Balancing selection

sophisticated culture of the native North Carolina Algonquian Indians he encountered. In 1585, John White returned from ‘Virginia’ with visions of the perfect place to plant the English in the New World. While Raleigh continued preparations for a permanent colony of 115 men, women and children at Chesapeake, John White was appointed governor. But the project failed for lack of supplies and relief ships blocked by the Spanish Armada. But White’s drawings have been vital in understanding how Europeans first viewed native north Americans and the continent’s novel flora and fauna. All of White’s drawings are in the British Museum’s collection and are on public display as a group for the first time in 40 years. Loaned portraits, maps and navigational instruments from the National Portrait Gallery, British Library and National Maritime Museum are also being used to set the scene of the Elizabethan court.