In 1584 Raleigh obtained a patent for the formation of an American colony. (4) The following year Raleigh sent out an expedition of four ships and two pinnaces, with 600 men, under Sir Richard Grenvill. This included Thomas Harriot. Although Raleigh himself never went to Virginia, he was the mastermind behind this expedition. (5)

A settlement was established on Roanoke Island. Grenville returned to England to obtain supplies for the colonists. During this period the colonists relied heavily upon a local Algonquian tribe. However, after a raid led by Ralph Lane, this food source came to an end. This created serious problems for the colonists and many died from starvation. (6)

Sir Francis Drake arrived at Roanoke on 9th June 1586. According to John Sugden, the author of Sir Francis Drake (1990) he discovered that there were only 105 colonists left alive: "Lane's men were largely soldiers, not artisans and farmers. They were interested in exploring, but lacked the skills and knowledge to form a sustainable community, and to provide for themselves they badgered the natives for food... Understandably, the Indians had begun to resent the colonists." Drake agreed to take the colonists back to England. (7)

Thomas Harriot returned to England with Drake later that year. In 1588 he published A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia. During his time in America he became addicted to tobacco. "You will observe sailors and all others who come back from the New World smoking tobacco... By this they say their strength is restored and their spirits refreshed... We have discovered nothing from the New World that is more valuable than this plant... It is a remedy for sores, wounds, infections of the throat and chest and the plague." (8)

Harriot's biographer, J. J. Roache, has pointed out: "At a time of brutal violence between colonists and native inhabitants the text is remarkable for its sympathy towards Algonquian beliefs and customs. It also contains what may be the first printed promotional literature in English for tobacco by an English writer, and Harriot and Ralegh were subsequently credited with the introduction of pipe tobacco smoking into England from Virginia. The Report was much published subsequently." (9)

Harriot provided detailed information on the people who lived on Roanoke Island. "The Indians have no weapons of iron or steel... They have only bows made of witch-hazel, and arrows of reeds, flat truncheons also of wood about a yard long... If there are any wars between us and them... we have advantages against them in our discipline and in our weapons... They may in a short time be brought to the true religion. They have some religion already, although it be far from the truth." (10)

According to Paul Hyland, Harriot was a member of "a collection of thinkers, tightly knit or loosely grouped, whose passion was to explore the world and the mind". The group included Walter Raleigh, the geographers, Richard Hakluyt and Robert Hues, the mathematician, Walter Warner, and the writers, Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kyd, George Chapman and Matthew Roydon. The men would either meet at the homes of Raleigh, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, and Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland. (11)

In 1590 Harriot is reported as being at work examining existing navigational tables for Ralegh. To help him do this Harriot constructed the largest astronomical instrument in sixteenth-century England, a 12 foot device which may have been an astronomer's cross-staff. "The observations and calculations which he carried out between 1590 and 1594... his innovations in mathematical cartography, and his improved instruments and observing practices provided Ralegh with the best navigational expertise then available in Europe, which he made use of during his voyage in 1596 to Guiana in search of El Dorado." (12)

Walter Raleigh was released from the Tower of London on 19th March 1616, and at once set about planning his expedition. The planning was, of course, extensive, and little he said or did comforted those at court who were determined on a lasting peace with Spain. He discussed with Sir Francis Bacon, attorney-general, the possibility of seizing Spanish ships carrying treasure. Bacon warned him against this action as it would be an act of piracy.

Historians have dismissed Raleigh's final voyage to the Orinoco River to try to find El Dorado as the hopeless pursuit of fantasy. However, Raleigh appeared certain that his trip would be a financial success. Raleigh's fleet sailed from Plymouth on 12th June 1617, but storms and adverse winds detained it off the southern coast of Ireland for nearly two months. Never comfortable at sea, Raleigh succumbed to fever, and was unable to face solid food for nearly a month. The fleet did not arrive in harbour, at the mouth of the Cayenne River, until 14th November. An expedition under Lawrence Keymis, with Raleigh's nephew George Raleigh in command of the land forces, sailed up the Orinoco in five ships on 10th December. (13)

Carrying provisions for one month, the three vessels that survived the shoals of the delta battled against strong currents and arrived at the settlement San Thomé on 2nd January 1618. Keymis attacked the Spanish outpost in violation of peace treaties with Spain. In the initial attack on the settlement, Raleigh's son, Walter, was fatally shot. Keymis, who broke to Sir Walter the news of his son's death, begged for forgiveness. "Raleigh, fully aware of the implications of these events, confronted him with the bitter statement that Keymis had ruined him by his actions, and refused to support the latter in his report to the English backers. Keymis left Raleigh's cabin, saying that he knew what action to take, and went back to his ship. Raleigh then heard a pistol shot, and sent his servant to enquire what was happening, to which Keymis, lying on his bed, replied that he was just discharging a previously loaded pistol. Half an hour later Keymis's boy entered the cabin and found him dead. The ball had only grazed a rib, and after Raleigh's servant had left he stabbed himself to the heart with a long knife." (14)

Raleigh planned another expedition to discover the El Dorado. He also considered plundering the Spanish treasure fleet. However, his men refused to follow him and the rest of his fleet sailed north leaving Raleigh in his own ship, The Destiny. With a rebellious crew he sailed towards Newfoundland, then across the Atlantic to Ireland. Several members of his crew deserted and Raleigh, with the remnant of his force, sailed on to Plymouth. On his return he wrote to his wife: ‘My brains are broken and tis a torment to me to write… as Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins died heart-broken when they failed of their enterprise, I could willingly die." (15)

Raleigh was placed under arrest by order of Charles Howard of Effingham soon after his landing and conveyed to London by his cousin Sir Lewis Stucley, vice-admiral of Devon and was imprisoned on his arrival on 10th August. Raleigh and the surviving members of his crew were interrogated. On 18th October the commissioners reported their findings to King James. As the evidence against Raleigh was not strong the King issued a warrant for executing the sentence of 1603. Raleigh was taken to be executed at Whitehall on 29th October 1618. (16)

Harriot's manuscripts make it clear that he thought of himself primarily as a mathematician. It has been argued that he was the most able mathematician in Europe between François Viète (1540–1603) and René Descartes (1596–1650), but he failed to publish any mathematics in his lifetime. The mathematician John Wallis (1616–1703) later accused Descartes of failing to acknowledge Harriot as the source of most of his innovations in algebra. (17)

Thomas Harriot died of lung cancer at a house in Threadneedle Street, London, on 2nd July 1621. It is believed that Harriot was the first man from England to die of the disease because of smoking tobacco.

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(1) Mathew Lyons, The Favourite: Raleigh and His Queen (2011) page 246

(2) J. J. Roache, Thomas Harriot : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(3) Mathew Lyons, The Favourite: Raleigh and His Queen (2011) page 246

(4) Roger Lockyer, Tudor and Stuart Britain (1985) page 118

(5) Mark Nicholls, Walter Rayleigh : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(6) Alan Shaw Taylor, American Colonies: The Settling of North America (2001) page 124

(7) John Sugden, Sir Francis Drake (1990) page 198

(8) Thomas Harriot, A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia (1588)

(9) J. J. Roache, Thomas Harriot : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(10) Thomas Harriot, A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia (1588)

(11) Paul Hyland, Ralegh's Last Journey (2003) page 67

(12) J. J. Roache, Thomas Harriot : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(13) Mark Nicholls, Walter Rayleigh : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(14) Anita McConnell, Lawrence Keymis : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(15) Walter Raleigh, letter to Elizabeth Raleigh (22nd March 1618)

(16) Mark Nicholls, Walter Rayleigh : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(17) J. J. Roache, Thomas Harriot : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)