III Charles W. Porter

“ Fort Raleigh, because of the tragic mystery of the “Lost Colony,” memorializes better than any other site the cost of early English colonial effort. To a certain degree it also commemorates a forgotten part of the price that England paid for English liberty. The colonists at Fort Raleigh were, in a sense, sacrificed that England might employ all her fighting strength against the juggernaut of Spain in the battle against the Armada. To relieve the Roanoke colony in 1588, in the place of Grenville’s warships, only two small pinnaces could be spared, and these did not reach Roanoke. ”

“ Queen Elizabeth, after whom the new land was named “Virginia,” is easily the premier sovereign of England; Sir Walter Raleigh, poet, soldier, and statesman, and the inspiration and financial mainstay of the Roanoke Island project, is the best remembered of gallant English courtiers; Sir Richard Grenville, of the Revenge, who brought the first colony to America in 1585 and left another small group there in 1586, is the Elizabethan hero who in 1592 taught English sailors how to dare and die in the face of overwhelming odds ”

“ Thomas Hariot collected data on plants, animals, and minerals for his New Found Land of Virginia. John White made the inimitable water-color drawings of the Indians, the animal and plant life of Roanoke Island, and the coast, which have been engraved many times. The much rarer facsimile reproductions of these drawings in color may be seen in the Fort Raleigh museum. These paintings are the first artistic productions of Englishmen in America. The colonists also learned to smoke tobacco, using for this purpose Indian pipes or other pipes of their own modeled on the Indian pipes. ”

“ These bellicose activities of the English in Puerto Rico illustrate the fact that England and Spain were virtually at war at that time. Indeed, the war was to become an actuality within 3 years. In the meantime, the English were engaged in what would be called today a “cold war”—pin-pricking the Spaniard in the West Indies and about to settle on the American mainland at a spot sufficiently close to Spanish Florida to constitute both an economic and a military threat to Spain. Growth of the English colony would circumscribe Spain’s own colonial effort ”

“ Shortly after Drake and the colonists had sailed, a supply ship sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh arrived at Hatoraske and after searching in vain for the colonists returned to England. About a fortnight after Raleigh’s ship had left, Grenville arrived with three ships and likewise searched in vain for the colonists. Grenville found the places of colonial settlement desolate, but being “unwilling to loose the possession of the country which Englishmen had so long held,” he left 15 men on Roanoke Island, fully provisioned for 2 years, to hold the country for the Queen while he returned to England. ”

“ LIFE IN THE COLONY.
At first, relations with the Indians continued friendly, though the Englishmen had their detractors in the Council of the Indian Chief. The aborigines planted crops and made fish traps for the Englishmen. With rare foresight, the colonists also induced Chief Wingina (who had changed his name to Pemisapan) to put into simultaneous cultivation his lands both on Roanoke Island and on the mainland at Dasamonquepeuc in order that the Indians might have no excuse for not being able to supply the colony if need arose. ”

“ Englishmen wondered if they could not find a northwest passage through the American continent which would divert the wealth of the Indies to England, or if they could not translate the mineral and agricultural wealth of North America into English fortunes as Spaniards had grown rich from the gold of Mexico and Peru. ”

“ The Indians proved to be more hostile than formerly, and George Howe, one of the assistants, was killed by the Indians soon after the landing. Through the intercession of the Indian Manteo, who had relatives on the barrier island of Croatoan, friendly relations with the Croatoan Indians were reestablished, but the others remained aloof. The remnants of the Roanoke Island Indians dwelling at Dasamonquepeuc were accused by the Croatoan Indians of killing Grenville’s men as well as George Howe. ”

“ Hariot says that some were city dwellers “of a nice bringing up” who soon became miserable without their soft beds and dainty food. Others were excellent soldiers, as Lane testified of Captain Stafford; and there were the humbler folk, of whom Darby Glande was perhaps representative, though he was Irish and appears to have been forced to accompany the expedition. On the whole, they gave the appearance more of a military expedition than a colony. They were dependent upon the Indians and upon England for both food and supplies. ”

“ Exploration of Roanoke Island, 1584
On April 27, 1584, Captains Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe left the west of England in two barks “well furnished with men and victuals,” to explore the North American coast for Sir Walter Raleigh. Among the company of explorers was the enigmatical Simon Ferdinando, formerly the master of the ship Falcon under the captaincy of Raleigh, but also known as the “man” of the Queen’s Secretary of State, Sir Francis Walsingham. Ferdinando had sailed to the coast of America and back in 3 months’ time in 1579. ”

“ On August 13, complying with Raleigh’s instructions, Manteo was christened and declared Lord of Roanoke and Dasamonquepeuc as a reward for his many services. Five days later, Governor White’s daughter, Eleanor, wife of Ananias Dare, gave birth to a daughter, who was named Virginia because she was the first child of English parentage to be born in the New World. Another child was born to Dyonis and Margery Harvie shortly afterwards. On the 27th, Governor White, at the earnest entreaty of the “planters in Virginia,” sailed homeward with the fleet to obtain supplies for the colony. ”

“ Governor White could not finance another expedition to America himself, and Raleigh, although enjoying a large income at times, spent lavishly. Some of the money and energy that might have gone into the Virginian enterprise, Raleigh expended, during 1587-1602, in colonizing estates which he had received in Ireland. The Virginian enterprise would have required a prince’s purse, but Raleigh was not a prince. Walsingham died in 1590, a blow to Raleigh. In July 1592, Raleigh was disgraced and imprisoned for marrying Elizabeth Throckmorton without 27 the Queen’s knowledge or consent. ”

“ The area of the site in Federal ownership is 18.50 acres and embraces part of the settlement sites of 1585 and 1587 and the fort site. By a cooperative agreement between the Roanoke Island Historical Association and the United States, the play, the Lost Colony, continues to be given each season in the Waterside Theater at Fort Raleigh. This arrangement provides for the unhampered production of the play with all of its creative folk qualities. ”

“ Typical section through the original fort ditch and the reconstructed parapet.
The location of the fort, not far from the water’s edge, commanding a channel of Roanoke Sound in use for small boats even in later colonial times, bespeaks its purpose of defending the colonists not only against the Indians but also against an always probable attack from Spain. An enemy ship approaching from Port Ferdinando (Hatoraske) or Trinety Harbor, north of Hatoraske, would have come under the guns of the fort, consisting of some brass cannon and at least “four iron fowlers” (light cannon) . ”

“ National Park Service archeological work carried on under the direction of Archeologist J. C. Harrington during the summers of 1947, 1948, and 1950 established the truth of the conjectures of the historians. ”

“ ATTEMPTS TO FIND THE LOST COLONY.
As the ships anchored at Hatoraske, smoke was seen rising on Roanoke Island, giving hope that the colonists were still alive. On the morning of the 16th, Governor White, Captain Cooke, Captain Spicer, and a small company set forth in two boats for Roanoke Island. En route they saw another column of smoke rising southwest of “Kindrikers mountes.” There are no mountains on this coast, except the great sand dunes. Perhaps the smoke was coming from the general area occupied today by the Nags Head dunes. ”