The task in which Gilbert[2] had failed was to be undertaken by one better qualified to carry it out. If any Englishman in that age seemed to be marked out as the founder of a colonial empire, it was Raleigh. Like Gilbert, he had studied books; like Drake, he could rule men. The pupil of Coligny, the friend of Spenser, traveler-soldier, scholar, courtier, statesman, Raleigh with all his varied graces and powers rises before us, the type and personification of the age in which he lived. The associations of his youth, and the training of his early manhood, fitted him to sympathize with the aims of his half-brother Gilbert, and there is little reason to doubt that Raleigh had a share in his undertaking and his failure. In 1584 he obtained a patent precisely similar to Gilbert's. His first step showed the thoughtful and well-planned system on which he began his task. Two ships were sent out, not with any idea of settlement, but to examine and report upon the country. Their commanders were Arthur Barlow and Philip Amidas. To the former we owe the extant record of the voyage: the name of the latter would suggest that he was a foreigner. Whether by chance or design, they took a more southerly course than any of their predecessors.... Coasting along for about a hundred and twenty miles the voyagers reached an inlet and with some difficulty entered. They solemnly took possession of the land in the Queen's name, and then delivered it over to Raleigh according to his patent. They soon discovered that the land upon which they had touched was an island about twenty miles long and not above six broad, named, as they afterward learned, Roanoke. Beyond, separating them from the mainland, lay an enclosed sea, studded with more than a hundred fertile and well-wooded islets.... Barlow and Amidas returned to England in the middle of September. With them they brought two of the savages, named Wanchese and Manteo. A probable tradition tells us that the Queen herself named the country Virginia, and that Raleigh's knighthood was the reward and acknowledgement of his success. On the strength of this report Raleigh at once made preparations for a settlement. A fleet of seven ships was provided for the conveyance of a hundred and eight settlers. The fleet was under the command of Sir Richard Grenville, who was to establish the settlement and leave it under the charge of Ralph Lane....