In the meantime, the mass of the colonists, who were rabid for gold, listened to wonderful tales invented by artful Indians, who wished to be rid of these awe-inspiring strangers. The river Roanoke, they said, gushed forth from a rock near the Pacific Ocean, that a nation dwelt on its remote banks, skilful in refining gold, and that they occupied a city the walls of which glittered with pearls. Even sir Richard Lane was credulous enough to believe these tales, and ascended the river with a party in order to reach this golden region. They advanced onward, finding nothing, till they were reduced to the utmost extremity of famine. The Indians, disappointed by their return, resolved to cultivate no more corn, so that they might be driven from the country by want, and the English, divining their views, having invited the chief to a conference, fell upon him and slew him, with many of his followers. Lane was unfit for his office. This act of treachery exasperated the Indians to such a degree that they would no longer give him supplies. The colony was about to perish by famine, as the Indians desired, when Sir Francis Drake appeared outside the harbour with a fleet of twenty-three ships. He was on his way from the West Indies, and was now come to visit his friends. No visit could have been more opportune nor more welcome. He supplied their wants; appropriated to them a vessel of seventy tons with pinnaces and small boats. All that they could need for sustenance or for the pursuit of discovery, he appointed for them. Strange however to say, a sudden storm came on; there was no security for the fleet but to weigh anchor and go out to sea; when the tempest was over, and Drake returned to the shore, he found all his preparations for the colony scattered as wrecks on the waves. The colonists were completely disheartened; and at their entreaties Drake received them on board his ships, and conveyed them back to England, after an absence of about twelve months, during which time they had accustomed themselves to the use of tobacco, which they now carried home with them. They were gone; but scarcely had they left the shore, when a ship despatched by Raleigh, who had not forgotten them, arrived with all possible supplies, but which, finding the colony had vanished, set sail again homeward; and scarcely had it left the shore, when Sir Richard Grenville arrived with three ships, and he, too, after vainly searching about for the missing colony, departed, leaving fifteen men on Roanoke to keep possession for the English. CHAPTER III. DISCOVERIES CONTINUED.