How fared the colony in “Virginia” after Sir Richard had left with the ships is told in Ralph Lane’s report to Raleigh: “An account of the particularities of the imployments of the English men left in Virginia by Sir Richard Greenevill under the charge of Master Ralph Lane Generall of the same, from the 17 of August 1585 until the 18 of June 1586 at which time they departed the Countrey: sent and directed to Sir Walter Ralegh.” There were in all one hundred and eight men of the company remaining in the colony. They finished the building of a fort on Roanoke Island, which had apparently been begun before Grenville left; and set up their houses, presumably of logs, the best of these thatched with grasses. But their principal occupation was in exploration for discovery of the country about them. These expeditions were mainly by water and only in small boats, all the craft they had. One much used was a four-oared boat, which could carry not more than fifteen men with their trappings and provisions for seven days at the most. The largest apparently was the pinnace built at St. John, but she drew too deep water for the shallow sound about their settlement, and so could not be employed as readily as the smaller rowboats. Others were “wherries,” perhaps shipboats. With these slender facilities the extent of their explorations was surprising. Their discoveries were extended from Roanoke Island south, north, northwest, and west for considerable distances. Southward the farthest point reached was “Secotan,” or “Croatoan,” in the present county of Carteret at the southern end of Pamlico Sound, which they estimated to be eighty miles from Roanoke Island. To the northward they went one hundred and thirty miles to the “Chesepians,” so passing into the present Virginia. They penetrated into the Chesepian’s territory some fifteen miles from the shore, nearly reaching the Chesapeake Bay, below Norfolk. Northwestward they travelled one hundred and thirty miles to “Chawanook,” on the Chowan River, at a point just below the junction of the Meherrin and the Nottaway rivers. And westward they ascended the “River of Moratoc”—the Roanoke River—till they were distant one hundred and sixty miles from Roanoke Island.