In the 17th century, the British were watching the Spaniards with heartburning envy as they set up a global colonial empire that brought home ships filled with gold. Queen Elizabeth found it unacceptable for her kingdom to stand by idle and ordered expeditions to the New World, dreaming of the same riches the Spaniards had plundered in South and Central America.

These colonization expeditions, however, proved incredibly harrowing and unsuccessful before the first permanent colony was founded in 1607 at Jamestown in Virginia. Thousands of hopeful immigrants died or went missing during the long years before the English could establish a stable footing in North America. Among them were the crew of Sir Walter Raleigh, one of Queen Elizabeth’s favorite subjects who was tasked with founding the first North American colony in 1585.