The story of the lost Roanoke Colony is a great American mystery that continues to this day. Remembering the name Roanoke suggests a wide array of theories, opinions, and, as you might expect, stories.
Before the settlement of the famous Jacobitown and the stories of a native named Squanto helping the foreigners, before the alleged business of Captain John Smith and Pocahontas, an Indian virgin, on the eastern shores of the New World, sprouted a small colony in fertile soil. It began with great hopes and dreams, but it ended in tragedy on those same shores.
Recently, a group of archaeologists and historians gathered in North Carolina to finally explore the new excavations at Fort Raleigh Park in an effort to raise money what happened to the people who settled on an isolated island off the coast of Virginia in 1580. Is it a true ghost story or a story of a great experiment gone wrong?
It was a time of doubt and fear, when people believed that the world was flat and horrible sea creatures were waiting in the depths of the ocean for brave explorers to venture into their world. It was a time when men and women fought for survival and relied on their skills, experience and ideas.
It was a time when the New World was unexplored territory; a place where giants live and wild animals roam the rich forests. It was also a time when Europeans wanted to find new places and live and pursue their own lives, some were looking for adventure and adventure, while others were looking for freedom from the strict customs and requirements of Europe.
In the later 1500s, explorers did a lot of research in the New World, and people headed across the ocean to explore its eastern shores. Sir Walter Raleigh was in the favor of Queen Elizabeth the First of England at the time, and England and Spain were fighting each other fiercely for the new to obtain this territory. Queen Elizabeth Raleigh gave money to buy ships to plant a colony in the New World before the Spanish. he did Raleigh had heard rumors that the coast of the New World was full of forests, water, game and fish. He preceded his brother Richard Grenville, Lord, to a place called Virginia.
The men arrived with their ships on Roanoke Island in 1585 and began to build a settlement they called ‘Fort Raleigh’. That August, Grenville returned to England with more supplies, leaving Ralph Wool in charge of the island. Grenville left 107 men with Lane on the island so that they could head for the continent before Spain.
While Grenville was away, Lane went with his men to his seat, and explored the island and the surrounding country. Unfortunately, Lane was not very polite to the natives who inhabited the country and treated them rather badly. Lane and his companions also went so far as to raid the villages near the Indians. They killed one of the nobles of the country. A bad mistake.
Another explorer, Sir Francis Drake, arrived on the island in the first summer of 1856 to find the Roanoke settlers in constant danger of food and being driven from the natives. Fearing an attack, and deciding that he and the others would not make it through the coming winter months, Commander Lane decided to leave the island with his men, and return to England with the Dragon.
Meanwhile Sir Grenville returned to the island with three loads of supplies, only to find the island deserted. One can imagine his frustration! He also resolved to return to England, but left fifteen of his men in the island, to take care of the claim of the colony on land.
Back in England, Sir Raleigh gathered another group of men to bring him back to Roanoke, he found ninety-one men, seventeen women and nine children who would attend his Roanoke colony. He named JohnWhite as his new president.
The second group arrived on the island in July 1587 with the intention of staying to remove the left handed by Sir Grenville, but after the ships landed on the shore when they touched them, they found only the remains of human bones. When the others searched the island, the few people who had remained were nowhere to be found.
Friends of the Croatoan Indians in the South Island lived in Roanoke. They taught the settlers how to hunt and cook fish. One of the pilgrims, a woman named Eleanor Aude, was expecting a baby, and the first English child was born in America in August of 1587. She was named Virginia Dare. When the inhabitants had plenty of provisions and plenty of fish and game, winter and storms would prove their brevity. Again running low on supplies, Captain John White decided to sail to England for additional supplies, but luck was against him. When he had come to England, he found that his country was going to war with Spain, and the queen said that she wanted all the ships for the use of the war.
Captain White returned to Roanoke and stayed for 3 years, until 1590! After delaying his return, the White captain sailed his ships to the extreme banks of what is now North Carolina in the rough anchorages of the waters called ‘Graveyard of Atlantic. As previously left by the colonists, they were not found, although the letters CRO were found engraved on the wood almost minutely. On the other side of the island, the word ‘CROATOAN’ was found carved into a wooden fence
Theories and unanswered questions about what happened to the missing colony have haunted generations of Americans for decades. Some believe that the local Indians, enraged at the treatment of Chief Lane, killed the men and took the women and children for adoption into the tribe, as was the custom of many of the Eastern Wild Indians. Others think that the colonists simply moved to another place, but it is doubtful that they left any word as to where they were. Others think the Spanish had something to do with their disappearance.
In 1607, England sent more colonists to the New World, but this time they applied further north along the coast of Virginia to a place they named Jamestown. There he took care to establish England firmly in the world.
Since 1587, a few accounts of the removal of the settlers at Roanoke have been uncovered. As early as 1653, traders and curiosity seekers visited Roanoke Island and left with artifacts that, if nothing else, proved that there was a colony there. During the Civil War, the soldiers stationed there also dug up artifacts and in 1895 a journalist and amateur archaeologist completed some excavations, although the very location of the village disappointed everyone.
In 1982, the remains of a well-established think tank dating back to the 16th century were discovered in Roanoke island. Serious erosion has occurred there over the years. In 2000, National Park Service archaeologists using ground-penetrating radar found objects buried in the sand. In 2002, a swimmer happened to step on an ax head that dates to the 16th century – in shallow water near the northern end of the island.
It seems that the mystery of the missing colonists of Roanoke Island will continue to be a mystery, a mystery that the Americans are trying to solve. Perhaps some things are meant to remain hidden, and the lost Colony of Roanoke is indeed one of them.
