The manner in which Raleigh went about the work of colonization showed remarkable forethought and system.  In order to enlist the active cooperation of the court and gentry, he induced Richard Hakluyt to write for him, in 1584, his Discourse on Western Planting, which he circulated in manuscript.[5] He not only received from the queen in 1584 a patent similar to Gilbert’s,[6] but by obtaining a confirmation from Parliament in 1585 he acquired a national sanction which Gilbert’s did not possess.[7]

In imitation of Gilbert he sent out first an exploring expedition commanded by Arthur Barlow and Philip Amidas; but, warned by his brother’s experience, he directed them to go southward.  They left the west of England April 27, 1584, and arrived upon the coast of North Carolina July 4, where they passed into Ocracoke Inlet south of Cape Hatteras.  There, landing on an island called Wokokon—­part of the broken outer coast—­Barlow and Amidas took possession in the right of the queen and Sir Walter Raleigh.[8]

Several weeks were spent in exploring Pamlico Sound, which they found dotted with many small islands, the largest of which, sixteen miles long, called by the Indians Roanoke Island, was fifty miles north of Wokokon.  About the middle of September, 1584, they returned to England and reported as the name of the new country “Wincondacoa,” which the Indians at Wokokon had cried when they saw the white men, meaning “What pretty clothes you wear!” The queen, however, was proud of the new discovery, and suggested that it should be called, in honor of herself, “Virginia.”

Pleased at the report of his captains, Sir Walter displayed great energy in making ready a fleet of seven ships, which sailed from Plymouth April 9, 1585.  They carried nearly two hundred settlers, and the three foremost men on board were Sir Richard Grenville, the commander of the fleet; Thomas Cavendish, the future circumnavigator of the globe; and Captain Ralph Lane, the designated governor of the new colony.  The fleet went the usual way by the West Indies, and June 20 “fell in with the maine of Florida,” and June 26 cast anchor at Wokokon.

After a month the fleet moved out again to sea, and passing by Cape Hatteras entered a channel now called New Inlet.  August 17, the colony was landed on Roanoke Island, and eight days later Grenville weighed anchor for England.  On the way back Grenville met a Spanish ship “richly loaden,” and captured her, “boording her with a boate made with boards of chests, which fell asunder, and sunke at the ships side, as soone as euer he and his men were out of it.”  October 18, 1585, he arrived with his prize at Plymouth, in England, where he was received with great honor and rejoicing.[9]