Joachim Gans
Sir Richard Grenville, leader of Raleigh's expedition, founded the Roanoke Colony on Roanoke Island off the coast of modern North Carolina in 1585. Among the ruins at the Roanoke site, archaeologists have discovered lumps of smelted copper and a goldsmith’s crucible attributed to Gans's work at the colony. Because the royal mining company failed to resupply colonists who were also becoming increasingly fearful of conflicts with the Native Americans, they accepted an offer from Sir Francis Drake in June 1586 to sail them to England. Each of the colonists, including Gans, left North America.
Roanoke Colony
The enterprise was originally financed and organized by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who drowned in 1583 returning from a voyage to the fishing settlement at St. John's, Newfoundland. His half-brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, later gained Gilbert's charter from the Queen and subsequently executed its details through his delegates Ralph Lane and Richard Grenville, Raleigh's distant cousin.