In the beginning, American and Southern literature were one. J. A. Leo Lemay wrote that "American, and Southern, literature began when Sir Walter Raleigh sent four major expeditions to Virginia." The first was in 1584, led by Arthur Barlow. As the exploring party neared land, Barlow wrote, the air was alive with a sweet fragrance, "so strong a smell, as if we had been in the midst of some delicate garden, abounding with all kinds of odoriferous flower."