After the Genoan, Christopher Columbus, "found" the New World for Spain in 1492, many Spaniards followed and explored the coast of North America and inland to the Grand Canyon. By 1556 Spain claimed nearly all of North and South America and its wealth and treasures.

Spain had the most powerful navy in the world and had a powerful enemy in England. The reasons they were enemies were religious (Catholic vs. Protestant), political (England feared Spanish domination), and economic (whoever controlled the seas, controlled trade).

To gain wealth at the expense of Spain, England invested in privateers who would capture Spanish ships returning from the New World and steal their cargo. Walter Raleigh got rich investing in privateers. Raleigh convinced Queen Elizabeth of England to colonize the New World. He argued that it would enable England to spread its religion, find a Northwest Passage to greater trade with the Orient, create jobs for the unemployed, and enable more successful privateering. The Queen had earlier chartered Raleigh's half brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert "to inhabit and possess…all remote and heathen lands not in actual possession of any Christian prince." Gilbert had died a few years earlier while making his second attempt to reach Newfoundland.

Raleigh helped organize a two ship exploratory expedition in 1584. After a few months in what is now North Carolina—they called it "Virginia" after the Virgin Queen—the explorers, having made friends with the native Americans they met, returned to England bringing with them two Croatoan Indians, Manteo and Wanchese.

In 1585 a larger expedition, consisting of 300 men and seven ships, was organized by Raleigh with the intent of establishing a colony in the New World. This flotilla engaged in privateering along the way and then traded some of the stolen Spanish goods with other Spaniards. The leader of the expedition, Richard Grenville (cousin of Walter Raleigh), created a rift with the local Indians when he burned down their town and crops because an Indian apparently stole a silver cup. The expedition left 108 men on Roanoke Island to start a colony. These colonists built a fort but didn't learn to live off the land, depending instead on the Indians for food. The Indians began to resent the white men. The food they gave the Englishmen created shortages for the Indians and many Indians got sick and died from European diseases.

Wingina, the Croatoan Indian leader, pretended to be helpful and offered to lead an expedition up the Roanoke River to find a place for the future city of Raleigh. A few days into the expedition he unsuccessfully attacked then abandoned the soldiers without food 150 miles away from their fort. The soldiers found their way back to the fort, having eaten their dogs along the way. The English, under Governor Ralph Lane, figured Wingina would eventually attack them so they struck first, killing many Croatoans and killing and beheading Wingina.

When Grenville didn't return from England with additional supplies as promised, the colonists decided to return to England with another explorer and privateer, Sir Francis Drake, who was exploring the area for a place to establish a colony. Grenville's first supply ship missed meeting the colonists by three days. Finding the fort empty, he left 15 men behind and returned to England. These men became the original though unpublicized "lost colonists."

The next year, 1587, another group organized by Sir Walter Raleigh came to the New World to establish a colony. This group of 150 people included tradesmen and whole families. Their six week journey across the ocean was very demanding. The colonists slept on blankets on floors, the food was rancid, the water, wine, and beer spoiled, and during storms they stayed below where rats and cockroaches crawled over them. The air smelled from seawater, vomit, feces, and urine. Governor White, leader of the colonists and apparently the same John White who was the artist and illustrator of the 1585-86 exploratory expedition, wanted to look for the fifteen colonists left behind earlier before moving on to the Chesapeake Bay area for a location in which to settle. However, for reasons which are unclear, they stayed on Roanoke Island and made a second attempt at colonization there even though the island had been unable to support the earlier colony.

The only trace of the 15 men the new colonists found was one set of bones. Manteo, who returned from England with the colonists, learned from other Indians that the Roanoac Indians had killed the one man and chased the other 14 away. Seeking revenge, Governor White and Manteo convinced the Croatoans to side with them against the Roanoacs. The Croatoans agreed to this—even though earlier settlers had attacked the Croatoans—and indicated they would join up with the colonists in about a week. After a week passed, Governor White decided to attack the Roanoacs without waiting for other Indians to help him. He launched a surprise attacked on a settlement of Indians only to learn that it was the Croatoans coming to help him that he had killed.

Five days after that massacre, White's daughter gave birth to a daughter, Virginia Dare; the first child of English parentage to be born in the New World. Several days later, barely a month after arriving in the New World, Governor White returned to England planning to bring back fresh supplies for the colony of 116 men, women, and children staying behind. Unfortunately, war between Spain and France and a captain's greed, prevented a quick return. The following year, Governor White set out with two boats loaded with supplies but the ships' captain tried to pirate two French (in some accounts Spanish) warships and lost. With his supplies stolen, White returned to England. By now, Raleigh had lessened interest in establishing a colony in the New World so White had to raise the money to pay for the next excursion—especially difficult to do while England and Spain were at war. White wasn't able to return to the colony until 1590, three years after having left it and two years later than planned. When he returned he found no colonists. There were no signs of life or death. There were only two clues: on one tree was carved the letters "CRO" on a second tree, "CROATOAN". There was no cross carved, an agreed upon symbol of distress. White assumed the colonists went to live with the Croatoans. He and his ships did not stay long and look for the lost colonists. A strong storm blew up and forced the ships east. They returned to England and never learned the fate of the lost colony. Indeed, that fate is unknown even to this day.

The two major theories about the lost colony are that the colonists became integrated into an Indian tribe (the Croatoans) or they were killed by Native Americans. What is the evidence for and against each?

• 19 years after the colonists were "lost," a member of the Jamestown colony spotted a native boy around 10 years old that had blonde hair and white skin. Three years after that Jamestown colonists reported rumors of some people "planted by Sir Walter Raleigh, yet alive, within fifty miles of our fort." However, no one from Jamestown ever made contact with these people. (The boy could have been fathered by any number of Spanish or French that may have passed through the area.)

 
• Captain John Smith of Jamestown recorded similar stories and rumors. He wrote that a native leader told him of a group of people at a place near Roanoke Island where "certain men…clothed like me [Smith]." (They could have been the Frenchmen who colonized the St. Lawrence seaway at that time.)

 
• Another Jamestown colonist reported that, per rumor, native peoples were building houses of stone, some two stories tall, as "taught to them by the English." No native tribes of the East Coast were building with stones nor structures of more than one level. (This report is based on legend and not personal observation.)

 
• Around 100 years later, the first historian of North Carolina, John Lawson, was interviewing the Hatteras (Croatoan) natives. They told him about their white ancestors who could read. He believed these stories because some of these natives had grey eyes while no other natives had them.

 
• Today, the Lumbee Indians claim they are descendents of the Hatteras or Croatoan people. An analysis of their speech (done in the 1890s) indicated it included 16^th century English pronunciation and word use that no longer exists anywhere else.

 
• Many of the Lumbees have surnames the same as or similar to those of the lost colonists. It is unusual for Native Americans to have English and Irish names. (The Croatoan population at the time of the colonists was probably in the thousands. It seems unlikely that a relatively small number of colonists could have had such influence—names and buildings—on a large and successful native peoples. The common English and Irish surnames could have been picked up much later. Plus, back then, Native Americans did not use surnames at all. In the past, the Lumbees claimed to be descendents of Cherokees.)

• Some historians propose that the group split up with most of the colonists moving north to the Chesapeake Bay area (where they initially intended to live). A boatslip was sighted by Spanish sailors on the Chesapeake Bay in 1588.

 
• Lack of evidence of a permanent settlement on Roanoke Island suggests all remaining colonists would have left that settlement before the winter of 1588-89. It is speculated that these people (presumed to be about 25 men), went to live with the Croatoans while waiting for Governor White to return. Legends from both Chesapeake and Croatoan tribes indicate both accepted the white people who intermixed with them.

 
• Other tribes that lived in the area included the Powhatan, named after its strong leader. This tribe probably included remnants of the Roanoacs, Wingina's tribe that was slain by Lane in 1586. Some of Powhatan's men were captured by an English exploratory mission looking to establish Jamestown. In 1607, when the English started arriving in large numbers (to establish Jamestown), Powhatan killed off the entire tribe of Chesapeakes including the lost colonists and their mixed children. Evidence for this theory includes the fact that the English found cleared fields and tilled land but no one working the land.

 
• One year later, in 1608, Powhatan is said to have confessed to Captain John Smith that he had been at the lost colonists' slaughter. He allegedly showed Smith a musket barrel and bronze mortar that was taken from those colonists. As Powhatan had been given a crown and official title by King James in 1608, Smith did not know how to proceed. He sent his information back to the King and asked for direction. The King indicated that Powhatan was not to be blamed but his priests were for they had predicted the English would threaten the Powhatan.

 
• In a 1609 Jamestown report describing a possible future settlement site, "you will find four of the English alive, left by Sir Walter Raleigh, which escaped from the slaughter of Powhatan of Roanoke upon the first arrival of our colony." They reportedly were under the protection of a chief called Gepanocon who was unwilling to release the four men because they knew how to make copper. (Perhaps these were four of the men deserted by Lane in 1586?)

 
• A related theory claims that the colonists, all of whom went to live with the Croatoans after White left, lived there for twenty years. When they heard of the Jamestown settlement, they made their way towards it only to be slaughtered for entering Powhatan territory uninvited.

The history given above is the standard one given surrounding the Lost Colony of Roanoke. In my mind there is another mystery which seems to be unaddressed if not unrecognized. That is, why did Governor White act as he did? Why did he return to England after only one month at the colony? (The claim that it was late in the season for planting and additional supplies would be needed is a weak one as it was only August and the colonists arrived on the island as planned in July.) Why did the ships in White's first attempt to return to the colony make a foolish attack on the larger French (or Spanish) ships? Why didn't he try a second attempt at returning sooner (the Spanish Armada was defeated in the summer of 1588 but White's second attempt at returning did not occur until March of 1590)? Why didn't White look harder for the colonists when he did return (they apparently searched for only two days before a storm—which could only last on the order of days—"forced" their return to England; a trip lasting several weeks)? After returning to England why didn't White try a third time to find the colonists? It is not known when he died but he lived at least three more years after his failed attempt to find the colonists. (Raleigh had not given up on the colonists. In 1602 he sent another expedition to search for them but that expedition mostly spent its time in trade with the Indians and brought back no news of the lost colonists.)

White apparently died in some obscurity (as his death year is unknown), whereas one might expect him to be lobbying strongly (and hence notably in the historical records) for search parties for the lost colonists. Records of his lobbying have not been found. It seems to me, with admittedly limited information, that John White didn't want to return to the colony; had he found it, it would have been difficult to leave it again, hence he didn't want to find it. He may have preferred not living near an Indian tribe whose members he had mistakenly slaughtered. He may have considered himself (probably appropriately so) as unfit to lead the colonists. He was an artist, not a leader. If he did not want to return to the colony, to leave his daughter and granddaughter without at least given the appearance of trying to find them would have been scandalous. So he made two inadequate and late attempts at returning. I find it interesting that White, after his boneheaded slaughter of innocent Croatoans, stayed just long enough to see his granddaughter's birth then returned to England just one month after arriving to establish a colony in the New World. Note that the above speculations about John White's character and motives are strongly at odds with the Roanoke folklore about him.
 

Sir Walter Raleigh, who popularized smoking in England when he began the "smelly habit" after his expeditions to the New World returned with tobacco, met an inglorious death. Queen Elizabeth, his good friend and benefactor—she had knighted him—died in 1603. Her successor, King James, did not like Raleigh and jailed him on charges of treason in the Tower of London. While imprisoned, Raleigh wrote the "History of the World." Thirteen years later he was freed to find gold in South America. When he returned to England empty-handed, he was executed on the old charges of treason. Just prior to being beheaded in 1618, he asked to see the axe and said, "This is a sharp Medicine, but it is a Physician for all Diseases." As was common at the time, his head was embalmed and presented to his wife. She apparently carried it with her at all times until she died 29 years later at the age of 82.

Following the American Revolution, part of the former English colony of Carolina became the state of North Carolina. Several prominent North Carolina citizens, who lived in Wake County at the base of the Piedmont Plateau, petitioned for the capitol to be established near them. The General Assembly purchased 1,000 acres of Wake County from Colonel Joel Lane upon the recommendation of a legislative commission, and in 1792 the city of Raleigh was established and named in honor of navigator and historian Sir Walter Raleigh—174 years after his death. Raleigh is the only state capitol to have been established on land specifically purchased by the state for its government seat.

© 1999 frantzs@geocities.com