ater England beyond the seas.
He sent out ships to explore, and twice he sent out men to settle in
the new land. Some the Indians killed; some found the work of building
houses and clearing away the forests far harder than they had expected;
and the Indians often attacked them, and food was sometimes so scarce
they almost died of hunger. Do you wonder they lost heart and came
back to England? Thus it seemed that Raleigh's plan quite failed; but
it did not really, for about twenty years later, a company, like the
East India Company, was formed, called the Virginia Company. It sent
out some settlers who sailed from London in the year 1606, and they did
what Raleigh's men had failed to do--built themselves homes, and
cleared and tilled the land. Thus began the British Dominions beyond
the Seas.

One thing Raleigh did which must not be forgotten. The men he sent to
explore in America saw potatoes and tobacco growing there, and learnt
from the Indians how to use them. When they came home they showed
Raleigh the plants they had brought back with them. He tried smoking
tobacco, and I {53} think he must have liked it very much, for he used
to give his friends pipes with silver bowls and teach them how to
smoke. And he planted potatoes in the garden of a house he had in
Ireland; his were the very first Irish potatoes. A few years later
both potatoes and tobacco were growing in the garden of one of those
fine houses in the Strand of which I have told you; people thought them
very rare and curious plants.

Eight years before the great Queen died, Raleigh went himself to South
America, and sailed far up the River Orinoco. He found a fertile land
and friendly Indians, who told him wonderful stories of the great "city
of Manoa" which was (so they said,) rich beyond the dreams of man; El
Dorado, the Golden City, the Spanish called it. Raleigh never forgot
these stories; more than twenty years later they helped to bring him
back to America.

When Elizabeth died and James I. came to the throne he fell into
disgrace, for some people said he had plotted against the King; so he
was tried, found guilty, and condemned to death. But he was not
killed; year after year he was kept a prisoner in the Tower of London.
How did he pass his days there? was he very dull and sad? I think not.
Part of the time his wife and son lived with him; he was very much
interested in the new science of chemistry, and he worked at it and
tried exp