The fleet of Sir Francis Drake had scarcely left the coast, before a vessel, under the command of Sir Richard Grenville, arrived sent out by Raleigh, with supplies for the colonists. Finding the settlement deserted, the leader of the relief party left fifteen men at Roanoake to retain possession of it for England, and returned home. Determined not to allow his brother’s work to remain unfinished, Sir Walter, in spite of these repeated failures, lost no time in fitting out yet another expedition consisting of 150 men, and commanded by John White as governor, and Simon Ferdinando as admiral. The two leaders quarreled before Virginia was reached, and, as a result their trip was as unsatisfactory as any which had preceded it. No trace could be found of Grenville’s fifteen men, and the only incidents of this visit to Virginia worthy of record were the murder by Indians of a Mr. Howe, with the terrible vengeance exacted on some natives _who had had nothing whatever to do with the outrage_, and the birth, on the 18th August, 1587, of Virginia Dare, grand-daughter of White, and the first child of English parents born on North American soil. Finding himself unable to cope with the difficulties of his position, White soon made excuse for returning to England, and leaving a small detachment of his forces, his daughter, and her infant alluded to above, in the “City of Raleigh,” as the new settlement was called, he set sail at the end of August, 1587, promising to return speedily with reinforcements. Three years elapsed before this promise was fulfilled, and of the history of the deserted colony during that period no details have ever been gathered. Arrived at Roanoake in the spring of 1590, the indefatigable Sir Walter Raleigh again bearing the expense of the expedition, White found no trace of the city of his benefactor. The light of a distant fire was the sole sign of life which met his eyes when he reached the spot where he had expected to find his former comrades, his daughter, and his now three-year old grandchild. Eagerly pressing on in the direction of the fire, some of White’s men discovered the letters “C R O” carved on the trunk of a tree on a little hill. The sight of these letters reminded the leader that the colonists had agreed, should they have to leave the City of Raleigh, to carve the name of the place to which they went on some tree or trunk, and, further, to add beneath the name a cross, in the event of any misfortune having befallen them.