Before the founding of Jamestown or Plymouth in North America by English settlers in the early 1600’s, there had been at least one other colony that had settled in North American, in Roanoke Island in what is now known as North Carolina in the USA. The usual difficulties prevailed for the Roanoke Island settlers, but in the space of three years’ time, they vanished without a trace.
Sir Walter Raleigh’s Charter: In 1584 Queen Elizabeth I awarded Sir Walter Raleigh a charter to form a colony in North America that covered land to the south of New England that was not occupied by the Spanish. The colony needed to be established by 1591 or Raleigh would lose all the rights. Along with the charter came a broad range of rights covering the land, but ironically, Raleigh was not permitted to leave the Queen’s court and had to delegate much of this authority. He ordered an expedition to explore the land along the eastern coast of the continent. After crossing the Atlantic Ocean and acquiring fresh water in the West Indies, the expedition came upon the land that we know today as Cape Fear in Wilmington, North Carolina. They observed the chain of islands that formed the Outer Banks that acted as something of a sea wall making the interior waters more ideal. They met with natives, who likely had encountered European sailors before. The early relations were friendly, and two Native Americans, Manteo and Wanchese, returned with the expedition to England. Queen Elizabeth was impressed and knighted Raleigh making him “Knight Lord and Governor of Virginia,” having chosen the name Virginia for the new territory.
The First English Colony: Raleigh’s idea of a colony would include a large military force of 600 that would explore the surrounding countryside making a home base near the coast that would be used for privateering Spanish cargo. The small fleet that carried the colonists and supplies left England in April, 1585, but ran into some trouble after reaching the North American Coastline when one of the ships struck a shoal and sank losing all of its provisions. This forced Ralph Lane, the colony’s governor, to reduce the size of the colony’s population to about 100 in order to stretch the supplies until another fleet could bring additional colonists and supplies. In early June, they picked a place called Roanoke Island inside the Outer Banks with easy access to the sea, and out of view of Spanish ships. With the help of Manteo, Lane was able to secure a place on Roanoke Island, and build a fort there. But their planning overlooked other matters such as access for larger ships inside the Outer Banks where the water was much shallower. Part of the fleet went to participate in privateering as was prearranged. The first winter was marked by a shift in the cordiality of the Native American tribes in the area. The local politics and fear of the well-armed English pushed their leaders to withdraw support and even clash violently a number of times over supplies and provisions for the colonists. Governor Lane got himself in the middle of these local politics to the detriment of his mission. In June, 1586, Sir Francis Drake, paid a visit to the colony on his return trip to England after a successful stint of privateering. Seeing that the situation had deteriorated for the colony, he agreed to resupply them and leave one of his ships there as well, but a hurricane blew through the area and disrupted that plan. Lane then persuaded the remaining men to evacuate, and Drake took them back to England leaving a group of fifteen caretakers to protect Raleigh’s claim.
The Next Wave of Colonists: In January, 1587, Raleigh authorized another group of about 115 colonists to travel to Roanoke Island and re-establish his colony with John White as the colony’s new governor. They reached Croatoan Island (modern day Hatteras Island) on the inside of the Outer Banks on July 22, 1587, and anchored. White took a detachment of guards and went to nearby Roanoke Island on one of the smaller boats looking for the caretakers that had been left at the original site. They found the site, but none of the caretakers were there. The site itself had been plundered and overgrown with greenery. When he returned to the ship three days later, White saw that the colonists had disembarked onto Roanoke Island on the orders of one of the ship’s officers as the ship’ crew was eager to head out to sea and pursue privateering. On August 9, White was placed in the difficult spot of having to negotiate a truce with the Croatoans after the killing of a colonist who was fishing, and a reprisal by White and his guards that attacked the wrong natives. Again, Manteo helped broker a truce, and things calmed down for a time. On August 18, 1587, White’s daughter, Eleanor Dare, gave birth to a baby girl, who she named “Virginia” in honor of being the first Christian child born in North America. In late August, the fleet was preparing to return to England. The colonists persuaded White to go with them to explain to Raleigh the situation and ask for help. Reluctantly, White agreed and departed with the fleet on August 27, 1587 leaving his daughter and grandchild behind. That was the last day that the colonists were seen or heard from by any Europeans.
Three Years After: White intended to return with needed supplies and more colonists after only a month or two, but as things happen, war broke out between England and Spain. Queen Elizabeth blocked the departures of all ships heading to North America in order to have them available to protect England from a Spanish invasion. Finally, in almost three years from the day he left, White returned to Roanoke Island on August 18, 1590. As White and his landing party waded ashore, they discovered some fresh footprints but saw no one. After climbing up a bank they found a tree with the letters “CRO” carved into it. This was part of a prearranged code system that would tell followers to the site where the settlers had gone. If the code was marked with cross, it would mean that they fled in an emergency (there was no cross). When they reached the abandoned settlement, they found the word “Croatoan” carved into a post of the fort’s outer wall. The presence of the outer wall evidenced that they were likely in some element of danger, but again, no cross was present. Everything at the site that was of any use had been dismantled and removed. None of the boats left for their usage were found anywhere. There were signs that the natives had looted the fort and probably did some of the dismantling. The search party returned to the ship, and plans for the next steps were in the process of being made when fate intervened again—one of the ships anchors broke loose and sank, leaving the ship with only one anchor. This prevented the search from being supported by the ship as the risk of it running aground or being shipwrecked had greatly increased. Knowing that his daughter and granddaughter might still be alive somewhere, White was anxious to continue the search in spite of the potential consequences. The word “Croatoan” likely meant that the colony had moved to Croatoan Island, a distance of about 50 miles. White further recalled some conversation before he left the colony three years earlier about how the colony would be safer if it moved 50 miles inland along the Albemarle Sound. The ship’s captain would not comply with White’s earnest requests, however, but did offer a compromise of sorts. He would take them to the West Indies for the winter and bring them back the following Spring. As this was White’s best offer, he took it, but the ship was blown badly off course in a storm at sea and found themselves resupply in the Azores before returning to England. White never returned to North America.
Required Relocation, But to Where: At his point in time, all anyone could tell was that the colonists saw it best to leave their base for parts unknown, but were not confronted with immediate danger. Croatoan Island was their apparent destination, but there was no trace of them ever arriving there. The Croatoan tribe were the ones that initially welcomed the settlers, but later turned against them mostly over the colonists’ constant need for supplies that involved encroachment on the Croatoans own food sources. There had been some bloodshed earlier by the first wave of settlers, and could very well have been more. It was nearly two decades later when the Jamestown colony was founded becoming the first permanent English settlement in North America. John Smith, the leader of the Jamestown colony, was captured by the Powhatan natives and met with their leader, who explained to Smith that men wearing European clothing and living in walled homes could be found in a place called “Ocanahonan.” Using a crude map drawn by a colonist Smith took search parties around the area looking for any sign of what could be the lost colonists, but found nothing. A few years later, William Strachey, an English writer, came to Jamestown to pursue further information about what he called “the slaughter at Roanoak.” This tale apparently circulating in England had the colonists lived for nearly twenty years with a peaceful tribe until a chief staged an unprovoked attack on the insistence of the tribe’s priests, and killed all but nine. English explorer John Lawson traveled through eastern North Carolina from 1701-1709 and visited Hatteras and Roanoke Islands. He discovered and marked the ruins that White had visited about 100 years earlier. After visiting with natives on Hatteras, he observed that some had gray eyes and others reported that they had white grandparents providing the best support for the relocation to Croatoan theory.
Artifacts, DNA, and Other Theories: Although it was apparent that the colony had left their base for Croatoan Island, no artifacts of any kind were found there supporting the move until 1993 when a hurricane hit the area and uncovered the remnants of a buried Native American village. Some of the artifacts found included items made in Europe giving rise to the theory that at least some of the colonists made it to Croatoan Island and lived with the natives. But those same items could have been acquired through trade at a later time. There have been no mass graves or piles of human remains to support the theory that the group was massacred at some point, or ran into an epidemic brought to them by privateers. Starvation could have come into play, but again, where were the bodies buried? Did they move fifty miles west along the Albemarle Sound? There’s no evidence of any settlement there, and first town (Edenton) was founded over 100 years later. Had the colony been assimilated by the Croatoans, there would likely be some form of trailing DNA evidence due to intermarriage, but no such link has yet been established. It remains a possibility as the movement there was logical and doable, and Native Americans had the reputation throughout the colonial period of accepting Europeans or Africans into their ranks as long as they accepted tribal languages, mores, and traditions.
Conclusions: It’s another mystery that will be hard pressed to resolve if it ever could be.
Sources:
National Geographic.com, The Compass, The Search for a Lost Colony, by Andrew Lawler, June, 2018.
Wikipedia, Roanoke Colony.
Picture from the Lost Colony Outdoor Pageant, Manteo, N.C.