Big Chief Elizabeth : How England's adventurers gambled and won the New World /Giles Milton.

"The colonial enterprise that paved the way to the United States of America was effectively a gamble on the part of a handful of adventurers motivated by a combination of greed, romance and desperation. Fired by envy of the vast gains being made by the Spanish in the South, succeeding waves of merchants and swashbuckling noblemen attempted to build a permanent colony in the North. Under the aegis of the energetic Walter Ralegh, several expeditions set out, and Queen Elizabeth was persuaded to give her name to the fledgling colony of Virginia."--Provided by the publisher.