1. Sir Walter Raleigh, English adventurer and explorer
Sir Humphrey Gilbert's patent was due to run out in 1584, and in 1583 Raleigh, with much of his money and with the help of some London merchants, finan-ced Gilbert for the voyage in which he discovered Newfoundland and in which he lost his life. When the patent expired, Raleigh got it renewed in his fa-vor, and used it to start a series of expeditions that in theory were designed to settle colonists in the new
land of Virginia but in practice were an attempt to discover gold and silver mines. These expeditions were all unsuccessful and Raleigh claimed to have lost as much as 40,000 Pounds through them. During 1588, the year of the Spanish Armada, Raleigh was appointed vice admiral of Devon, a purely legal and administrative post, and took no part in the great campaign. His star at Court was now beginning to set with the rise of that of the Earl of Essex as the Queen's prime favorite. In 1589 he took part in an expedition to the coast of Portugal to foster a revolt against Philip II of Spain, which failed miserably.

2. Sir Humphrey Gilbert
English navigator, of Compton, near Dart-mouth, was a half-brother of Sir Walter Ra-leigh. In early life he followed a military career, soldiering in France, in Ireland where he was knighted for his services, and in the Net-herlands. Money and credit exhausted, Gilbert returned to soldiering until 1583 when he was
able with Raleigh's help and, as he himself put it, by 'selling the clothes off my wife's back', to raise enough money to get another expedition together. He sailed in June 1583 from Plymouth in the Delight, with the Ark Raleigh furnished by Sir Walter and the biggest vessel in the flotilla, the Golden Hinde (not the same), the Swallow, and the little 10-ton Squirrel. The Ark Raleigh soon deserted the expedition and returned on the pretext of sickness on board. The remainder continued and reached St. John's, Newfoundland where, having taken possession of the territory in the queen's name, Gilbert set up the first English colony in North America on 5 August 1583.