disgraceful failure, yet the doings of these two miniature corsairs are
recorded in Hakluyt manifestly only as specimens of English pluck, a
British quality always admired, however much misdirected. Meanwhile no
tidings of the ' Second colonie' and worse still, no tidings or help had
the Second Colony received all this long time from England. And even to
this day the echo is 'no tidings' and no help from home. This then may
be called the first and great human sacrifice that savage America
required of civilized England before yielding to her inevitable destiny.

And so it was that Virginia and the Armada Year shook the fortunes of
Raleigh and compelled him to assign a portion of his Patent and
privileges under it to divers gentlemen and merchants of London. This
document, in which are included and protected the charter rights of
White and others in the ' City of Raleigh,' bears date the 7th of March
1589. Matters being thus settled, with more capital and new life a '
Fifth Expedition' was fitted out in 1590 in which Governor White went
out to carry aid, and to reinforce his long neglected colony of 1587.
Not one survivor was found, and White returned the same year in every
way unsuccessful. He soon after retired to Raleigh's estates in Ireland,
and the last heard of him is a long letter to his friend Hakluyt ' from
my house at Newtowne in Kylmore the 4th of February 1593.'

Raleigh's Patent, like that of Gilbert, would have expired by the
limitation of six years on the 24th of March 1590 if he had not
succeeded in leading out a colony and taking possession. His first
colony of 1585 was voluntarily abandoned, but not his discoveries. His
second colony of 1587 was surrounded with so much obscurity that though
in fact he maintained no real and permanent settlement, yet it was never
denied that he lawfully took possession and inhabited Virginia within
the six years and also for a time in the seventh year, and therefore was