Ralegh’s head lifted as if he saw visions.  In silence the three joined the company now assembling to see the masque of the children.  Bravely it went, nimbly the dancers footed it, sweetly rang the choruses, and well did the little chief and captain play their parts.  At the end the Queen, saying in merry courtesy that she could do no less for him who had found her a kingdom and him who freely gave it, presented a ring set with a carnelian heart to Hal Kempe who played Cabot, but about the neck of Tom Poope she hung a golden chain, for if he had to wear her fetters, she said, they should at least be golden.  And so the play came to an end, and work began.

[Illustration:  “IF HE HAD TO WEAR HER FETTERS, THEY SHOULD AT LEAST BE GOLDEN.”—­Page 245]

On April 27, with a fair wind, the two ships of Ralegh’s venture went down to the Channel and out upon the western ocean.  They had good fortune, for not a Spaniard crossed their course.  Nine weeks later they sighted the coast which the French had once called Carolina.  Before they were near enough to see it well they caught the scent of a wilderness of flowering vines and trees blown seaward, and as they neared the shore they saw tall cedars and goodly cypresses, pines and oaks and many other trees, some of them quite unknown to English soil.  It is written in Armadas’s journal that the wild grapes were so abundant near the sea that sometimes the waves washed over them; and the sands were yellow as gold.  The first time that an arquebus was fired, great flocks of birds rose from the trees, screaming all together like the shouting of an army, but there seemed to be no fierce beasts nor indeed any large animals.

“With kine, sheep, cattle, and poultry, and such herbs and grain as can be brought from England,” said Armadas, “this land would sure be a paradise on earth.”

“You forget the serpent,” returned Barlowe, who had been reared by a Puritan grandfather and knew his Bible.

“I am not likely to forget our great enemy while the name of Ribault or Coligny remains unforgotten,” said the other.  “All the more reason why this land should be kept for the Religion.”

Indeed when they landed they found little in the country or the people to recall Adam’s doom.  They set up their English standard upon an island and took possession of the domain in the name of Elizabeth of England.  This island the Indians called Wocoken, and the inlet where the ships lay, Ocracoke.  They went inland as the guests of the native chiefs, and on the island of Roanoke they were entertained by the people of Wingina the king, most kindly and hospitably.  The sea remained smooth and pleasant and the air neither very hot nor very cold, but sweet and wholesome.  Manteo and Wanchese, two of the Indian warriors, chose to sail away with the white men, and in good time the ships returning reached Plymouth harbor, early in September of that year.  Manteo was made Lord of Roanoke, the first and the last of the American Indians to bear an English title to his wild estate.  The new province was named Virginia, with the play upon words favored in that day, for it was a virgin country, and its sovereign was the Virgin Queen.