ROANOKE. White and his followers settled on Roanoke Island. They found that the fort, which one of Raleigh's officers had built some years earlier, was leveled to the ground. Several huts were still standing, but they were falling to pieces. The first task was to rebuild the huts and move into them from their ships. A baby girl was born a few days after the landing, the first child born of English parents in the New World. Her father, Ananias Dare, was one of White's councilors; her mother, Eleanor Dare, was the daughter of Governor White. The baby was given the name Virginia, the name of the country which was to be her home. [Illustration: MAP OF RALEIGH'S COLONIES] THE COLONISTS IN DANGER. The little colony must have foreseen the hostility of the Indians and a scarcity of food, for before Governor White had been in America two months, he was sent back to England to obtain more provisions, White, from his own account, did not wish to leave his daughter and granddaughter. WHITE'S SEARCH FOR AID. White returned to England in the fall of 1587 at the wrong moment to ask for aid. All England was alarmed by the rumor that a great Spanish fleet was about to land an invading army. The friends of Virginia in England were too busy protecting their own homes from the invader to give heed to the needs of the farmer colonists across the sea. White traveled through England, seeking aid for his friends and family, but was disappointed everywhere. WHY RALEIGH GAVE NO HELP. Raleigh had by no means forgotten his colonists, but his queen and his country had the first claim on him through the long war with Spain. Twice during this period, he found time and means to prepare relief expeditions for Virginia. The queen stopped the first one just as it was ready to sail, because all the ships were needed at that moment for service in the war. A second expedition was attacked by the Spaniards and forced to return. THE LOST COLONY. White finally secured passage for himself on a fleet going to the West Indies, not with a fleet and relief supplies of his own, but as a passenger on another man's ship. It was the summer of 1591 when he arrived at Roanoke, four years after his departure. The colonists were not to be found. Their houses were torn down. The chests which they had evidently buried in order to hide them from the Indians had been dug up and ransacked of everything of value. White's own papers which he had left behind were strewn about. His pictures and maps were torn and rotten with the rain. His armor was almost eaten through with rust.