The Roanoke Colony
(/ˈroʊəˌnoʊk/) refers to two attempts by Sir Walter Raleigh to
found the first permanent English settlement in North America. The
English, led by Humphrey Gilbert, had claimed St. John's,
Newfoundland, in 1583 as the first North American English colony by
royal prerogative of Queen Elizabeth I. Roanoke was second. The first
Roanoke colony was established by governor Ralph Lane in 1585 on
Roanoke Island in what is now Dare County, North Carolina, United
States. Following the failure of the 1585 settlement, a second
colony led by John White landed on the same island in 1587, and
became known as the Lost Colony due to the unexplained disappearance
of its population.
Lane's colony was troubled by a lack of
supplies and poor relations with the local Native Americans. While
awaiting a delayed resupply mission by Richard Grenville, Lane
decided to abandon the colony and return to England with Francis
Drake in 1586. Grenville arrived two weeks later and left a small
detachment to protect Raleigh's claim. In 1587 Raleigh sent White on
an expedition to establish the Cittie of Raleigh in Chesapeake Bay.
However, during a stop to check in on Grenville's men, the flagship's
pilot Simon Fernandes insisted that White's colonists remain on
Roanoke.
White returned to England with
Fernandes, intending to bring more supplies back to his colony in
1588. Instead, the Anglo-Spanish War delayed his return to Roanoke
until 1590. Upon his arrival, he found the settlement fortified but
abandoned. The word "CROATOAN" was found carved into
the palisade, which White interpreted to mean the colonists had
relocated to Croatoan Island. Before he could follow this lead, rough
seas and a lost anchor forced the rescue mission to return to
England.
The fate of the approximately 112–121
colonists remains unknown. Speculation that they may have assimilated
with nearby Native American communities appears as early as 1605.
Investigations by the Jamestown colonists produced reports that the
Roanoke settlers were massacred, as well as stories of people with
European features in Native American villages, but no hard evidence
was produced. Interest in the matter fell into decline until 1834,
when George Bancroft published his account of the events in A History
of the United States. Bancroft's description of the colonists,
particularly White's infant granddaughter Virginia Dare, cast them as
foundational figures in American culture and captured the public
imagination. Despite this renewed interest, modern research still
has not produced the archaeological evidence necessary to solve the
mystery.
Background
In 1578, Queen Elizabeth I granted a
charter to Sir Humphrey Gilbert to explore and colonize territories
unclaimed by Christian kingdoms. The terms of the charter were
vague, though Gilbert understood it to give him rights to all
territory in the New World north of Spanish Florida. Following
Gilbert's death in 1583, the queen divided the charter between his
brother Adrian Gilbert and his half-brother Walter Raleigh. Adrian's
charter gave him the patent on Newfoundland and all points north,
where geographers expected to eventually find a long-sought Northwest
Passage to Asia. Raleigh was awarded the lands to the south, though
much of it was already claimed by Spain. However, Richard Hakluyt
had by this time taken notice of Verazzano's "isthmus",
located within Raleigh's claim, and was campaigning for England to
capitalize on the opportunity.
Raleigh's charter, issued on March 25,
1584, specified that he needed to establish a colony by 1591, or lose
his right to colonization. He was to "discover, search, find
out, and view such remote heathen and barbarous Lands, Countries, and
territories ... to have, hold, occupy, and enjoy". It was
expected that Raleigh would establish a base from which to send
privateers on raids against the treasure fleets of Spain.
Despite the broad powers granted to
Raleigh, he was forbidden to leave the queen's side. Instead of
personally leading voyages to the Americas, he delegated the missions
to his associates and oversaw operations from London.
Amadas-Barlowe expedition
Raleigh quickly arranged an expedition
to explore his claim. It departed England on April 27, 1584. The
fleet consisted of two barques; Philip Amadas was captain of the
larger vessel, with Simon Fernandes as pilot, while Arthur Barlowe
was in command of the other. There are indications that Thomas
Harriot and John White may have participated in the voyage, but no
records survive which directly confirm their involvement.
The expedition employed a standard
route for transatlantic voyages, sailing south to catch trade winds,
which carried them westward to the West Indies, where they collected
fresh water. The two ships then sailed north until July 4, when they
sighted land at what is now called Cape Fear. The fleet made landfall
on July 13 at an inlet north of Hatorask Island, which was named
"Port Ferdinando" after Fernandes, who discovered
it.
The Native Americans in the region had
likely encountered, or at least observed, Europeans from previous
expeditions. The Secotan, who controlled Roanoke Island and the
mainland between Albemarle Sound and the Pamlico River, soon made
contact with the English and established friendly relations. The
Secotan chieftain, Wingina, had recently been injured in a war with
the Pamlico, so his brother Granganimeo represented the tribe in his
place.
Upon their return to England in the
autumn of 1584, Amadas and Barlowe spoke highly of the tribes'
hospitality and the strategic location of Roanoke. They brought back
two natives: Wanchese, a Secotan, and Manteo, a Croatan whose mother
was the chieftain of Croatoan Island. The expedition's reports
described the region as a pleasant and bountiful land, alluding to
the Golden Age and the Garden of Eden, although these accounts may
have been embellished by Raleigh.
Queen Elizabeth was impressed with the
results of Raleigh's expedition. In 1585, during a ceremony to knight
Raleigh, she proclaimed the land granted to him "Virginia"
and proclaimed him "Knight Lord and Governor of Virginia".
Sir Walter Raleigh proceeded to seek investors to fund a colony.
Lane colony
Sir Richard Grenville
For the first colony in Virginia,
Raleigh planned a largely military operation focused on exploration
and evaluation of natural resources. The intended number of colonists
is unknown, but approximately six hundred men were sent in the
voyage, with probably about half intended to remain at the colony, to
be followed by a second wave later. Ralph Lane was appointed governor
of the colony, and Philip Amadas would serve as admiral, although the
fleet commander Sir Richard Grenville led the overall mission.
Civilian attendants included metallurgist Joachim Gans, scientist
Thomas Harriot, and artist John White. Manteo and Wanchese, returning
home from their visit to England, were also passengers on the voyage.
Voyage
The fleet consisted of seven ships: The
galleass Tiger (Grenville's flagship, with Fernandes as pilot), the
flyboat Roebuck (captained by John Clarke), Red Lion (under the
command of George Raymond), Elizabeth (captained by Thomas
Cavendish), Dorothy (Raleigh's personal ship, perhaps captained by
Arthur Barlowe) and two small pinnaces.
On April 9, 1585, the fleet departed
Plymouth, heading south through the Bay of Biscay. A severe storm off
the coast of Portugal separated Tiger from the rest of the fleet, and
sank one of the pinnaces. Fortunately, Fernandes had advised a plan
for such an occurrence, wherein the ships would meet up at Mosquetal,
on the south coast of Puerto Rico. Proceeding alone, Tiger made good
speed for the Caribbean, arriving at the rendezvous point on May 11,
ahead of the other ships.
Ralph Lane's fort at Mosquetal
While awaiting the fleet, Grenville
established a base camp, where his crew could rest and defend
themselves from Spanish forces. Lane's men used the opportunity to
practice for building the fortifications that would be needed at the
new colony. The crew also set about replacing the lost pinnace,
forging nails and sawing local lumber to construct a new ship.
Elizabeth arrived on May 19, shortly after the completion of the fort
and pinnace.
The remainder of the fleet never
arrived at Mosquetal. At least one of the ships encountered
difficulties near Jamaica and ran out of supplies, causing its
captain to send twenty of his crew ashore. Eventually Roebuck, Red
Lion, and Dorothy continued to the Outer Banks, arriving by mid-June.
Red Lion left about thirty men on Croatoan Island and departed for
privateering in Newfoundland. In the meantime, Grenville established
contact with local Spanish authorities, in the hopes of obtaining
fresh provisions. When the Spanish failed to deliver the promised
supplies, Grenville suspected they would soon attack, so he and his
ships abandoned the temporary fort.
Collecting salt in Salinas Bay
Grenville captured two Spanish ships in
the Mona Passage, adding them to his fleet. Lane took one of these
ships to Salinas Bay, where he captured salt mounds collected by the
Spanish. Lane again built fortifications to protect his men as they
brought the salt aboard. Grenville's ships then sailed to La Isabela,
where the Spanish set aside hostilities to trade with the well-armed
English fleet. On June 7, Grenville left Hispanola to continue to the
Outer Banks.
The fleet sailed through an inlet at
Wococon Island (near present-day Ocracoke Inlet) on June 26. Tiger
struck a shoal, ruining most of the food supplies and nearly
destroying the ship. There are indications that Grenville's fleet
was supposed to spend the winter with the new colony, perhaps to
immediately begin using it as a privateering base. The wreck of
Tiger, however, made that impossible. The remaining provisions could
not support a settlement as large as had been planned. Moreover, the
shallow inlets of the Outer Banks made the region unsuitable for a
base to support large ships. The colony's top priority would now be
to locate a better harbor.
After repairs, Tiger continued with the
rest of the fleet to Port Ferdinando, where they reunited with
Roebuck and Dorothy. The men left behind by Red Lion were presumably
also located during this time. On August 5, John Arundell took
command of one of the faster vessels and set sail for England, to
report the expedition's safe arrival.
Establishment of the colony
Assault on Aquascogoc
The loss of provisions from Tiger meant
that the colony would support far fewer settlers than originally
planned. Grenville decided that only about one hundred would stay
with Lane, which would be enough to fulfill the colony's objectives
until another fleet, scheduled to leave England in June 1585, could
deliver a second wave of colonists and supplies. However, Grenville
could not know that this expedition had been redirected to
Newfoundland, to alert fishing fleets that the Spanish had begun
seizing English commercial vessels in retaliation for attacks by
English privateers. Until a resupply mission could be arranged,
Lane's colony would be heavily dependent on the generosity of the
natives.
While Tiger was under repair, Grenville
organized an expedition to exploring Pamlico Sound and the Secotan
villages of Aquascogoc, Pamlico, and Secotan. His party made contact
with the locals, presenting Harriot and White with an opportunity to
extensively study Native American society. Although much of their
research did not survive the 1586 evacuation of the colony, Harriot's
extensive survey of Virginia's inhabitants and natural resources was
published in 1588, with engravings of White's illustrations included
in the 1590 edition.
Following this initial exploration, a
silver cup was reported missing. Believing the item stolen, Grenville
sent Amadas to lead a detachment back to Aquascogoc to demand the
return of the missing property. When the villagers did not produce
the cup, the English decided that severe retribution was necessary in
order to avoid the appearance of weakness. Amadas and his men burnt
down the entire town and its crops, sending the natives fleeing.
Ralph Lane's Roanoke fort
Manteo arranged a meeting for Grenville
and Lane with Granganimeo, to provide land for the English settlement
on Roanoke Island. Both sides agreed that the island was
strategically located for access to the ocean and to avoid detection
from Spanish patrols. Lane began construction of a fort on the north
side of the island. There are no surviving renderings of the Roanoke
fort, but it was likely similar in structure to the one at Mosquetal.
Grenville set sail for England aboard
Tiger on August 25, 1585. Days later in Bermuda, Grenville raided a
large Spanish galleon Santa Maria de San Vicente, which had become
separated from the rest of its fleet. The merchant ship, which
Grenville took back to England as a prize, was loaded with enough
treasure to make the entire Roanoke expedition profitable, spurring
excitement in Queen Elizabeth's court about Raleigh's colonization
efforts.
Roebuck left Roanoke on September 8,
1585, leaving behind one of the pinnaces under the command of Amadas.
Records indicate 107 men remained with Lane at the colony, for a
total population of 108. However, historians disagree as to whether
White returned to England with Grenville, or spent the winter at
Roanoke despite his absence from the list of colonists.
Exploration
Many of the colonists had joined the
mission expecting to discover sources of gold and silver. When no
such sources were located, these men became dispirited and decided
the entire operation was a waste of their time. The English also
researched where the local Native Americans obtained their copper,
but ultimately never tracked the metal to its origin.
The colonists spent the autumn of 1585
acquiring corn from the neighboring villages, to augment their
limited supplies. The colony apparently obtained enough corn (along
with venison, fish, and oysters) to sustain them through the winter.
However, little information survives about what transpired at the
colony between September 1585 and March 1586, making a full
assessment of the winter impossible. The colonists most likely
exhausted their English provisions and American corn by October, and
the resulting monotony of their remaining food sources no doubt
contributed to the men's low morale.
Amadas spent the winter exploring
Chesepeake Bay, traveling as far as Cape Henry and the James River.
While there his party made contact with the Chesepeake villages of
Chesepioc and Skicóak. The Secotans had described Skicóak as the
largest city in the region, possibly leading the English to expect
something like the wealthy Inca and Aztec kingdoms encountered by the
Spanish. Amadas instead found a more modest settlement, although he
was impressed with the area's climate and soil quality. Harriot and
Gans explored the Virginia territory, meeting Native American tribes
and taking stock of natural resources. During his travels, Harriot
and his assistants collected data that would eventually be used to
produce White's La Virginea Pars map.
Although 16th century science could not
explain the phenomenon, Harriot noticed that each town the colonists
visited quickly suffered a deadly epidemic, which may have been
influenza or smallpox. Some of the Secotan suspected the disease was
caused by supernatural forces unleashed by the English. When Wingina
fell sick, his own people could not treat him, but he recovered after
requesting prayers from the English. Impressed, Wingina asked the
colonists to share this power with other stricken communities, which
only hastened the spread of disease. The epidemic likely had a severe
impact on the fall harvest, at a time when Lane's colony would be
heavily dependent on its neighbors to supplement its limited food
supply.
Hostilities and food shortages
By spring relations between the Secotan
and the colony were strained, most likely due to the colony's
over-reliance on Secotan food. The death of Granganimeo, who had been
a powerful advocate for the colony, apparently helped to turn Wingina
against the English. Wingina changed his name to "Pemisapan"
("one who watches"), suggesting a newly cautious and
vigilant policy, and established a new temporary tribal capital on
Roanoke Island. The English did not initially recognize these
developments represented a threat to their interests.
In March, Lane consulted Pemisapan
about a plan to explore the mainland, beyond Secotan territory.
Pemisapan supported the plan and advised Lane that the Chowanoke
leader Menatonon was meeting with his allies to plan an attack on the
English, and that three thousand warriors had gathered at Choanoac.
At the same time, Pemisapan sent word to Menatonon that the English
would be coming, ensuring both sides would expect hostilities. When
Lane's well-armed party arrived at Choanoac, he found representatives
of the Chowanoke, Mangoak, Weapemeoc, and Moratuc. Since this
gathering was not planning an attack, Lane caught them by surprise.
He easily captured Menatonon, who informed him that it was Pemisapan
who had requested the council in the first place.
Menatonon quickly gained Lane's trust
by offering information about lucrative opportunities in lands the
English had not yet discovered. He described a rich and powerful king
to the northeast (presumably the leader of the Powhatan), warning
that Lane should bring a considerable force if he sought to make
contact. Menatonon also corroborated rumors Lane had heard about a
sea just beyond the head of the Roanoke River, apparently confirming
English hopes of finding access to the Pacific Ocean. The chief's son
Skiko described a place to the west called "Chaunis Temoatan"
rich in a valuable metal, which Lane thought could be copper or
perhaps even gold.
Based on this information, Lane
envisioned a detailed plan in which his forces would divide into two
groups—one traveling north up the Chowan River, the other along the
Atlantic coast—to resettle at Chesapeake Bay. However, he decided
to defer this mission until the colony received fresh supplies, which
Grenville had promised would arrive by Easter. In the meantime, Lane
ransomed Menatonon and had Skiko sent back to Roanoke as a hostage.
He proceeded with forty men for about 100 miles up the Roanoke River
in search of Chaunis Temotan, but they found only deserted villages
and warriors lying in ambush. Lane had expected the Moratuc to
provide provisions for him along his route, but Pemisapan had sent
word that the English were hostile and villagers should withdraw from
the river with their food.
Lane and his party returned to the
colony shortly after Easter, half-starved and empty-handed. During
their absence, rumors had spread that they'd been killed, and
Pemisapan had been preparing to withdraw the Secotan from Roanoke
Island and leave the colony to starve. There was no sign of
Grenville's resupply fleet, which had not yet even left England.
According to Lane, Pemisapan was so surprised that Lane returned
alive from the Roanoke River mission that he reconsidered his plans.
Ensenore, an elder among Pemisapan's council, argued in favor of the
English. Later, an envoy for Menatonon informed Lane that the
Weapemeoc leader Okisko has pledged fealty to Queen Elizabeth and Sir
Walter Raleigh. This shift in the balance of power in the region
further deterred Pemisapan from following through on his plans
against the colony. He instead ordered his people to sow crops and
build fishing weirs for the settlers.
The renewed accord between the English
and the Secotan was short-lived. On April 20 Ensenore died, depriving
the colony of its last advocate in Pemisapan's inner circle. Wanchese
had risen to become a senior advisor, and his time among the English
had convinced him that they were a threat. Pemisapan evacuated the
Secotan from Roanoke, destroyed the fishing weirs, and ordered them
not to sell food to the English. Left to their own devices, the
English had no way to produce enough food to sustain the colony. Lane
ordered his men to break up into small groups to forage and beg for
food in the Outer Banks and the mainland.
Lane continued to keep Skiko as a
hostage. Although Pemisapan met regularly with Skiko and believed him
sympathetic to the anti-English cause, Skiko sought to honor his
father's intention of maintaining relations with the colony. Skiko
informed Lane that Pemisapan planned to organize a war council
meeting on June 10 with various regional powers. With the copper the
Secotan had gained from trading with the colony, Pemisapan was able
to offer substantial inducements to other tribes to side with him in
a final offensive against the English. Oksiko declined to get
involved, although individual Weapemeocs were permitted to
participate. The plan of attack was to ambush Lane and other key
leaders as they slept at the colony, and then signal for a general
attack on the rest. Based on this information, Lane sent
disinformation to the Secotan indicating that an English fleet had
arrived, to force Pemisapan's hand.
Forced to accelerate his schedule by
the possibility of English reinforcements, Pemisapan gathered as many
allies as he could for a meeting on May 31 at Dasamongueponke. That
evening, Lane attacked the warriors posted at Roanoke, hoping to
prevent them from alerting the mainland the following morning. On
June 1, Lane, his top officers, and twenty-five men visited
Dasamongueponke under the pretense of discussing a Secotan attempt to
free Skiko. Once they were admitted into the council, Lane gave the
signal for his men to attack. Pemisapan was shot and fled into the
woods, but Lane's men caught up to him and brought back his severed
head. The head was impaled outside the colony's fort.
Evacuation
In June, the colonists made contact
with the fleet of Sir Francis Drake, on his way back to England from
successful campaigns in Santo Domingo, Cartagena, and St. Augustine.
During these raids, Drake had acquired refugees, slaves, and hardware
with the intent of delivering them to Raleigh's colony. Upon learning
of the colony's misfortunes, Drake agreed to leave behind four months
of supplies and one of his ships, the Francis. However, a hurricane
hit the Outer Banks, sweeping Francis out to sea.
After the storm, Lane persuaded his men
to evacuate the colony, and Drake agreed to take them back to
England. Manteo and an associate, Towaye, joined them. Three of
Lane's colonists were left behind and never heard from again. Because
the colony was abandoned, it is unclear what became of the slaves and
refugees Drake had meant to place there. There is no record of them
arriving in England with the fleet, and it is possible Drake left
them on Roanoke with some of the goods he had previously set aside
for Lane. Drake's fleet, along with Lane's colonists, reached
England in July 1586. Upon arrival, the colonists introduced
tobacco, maize, and potatoes to England.
Grenville's detachment
A single supply ship, sent by Raleigh,
arrived at Roanoke just days after Drake evacuated the colony. The
crew could not find any trace of the colonists and left. Two weeks
later, Grenville's relief fleet finally arrived with a year's worth
of supplies and reinforcements of 400 men. Grenville conducted an
extensive search and interrogated three natives, one of which finally
related an account of the evacuation. The fleet returned to England,
leaving behind a small detachment of fifteen men both to maintain an
English presence and to protect Raleigh's claim to Roanoke Island.
According to the Croatan, this
contingent was attacked by an alliance of mainland tribes shortly
after Grenville's fleet left. Five of the English were away gathering
oysters when two of the attackers, appearing unarmed, approached the
encampment and asked to meet with two Englishmen peacefully. One of
the Native Americans concealed a wooden sword, which he used to kill
an Englishman. Another 28 attackers revealed themselves, but the
other Englishman escaped to warn his unit. The natives attacked with
flaming arrows, setting fire to the house where the English kept
their food stores, and forcing the men to take up whatever arms were
handy. A second Englishman was killed; the remaining nine retreated
to the shore, and fled the island on their boat. They found their
four compatriots returning from the creek, picked them up, and
continued into Port Ferdinando. The thirteen survivors were never
seen again.
Lost Colony
Death of George Howe
Despite the desertion of the Lane
colony, Raleigh was persuaded to make another attempt by Hakluyt,
Harriot, and White. However, Roanoke Island would no longer be safe
for English settlers, following the hostilities between Lane's men
and the Secotan, and the death of Wingina. Hakluyt recommended
Chesapeake Bay as the site for a new colony, in part because he
believed the Pacific coast lay just beyond the explored areas of the
Virginia territory. On January 7, 1587, Raleigh approved a corporate
charter to found "the Cittie of Raleigh" with White
as governor and twelve assistants. Approximately 115 people agreed
to join the colony, including White's pregnant daughter Eleanor and
her husband Ananias Dare. The colonists were largely middle-class
Londoners, perhaps seeking to become landed gentry. Manteo and
Towaye, who had left the Lane colony with Drake's fleet, were also
brought along. This time, the party included women and children, but
no organized military force.
The expedition consisted of three
ships: The flagship Lion, captained by White with Fernandes as master
and pilot, along with a flyboat (under the command of Edward Spicer)
and a full-rigged pinnace (commanded by Edward Stafford). The fleet
departed on May 8.
On July 22, the flagship and pinnace
anchored at Croatoan Island. White planned to take forty men aboard
the pinnace to Roanoke, where he would consult with the fifteen men
stationed there by Grenville, before continuing on to Chesapeake Bay.
Once he boarded the pinnace however, a "gentleman" on
the flagship representing Fernandes ordered the sailors to leave the
colonists on Roanoke.
The following morning, White's party
located the site of Lane's colony. The fort had been dismantled,
while the houses stood vacant and overgrown with melons. There was no
sign that Grenville's men had ever been there except for human bones
that White believed were the remains of one of them, killed by Native
Americans.
Following the arrival of the flyboat on
July 25, all of the colonists disembarked. Shortly thereafter,
colonist George Howe was killed by a native while searching alone for
crabs in Albemarle Sound.
Baptism of Virginia Dare
White dispatched Stafford to
re-establish relations with the Croatan, with the help of Manteo. The
Croatan described how a coalition of mainland tribes, led by
Wanchese, had attacked Grenville's detachment. The colonists
attempted to negotiate a truce through the Croatan, but received no
response. On August 9, White led a pre-emptive strike on
Dasamongueponke, but the enemy (fearing reprisal for the death of
Howe) had withdrawn from the village, and the English accidentally
attacked Croatan looters. Manteo again smoothed relations between the
colonists and the Croatan. For his service to the colony, Manteo was
baptized and named "Lord of Roanoke and Dasamongueponke".
On August 18, 1587, Eleanor Dare gave
birth to a daughter, christened "Virginia" in honor
of being "the first Christian born in Virginia".
Records indicate Margery Harvye gave birth shortly thereafter,
although nothing else is known about her child.
By the time the fleet was preparing to
return to England, the colonists had decided to relocate fifty miles
up Albemarle Sound. The colonists persuaded Governor White to return
to England to explain the colony's desperate situation and ask for
help. White reluctantly agreed, and departed with the fleet on
August 27, 1587.
1588 relief mission
After a difficult journey, White
returned to England on November 5, 1587. By this time reports of the
Spanish Armada mobilizing for an attack had reached London, and Queen
Elizabeth had prohibited any able ship from leaving England so that
they might participate in the coming battle.
During the winter, Grenville was
granted a waiver to lead a fleet into the Caribbean to attack the
Spanish, and White was permitted to accompany him in a resupply ship.
The fleet was set to launch in March 1588, but unfavorable winds kept
them in port until Grenville received new orders to stay and defend
England. Two of the smaller ships in Grenville's fleet, the Brave and
the Roe, were deemed unsuitable for combat, and White was permitted
to take them to Roanoke. The ships departed on April 22, but the
captains of the ships attempted to capture several Spanish ships on
the outward-bound voyage (in order to improve their profits). On May
6 they were attacked by French pirates near Morocco. Nearly two dozen
of the crew were killed, and the supplies bound for Roanoke were
looted, leaving the ships to return to England.
Following the defeat of the Spanish
Armada in August, England maintained the ban on shipping in order to
focus efforts on organizing a Counter Armada to attack Spain in 1589.
White would not gain permission to make another resupply attempt
until 1590.
1585–1590 Spanish reconnaissance
The Spanish Empire had been gathering
intelligence on the Roanoke colonies since Grenville's capture of
Santa Maria de San Vicente in 1585. They feared that the English had
established a haven for piracy in North America, but were unable to
locate such a base. They had no cause to assume Lane's colony had
been abandoned, or that White's would be placed in the same location.
Indeed, the Spanish greatly overestimated the success of the English
in Virginia; rumors suggested the English had discovered a mountain
made of diamonds and a route to the Pacific Ocean.
Following a failed reconnaissance
mission in 1587, King Philip II of Spain ordered Vicente González to
search Chesapeake Bay in 1588. González failed to find anything in
Chesapeake, but on the way back he chanced to discover Port
Ferdinando along the Outer Banks. The port appeared abandoned, and
there were no signs of activity on Roanoke Island. González left
without conducting a thorough investigation. Although the Spanish
believed González had located the secret English base, the defeat of
the Spanish Armada prevented Phillip from immediately ordering an
attack upon it. In 1590, a plan was reportedly made to destroy the
Roanoke colony and set up a Spanish colony in Chesapeake Bay, but
this was merely disinformation designed to misdirect English
intelligence.
1590 relief mission
Eventually, Raleigh arranged passage
for White on a privateering expedition organized by John Watts. The
fleet of six ships would spend the summer of 1590 raiding Spanish
outposts in the Caribbean, but the flagship Hopewell and the
Moonlight would split off to take White to his colony. At the same
time, however, Raleigh was in the process of turning the venture over
to new investors.
Hopewell and Moonlight anchored at
Croatoan Island on August 12, but there is no indication that White
used the time to contact the Croatan for information. On the evening
of August 15, while anchored at the north end of Croatoan Island, the
crews sighted plumes of smoke on Roanoke Island; the following
morning, they investigated another column of smoke on the southern
end of Croatoan, but found nothing. White's landing party spent the
next two days attempting to cross Pamlico Sound with considerable
difficulty and loss of life. On August 17 they sighted a fire on the
north end of Roanoke and rowed towards it, but they reached the
island after nightfall and decided not to risk coming ashore. The men
spent the night in their anchored boats, singing English songs in
hopes that the colonists would hear.
White and the others made landfall on
the morning of August 18 (his granddaughter's third birthday). The
party found fresh tracks in the sand, but were not contacted by
anyone. They also discovered the letters "CRO"
carved into a tree. Upon reaching the site of the colony, White noted
the area had been fortified with a palisade. Near the entrance of the
fencing, the word "CROATOAN" was carved in one of
the posts. White was certain these two inscriptions meant that the
colonists had peacefully relocated to Croatoan Island, since they had
agreed in 1587 that the colonists would leave a "secret
token" indicating their destination, or a cross pattée as a
duress code.
Within the palisade, the search party
found that houses had been dismantled, and anything that could be
carried had been removed. Several large trunks (including three
belonging to White, containing the belongings he left behind in 1587)
had been dug up and looted. None of the colony's boats could be found
along the shore.
The party returned to Hopewell that
evening, and plans were made to return to Croatoan the following day.
However, Hopewell's anchor cable snapped, leaving the ship with only
one working cable and anchor. The search mission could not continue
given the considerable risk of shipwreck. Moonlight set off for
England, but the crew of Hopewell offered a compromise with White, in
which they would spend winter in the Caribbean and return to the
Outer Banks in the spring of 1591. This plan fell through, though,
when Hopewell was blown off course, forcing them to stop for supplies
in the Azores. When the winds prevented landfall there, the ship was
again forced to change course for England, arriving on October 24,
1590.
Investigations into Roanoke
1595–1602: Sir Walter Raleigh
Although White failed to locate his
colonists in 1590, his report suggested they had simply relocated and
might yet be found alive. However, it served Raleigh's purposes to
keep the matter in doubt; so long as the settlers could not be proven
dead, he could legally maintain his claim on Virginia. Nevertheless,
a 1594 petition was made to declare Ananias Dare legally dead so that
his son, John Dare, could inherit his estate. The petition was
granted in 1597.
During Raleigh's first transatlantic
voyage in 1595, he claimed to be in search of his lost colonists,
although he would admit this was disinformation to cover his search
for El Dorado. On the return voyage, he sailed past the Outer Banks,
and later claimed that weather prevented him from landing.
Raleigh later sought to enforce his
monopoly on Virginia—based on the potential survival of the Roanoke
colonists—when the price of sassafras skyrocketed. He funded a 1602
mission to the Outer Banks, with the stated goal of resuming the
search. Led by Samuel Mace, this expedition differed from previous
voyages in that Raleigh bought his own ship and guaranteed the
sailors' wages so that they would not be distracted by privateering.
However, the ship's itinerary and manifest indicate that Raleigh's
top priority was harvesting sassafras far south of Croatoan Island.
By the time Mace approached Hatteras, bad weather prevented them from
lingering in the area. In 1603, Raleigh was implicated in the Main
Plot and arrested for treason against King James, effectively ending
his Virginia charter.
1603 Bartholomew Gilbert
There was one final expedition in 1603
led by Bartholomew Gilbert with the intention of finding Roanoke
colonists. Their intended destination was Chesapeake Bay, but bad
weather forced them to land in an unspecified location near there.
The landing team, including Gilbert himself, was killed by a group of
Native Americans for unknown reasons on July 29. The remaining crew
were forced to return to England empty-handed.
1607–1609 John Smith
Following the establishment of the
Jamestown settlement in 1607, John Smith was captured by the Powhatan
and met with both their leader Wahunsenacawh (often referred to as
"Chief Powhatan") and his brother Opchanacanough.
They described to him a place called "Ocanahonan",
where men wore European-style clothing; and "Anone",
which featured walled houses. Later, after Smith returned to the
colony, he made arrangements with Wowinchopunk, the king of the
Paspahegh, to investigate "Panawicke", another place
reportedly inhabited by men in European dress. The colony produced a
crude map of the region with labels for these villages. The map also
featured a place called "Pakrakanick" with a note
indicating, "Here remayneth 4 men clothed that came from
Roonocok to Ocanahawan."
In the summer of 1608, Smith sent a
letter about this information, along with the map, back to England.
The original map is now lost, but a copy was obtained by Pedro de
Zúñiga, the Spanish ambassador to England, who passed it on to King
Philip III of Spain. The copy, now commonly referred to as the
"Zúñiga Map", was rediscovered in 1890.
Smith planned to explore Pakrakanick,
but a dispute with the Paspahegh ended the mission before it could
begin. He also dispatched two search parties, possibly to look for
the other villages reported to him, with instructions to find "the
lost company of Sir Walter Rawley". Neither group could find
any sign of the Roanoke colonists living in the area.
By May 1609, word had reached England's
Royal Council for Virginia that the 1587 colonists had been massacred
by Wahunsenacawh. The source of this allegation is unknown. Machumps,
Wahunsenacawh's brother-in-law, is known to have provided information
about Virginia, and he had recently arrived in England. It has been
speculated that the same voyage could have also delivered a letter
from Smith, although no evidence for this exists.
Based on this intelligence, as well as
Smith's earlier report, the Council drafted orders for the Jamestown
colony to relocate. These orders recommended "Ohonahorn"
(or "Oconahoen"), near the mouth of the Chowan
River, as a new base. Among the purported advantages of this location
were proximity to "Riche Copper mines of Ritanoc"
and "Peccarecamicke", where four of Raleigh's
colonists were supposed to be held by a chieftain named "Gepanocon".
These orders, along with the new acting governor, Thomas Gates,
were delayed due to the shipwreck of the Sea Venture at Bermuda.
Gates arrived at Jamestown in May 1610, several months into the
Starving Time. The crisis may have deterred the colonists from
attempting the proposed relocation. An expedition was sent to the
Chowan River, but there is no record of its findings.
1610–1612 William Strachey
William Strachey arrived in Jamestown,
along with Gates and Machumps, in May 1610. By 1612, he had returned
to England, where he wrote The Historie of Travaile into Virginia
Britannia, an overview of the Virginia territory. He described
"Peccarecamek", "Ochanahoen", "Anoeg",
and "Ritanoe" in a manner consistent with Smith's
map and the Virginia Council's orders to Gates. However, Strachey
introduced additional details about "the slaughter at
Roanoak".
Strachey suggested that the lost
colonists had spent twenty years living peacefully with a tribe
beyond Powhatan territory. Wahunsenacawh, he claimed, carried out the
unprovoked attack at the recommendation of his priests, shortly
before the arrival of the Jamestown colonists. Based on this account,
seven English—four men, two boys, and one woman—survived the
assault and fled up the Chowan River. They later came under the
protection of a chieftain named "Eyanoco", for whom
they beat copper at "Ritanoe".
The Historie of Travaile never directly
identifies the tribe that supposedly hosted the Roanoke colonists.
However, Strachey did describe an attack against the Chesepians, in
which Wahunsenacawh's priests warned him that a nation would arise in
Chesapeake Bay to threaten his dominion. It has been inferred that
the colonists had relocated to Chesapeake, and both groups were
massacred in the same attack.
Strachey believed that the Powhatan
religion was inherently Satanic, and that the priests might literally
be in communion with Satan. He advocated for England to facilitate
the Powhatans' conversion to Christianity. To that end, he
recommended a plan in which King James would show mercy to the
Powhatan people for the massacre of the Roanoke colonists, but demand
revenge upon the priests. However, the London Company did not
publish The Historie of Travaile, which fell into obscurity until
1849. There is no indication that any actions were taken against
Wahunsenacawh or his priests in retaliation for the alleged massacre.
1625 Samuel Purchas
Powhatan attack on Jamestown
After the Powhatan attacked Jamestown
in 1622, there was a dramatic shift in English commentary on Native
Americans, as writers increasingly questioned their humanity. The
London Company sponsored propaganda arguing that the massacre had
justified genocidal retaliation, in order to assure potential backers
that their investment in the colony would be safe.
In this context, Samuel Purchas wrote
Virginia's Verger in 1625, asserting England's right to possess and
exploit its North American claim. He argued that the natives, as a
race, had forfeited their right to the land through bloodshed, citing
the 1586 ambush of Grenville's garrison, an alleged attack on White's
colonists, and the 1622 Jamestown massacre. Purchas offered no
evidence for his claim about the 1587 colony except to state,
"Powhatan confessed to Cap. Smith, that hee had beene at
their slaughter, and had divers utensills of theirs to shew."
It is possible Smith related the story
of Wahunsenacawh's confession to Purchas, as they are known to have
spoken together. However, Smith's own writings never mention the
confession, leaving Purchas's claim to stand alone in what historian
Helen Rountree dismisses as "an anti-Indian polemic".
Even if taken at face value, the alleged confession is not
persuasive, as Wahunsenacawh might have invented the story in an
attempt to intimidate Smith. The European artifacts allegedly offered
as "proof" of a raid on the Roanoke colonists could
just as easily have been obtained from other sources, such as Ajacán.
1701–1709 John Lawson
Sea traffic through Roanoke Island fell
into decline in the 17th century, owing to the dangerous waters of
the Outer Banks. In 1672, the inlet between Hatorask and Croatoan
Islands closed, and the resulting landmass became known as Hatteras
Island.
During John Lawson's 1701–1709
exploration of northern Carolina, he visited Hatteras Island and
encountered the Hatteras people. Although there is evidence of
European activity in the Outer Banks throughout the 17th century,
Lawson was the first historian to investigate the region since White
left in 1590. Lawson was impressed with the influence of English
culture on the Hatteras. They reported that several of their
ancestors had been white, and some of them had gray eyes, supporting
this claim. Lawson theorized that members of the 1587 colony had
assimilated into this community after they lost hope of regaining
contact with England. While visiting Roanoke Island itself, Lawson
reported finding the remains of a fort, as well as English coins,
firearms, and a powder horn.
1800s Renewed Research
Research into the disappearance of the
1587 colonists largely ended with Lawson's 1701 investigation.
Renewed interest in the Lost Colony during the 19th century
eventually led to a wide range of scholarly analysis.
1800s–1950 Site preservation
The ruins that Lawson encountered in
1701 eventually became a tourist attraction. U.S. President James
Monroe visited the site on April 7, 1819. During the 1860s, visitors
described the deteriorated "fort" as little more
than an earthwork in the shape of a small bastion, and reported holes
dug by in search of valuable relics. Production of the 1921 silent
film The Lost Colony and road development further damaged the site.
In the 1930s, J. C. Harrington advocated for the restoration and
preservation of the earthwork. The National Park Service began
administration of the area in 1941, designating it Fort Raleigh
National Historic Site. In 1950, the earthwork was reconstructed in
an effort to restore its original size and shape.
1887–Present – Archaeological
evidence
Archaeological research on Roanoke
Island only began when Talcott Williams discovered a Native American
burial site in 1887. He returned in 1895 to excavate the fort, but
found nothing of significance. Ivor Noël Hume would later make
several compelling finds in the 1990s, but none that could be
positively linked to the 1587 colony, as opposed to the 1585 outpost.
After Hurricane Emily uncovered a
number of Native American artifacts along Cape Creek in Buxton, North
Carolina, anthropologist David Sutton Phelps Jr. organized an
excavation in 1995. Phelps and his team discovered a ring in 1998,
which initially appeared to be a gold signet ring bearing the
heraldry of a Kendall family in the 16th century. The find was
celebrated as a landmark discovery, but Phelps never published a
paper on his findings, and neglected to have the ring properly
tested. X-ray analysis in 2017 proved the ring was brass, not gold,
and experts could not confirm the alleged connection to Kendall
heraldry. The low value and relative anonymity of the ring make it
more difficult to conclusively associate with any particular person
from the Roanoke voyages, which in turn increases the likelihood that
it could have been brought to the New World at a later time.
A significant challenge for
archaeologists seeking information about the 1587 colonists is that
many common artifacts could plausibly originate from the 1585 colony,
or from Native Americans who traded with other European settlements
in the same era. Andrew Lawler suggests that an example of a
conclusive find would be female remains (since the 1585 colony was
exclusively male) buried according to Christian tradition (supine, in
an east–west orientation) which can be dated to before 1650 (by
which point Europeans would have spread throughout the
region). However, few human remains of any kind have been
discovered at sites related to the Lost Colony.
One possible explanation for the
extreme deficiency in archaeological evidence is shoreline erosion.
The northern shore of Roanoke Island, where the Lane and White
colonies were located, lost 928 feet (283 m) between 1851 and 1970.
Extrapolating from this trend back to the 1580s, it is likely
portions of the settlements are now underwater, along with any
artifacts or signs of life.
2011–2019 Site X
In November 2011, researchers at the
First Colony Foundation noticed two corrective patches on White's
1585 map La Virginea Pars. At their request, the British Museum
examined the original map with a light table. One of the patches, at
the confluence of the Roanoke and Chowan rivers, was found to cover a
symbol representing a fort.
As the symbol is not to scale, it
covers an area on the map representing thousands of acres in Bertie
County, North Carolina. However, the location is presumed to be in or
near the 16th century Weapemeoc village of Mettaquem. In 2012, when a
team prepared to excavate where the symbol indicated, archaeologist
Nicholas Luccketti suggested they name the location "Site X",
as in "X marks the spot."
In an October 2017 statement, the First
Colony Foundation reported finding fragments of Tudor pottery and
weapons at Site X, and concluded that these indicate a small group of
colonists residing peacefully in the area. The challenge for this
research is to convincingly rule out the possibility that such finds
were not brought to the area by the 1585 Lane colony, or the trading
post established by Nathaniel Batts in the 1650s. In 2019, the
Foundation announced plans to expand the research into land that has
been donated to North Carolina as Salmon Creek State Natural Area.
Drought analysis 1587–1589 season
In 1998, a team led by climatologist
David W. Stahle (of the University of Arkansas) and archaeologist
Dennis B. Blanton (of the College of William and Mary) concluded that
an extreme drought occurred in Tidewater between 1587 and 1589. Their
study measured growth rings from a network of bald cypress trees,
producing data over ranging from 1185 to 1984. Specifically, 1587 was
measured as the worst growing season in the entire 800-year period.
The findings were considered consistent with the concerns the Croatan
expressed about their food supply.
2005–2019 Genetic analysis
Since 2005, computer scientist Roberta
Estes has founded several organizations for DNA analysis and
genealogical research. Her interest in the disappearance of the 1587
colony motivated various projects to establish a genetic link between
the colonists and potential Native American descendants. Examining
autosomal DNA for this purpose is unreliable, as so little of the
colonists' genetic material would remain after five or six
generations. However, testing of Y chromosomes and Mitochondrial DNA
is more reliable over large spans of time. The main challenge of this
work is to obtain a genetic point of comparison, either from the
remains of a Lost Colonist or one of their descendants. While it is
conceivable to sequence DNA from 430-year-old bones, there are as of
yet no bones from the Lost Colony to work with. As of 2019, the
project has yet to identify any living descendants either.
Hypotheses about the colony's
disappearance
It's the Area 51 of colonial
history.— Adrian Masters (historian, University of Texas)
Without evidence of the Lost Colony's
relocation or destruction, speculation about their fate has endured
since the 1590s. The matter has developed a reputation among
academics for attracting obsession and sensationalism with little
scholastic benefit.
Conjecture about the Lost Colonists
typically begins with the known facts about the case. When White
returned to the colony in 1590, there was no sign of battle or
withdrawal under duress, although the site was fortified. There were
no human remains or graves reported in the area, suggesting everyone
left alive. The "CROATOAN" message is consistent
with the agreement with White to indicate where to look for them,
suggesting they expected White to look for them and wanted to be
found.
Powhatan attack at Chesapeake Bay
David Beers Quinn concluded that the
1587 colonists sought to relocate to their original
destination—Chesapeake Bay—using the pinnace and other small
boats to transport themselves and their belongings. A small group
would have been stationed at Croatoan to await White's return and
direct him to the transplanted colony. Following White's failure to
locate any of the colonists, the main body of the colonists would
have quickly assimilated with the Chesepians, while the lookouts on
Croatoan would have blended into the Croatan tribe.
Quinn suggested that Samuel Mace's 1602
voyage might have ventured into Chesepeake Bay and kidnapped
Powhatans to bring back to England. From there these abductees would
be able to communicate with Thomas Harriot, and might reveal that
Europeans were living in the region. Quinn evidently believed
circumstances such as these were necessary to explain optimism about
the colonists' survival after 1603.
Although Strachey accused Wahunsenacawh
of slaughtering the colonists and Chesepians in separate passages,
Quinn decided that these events occurred in a single attack on an
integrated community, in April 1607. He supposed that Wahunsenacawh
could have been seeking revenge for the speculative kidnappings by
Mace. In Quinn's estimation, John Smith was the first to learn of the
massacre, but for political considerations he quietly reported it
directly to King James rather than revealing it in his published
writings.
Despite Quinn's reputation on the
subject, his peers had reservations about his theory, which relies
heavily on the accounts of Strachey and Purchas.
Integration with local tribes
People have considered the possibility
that the missing colonists could have assimilated into nearby Native
American tribes since at least 1605. If this integration was
successful, the assimilated colonists would gradually exhaust their
European supplies (ammunition, clothing) and discard European culture
(language, style of dress, agriculture) as Algonquian lifestyle
became more convenient. Colonial era Europeans observed that many
people removed from European society by Native Americans for
substantial periods of time—even if captured or enslaved—were
reluctant to return; the reverse was seldom true. Therefore, it is
reasonable to postulate that, if the colonists were assimilated, they
or their descendants would not seek reintegration with subsequent
English settlers.
Most historians today believe this to
be the most likely scenario for the surviving colonists' fate.
However, this leaves open the question of with which tribe, or
tribes, the colonists assimilated.
It is widely accepted that the Croatan
were ancestors of the 18th-century Hatteras, although evidence of
this is circumstantial. The present-day Roanoke-Hatteras tribe
identifies as descendants of both the Croatan and the Lost Colonists
by way of the Hatteras.
Some 17th-century maps use the word
"Croatoan" to describe locations on the mainland,
across Pamlico Sound from Roanoke and Hatteras. By 1700, these areas
were associated with the Machapunga. Oral traditions and legends
about the migration of the Croatan through the mainland are prevalent
in eastern North Carolina. For example, the "Legend of the
Coharie" in Sampson County was transcribed by Edward M.
Bullard in 1950.
More famously, in the 1880s, state
legislator Hamilton McMillan proposed that the Native American
community in Robeson County (then considered free people of color)
retained surnames and linguistic characteristics from the 1587
colonists. His efforts convinced the North Carolina legislature to
confer tribal recognition to the community in 1885, with the new
designation of "Croatan". The tribe petitioned to be
renamed in 1911, eventually settling on the name Lumbee in 1956.
Other tribes purportedly linked to the
Roanoke colonists include the Catawba and the Coree. Samuel A'Court
Ashe was convinced that the colonists had relocated westward to the
banks of the Chowan River in Bertie County, and Conway Whittle Sams
claimed that after being attacked by Wanchese and Wahunsenacawh, they
scattered to multiple locations: the Chowan River, and south to the
Pamlico and Neuse Rivers.
Reports of encounters with
pale-skinned, blond-haired people among various Native American
tribes occur as early as 1607. Although this is frequently attributed
to assimilated Lost Colonists, it may be more easily explained by
dramatically higher rates of albinism in Native Americans than in
people of European descent.
In his book The Lost Colony and
Hatteras Island published in June 2020, Scott Dawson proposed that
the colonists merged with the Croatoan people. Dawson claims, "They
were never lost. It was made up. The mystery is over."
Attempt to return to England
The colonists could have decided to
rescue themselves by sailing for England in the pinnace left behind
by the 1587 expedition. If such an effort was made, the ship could
have been lost with all hands at sea, accounting for the absence of
both the ship and any trace of the colonists. It is plausible that
the colony included sailors qualified to attempt the return voyage.
Little is known about the pinnace, but ships of its size were capable
of making the trip, although they typically did so alongside other
vessels.
The colonists may have feared that a
standard route across the Atlantic Ocean, with a stop in the
Caribbean, would risk a Spanish attack. Nevertheless, it was feasible
for the colonists to attempt a direct course to England. In 1563,
French settlers at the failed Charlesfort colony built a crude boat
and successfully (albeit desperately) returned to Europe.
Alternatively, the Roanoke colonists could have sailed north along
the coast, in the hopes of making contact with English fishing fleets
in the Gulf of Maine.
The pinnace would not have been large
enough to carry all of the colonists. Additionally, the provisions
needed for a transatlantic voyage would further restrict the number
of passengers. The colonists may have possessed the resources to
construct another seaworthy vessel, using local lumber and spare
parts from the pinnace. Considering the ships were built by survivors
of the 1609 Sea Venture shipwreck, it is at least possible that the
Lost Colonists could produce a second ship that, with the pinnace,
could transport most of their party. Even in these ideal conditions,
however, at least some colonists would remain in Virginia, leaving
open the question of what became of them.
Conspiracy against Raleigh
Anthropologist Lee Miller proposed that
Sir Francis Walsingham, Simon Fernandes, Edward Strafford, and others
participated in a conspiracy to maroon the 1587 colonists at Roanoke.
The purpose of this plot, she argued, was to undermine Walter
Raleigh, whose activities supposedly interfered with Walsingham's
covert machinations to make England a Protestant world power at the
expense of Spain and other Catholic nations. This conspiracy would
have prevented Raleigh and White from dispatching a relief mission
until Walsingham's death in 1590. Miller also suggested that the
colonists may have been Separatists, seeking refuge in America from
religious persecution in England. Raleigh expressed sympathy for the
Separatists, while Walsingham considered them a threat to be
eliminated.
According to Miller, the colonists
split up, with a small group relocating to Croatoan while the main
body sought shelter with the Chowanoke. However, the colonists would
quickly spread European diseases among their hosts, decimating the
Chowanoke and thereby destabilizing the balance of power in the
region. From there Miller reasoned that the Chowanoke were attacked,
with the survivors taken captive, by the "Mandoag",
a powerful nation to the west that the Jamestown colonists only knew
from the vague accounts of their neighbors. She concluded that the
Mandoag were the Eno, who traded the remaining Lost Colonists as
slaves until they were dispersed throughout the region.
Miller's theory has been challenged
based on Walsingham's considerable financial support of Raleigh's
expeditions, and the willingness of Fernandes to bring John White
back to England instead of abandoning him with the other colonists.
Secret operation at Beechland
Local legends in Dare County refer to
an abandoned settlement called "Beechland", located within
what is now the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. The area
has had reports of small coffins, some with Christian markings,
encouraging speculation of a link to the Lost Colony. Based on these
legends, engineer Phillip McMullan and amateur archaeologist Fred
Willard concluded that Walter Raleigh dispatched the 1587 colonists
to harvest sassafras along the Alligator River. All records
suggesting the colony's intended destination was Chesapeake Bay, and
that England had lost contact with the colony, were supposedly
falsified to conceal the operation from Spanish operatives and other
potential competitors.
According to McMullan, Raleigh quietly
re-established contact with the colony by 1597, and his sassafras
expeditions were simply picking up the colonists' harvests. In this
view, the colony was not truly abandoned until the secret of the
colony's location died with Raleigh in 1618. After that point,
McMullan argued, the colonists would have begun to assimilate with
the Croatan at Beechland.
This theory largely depends upon oral
traditions and unsubstantiated reports about Beechland, as well as a
1651 map that depicts a sassafras tree near the Alligator River. A
significant problem is that Raleigh supposedly planned a sassafras
farm in 1587 to capitalize on a dramatic increase in crop prices, so
that he could quickly compensate for the great expense of the failed
1585 colony. This overlooks the fact that Richard Grenville's
privateering recovered the cost of the 1585 expedition.
Additionally, sassafras prices did not skyrocket in value until the
late 1590s, well after the establishment of the 1587 colony.
Spanish attack
While preparing to compose a 1937 drama
about the Lost Colony, Paul Green noticed that Spanish records from
the period contained an abundance of references to Raleigh and his
settlements. Green's play ends with the colonists leaving Roanoke
Island to evade an approaching Spanish ship, leaving the audience to
wonder if the Spanish found them.
Spanish forces knew of English plans to
establish a new Virginia base in 1587, and were searching for it
before White's colonists had even arrived. The Spanish Empire had
included most of North America in their Florida claim, and did not
recognize England's right to colonize Roanoke or Chesapeake Bay. The
colonists likely recognized the threat this represented, given the
Spanish sack of Fort Caroline in 1565. However, the Spanish were
still attempting to locate the colony in Chesapeake Bay as late as
1600, suggesting that they were unaware of its fate.
CORA tree
In 2006, writer Scott Dawson proposed
that a Southern live oak tree on Hatteras Island, which bears the
faint inscription "CORA" in its bark, might be
connected to the Lost Colony. The CORA tree had already been the
subject of local legends, most notably a story about a witch named
"Cora" that was popularized in a 1989 book by
Charles H. Whedbee. Nevertheless, Dawson argued that the inscription
might represent another message from the colonists, similar to the
"CROATOAN" inscription at Roanoke. If so, "CORA"
might indicate that the colonists left Croatoan Island to settle with
the Coree (also known as the Coranine) on the mainland near Lake
Mattamuskeet.
A 2009 study to determine the age of
the CORA tree was inconclusive. Damage to the tree, caused by
lightning and decay, has made it impossible to obtain a valid core
sample for tree-ring dating. Even if the tree dates back to the 16th
century, though, establishing the age of the inscription would be
another matter.
Dare Stones
From 1937 to 1941, a series of
inscribed stones was discovered that were claimed to have been
written by Eleanor Dare, mother of Virginia Dare. They told of the
travelings of the colonists and their ultimate deaths. Most
historians believe that they are a fraud, but there are some today
who still believe at least one of the stones to be genuine. The
first one is sometimes regarded as different from the rest, based on
a linguistic and chemical analysis, and as possibly genuine.
In popular culture
Reverse of a commemorative 1937 US
half-dollar coin, depicting Eleanor and Virginia Dare
Raleigh was publicly criticized for his
apparent indifference to the fate of the 1587 colony, most notably by
Sir Francis Bacon. "It is the sinfullest thing in the
world," Bacon wrote in 1597, "to forsake or
destitute a plantation once in forwardness; for besides the dishonor,
it is the guiltiness of blood of many commiserable persons."
The 1605 comedy Eastward Hoe features characters bound for Virginia,
who are assured that the lost colonists have by that time
intermarried with Native Americans to give rise to "a whole
country of English".
United States historians largely
overlooked or minimized the importance of the Roanoke settlements
until 1834, when George Bancroft lionized the 1587 colonists in A
History of the United States. Bancroft emphasized the nobility of
Walter Raleigh, the treachery of Simon Fernandes, the threat of the
Secotan, the courage of the colonists, and the uncanny tragedy of
their loss. He was the first since John White to write about
Virginia Dare, calling attention to her status as the first English
child born on what would become US soil, and the pioneering spirit
exhibited by her name. The account captivated the American public.
As Andrew Lawler puts it, "The country was hungry for an
origin story more enchanting than the spoiled fops of Jamestown or
the straitlaced Puritans of Plymouth... Roanoke, with its knights and
villains and its brave but outnumbered few facing an alien culture,
provided all the elements for a national myth."
The first known use of the phrase "The
Lost Colony" to describe the 1587 Roanoke settlement was by
Eliza Lanesford Cushing in an 1837 historical romance, "Virginia
Dare; or, the Lost Colony". Cushing also appears to be the
first to cast White's granddaughter being reared by Native Americans
following the massacre of the other colonists, and to focus on her
adventures as a beautiful young woman. In 1840, Cornelia Tuthill
published a similar story, introducing the conceit of Virginia
wearing the skin of a white doe. An 1861 Raleigh Register serial by
Mary Mason employs the premise of Virginia being magically
transformed into a white doe. The same concept was used more
famously in The White Doe, a 1901 poem by Sallie Southall Cotten.
The popularity of the Lost Colony and
Virginia Dare in the 19th and early 20th centuries coincided with
American controversies about rising numbers of Catholic and
non-British immigrants, as well as the treatment of African Americans
and Native Americans. Both the colony and the adult Virginia
character were embraced as symbols of white nationalism. Even when
Virginia Dare was invoked in the name of women's suffrage in the
1920s, it was to persuade North Carolina legislators that granting
white women the vote would assure white supremacy. By the 1930s this
racist connotation apparently subsided, although the VDARE
organization, founded in 1999, has been denounced for promoting white
supremacists.
Celebrations of the Lost Colony, on
Virginia Dare's birthday, have been organized on Roanoke Island since
the 1880s. To expand the tourist attraction, Paul Green's play The
Lost Colony opened in 1937, and remains in production today.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt attended the play on August 18,
1937—Virginia Dare's 350th birthday.
Bereft of its full context, the
colonists' sparse message of "CROATOAN"
has taken on a paranormal quality in Harlan Ellison's 1975
short story "Croatoan", Stephen King's 1999
television miniseries Storm of the Century, and the 2005 television
series Supernatural. The 1994 graphic novel Batman-Spawn: War Devil
states that "Croatoan" was the name of a powerful
demon who, in the 20th century, attempts to sacrifice the entirety of
Gotham City to Satan. In the 2015 novel The Last American Vampire,
the colonists are the victims of a vampire named Crowley; the
inscription "CRO" was thus an incomplete attempt to
implicate him.
The American Horror Story episode
"Birth" relates a fictional legend in which the Lost
Colonists mysteriously died, and their ghosts haunted the local
Native Americans until a tribal elder banished them with the word
"Croatoan". This premise is expanded upon in the
sixth season of the series, American Horror Story: Roanoke, which
presents a series of fictional television programs documenting
encounters with the ghost colonists. The leader of the undead
colonists, "The Butcher", is depicted as John
White's wife Thomasin, although there is no historical evidence that
she was one of the colonists.
In a recently published young-adult
book named Spy School Revolution by Stuart Gibbs, Croatoan is an
enemy organization that wiped out the population of Roanoke Colony,
as well as starting the American Revolution, causing the Great
Depression, and assassinating Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and
William McKinnley. The oldest American spies like George Washington,
Nathan Hale and the Hale family have been tracking down this
organization for centuries. This organization has been very enigmatic
to the CIA for a long time until they blackmail one of the main
characters, Erica Hale.
