Newfoundland in 1897 - Rumbolt

ENGLAND'S OLDEST COLONY. 49
But " the spacious times of Great Elizabeth " at
length dawned the flowering-time of the English
race when mighty impulses were stirring the heart
of the people, and the nation began to feel conscious
of the great destiny that was awaiting it. It was the
age of great statesmen, warriors, explorers,
of fearless
sea-rovers, of daring adventurers. It was an age of
vast intellectual activity. The names of Bacon, Spenser,
Shakespeare adorned its annals. Ear-reaching projects
for the extension of trade and commerce, for the acquisition
of new territories beyond the seas, occupied men's
minds. It was then that the thoughts of Englishmen
began to turn once more to Cabot and his discoveries,
made eighty-six years before, and now almost forgotten,
but which had made Newfoundland and the mainland
of North America theirs by right of discovery.
It was the year 1583. There was then living in
England a brave patriotic nobleman named Sir
Humphrey Gilbert
"
one of the noblest spirits of the
age," says Green, in his "History of the English
People." Bancroft, the American historian, writes of
him :
" With a sounder judgment and a better knowledge
"
(than his contemporaries), " he watched the
progress of the fisheries, and formed healthy plans for
colonization. He had been a soldier and a member
of Parliament. He was a judicious writer on navigation.
He was one of those who alike despise fickleness
and fear; danger never turned him aside from the
pursuit of honour or the service of his sovereign, for
he knew that death is inevitable and the fame of virtue
immortal," as his own brave words expressed it ;
E