vessels, which, however, were attacked by a Spanish privateer, and so much disabled as to be incapable of proceeding on their voyage; but after this no further attempt was made to relieve the unhappy colonists of Virginia, who, men, women, and children, to the number of nearly a hundred and twenty, that had been left by White, must all speedily have perished of want if they were not destroyed by the tomahawks of the barbarous aborigines upon whose wilderness they had intruded. And thus terminated the work of colonization as prosecuted by the English in the reign of Elizabeth.
We will now add a few notices respecting the navy and commercial shipping of the kingdom in this reign. Very soon after she came to the throne, Camden tells us, "this wise and careful princess, in order to prevent any hostile attempts, and secure herself and her subjects in the fruition of a settled peace, though her treasure ran low, yet began to stock her armoury with all necessary ammunition, expending a vast sum for arms in Germany, because those she bought up at Antwerp were stopped by the Spaniard." She also, he adds, caused a great number of iron and brass pieces to be cast; and in this she was aided by the discovery both of great abundance of calamine, or zinc, in different parts of England, and of a vein of copper near Keswick, in Cumberland, so rich that it afforded a sufficient supply not only for the home demand, but for exportation. She likewise introduced the manufacture of gunpowder, and made the military service popular by raising the pay of the soldiers. Further, the historian goes on, "she rigged out her fleet with all manner of tackling and ammunition, so that it may be allowed to have been the best equipped navy that was ever set out by the English. For the defence whereof she built a castle on the banks of the Medway near Upnore, the usual harbour for the fleet, and augmented the sailors' and mariners' pay; so that she was justly styled by strangers the Restorer of the Naval Glory, and the Queen of the North Seas. Neither had she occasion to hire ships from Hamburgh, Lubeck, Dantzic, Genoa, and Venice, which was her predecessors'
