Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: its waters, adding another mystery to the many that give the Hidden River such charms in the eyes of philosophers and historians." Romance of History. III. JOHN SMITH AND POCAHONTAS. 1. Nearly one hundred years had gone by since the discovery of Columbus before the English made any attempt to form a settlement in America. In the year 1585 a ship-load of men were sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh, in part to found a colony and in part to search for gold. They landed on Roanoke Island, in Albemarle Sound, on the coast of North Carolina. But they proved to be a faint-hearted people, for the next year they all returned home. In 1587 Sir Walter sent another expedition to the same point, and the foundation of a city was laid. When search was made for the settlers a year later they could not be found, and to this day their fate is unknown, but it is supposed that they were murdered by the Indians. Some eighteen years later a more successful enterprise was formed, and the first permanent settlement was effected. . 2. "On December 19, 1606,three small vessels glide down the river Thames, spreading their sails for a voyage across the Atlantic. There are two hundred and five persons on board the vessel. They are leaving England to found a state in a wilderness thousands of miles away. Of the party, four are carpenters, twelve laborers, and forty- eight gentlemen, who look upon labor as a degrading occupation. One of the gentlemen is Captain John Smith, who is not thirty years of age, but who has had an adventurous life. He was born only a short distance from where Dr. Wycliffe lived, in 1576. 3. " When he was a school-boy he had such a longing to be a sailor that he sold his books and satchel to get money enough to go to sea; but just then his father died, and left him a good de...