544 NAT URE March 24, 1956 voL. 177 RALEIGH'S ATTEMPTED The 1584 voyage located Roanoke Island, while G-renville's voyage of 1585 established a fort and COLONIZATION OF VIRGINIA colony on it. Lane was left with a garrison, expecting a relief ship and stores by Easter Roanoke Voyages 1584-1590 Raleigh to send The 1586. It did not come Ulltil late June, and by then the English voyages to Documents to illustrate Lane and the colonists had been taken off by Drake, Patent granted to Walter North America under the at their request. Grenville arrived with three by Prof. David Beers Quinn. Raleigh in 1584. Edited hundred men two weeks later to strengthen the Vol. 1: pp. xxxv+496. Vol. 2: pp. vi+497-1004. colony, but finding it deserted he left a holding party Second (Works issued by the Hakluyt Society. of only eighteen men, who were attacked by Indians Cambridge University Series, No. 104.) (London: and overcome. By such. a narrow margin did the Press, 1955.) 120s. net. fair enterprise of Raleigh's colonization of Virginia N these two most valuable and fascinating volumes fail to succeed: as Quinn notes, "the whole sequence I Prof. D. B. Quum has continued for the coloniza. of colonization was destroyed, inadvertently, by tion of Virginia under Raleigh what he had earlier Drake". The drawings by White and the maps completed for Sir Humphrey Gilbert's ventures in by White and Hariot, no less than their accurate New England and Newfoundland. Spain, through descriptions of the Indians and the flora ·and fauna, Columbus, discovered the Caribbean lands, and are historical documents of unique value. There are within fifty years or so her empire stretched from appendixes on the map of Virginia as it was explored California to Tierra del Fuego. Portugal, using in these expeditions, on Indian words and on the Vespucci, coasted Brazil and Argentina and began its archreology of the settlements. By 1950 the fort colonization in earnest by 1550. But England, which made in 1585 on Roanoke was completely recon­ through John Cabot had explored from Greenland structed by Harrington. Sources and indexes of to New England, made no attempt to establish a subjects, names and places complete a most compre­ colony in the New World. Tho Tudor monarchs hensive and brilliant study of this early venture in sensed, almost immediately, that such voyages the origins of the British Empire. Prof. Quinn and westward would not lead easily to Cathay and the the Hakluyt Society are to be warmly congratulated Spice Islands, and so, apart from the fisheries of on this absorbing and scholarly addition to their Newfoundland, English interest in the Americas famous series. ARTHUR DAVIES lapsed until 1578. Gilbert's warrant to establish colonies in North America lasted from 1578 until 1584, and thereafter Sir Walter Raleigh obtained the Queen's patent to do so, provided he did not interfere LUCUBRATORY BIOCHEMISTRY with the Newfoundland fisheries. Biochemistry Hakluyt published many of the main sources for Introductory Textbook. By Prof. Felix Hauro­ the voyages and colonization of Virginia undertaken An Pp. xvi+485. (New York: ,John Wiley and between 1584 and 1590. The documents in these witz. Inc. ; London : Chapman _and Hall, Ltd., two volumes include those of Hakluyt supplemented Sons, 54s. net. by many minor documents and new material and 1955.) interpretations derived from modern scholarship. CCORDING to the author, this text-book "is Vol. 1 includes seventy-three documents dealing with A designed to form the basis of a one-semester the 1585 and 1586 voyages, while Vol. 2 has thirty. course in biological chemistry intended for seniors four English documents on the 1587-90 voyages, and graduate students majoring in bacteriology, together with fifty-two Spanish documents, two of botany, chemistry, physiology, or zoology". After them published originally by Miss Wright, which deal an introductory chapter, in which the development with these English voyages to Roanoke Island in and scope of biochemistry, the fundamentals and Virginia. special fields of the subject, and the literature, are The introduction, of seventy-six pages, assesses the all discussed, chapters are devoted to water and its material, and at the beginning of each chapter a functions, the mechanism of biochemical reactions, narrative is given of the events and material in the the chemistry and metabolism of carbohydrates, documents. Footnotes and annotations are most proteins and lipids, nucleic acids, porphyrins, mineral liberal and reveal the thorough and rich scholarship metabolism, enzymes, energy balances and nutrition, of the editing. Prof. Quinn considers that during and human biochemistry. The balance of the book 1584-86 the English ventures were not over-publicized, is different from the sort of volume that is produced probably because of the danger of Spanish inter­ for medical students, and includes both structura.l ference. From 1587 onwards, relations with Spain and dynamic aspects of the subject. It incorporates were open war if not official war, and after the defeat, material on animal, plant and bacterial biochemistry. of the Armada there was no further fear of Spain. Since the book is meant for seniors and graduate The documents published by Hakluyt were in the students it would seem all the more important that nature of propaganda for the colony, and Quinn it should be accurate in detail, with an adequate believes that they suppressed some features of the discussion of the evidence on which the accepted expeditions to present the project in as attractive a ideas about metabolic processes are based. To pro­ light as possible. He also considers there is evidence duce a book for graduate students in a subject which to show that Raleigh and Grenville intended to is developing as rapidly as biochemistry advances establish a colony at about 36° N., which would be to-day is a problem to be faced by all careful writers sufficiently north of Florida to avoid Spanish attack with some alarm and with intense care for detail and yet close enough. to the West Indies to provide a form. Dr. Haurowitz's book reveals little evidence base for privateering. It is this potential role of the of his awareness of these needs. Although the book Virginia colony on Roanoke which led the Spaniards is meant for seniors, references to original publications to keep on searching to destroy it from 1590 until are not given in most inst!mces. Such references as 1600, unaware that it had been abandoned in 1590. are included are largely to books and to review © 1956 Nature Publishing Group.