The book of the colonies Author:John Frost Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Oi| tain J. Iim CHAPTER IV. SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. HE government of Great Britain, notwithstanding the claims derived from the important discovery... more » of Cabot, held, for a long time, by no means the foremost place in American colonization. She was surpassed, not by Spain only, but even by France. Through the voyages of Verazzano, Cartier, Champlain, and others, the latter kingdom acquired extensive claims, and formed some important settlements. But the long civil war, ending in the humiliation and downfall of the Protestants, who were almost exclusively skilled in commerce and navigation, threw her greatly behind in this career ; and, notwithstanding some strenuoifs efforts at a latter period, she never could rank as a first-rate colonial power. But England, duringthe reign of Elizabeth, while the two other nations were dormant or sinking, made extraordinary movements, and advanced With rapid steps to that pre-eminence which she has so signally maintained. The queen indeed, frugal and cautious, expended little of her own treasure ; but she had the skill to attract, and direct to her own purposes, the vast resources of her subjects. Great exertions were made by individuals and associations, including many of those eminent characters who distinguished that age. Their attention was for a long time engrossed by a northern passage to the East Indies round America. Sir Humphrey Gilbert first attempted colonization on a great scale ; but his expedition, directed to more northerly coasts, does not come within our present range, while its disastrous issue was calculated to deter future adventurers. Sir Walter Raleigh, however, undertook to found a colony, which 'has become the most flourishing in modern times. In 1584, he obtained from Elizabeth a patent, conferring those al...« less