Raleigh was next employed by the queen as attendant on the French ambassador Simicr, on his return home ; and he was one of the party who accompanied the Duke of Anjou front England to Antwerp, where he became acquainted with the Prince of Orange, and brought over letters from him to her majesty, on his return to England in 1582.
The favour which Raleigh now enjoyed was not confined to the vicinity of the court. Even the states men of different parties showed him the highest respect, and strove who should extend to him the most active patronage. His half brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, had planned a second expedition to Newfoundland, for which Raleigh built a new vessel called the Bark Raleigh, and completely furnished it for the voyage. Fortunate ly, however, he did not accompany it in person, for a contagious distemper broke out among the ship's crew, and forced the vessel to return to Plymouth in less than a week.
This disappointment, which would have paralysed the energies of ordinary temperaments, seems only to have roused the ardour of Raleigh for further adven tures.
In 1584 he submitted to the queen and council a scheme for exploring North America, and making set tlements in those parts of it which had not been subju gated by any foreign power. This scheme was too plausibly stated, and the interest of its author too powerful to meet with any opposition. An extensive patent was immediately granted to him for executing the plan ; and, with the assistance of his friends, he fit ted out two vessels entirely at his own cost, which were put under the command of Captains Amadas and Bar low, and which sailed from Plymouth in 1534. Upon reaching the American coast, they took possession of an island near the mouth of Albemarle river, in North Carolina, and the ships returned in autumn with va rious commodities, which brought such a high price, that the company of Raleigh's friends who had assisted him, fitted out a fleet of seven vessels, the command of which was intrusted to Sir Richard Greenville, a rela tion of Raleigh's. In the course of this voyage they took possession of a fine country called Windungocoa, to which Elizabeth herself gave the name of Virginia. Sir Richard left a colony of 107 persons at Roonah, un der the government of Mr. Lane ; but misfortunes of various kinds befel the colony, and, after expending large sums of money in fruitless attempts to repair them, he assigned over his patent to a company, reserving to himself only a portion of the gold and silver harvest which it was expected they would reap. It was from
this colony that Raleigh first imported tobacco into Eng land, and introduced the culture of the potatoe, into his estates in Ireland.
It was about this period that he was elected knight of the shire for the country of Devon ; and soon after this, her majesty conferred upon him the honour of knighthood.
In another expedition which he fitted out for Vir ginia in 1585, his ships took a prize worth 50,000/. ; and he was also concerned in Captain Davis's expedi tion for the discovery of a north-west passage, from which circumstance a promontory in Davis's Straights was called Mount Raleigh.
With the view of indemnifying her favourite for his outlays in these public-spirited enterprises, the queen gave hint several profitable grants. Among these were the power of licensing retailers of wine throughout the kingdom, and a seigniory of 12,000 acres of forfeited lands in the county of Cork in Ireland, which lie plant ed at his own expense, and sold many years afterwards to Richard Boyle, the first Earl of Cork. In 1536 he was appointed seneschal of the dutchies of Cornwall and Exeter, and warden of the Stannaries ; and such a hold did he seem to have taken of the queen's regard, that the Earl of Leicester himself, the queen's favourite mi nister, took the alarm, and brought forward the Earl of Essex as his rival.
In the year 1587, Sir Walter sent another colony of 150 men to Virginia, under the charge of Mr. John White as govcnor, with twelve assistants. About this time Raleigh was captain of the queen's guard, and lieu tenant-general of Cornwall, in which last capacity lie was of great use in training the county militia. In con sequence of his political sagacity, as well as his military experience, he was a member of the council of war ap pointed by the government for devising the bust means of resisting- the threatened dangers of that period ; and when the Spanish armada showed itself in the Channel, he was one of the enterprising volunteers who joined the English fleet with ships of their own, and shared in the glory of defeating the enemy. Raleigh was now made gentleman of the queen's privy chamber, and the profits of his other situations were greatly increased.