DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

eee Re eee to} Inspired by the example of Drake, he fitted out a privateer, crossed the Atlantic, discovered and acquired for England her first American possession, which in compliment to Queen Elizabeth he named ‘Virginia.’ Thence were first introduced tobacco and potatoes into Europe. It is a well-known story that Raleigh’s servant, on entering his study with a foaming tankard of ale, saw him, for the first time, with a lighted pipe in his mouth, and enveloped in the clouds of smoke he was puffing forth. Imagining that his master was the victim of some internal conflagration, the simple fellow dashed the contents of the tankard in his face, and then ran downstairs, screaming, that his master was on fire, and would be burnt to ashes before they could come to his aid. The practice of tobacco-smoking soon became general, and was even tolerated at Court in the Queen’s presence. One day, after discussing the virtues of Raleigh’s famous herb with him, she merely told him that she knew of many persons who had turned their gold into smoke, but that he was the first who had turned smoke into gold. Sir Richard Grenville was another and possibly a nobler example of the gallantry of those days. With a single ship, the Revenge, he faced a Spanish fleet of fifty vessels, nearly all of which were twice