English sailors also sought a road to India by the
so-called Northwest Passage. It was soon found to be an impossible route, for
during half the year the seas were frozen and during the other half they were
filled with icebergs. However, the search for the Northwest Passage added much
to geographical knowledge. The names Frobisher Bay, Davis Strait, and Baffin
Land still preserve the memory of the navigators who first explored the
channels leading into the Arctic Ocean.
THE ENGLISH "SEA DOGS"
When the English realized how little profit was to be
gained by voyages to the cold and desolate north, they turned southward to
warmer waters. Here, of course, they came upon the Spaniards, who had no
disposition to share with foreigners the profitable trade of the New World.
Though England and Spain were not at war, the English "sea dogs," as
they called themselves, did not scruple to ravage the Spanish colonies and to
capture the huge, clumsy treasure-ships carrying gold and silver to Spain. The
most famous of the "sea dogs," Sir Francis Drake, was the first
Englishman to sail round the world (1577-1580 A.D.).
THE RALEIGH COLONIES, 1584-1590 A.D.
Four years after Drake had completed his voyage, another
English seaman, Sir Walter Raleigh, sent out an expedition to find a good site
for a settlement in North America. The explorers reached the coast of North
Carolina and returned with glowing accounts of the country, which was named
Virginia, in honor of Elizabeth, the "Virgin Queen." But Raleigh's
colonies in Virginia failed miserably, and the English made no further attempt
to settle there till the reign of James I, early in the seventeenth century.
