Thereupon Lane called his remaining chiefs into council, and the upshot of their deliberations, considering the situation of the colony,—their reduced numbers, the carrying away of the “Francis” with her provisions and company, the hopelessness of the arrival of Sir Richard Grenville with the relief fleet now long overdue,—was the decision that Sir Francis’s second offer, “though most honourable of his part,” must be declined, and that he be petitioned in all their names to give the colony passage with him back to England. This request Lane personally delivered, and Drake promptly granted. Accordingly his pinnaces were sent to Roanoke to take off the men and their effects. But the weather was yet boisterous, and the pinnaces were so often aground that much valuable stuff was lost. “The most of all we had, with all our Cards [charts], Books, and writings were by the Sailers cast overboard, the greater number of the fleet being much aggrieved with their long and dangerous abode in that miserable road.” The returning colonists were bestowed among the several ships, and on the nineteenth all set sail for home, where they duly arrived, at Portsmouth, on the twenty-seventh of July. Almost immediately after the colonists had abandoned Roanoke and sailed off with Drake, a ship sent out by Raleigh at his “sole charges” to their relief, arrived on the coast of Carolina. She had left England after Easter, freighted plentifully with stores most necessary for the infant colony. When her captain found this “paradise of the world,” as he termed their seat, deserted, he returned with his cargo to England. Hakluyt gives the brief account of this voyage as third in the series of Raleigh’s Virginia expeditions. A fortnight later Sir Richard Grenville’s delayed relief fleet, comprising three ships full laden with supplies of all sorts, at last arrived at the deserted place. In order to preserve possession of the country for England he left fifteen men (not fifty as some after chroniclers stated) at Roanoke Island, and then returned as he had come. While so much material was lost by the colonists in the hurry of departure, Thomas Hariot preserved notes from which he subsequently wrote out a particular and helpful description of the country of “Virginia,” its inhabitants, productions, animals, birds, and fishes, which was first published in 1588 and Hakluyt reproduced the next year; and John White brought home many sketches, drawings, and water colours, which subsequently appeared as illustrations of Hariot’s book. Others of the colonists brought home specimens of the country’s products, among them the tobacco plant and the potato root. Both were first introduced into general use in Europe by Raleigh. [Illustration: A MAP OF VIRGINIA, 1585. From the map in Hariot’s “Relation.” ] XXI RALEIGH’S LOST COLONY