In 1584 he obtained a patent precisely similar to Gilbert’s.  His first step showed the thoughtful and well-planned system on which he began his task.  Two ships were sent out, not with any idea of settlement, but to examine and report upon the country.  Their commanders were Arthur Barlow and Philip Amidas.  To the former we owe the extant record of the voyage:  the name of the latter would suggest that he was a foreigner.  Whether by chance or design, they took a more southerly course than any of their predecessors....

Coasting along for about a hundred and twenty miles the voyagers reached an inlet and with some difficulty entered.  They solemnly took possession of the land in the Queen’s name, and then delivered it over to Raleigh according to his patent.  They soon discovered that the land upon which they had touched was an island about twenty miles long and not above six broad, named, as they afterward learned, Roanoke.  Beyond, separating them from the mainland, lay an enclosed sea, studded with more than a hundred fertile and well-wooded islets....

Barlow and Amidas returned to England in the middle of September.  With them they brought two of the savages, named Wanchese and Manteo.  A probable tradition tells us that the Queen herself named the country Virginia, and that Raleigh’s knighthood was the reward and acknowledgement of his success.  On the strength of this report Raleigh at once made preparations for a settlement.  A fleet of seven ships was provided for the conveyance of a hundred and eight settlers.  The fleet was under the command of Sir Richard Grenville, who was to establish the settlement and leave it under the charge of Ralph Lane....

On the 20th of June the fleet reached the coast of Florida, and three days later narrowly escaped being cast away off Cape Fear.  In a few days more they anchored at Wococon, an island near Roanoke.  In entering the harbor the largest ship, the Tiger, struck a sand-bar, and was nearly lost, either through the clumsiness or treachery of the pilot, Simon Fernando, a Portuguese.  On the 11th of July Grenville, with forty others, including Lane, Amidas, and the chief men of the expedition, crossed over to the mainland.  Taking northerly direction, they explored the coast as far as Secotan, an Indian town some sixty miles mouth of Roanoke, where they were hospitably received by the savages.  It is melancholy, after the bright picture of the intercourse between the natives and the English drawn by Barlow, to have to record hostilities, in which by far the greater share of blame lay with our countrymen.  On the voyage back to Roanoke a silver cup was stolen from the English at one of the Indian villages.  In revenge the English put the inhabitants to flight, burnt the village and destroyed the crops.  On the 3d of August one ship sailed home, and on the 25th Grenville left the colony, followed, as it would seem, during the course of the next month by the rest of the fleet[3]....