Amid all this excitement and danger Raleigh did not forget his colony in Virginia.  Twice he sent relief expeditions; but the first was stopped because in the struggle with Spain all the ships were demanded for government service; and the second was so badly damaged by the Spanish cruisers that it could not continue its voyage.  Raleigh had spent L40,000 in his several efforts to colonize Virginia, and the burden became too heavy for him to carry alone.  As Hakluyt said, “It required a prince’s purse to have the action thoroughly followed out.”  He therefore consented, in 1589, to assign a right to trade in Virginia to Sir Thomas Smith, John White, Richard Hakluyt, and others, reserving a fifth of all the gold and silver extracted, and they raised means for White’s last voyage to Virginia.[20]

It was not until March, 1591, that Governor White was able to put to sea again.  He reached Roanoke Island August 17, and, landing, visited the point where he had placed the settlement.  As he climbed the sandy bank he noticed, carved upon a tree in Roman letters, “CRO,” without a cross, and White called to mind that three years before, when he left for England, it had been agreed that if the settlers ever found it necessary to remove from the island they were to leave behind them some such inscription, and to add a cross if they left in danger or distress.  A little farther on stood the fort, and there White read on one of the trees an inscription in large capital letters, “Croatoan.”  This left no doubt that the colony had moved to the island of that name south of Cape Hatteras and near Ocracoke Inlet.  He wished the ships to sail in that direction, but a storm arose, and the captains, dreading the dangerous shoals of Pamlico Sound, put to sea and returned to England without ever visiting Croatoan.[21] White never came back to America, and his separation from the colony is heightened in tragic effect by the loss of his daughter and granddaughter.

What became of the settlers at Roanoke has been a frequent subject of speculation.  When Jamestown was established, in 1607, the search for them was renewed, but nothing definite could be learned.  There is, indeed, a story told by Strachey that the unfortunate colonists, finally abandoning all hope, intermixed with the Indians at Croatoan, and after living with them till about the time of the arrival at Jamestown were, at the instigation of Powhatan, cruelly massacred.  Only seven of them—­four men, two boys, and a young maid—­were preserved by a friendly chief, and from these, as later legends have declared, descended a tribe of Indians found in the vicinity of Roanoke Island in the beginning of the eighteenth century and known as the Hatteras Indians.[22]

Sir Walter Raleigh will always be esteemed the true parent of North American colonization, for though the idea did not originate with him he popularized it beyond any other man.  Just as he made smoking fashionable at the court of Elizabeth, so the colonization of Virginia—­that is, of the region from Canada to Florida—­was made fashionable through his example.  His enterprise caused the advantages of America’s soil and climate to be appreciated in England, and he was the first to fix upon Chesapeake Bay as the proper place of settlement.