanted to establish colonies where they could practice their faith free of the increasingly harsh penalties imposed on them in England. In response to Spanish and papal injunctions calling upon English Catholics to rebel against Queen Elizabeth, the government had recently introduced heavy fines for nonattendance at the established church. Gilbert’s grants of lands to Catholics in North America, supported by the queen, provided a means by which they could escape the new penalties and create a distant refuge for themselves and their coreligionists.24
Sir Humphrey’s plan was of necessity different than that of five years earlier. Because his personal finances were still fragile, he could not risk further heavy losses. To raise money for ships and men and to meet the terms of his royal grant, he was forced to focus on the establishment of colonies in North America rather than on plundering Spanish possessions in the West Indies. First he intended to locate a base for a year somewhere along the Norumbega (New England) coast, from which he would explore the interior and adjacent islands. Then, leaving behind a small garrison, he would return to England to drum up support for additional investment and to make specific allocations of lands to those who had already subscribed.
The colony in Norumbega would be virtually autonomous from England, organized as a series of independent settlements. It would be a rigidly hierarchical society of great and lesser land-lords ruling over their tenants, with Gilbert having overall authority as the colony’s chief lord and governor. In addition to rents, the exploitation of natural products and commercial rights granted to merchant groups would provide additional income, creating a flow of revenue that Gilbert could use to finance the second part of his plan: setting up a privateering base farther south, near Spanish Florida.
Gilbert had originally intended to leave England in the fall of 1582, but bad weather and delays in his preparations compelled him to postpone his departure until the following summer. The holdup had the important advantage of allowing Ralegh sufficient time to raise £2,000 for the Bark Ralegh, a swift, well-armed vessel, which he contributed with the expectation of commanding her on the expedition. In this he was to be frustrated. The queen refused him permission to go, considering the voyage far too hazardous; this was the first of many such disappointments.25
A fleet of five ships eventually got underway from Plymouth in June 1583. The largest was the Bark Ralegh, of 200 tons, followed by Gilbert’s flagship, the Delight, of 120 tons, the Golden Hind and Swallow, each of 40 tons, and tiny Squirrel, of 8 tons. A couple of days out the Bark Ralegh turned back, possibly because of disease among the crew or fears about the ship’s seaworthiness. Gilbert was furious, but had little choice other than to press on, heading northwest for Newfoundland. The choice of destination was dictated by the need to take on more provisions, but Gilbert likely also had in mind his 1578 plan, which had involved raiding shipping off the Newfoundland fishing banks.
Gilbert arrived at St. John’s Harbor, the largest port on the island, late the following month. There he found three dozen French, Spanish, Portuguese, and English ships peacefully plying their trade. Newfoundland was a miniature international community, in which the captains of the fishing vessels took turns regulating local affairs in the harbor and onshore, banding together to protect themselves from pirates. The fishermen were at first alarmed by the arrival of Gilbert’s ships, thinking that they were another group of marauders. Following reassurances from Gilbert that he had not come to plunder, however, he was allowed to enter the harbor. A few days later he had a large tent erected on the shore, and the fishermen’s captains were called together to attend him. His royal commission was read out, and in a formal ceremony Gilbert annexed St. John’s and the surrounding region in the queen’s name. The fishermen were told that their lands now belonged to England, and by virtue of his grant, to Gilbert, whom the queen had authorized to possess and enjoy them.
Had she known about it, Elizabeth would not have approved of Gilbert’s high-handed declaration. His grant had expressly prohibited him from claiming territories in America that were occupied by other Europeans, a requirement included to avoid possible reprisals. She would not have wanted to disrupt the harmonious relations among the various nationalities involved in the Newfoundland fishing industry or to jeopardize the highly profitable trade. Fortunately for the queen, Gilbert’s actions had little practical effect. The hardheaded fishermen tolerated his assertion of English overlordship and the imposition of levies and rents on their lands and trade because they knew that once Gilbert left, they could simply ignore his claims.
After several weeks of prospecting for minerals and surveying the area around St. John’s, Gilbert was ready to move on. He was encouraged by the natural riches of the region and was especially pleased by the discovery of ore that might contain silver. He confided to his “mineral man,” Daniel (a specialist in metals from Germany), that for himself he desired to go no farther. In high summer, the land appeared fruitful, the seas provided abundant fish, and Daniel’s discovery suggested the existence of precious minerals. Gilbert claimed a huge swath of land at least 300 miles in each direction from his landing place at St. John’s and probably had in mind offering much of it to settlers and speculators. Satisfied with the potential of the region, he could have returned to England with the good news, but the lure of the North American mainland and his desire to bring Norumbega within the compass of his royal grant persuaded him to continue the voyage.
Despite Gilbert’s rosy assessment, the expedition was rapidly falling apart. His men were succumbing to disease that had spread throughout his crews, causing sickness and death. Some were too ill to work; others deserted or took up plundering fishing vessels along the coast. He dispatched the Swallow back to England with the sick and unruly and left St. John’s on August 20 with his remaining three ships, heading southwest toward Cape Breton and the American coast.
Tragedy struck shortly after. The Delight ran aground in thick fog off Sable Island (Nova Scotia) at the end of the month and quickly broke up, consigning more than eighty men to the deep along with Gilbert’s precious notes and maps of his explorations in Newfoundland. With supplies running low and his men refusing to continue the voyage, Gilbert had no choice but to set course for England. Although he continued to talk of bright prospects and the queen loaning him £10,000 for another voyage, his fortune was lost with his flagship as she slipped beneath the waves. He would be a laughing stock in London, hounded by creditors and scorned at court. Perhaps it was the enormity of the disaster that finally overwhelmed him and brought about a final act of folly: his stubborn refusal to abandon the Squirrel in the midst of a furious storm. He was, as Elizabeth commented dryly, “a man noted of not good hap [fortune] by sea.”26
Voyages of exploration were highly dangerous, particularly those charting the cold waters of the North Atlantic. Ralegh’s last communication with his half-brother had been an affectionate letter sent in March 1583, a few weeks before Gilbert left port, in which he had relayed Elizabeth’s good wishes for the voyage and a token of her esteem. The token was a small jewel of rubies and diamonds depicting a queen on the back of an anchor, which carried the inscription “we are safe under the sacred anchor.”
The irony would not have been lost on Ralegh as he reflected on Sir Humphrey’s death. But beyond his personal los
s, the failure of Gilbert’s venture had left a gaping hole in his plans for an English America.
IN THE FALL of 1583, Ralegh made the momentous decision to assume the role of chief promoter of English colonies in America, formerly held by his half-brother. He was determined to be in the forefront of England’s struggle to resist growing Spanish dominance in Europe and was convinced (as Gilbert had been) that the most effective means of undermining Philip II’s power was by attacking his American possessions. The queen, he believed, should boldly assert English claims to North America forthwith by supporting the establishment of colonies. By carving out a vast realm in America where no other Europeans had settled, England would in time supplant Spain as the major New World power.
Between the fall and spring of 1583-1584 Ralegh turned his quarters at Durham House into a school for scholars and mariners. Among those who visited Durham House or consulted with Ralegh regularly were the two Richard Hakluyts, John Dee, and Fernandes, whom he already knew from his involvement in his half-brother’s schemes; others, like Thomas Hariot, John White, Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, Philip Amadas, and Arthur Barlowe, he recruited as his plans evolved.27
They were among the most remarkable men of their generation and would put forward the case for colonization, provide instruction on navigation and mathematics, collect and draft maps, identify Atlantic routes, and undertake Ralegh’s voyages. The two Hakluyts served as his propagandists and would advance a range of arguments in favor of colonization to attract political and financial support. John Dee, a renowned scholar, was an expert on English claims to the New World and on American geography. He would instruct Ralegh’s mariners in navigation and help to draw up charts and maps for an initial reconnaissance voyage that Ralegh had already begun to plan. Simon Fernandes, the master pilot, would guide Ralegh’s ships across the Atlantic to their destination on the coast of North America.28
Two men were especially important to Ralegh’s plans: Thomas Hariot, a scientist, and John White, an artist. Ralegh knew Elizabeth would forbid him to go to America, and therefore he needed reliable and skilled men to record what they saw. Hariot would make a detailed record of the New World in writing, and White would undertake a series of illustrations and paintings. Together they would be Ralegh’s ears and eyes in America.
Hariot had studied mathematics and astronomy at St. Mary’s Hall, Oxford. After graduating in 1580 he went to London, where over the next couple of years he applied his learning to “Cosmography, and the art of Navigation.” Hariot became well known in the city and, possibly on the recommendation of Dee, Ralegh took him into his household to help train his men. At first Ralegh may have thought to employ him solely for his expertise with mathematics and navigation, but it quickly became apparent that Hariot was a scholar of exceptional ability who would be an asset to the enterprise in other ways. His rigorous scientific methods and careful recording of information persuaded Ralegh that he should accompany the expeditions to North America and keep detailed notes on the topography, climate, peoples, fauna, and flora of the lands they discovered.29
Little is known about John White before he joined Ralegh’s circle. He was descended from an old gentry family of Truro, Cornwall, and may have moved from the provinces to London when a young man. Alternatively, he may have been born and bred in the city. In 1566 he married Thomasine Cooper in the “new built” church of St. Martin Ludgate, a stone’s throw from St. Paul’s Cathedral, and maintained his ties with the area for the next twenty-five years. He was an educated man and may have attended one of the universities or Inns of Court, but more likely he served an apprenticeship during the 1560s with a London master to learn the skill of a limner (miniature painter). Of modest means, he might have earned his living from decorative painting for London’s rich and fashionable classes as well as from occasional work farther afield.30
White had taken part in an Atlantic voyage a few years earlier. In 1577 he had accompanied an expedition led by Martin Frobisher to Baffin Island (off the east coast of Canada), which had set out to find gold. There he had painted exquisitely detailed pictures of a Nugumuit Inuit man, called Kalicho, and his wife and child, as well as illustrating a brief but bitter encounter with a group of Inuit that occurred at a place the English called “Bloody Point.” Ralegh may have seen the paintings and recruited him on the strength of them.
The artist drew on his experience on Baffin Island to prepare for the task of illustrating Indian peoples of North America, but he also probably took advice from a Huguenot artist, Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, who lived near White’s residence in the City of London. Le Moyne was one of the few survivors of the French colony at Fort Caroline who had somehow made his way back to France after the destruction of the fort. In the 1570s he had left his homeland and settled with his wife in Blackfriars, where some years later he became known to Ralegh, who took him into his service in 1582 or 1583. Le Moyne kept a collection of his paintings at his house, and White may have visited him many times to study the Timucuan Indians of Florida and landscapes the Frenchman had painted two decades earlier. In Le Moyne’s work, White discovered a treasure trove of information about America and its peoples that provided him with invaluable examples of how to approach his own paintings.31
HAVING ASSEMBLED the men who would plan and take part in his expeditions to America, Ralegh’s next task was to determine where a colony should be located and what kind of settlement it would be. He may have initially considered adopting Sir Humphrey’s plans to settle Newfoundland and to continue the search for the Northwest Passage, but if so, he quickly changed his mind. Turning away from the North Atlantic, he focused his attention instead on more southerly latitudes nearer to the West Indies, where he believed the greatest prizes and glory were to be won from plundering Spain’s annual treasure fleets.
The potential returns from privateering were enormous. Every year treasure galleons from Panama and Mexico—carrying gold, silver, pearls, cochineal, hides, and cacao—sailed to Spain in convoys protected by a squadron of warships. They gathered at Havana, then headed north in late spring past the Florida Keys, through the Bahama Channel (or Florida Strait), which separated Florida from the Bahamas, and out into the Atlantic, where they would pick up prevailing westerly winds and ride the Gulf Stream back to the Guadalquivir River and Seville.
The sea lanes the fleets followed were well known to pirates. Attacks by the French had begun in the 1530s and escalated over the next couple of decades, while English privateers prayed on Spanish shipping in the early 1570s and early 1580s. Philip II had responded by organizing a convoy system and deploying warships to shepherd the treasure ships back to Spain. Even so, dangers remained. Without question, the most hazardous part of the journey was the Bahama Channel. Navigation was difficult owing to its reefs and shoals and hurricanes, and because the numerous islands of the Bahamas offered privateers limitless hideaways, where they could wait for stragglers to fall into their hands. Proximity to the Bahama Channel had persuaded Ribault and Laudonnière to establish Fort Caroline in Florida, and Ralegh was similarly influenced in his decision to plant a colony on the northern mainland within reach of the treasure ships’ route.32
Ralegh believed the English needed a permanent privateering base on the coast of North America. Sporadic attacks on the West Indies and Spanish Main had brought substantial profits to individual privateers and their financial backers, but large-scale operations were hampered by the need to provision fleets and make repairs to ships, which for the most part could only be done safely in England. If Ralegh could establish a secure base in America, he could provision and repair his own ships on the American coast, collect payments from other privateers that called in at his colony, and attract investors who would be keen to share in the profits. He could harass Spanish shipping and at the same time lay claim to North America.
The question remained: where? Two main arguments inclined him toward the mid-Atlantic seaboard. Mindful of the destruction of Fort Caroline by the Spanish in 156
5, Richard Hakluyt the younger recommended against a site too close to Spanish garrisons in Florida and the Caribbean, where it would be vulnerable to attack by warships. Ralegh therefore decided on a location somewhere to the north of Florida and turned to his most experienced mariner, Simon Fernandes, for advice. Fernandes recommended the coast of North Carolina, which he had visited many years before in the service of the Spanish governor, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés. The region was sufficiently remote from Spanish naval bases, and Fernandes was familiar with inshore waters along that part of the coast. Persuaded by Hakluyt and Fernandes, Ralegh chose North Carolina as his destination.33
1.5 Jacques Le Moyne’s Map of Florida, c. 1565 (engraving by Theodor de Bry, 1591), was highly influential in shaping Ralegh’s ideas about the interior of Eastern America. Note the mountains at the top of the map where gold, silver, and copper were to be found. The shoreline of a great lake, or possibly the South Sea (Pacific), is also visible.
But there may have been another reason why Ralegh was attracted to the region. Twenty years earlier Jacques Le Moyne had taken part in explorations of the area around the French settlement at Fort Caroline in search of gold and silver and a passage to the South Sea. The colony’s leader, René de Laudonnière, had been disappointed by the failure to find riches or a passage, but he did learn from local Indians of mines to the north about 60 leagues (200 miles) up the St. Johns River in the Appalachian Mountains. Le Moyne depicted the promising news on a map of Florida that noted gold, silver, and copper in the mountains and a lake where “the natives find grains of silver.” This area was a good way south of the location that Ralegh intended to explore, but if precious metals and a passage to the Pacific existed in the mountains inland from the Florida coast, perhaps gold and silver were to be found in the interior of North Carolina.34