Excerpt from The Conquest of Virginia: The First Attempt, Being an Account of Sir Walter Raleigh's Colony on Roanoke Island, Based on Original Records, and Incidents in the Life of Raleigh, 1584-1602 John Cabot, a Venetian pilot, was employed in 1494, by citizens of Bristol, in England, to make voyages of discovery for them; and in 1496, King Henry VII., granted him authority to make discoveries. He landed on American soil, and this achievement was the international basis of England's claim to a part of America. Not until later years, however, were the most serious attempts undertaken by the English to colonize America. The claims of Spain and Portugal to the soil of America as far north as the 44th degree of north latitude were at first allowed by England. This excluded the English from the best part of the continent and restricted them to the cold regions of the North. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.