The Lost Colony: The Story of Roanoke

 

Original illustration by North Wind Picture Archives

As an American and as a history writer, I feel that I have a need to write about, review and elaborate upon the history of the American nation of which I am a part. While the United States of America, as a country, is a multicultural realm (like many, if not all, other states), there remains a core group—a core nation to its history. As the world's sole superpower, the United States plays a key role in the modern day. Understanding this core nation to the United States, therefore, is key in understanding our entire modern world. 

This is not to minimize the other peoples and nations who play a great role in the history of the United States, namely the American Indians who were present before the current American nation, nor the Spanish who explored the region before the current American nation nor later waves of immigrants. But to understand the history of the American nation, one must start with the earliest actors from whose agency, labor and legacy it sprouted from, that being the first colonists from England who claimed and created the land they knew as "Virginia."

Satellite photo of the North American continent from Geology.com

As such, my history of the American nation does not start with the formation of the North American continent around 66 million years ago. It does not start with the crossings of the ancestors of the American Indians from Asia into North America over 13,000 years ago. It does not start with the first known European contact with the Americas by Norsemen in around 1000 CE nor with the establishment of long-term contact by Christopher Columbus in 1492 CE. It doesn't even start with the first long-term English settlement at St. Johns near Newfoundland. The best place to start is with the beginning of English settlement in the land of Virginia.

And what a story it is.

Albion's Seed

September of 1583 CE. It's a stormy night as two English ships are struggling to cross the Atlantic Ocean. They are the HMS Squirrel and the HMS Golden Hind. They're tiny ships and aren't meant to be making a transatlantic crossing. The Squirrel is loaded up with so many cannons that it feels like it could break apart at any moment. The captain of the Squirrel is a man named Sir Humphrey Gilbert (a name that makes him feel like the most stereotypical English aristocrat to ever live). The Squirrel was Sir Gilbert's personal ship and he wanted to load it up with as much cannons as possible and then some. A few days earlier, Gilbert even stepped on a nail that had broken loose from the creaking ship. Throughout the perilous voyage, the crew of the ship had been trying to convince Gilbert to stay on the other ship, the Golden Hind, as they believed that the Squirrel was going to be destroyed on the voyage. But the nobleman refused to be separated from his favorite boat. Instead, he locked himself up in his quarters and read a book, refusing to listen to his crew. 

The ships are on a return trip to England but, as they near Portugal, the two ships enter a terrible storm. Sir Gilbert looks at the storm and then to the Golden Hind, understanding that... Well, he was going to die. He pointed up to the sky and declared:

We are as near to Heaven by sea as by land! 

The last moments of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, 1585 CE by Edward Ollier

The Squirrel sank and Sir Humphrey Gilbert died in the Atlantic Ocean just like many other ships of this age of sail. The Golden Hind managed to make its way back to England where it reported the situation to Queen Elizabeth I herself. That's right—Gilbert had been on a state mission from the Queen.

You see, Europe had entered a race to colonize the newly discovered Americas and English still did not have a single colony on either of the two continents. Queen Elizabeth had dispatched Sir Gilbert to formally take over St. John's in Newfoundland to establish the very foundation of this overseas English Empire. Indeed, Gilbert went to the port and claimed the area. He even had a little party with the sailors and was gifted a dog by one of the people at the port. The problem was that barely anybody lived at St. John's. It was an outpost for fishermen and not a permanent settlement. Gilbert had set sail back to England to get supplies so that he could establish a permanent settlement in Newfoundland, all of which brought us here to his death. 

Queen Elizabeth I of England. Original artist unknown

Why did Queen Elizabeth send someone as finicky as Sir Gilbert? She did so because Sir Gilbert was the half-brother to a man named Sir Walter Raleigh. So, who is Walter Raleigh? Well, to get into his story, we would first need to get into the story of Queen Elizabeth's predecessor, Queen Mary. 

You know, it's really hard to get a nice, clean start to an American history story since there really is no clean place to start. American history very much buds out from English history so I apologize for the front loading of English history. 

Queen Mary was a Catholic who despised Protestants which was too bad for Sir Raleigh because he and his whole family were Protestants. They managed to escape death on more than one occasion from Mary's staunch anti-Protestant policies. Thankfully for the Raleighs, Elizabeth I succeeded Mary and Elizabeth was much more pro-Protestant, allowing the Raleigh family to rest for a little bit. But Raleigh still despised Catholics and wanted revenge for the terror they inflicted upon him. At the time, the neighboring country of France was a Catholic nation dealing with a rebellion by their Huguenot Protestants. Walter Raleigh went to France and fought against the Catholics himself. So, as you can tell, the adventuring mercenary Walter Raleigh is a bit different than his finicky half-brother Humphrey Gilbert. When Catholic Spanish and Italians began to support anti-English revolts by the Catholics in English-dominated Ireland, Raleigh went over there to fight against them too, leading a sort of death squad unit that beheaded over 600 Spanish and Italian soldiers. Raleigh was a Protestant and English hero who had proven his loyalty to their cause. As such, Raleigh had been put in command of overseeing English interests in Ireland—mainly forcing Irish people out of their homes to make way for more English people. 

Sir Walter Raleigh by 'H' monogrammist

Raleigh was eventually approached by Queen Elizabeth to be put in charge of creating an English colony in America due to it being a similar job to the colonization of Ireland.

Which brings us back to 1583 CE where Raleigh has learned that his half-brother has died and the first efforts to formally establish a colony in America has failed. Raleigh needed a new plan. 

Grenville's Pride

One year later.

It’s a nice, hot July on the un-colonized coast of North America. Let’s take a look at the village of Roanoac, a village that is part of the Secotan nation of American Indians and near the border with the Croatan nation, a rival people. For years, the rival tribes had fought each other and schemed against one another. But now, what’s this coming by the sea? Well, that would be a few ships carrying some English people. Over in England, Raleigh has kicked himself into gear and has sent colonists to find any place on the North American continent to settle. In fact, Queen Elizabeth had told him that if he fails, he’ll lose permission to ever make a colony again. So, in a last-ditch effort, Raleigh has sent out some colonists to try to do something. And so they arrived at Roanoac. 

A map of "Virginia" (modern day North Carolina) showing Roanoke Island from the British Museum

As the English touch down, the dynamic between the Croatans and Secotans change. The Secotans have to deal with the fact that these people from across the ocean showed up in the middle of their nation and are just coming on in. The Croatans are pleased by this since the Secotans have been a thorn in their side for who knows how long. Long story short, the Secotans end up hating the English while the Croatans think they’re pretty swell. Now, this mission in July isn’t really a colonizing one but a mission to get the lay of the land. Two Croatans by the names of Manteo and Wanchese come along with the English and return to England where they meet Raleigh himself, teaching Raleigh about the geography and politics of the area so the English know what they’re getting into. Re-moralized by this, Raleigh organizes a mission to colonize the area and make Roanoke, as the English called it, a new territory in the English Empire and the first proper English outpost on the American continent. 

In command of this effort to colonize Roanoke is a man named Richard Grenville, a nobleman who is a bit more of a Raleigh than a Gilbert if you know what I mean. Grenville is a mercenary, a politician, and a warrior who spent much of his younger years on the battlefield pushing back the Muslim Turks away from Christian Hungary.

Sir Richard Grenville, artist unknown 

And so, after a year of preparation, Grenville sets off with his fleet where he captains the HMS Tiger. The Croatan Manteo is on board for his return trip as well. Because crossing the Atlantic was dangerous, Grenville tells his fleet that if they get lost or separated, they need to meet him at the Spanish colony of Puerto Rico. Sure enough, they don’t get far until a storm hits, during which the Tiger loses contact with every single ship in the fleet. 

The Tiger goes to Puerto Rico and just waits. While waiting, Grenville spends time building a friendly relationship with the Spanish who were colonizing the island. And while he’s having nice diplomacy with the Spanish in public, in private, he goes off on the Tiger and casually raids Spanish ships. As time goes on, he gets bored and just casually builds an entire fort. Finally, one of his ships makes it to Puerto Rico, but by this point in time Grenville was so bored of waiting that he didn’t care about waiting for the others. He dismantled the fort before he and the other ship set sail for Roanoke.

One thing to note is that the sea surrounding Roanoke Island is a particularly dangerous area of coast that will one day be called the Graveyard of the Atlantic for how dangerous it is to traverse. Grenville will learn this when he enters the Ocracoke Inlet and hits a shoal that opens up a massive hole in the Tiger that ruins all of their food rations. The crew managed to repair the ship, but there was a food crisis. As the Tiger continued, they discovered two more ships further up the coast. It turns out that they were ships that were part of Grenville’s fleet that got lost in the storm. The captains apparently didn’t know about the Puerto Rico plan because they were waiting for Grenville just out in the sea near Roanoke. In fact, there used to be three ships here. One of them got so tired of waiting on Grenville that the captain dropped off his passengers with the other ships and just sailed up to Newfoundland to become a pirate. But, with the exception of that one renegade captain, Grenville had his whole fleet together and so they landed at Roanoke and established a small English settlement while Grenville went out with some men and explored the area, making contact with various Secotan and Croatan towns.

A map of shipwrecks off the North Carolina coast which gives the region the nickname of the "Graveyard of the Atlantic." From National Geographic.

Things go generally well until someone from the Secotan village of Aquascogoc steals a silver cup from the English. Grenville goes to Aquascogoc with Manteo as his translator but, because Manteo was Croatan, the Secotans refused to speak with them. An argument burst out in the town between the Secotans and the English and it turned into a heated debate. Well, when I say “heated,” I mean the English burned down Aquascogoc. This naturally enraged the Secotans. 

So, let’s talk about Roanoke. Roanoke was supposed to be just one town of a larger English colony. The Queen, Elizabeth, was also known to be the “virgin queen” as she never married and never had children. In fact, she had proclaimed that she was married to England. Raleigh had ordered Roanoke to be the first settlement in the wider English colony that would be called Virginia (although today, Roanoke isn’t in the state of Virginia). 

Warrior of the Secotan Indians in North Carolina by John White. This art has been used to represent Secotans, Croatans, and other Algonquian-speaking American Indians in the east coast of North America at this time.

Roanoke was running low on supplies, especially considering the Tiger had lost a large chunk of the food supply. Grenville looked at the situation in Roanoke and decided to return to England for more men and supplies. He tells the English to stay and maintain the colony while he returns to England, informing them that he will return in less than a year. And so, Grenville left out to sea, leaving behind his colony. 

El Draque

And then a year passed. And Grenville didn’t come back which left the English in Roanoke confused. They didn’t have much food supplies with them and the Secotans had also noticed that Grenville didn’t come back. Understanding this to mean that England had abandoned the settlers, the Secotans launched an attack which the settlers only just managed to repel. At this point, the Roanoke English began working much closer with the friendly Croatans of which Manteo was now the chief. With this exchange, the colonists learned how to grow things like tobacco, corn and potatoes. 

One day, some English ships finally appear at Roanoke but it was not Grenville. It was a fleet under the command of a man named Sir Francis Drake. And boy, was Drake a personality. It took great courage to set sail across the Atlantic Ocean and try to settle in North America, but it took even more to set sail across the Atlantic Ocean, circumnavigating South America and landing in California to establish a colony. Which is exactly what Drake did, landing in California and naming the region New Albion. He was also the second person to ever circumnavigate the entire planet which is a trait of an absolute madman that got himself knighted by Queen Elizabeth herself. He had been exploring the oceans since he was in his twenties, sailing with his second cousin to Africa, stealing slaves from the Portuguese and destroying their ships and then selling the slaves to the Spanish, technically making his actions serve as the first English participation in the Atlantic African slave trade, not that he made slave trading his career choice. In fact, he worked alongside a group of freed African slaves from the French and helped them destroy French outposts in Africa. But that was all in Drake’s past. What is he doing here out by Roanoke? Well, Drake tells the colonists what’s been going down.

Sir Francis Drake arriving in California, claiming it as New Albion in 1579 CE. Art by Theodor de Bry.

It turns out war had broken out between Spain and England, the Anglo-Spanish War, and it’s a big one. The war had already been underway when Grenville had first set sail a year ago, but back then the war was a lot smaller in scale and didn’t really include America or the Atlantic. That had changed now. Now the war had gotten out of control as it was revealed that Spain had the ambitions of fully taking over England which would make it one of the most powerful countries in the world. The desperate struggle had meant that it was unsafe to cross the Atlantic Ocean and Grenville was stuck in England. On top of that, every single capable ship in England was ordered to be used for the war effort. Drake had taken the opportunity of war to go down and assault the Spanish in the Caribbean, launching what he called the "Great Expedition" because of course he called it that. With small groups of soldiers, Drake plundered Spanish territories in Africa, Columbia, and Florida, all Spanish possessions that crippled Spanish maritime infrastructure in the area. The Spanish had actually come to refer to him as the nefarious pirate El Draque with King Philip II of Spain himself putting a bounty on his head that comes out to around eight million US dollars today. 

Drake had just crippled an empire and was about to return home when he remembered he heard something about his country making a colony up north and he decided to check up on it. 

Sir Francis Drake viewing treasure taken from a Spanish ship. Original artist unknown.

That brings us here when Drake arrived at the dying Roanoke colony. He provided them with more resources to hold themselves over but also told them to come with him if they wanted to live. A large chunk of the Roanoke colony population decided to come with Drake as he went back to England. Drake made it back home and sailed into Portsmouth where English lined the streets and welcomed him as a hero. Not only did Drake come back after crippling the Spanish Empire in the New World, but he also brought maize, tobacco, and potatoes to England, the potato becoming the signature food in much of modern European cuisine, changing the diets of Europeans forever. Not long afterwards, Drake would help lead English forces that crushed a massive Spanish Armada that was going to invade England.

Grenville, meanwhile, had been trying his best to get a ride to Roanoke which he finally did, arriving in Roanoke only to find it in a very sorry state after Drake had taken away so many colonists. This put Grenville in a pickle as he had been hired to create a successful colony in North America and Queen Elizabeth was becoming disillusioned with the idea of American colonization, especially after the death of Gilbert. In a decision made from desperation, Grenville sent 15 soldiers from his boat to survive in the abandoned remains of Roanoke so that Roanoke was still technically an English colony with English boots on the ground, thereby keeping Raleigh’s charter valid. Grenville then left to return to England although he didn’t seem to have any intention on getting supplies for them. From appearances, it looks like Grenville left the men to die. 

John White by North Wind Picture Archives

This bothered Grenville’s friend, a soft-spoken artist named John White who was on board the ship. White was a curious type of guy who was allured to the New World because of the numerous new things that he could see and record. White may have let people walk all over him, but many people liked him. As for his art, he used watercolors rather than oil paintings like many other people from his time. He’s interested in the New World for the art and the sights of natural beauty and whatnot. He’s not into it for the geopolitics or the treasures like his boss Raleigh. Speaking of, now that Grenville had given up on Roanoke, Raleigh had given up as well and decided that it was better to create a new colony from scratch, specifically aiming to set up a colony in the Chesapeake Bay further north. And so, with Grenville giving up and instead deciding to focus on the war with Spain, Raleigh put the poor White in charge of colonization efforts, giving him 115 colonists and sending him off to make a settlement in the Chesapeake Bay that would still be considered part of the really not-geographically-well-defined colony of Virginia. 

White's Treasure

White sets off with his ship, the HMS Lion. His navigator was a Portuguese man named Simon Fernandes who wasn’t really liked by the crew who nicknamed him “the swine.” Fernandes was actually once a pirate who attacked Spanish ships. He really hated Spain. Being a pirate, he also had a few run-ins with English ships in his day which eventually saw himself captured by England and set to be hanged. However, the Queen’s spymaster, Francis Walsingham, came to Fernandes to give him a second chance at life, allowing him to live on the condition that he become a Protestant and served the Queen since he was such a skilled navigator. And that he did. 

Fernandes didn’t really like his crew since, well, they really didn’t like him. Pirate career and all that. He also seems to be upset that he’s being used to ferry colonists from England to the Americas when he thought his talents were going to be used in combat against Spain in the Caribbean. 

John White created much art in the New World. Art by Vicki Wallace

While White was sailing to the New World for the first time since he abandoned the guards at Roanoke, he couldn’t help but remember the men he saw as his friends who he left to die. White decided to make a stop at Roanoke before they would go to the Chesapeake Bay. Fernandes was excited about this because that would make their course go further south and if the captain was willing to go further south, then maybe he’d let him go all the way to the Caribbean to fight the Spanish, eh? 

And so, the Lion arrived at Roanoke and everyone disembarked while Fernandes remained on the Lion as he’s the navigator. White takes a look at Roanoke and can’t find anyone. They only find one skeleton and destroyed buildings. Spooked, White turned the party around to go back to the Lion but found that Fernandes wasn’t letting them back on. Fernandes yelled at them about how he didn’t want to go north to the Chesapeake and instead wanted to fight in the south. He didn’t want anyone stepping on that ship until they agreed to fight in the Caribbean. Naturally, none of the colonists were trained in naval warfare so nobody agreed and White decided to establish their colony in Roanoke. 

A Secotan village by John White.

The settlers unloaded and began to repair Roanoke. White went around drawing pictures and maps and looking for clues for what happened to the men they left behind. Eventually, White ran into Chief Manteo of the Croatans. Manteo explained that the Secotans launched an attack, killed the guards and ransacked the village. White can’t get the Secotan side of the story as the Secotans refused to speak to White. While the colonists wanted revenge for the Secotan attack, White wasn’t really sure that was necessary. He manages to keep the colonists down for a time until, one day, a colonist is killed by an Indian while looking for crabs on the beach. The colonists are enraged by this and plan on attacking the nearest Secotan town, Dasamongueponke. Giving into the pressure from the colonists, White agreed to lead an attack on Dasamongueponke. They snuck into the village early in the morning while it was still dark and attacked the Indians. However, as they attacked, they realized that they had messed up. The village they were attacking was not the Secotan village of Dasamongueponke, but a Croatan village. The disaster ended any goodwill between the English and the Croatans. Now the settlement of Roanoke was truly alone with no allies. 

The Baptism of Virginia Dare in 1587 CE. Art by William Ludwell Sheppard

About ten days later, White became a grandfather when his daughter gave birth. This healthy child was the first English person to be born in the Americas. Because she was born in the the colony of Virginia, she was named Virginia Dare. Things only go downhill from here. The colonists realize that, since they set up their colony on Roanoke instead of the Chesapeake Bay, the planned English supply ships weren’t coming since they wouldn’t go to Roanoke. White didn’t want to leave his colony behind but the colonists eventually pressured him into going to England. White was paranoid as it seemed like every time a colonial governor left Roanoke, they would return to find the colony abandoned. He gave them instructions to carve a Maltese Cross into a tree if they had to leave the colony by force. He also made them promise to keep his things like his drawings and maps safe while he was gone. He then set off to England. 

A Colony Lost

However, as White returned to England, the Anglo-Spanish War was still going on and it was still incredibly difficult to get a ship to go over to America. He was stuck in England for a few months until he finally got two vessels to set sail to Roanoke with some supplies. However, as they set sail, the two captains were distracted by a small Spanish fleet and decided to attack them for their goods. This didn’t go as planned as the Spanish defeated them, taking the supplies meant for Roanoke and sending the two robbed ships back out. With no supplies, White just ordered the ships to go back to England. 

The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 1588 CE. By Philip James de Loutherbourg

Later that year, Raleigh felt bad for White and kept trying to find a way to get ships for him. As Raleigh was asking permission for ships from Queen Elizabeth, however, the massive Spanish Armada launched an attack on England. A huge naval battle took place off the coast of England with Drake doing his thing. It just wasn’t really a good time to send ships out to go colonize America. 

Two years later. The Anglo-Spanish War is still going on and it will keep going on for fourteen more years. Raleigh is stuck trying to organize raids on the Spanish navy. Nobody in England has any hope for America. White isn’t like Grenville, though. He’s not going to give up. Grenville didn’t have his family in America, now did he? White eventually just wants to see Roanoke and check in on everyone. Raleigh hitches him a ride on a ship captained by John Watts who has been leading raids on the Spanish navy in the New World. After some good ol’ fashioned privateering, Watts agrees to stop by Roanoke. They arrive in August on what would be Virginia Dare’s third birth day. White finally lands, searching for his family and his colony after three long years of desperately trying to get to them. 

And nobody is there.

John White discovers the Lost Colony, 1590

There’s no sign of a struggle or a battle. There’s not even a sign of a colony. Where all the houses once stood there was nothing. Each building must have been dismantled. But nobody carved a Maltese Cross on any tree. On one post that once outlined the colony, carved was the word "Croatoan," an alternate spelling for Croatan. And on a nearby tree was carved "CRO." After looking around, White found where the colonists were keeping the stuff he made them promise to keep safe. They were evidently buried but had at some point been un-buried, then re-buried. As he describes it from his journal:

About the place, many of my things spoiled and broken and my books torn from the covers. The frames of some of my pictures and maps rotten and spoiled with rain and my armor almost eaten through with rust.

White theorized that at some point after the colony was abandoned, some native tribe had somehow found his things and looted them. But White was full of despair and wanted to search for his family and the colony immediately but the weather had become worse. Bad weather already saw the ships lose three anchors and they were on their last. A reluctant White returned to the ship and returned to England. After the tragedy, Raleigh allowed White to stay in his palace in Ireland where he was depressed for the remainder of his life. He never stopped hoping that his family was still alive. Raleigh would give up efforts to colonize America and instead began expeditions into South America that he himself went on. The expeditions were not to establish a colony but to take the gold of the mythical city El Dorado. He would end up being involved in attacks against Spain after the Anglo-Spanish War had concluded, putting the new peace between the two countries at risk. He would be beheaded in England for these crimes. Before his death, Raleigh had sent a few missions to try to find out what happened to Roanoke. One mission had to turn back due to bad weather. Another got lost and was killed by an unknown tribe after crashing somewhere on the east coast, only survived by their captain. During the Anglo-Spanish War, Spain received reports that Roanoke was a thriving military outpost and deployed forces to destroy it only to find it in its abandoned state.  

A map of Roanoke Island, artist unknown

And such was the story of the first English settlement in America. Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be. 

But nearly 20 years later, the eastern coast of the North American continent was once more approached by mysterious ships, landing a few men who planted the white and red flag of England, Saint George’s Cross, in the sand. Roanoke may have been the beginning, but it was not the end.

This article continues to the next entry in the History of America series, Jamestown — The Birth of America.

References

1. A New World: England's First View of America by Kim Sloan, 2007
2. Big Chief Elizabeth — How England's Adventures Gambled and Won the New World by Giles Milton, 2000
3. The Broadview Anthrology of British Literature by Joseph Black, 2011
4. Drake, Francis from The Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History by David Loades, 2007
5. Gilbert, Sir Humphrey from Dictionary of Canadian Biography by David B. Quinn, 1979
6. John White at NCPedia by Dennis Daniels, 2006 (https://bit.ly/3FunNRZ)
7. The Life of Sir Walter Raleigh by Edward Edwards, 1868
8. The Lost Colony of Roanoke Island by the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (https://bit.ly/3LWQNEw) 
9. Pangea on Encylopaedia Britannica Online
10. Puritans and Puritanism in Europe and America: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia by Tom Webster, 2006
11. Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony by Lee Miller, 2012
12. Set Fair for Roanoke: Voyages and Colonies, 1584-1606 by David B. Quinn, 1985.
13. Sir Walter Raleigh by Raleigh Trevelyan, 2002

By Andrew Eubanks