his dealings with the natives from the start. April 1586 passed with no news of Grenville. In June, the incident of the stolen cup led to a retaliatory attack against the fort that the settlers were able to repel. Also in June, Sir Francis Drake arrived at Roanoke and offered Lane and his men a return voyage to England, which Lane readily accepted because of a weakened food supply and increased tensions with local tribes. Drake's fleet reached Portsmouth on 28 July, at which the settlers of Roanoke introduced snuff, corn, and potatoes to England. The Account of Ralph Lane first appeared in Richard Hakluyt's Principall Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation in 1589. The Grenville relief fleet arrived shortly after Drake's departure with the settlers. Finding the colony abandoned, Grenville returned to England with the bulk of his force, leaving behind a small detachment to maintain a British presence and protect Raleigh's claim to Virginia. Lane later participated in other expeditions. In January 1592 he was appointed muster-master general of Ireland and was knighted the following year by Sir William FitzWilliam, the Lord Deputy of Ireland. Death In 1594, Lane was severely wounded during the Nine Years' War in Ireland. He never fully recovered and died in 1603 at Dublin, where he was buried in St. Patrick's Cathedral. See also List of colonial governors of North Carolina List of colonial governors of Virginia References 1530 births 1603 deaths English explorers of North America English MPs 1558 English MPs 1563–1567 People of Elizabethan Ireland People of the Roanoke Colony