RALEIGH Sir Walter Raleigh took up the interesting plan which his kinsman, Gilbert, had at heart. Raleigh was now at the height of his favor with Queen Elizabeth. She had made him wealthy, especially by the gift of large estates which she had taken from others. She readily promised him the same privileges in America which she had offered to Gilbert. Raleigh doubtless thought that he might increase his fortune and win glory for himself and for his country by planting English colonies in the New World. No man of the age was better fitted for the undertaking. He had shown himself a fearless soldier and an able commander in the war against Spain in the Netherlands. He had fortune, skill, and powerful friends. Like Gilbert, he was a friend of poets and scholars and a student of books; like Drake, he was a natural leader of men. [Illustration: SIR WALTER RALEIGH AND HIS SON] VIRGINIA. Raleigh began in 1584 by sending an expedition to explore the coast for a suitable site for a colony. His men sailed by way of the Canaries, and came upon North America in the neighborhood of Pamlico Sound, avoiding the stormy route directly across the Atlantic which Gilbert had followed. They found, therefore, instead of the bleak shore of Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island, the genial climate of North Carolina and Virginia. They carried home glowing reports of the country. They were particularly pleased with an island in Pamlico Sound called by the Indians Roanoke Island. They noted with wonder the overhanging grape-vines loaded with fruit, the fine cedar trees which seemed to them the highest and reddest in the world, the great flocks of noisy white cranes, and the numberless deer in the forests. The Indians appeared gentle and friendly, Elizabeth was so pleased with the accounts of the country that she allowed it to be called Virginia after herself, the Virgin Queen, and made Raleigh a knight. THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONISTS. Raleigh made several attempts to plant a colony in Virginia. The most famous one was led by John White in 1587. White had visited Virginia on an earlier voyage, and painted more than seventy pictures of Indian life, representing their dress and their manner of living. These may still be seen in the British Museum in London. His interest in the country and its Indian population made his appointment as governor seem a wise choice. Care was taken in the selection of colonists in order to secure farmers rather than gold-seekers. Twenty-five women and children were included in the colony of about one hundred and fifty persons.