England’s expeditions to the New World
between 1584 and 1590, including the Lost Colony.
In 1584, explorers Philip
Amadas and Arthur Barlowe were the first known Europeans to set eyes on the
island. They had been sent to the area by Sir Walter Raleigh with the mission
of scouting the broad sounds and estuaries in search of an ideal location for
settlement. Barlowe wrote glowing reports of Roanoke Island, and when the
explorers returned to England a year later with two Natives, Manteo and
Wanchese, all of London was abuzz with talk of the New World’s wonders.
Queen Elizabeth,
impressed with the results of the reconnaissance voyage, knighted Raleigh as a
reward. The new land was named “Virginia” in honor of the Virgin Queen, and the
next year, Raleigh sent a party of 100 soldiers, miners and scientists to
Roanoke Island.
Under the direction of
Ralph Lane, the garrison was doomed from the beginning. They arrived too late
in the season for planting, and supplies were dwindling rapidly. To make
matters worse, Lane, a military captain, alienated the neighboring Roanoke
Indians, and ultimately sealed the fate of English colonization on Roanoke
Island by murdering their chief, Wingina.
By 1586, when Sir Francis
Drake stopped at Roanoke after a plundering expedition, Lane and his men had
enough. They abandoned the settlement and left behind a fort, the remains of
which have never been located. Ironically, two supply ships from England
arrived at Roanoke less than a week later. Finding the island deserted, the
leader of the second ship left behind about 15 of his men to hold the fort and
returned to England.
Raleigh was angry with
Lane but not deterred from his mission. He recruited 117 men, women and
children for a more permanent settlement, and appointed John White governor of
the new “Cittie of Raleigh”. Among the colonists were White’s pregnant
daughter, Eleanor Dare, his son-in-law Ananias Dare, and the Indian chief
Manteo, who had become an ally during his stay in Britain.
Raleigh had since decided
that the Chesapeake Bay area was a better site for settlement, and he hired
Simon Fernandes, a Portuguese pilot familiar with the area, to transport the
colonists there. Fernandes, however, was by trade a privateer in the escalating
war between Spain and England. By the time the caravan arrived at Roanoke
Island in July, 1587, to check on the 15 men left behind a year earlier, he had
grown impatient with White and anxious to resume the hunt for Spanish shipping.
He ordered the colonists ashore on Roanoke Island.
Raleigh
decided that the Chesapeake Bay area was a better site for settlement.
The colonists soon
learned that Indians had murdered the 15 men and were uneasy at the prospect of
remaining on Roanoke Island. But Fernandes left them no choice. They unloaded
their belongings and supplies and repaired Lane’s fort. On August 18, 1587,
Eleanor Dare gave birth to a daughter she named Virginia, thus earning the
distinction of being the first English child born on American soil. Ten days
later, Ferndades departed for England, taking along an anxious John White, who
hesitantly decided to return to England for supplies. It was the last time he
would ever see his family.
Upon his arrival in
Britain, White found himself trapped by the impending invasion of the Spanish
Armada. Finally, two years after the stunning defeat of the Armada, he again
departed for Roanoke Island. He arrived on August 18, 1590–his granddaughter’s
third birthday–and found the Cittie of Raleigh deserted, plundered, and
surrounded “with a high pallisado of great trees, with cortynes and flankers,
very fort-like”. On one of the palisades, he found the single word “CROATOAN”
carved into the surface, and the letters “CRO” carved into a nearby tree.
White knew the carvings were
“to signifie the place, where I should find the planters seated, according to a
secret token agreed upon betweene them and me at my last departure from
them…for at my coming away, they were prepared to remove 50 miles into the
maine”. He had also instructed the colonists that, should they be forced to
leave the island under duress, they should carve a Maltese cross above their
destination. White found no such sign, and he had every hope that he would
locate the colony and his family at Croatoan, the home of Chief Manteo’s people
south of Roanoke on present-day Hatteras Island.
Before he could make
further exploration, however, a great hurricane arose, damaging his ships and
forcing him back to England. Despite repeated attempts, he was never able to
raise the funding and resources to make the trip to America again. Raleigh had
given up hope of settlement, and White died many years later on one of
Raleigh’s estates, ignorant to the fate of his family and the colony.
The 117
pioneers of Roanoke Island had vanished into the great wilderness.
Lost Colony of Roanoke
Theories
Scenario 1: Taken Hostage Or Killed By The
Spanish
Saint Augustine was a colony Spain had in the New World. This
colony is located on the eastern coast of what is now known as the state of
Florida, USA. Spanish soldiers who were living there in 1588 heard reports that
England had established a new colony in the New World. The English were at war
with Spain and if the location of their settlement got out, the Spanish would
find and kill the colonists. The Spanish had already killed off a French
attempt to settle down in Florida back in 1562, killing over 130 men. Spain
knew that this English colony was located north somewhere near Chesapeake Bay.
The Spanish sent their ships up the coast to destroy the English colonists. The
English colonists were
seen by the Spanish ships as they sailed their small boats south
from Roanoke Island to live with the Croatoan Indians on Croatoan Island. The
Spanish ships attacked the English colonists and took them hostage. They may
have killed them. This is the reason why English settler's boats were missing
when John White returned in 1590 to Roanoke.
1.) If Spain did in fact kidnap or kill the
colonists, they would have had to travel 540 miles. If they could travel 70
miles a day, how long would it have taken them to arrive at Roanoke Island?
2.) What about if they could travel 100
miles a day?
3.) Why would Spain have done this? (Read
carefully above)
4.) Think of the journey the Spanish would
have taken. What challenges would they have faced?
5.) How likely is it that this scenario
happened? Explain your answer.
Scenario 2: Starvation / Lost at Sea
Others
speculate that the colonists simply gave up waiting, tried to return to England
on their own, and perished in the attempt. When Governor White left in 1587, he
left the colonists with a pinnace (a small boat) for exploration of the coast
or removal of the colony to the mainland. Another claim suggests that, with the
region in drought (a period of very low rainfall), the colony must have
suffered a massive food shortage. The researchers concluded that the settlers
of the Lost Colony landed at Roanoke Island in the summer of the worst
growing-season drought in 800 years. "This drought persisted for 3 years,
from 1587 to 1589, and is the driest 3-year episode in the entire 800-year reconstruction,"
the team reported in the journal Science. A map shows that "the Lost Colony
drought affected the entire southeastern United States but was particularly
severe in the Tidewater region near Roanoke [Island]." The authors
suggested that the Croatan who were shot and killed by the colonists may have
been scavenging the abandoned village for food as a result of the drought.
1.)
Look at the map. What other locations is Roanoke Island close to? What is
Croatoan Island located close to?
2.)
Use the scale to determine
distance. How far would the colonists had to
travel IF they chose to travel to
Croatoan
Island?
3.)
Is it possible they would have gotten lost in their journey? Why or Why not?
4.) What other
problems might they have run into on this journey?
Scenario 3: Native Americans Killed
Colonists
Before
the second attempt to set up a colony, the English set up an expedition led by
Ralph Lane to establish a colony in North America. Things went well until Sir
Ralph Lane, the colony commander, angered the Indians with his harsh policies
(captured Indians for ransom and planned attacks on tribes to get more land).
The natives fought back, killing one of the settlers. The rest of the colonists
were forced to leave the colony, but the natives would not forget. Several
explorers who helped set up the Ralph Lane colony returned to check on their
progress. Because of the tense relationship with
the
natives, the colonists had left, so when the explorers arrived, they did not
find anyone. However, what they did find was interesting. They found remnants
of one dead body, killed by tomahawk and scalp wounds. The body was found in
several pieces, in several different places, giving the thought that the
natives tried to hide the remains. From this past event, we know that the
Natives were capable of such horrific acts. We also know they were capable of
hiding the bodies. After what the residents of the Ralph Lane colony did to the
natives, it is easy to believe they would seek revenge. When the leader of the
Lost Colony, John White, returned to England for more supplies, is it possible
the natives would attack the second group of colonists? Remember: when he
returned several years later, all houses and forts had disappeared. That would
be more than enough time for the natives to tear everything and down and hide
all the evidence.
Questions
- How likely is this scenario?
- What evidence is given to support your theory in question #1
It is true that the English had brought over some diseases. However, note, there
were no bodies found and the houses had disappeared. The only body that was
ever found was shortly after the Ralph Lane colony left for England. No bodies
were ever recovered from the Lost Colony expedition. While most diseases were
brought from the Old World to the New World, there were several diseases that
future colonists would die from, including dysentery, cholera, and
“BurningFever.”
1.
On a scale
from 1 (least likely) to 10 (most likely), how likely
do you think the “disease
theory” is? Explain
Scenario #5 - The village was destroyed by
a severe storm such as a hurricane.
Another
possible theory is the one that perhaps a hurricane destroyed the Lost Colony.
A hurricane could have washed away the colonists and it could have been
powerful enough to destroy all of the houses and forts, true. However, there is
a huge problem with this theory. See if you can find why this theory is very
unlikely. Search back through your files and see if you can solve this.
1.
On a scale
from 1 (least likely) to 10 (most likely), how likely
do you think the “disease
theory” is? Explain