<P> Later French arrived from the north . Having established agricultural colonies in Canada and built a fur trading network with Indians in the Great Lakes area, they began to explore the Mississippi River . The French called their territory Louisiana, in honor of their King Louis . France claimed Texas and set up several short - lived forts there, such as the one in Red River County, built in 1718 . In 1817 the French pirate Jean Lafitte settled on Galveston Island; his colony there grew to more than 1,000 persons by 1818 but was abandoned in 1820 . The most important French settlements were established at New Orleans and Mobile (originally called Bienville). Only a few settlers came from France directly, with others arriving from Haiti and Acadia . </P> <P> Just before they defeated the Spanish Armada, the English began exploring the New World . In 1585 an expedition organized by Walter Raleigh established the first English settlement in the New World, on Roanoke Island, North Carolina . The colony failed to prosper, however, and the colonists were retrieved the following year by English supply ships . In 1587, Raleigh again sent out a group of colonists to Roanoke . From this colony, the first recorded European birth in North America, a child named Virginia Dare, was reported . That group of colonists disappeared and is known as the "Lost Colony". Many people theorize that they were either killed or taken in by local tribes . </P> <P> Like New England, the South was originally settled by English Protestants, later becoming a melting pot of religions as with other parts of the country . While the earlier attempt at colonization had failed on Roanoke Island, the English established their first permanent colony in America in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, at the mouth of the James River, which in turn empties into Chesapeake Bay . </P> <P> Settlement of Chesapeake Bay was driven by a desire to obtain precious metal resources, specifically gold . The colony was technically still within Spanish territorial claims, yet far enough from most Spanish settlements to avoid colonial clashes . As the "Anchor of the South", the region includes the Delmarva Peninsula and much of coastal Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia . </P>

What was the first settlement in the southern colonies