I
just OD’d on miniature tootsie rolls, and now I’m brewing the universal
antidote, Good Earth tea with milk and sugar (I know, I know). Don’t tell me you’ve never OD’d on candy. It
feels so good while you’re eating it – piece after piece. It’s so easy to
digest. That’s the reason my doctor gave for my attraction to candy – after one
intestinal problem after another, I found the perfectly digestible food group –
candy. And I’m indulging myself – why? The Admiral is on his way to the Royals
victory parade. Hope it’s not premature. When the Admiral is gone, even for
only a day, I fall back into wicked ways of eating candy, shoveling in cold
cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner and staying up all night reading. How
did I survive so many years without the Admiral? A lot of you have probably
been asking the same question. Perhaps it was my maniacal devotion to work –
prosecution 24/7. Or the adrenalin rushes of escaping gangland execution or
murder by Seaside drug dealers (same thing, actually). By the time the Admiral
came along, it was clearly time for a transition to a more balanced life. And
the move from being stuck in 5th gear to doing everything in (and
on) Slow Motion has been remarkably withdrawal-free and painless. And so, if
you are a dedicated workaholic devoted to saving the world one crime victim at
a time, there is hope for you. No, I’m not going to share the Admiral with you,
much as he might enjoy that. Find your own Admiral. And get back into balance –
try yoga, tai chi, a dog, long walks, fresh fruits and vegetables, visits with
family and friends, travel. Oh yes, travel – that has been my avenue to a
better life. There is also a strong belief among some of my friends that the
arrival of grandchildren can give you more balance, as well as a lot of pure
joy. Life is short. Find out what you enjoy doing more than anything else in
the world, and DO IT (unless it’s unhealthy like eating too much candy).
Balance, my friend, balance is the key.
The
tea is working. My thoughts have turned from powdered sugar to the history of
the Lost Colony on Roanoke Island. With the rain flying out of the sky and
pummeling Slow Motion, it’s a great time to recount this part of North American
history. For my birthday, the Admiral drove us to the Outer Banks, where we
spent two days and nights right on the Atlantic Ocean – only a very high sand
dune separated us from the pounding surf at the Shutters Motel in Kill Devil
Hills. This was our second trip to the OBX; on the first foray, a day trip, we
were so busy exploring the Life Saving Service Stations and the Hatteras
Lighthouse that we had no time left to visit Roanoke Island. On Columbus Day, a
fitting holiday for my personal exploration of America, I made up for that
oversight. Spoiler alert – I did not find the Lost Colony. But read on to find
out what I did learn about the Roanoke recluses of the late 1500’s. For the
squeamish, there is a beheading in this story, but no video of it. And you may
be surprised by what “barbarians” did the beheading. Here we go – back in time!
Speaking
of Columbus, he had advanced Spain’s claims to most of the “New World” as he
sailed west hoping to bump into India. By the end of the 1500’s Spain was
raking in gold and silver from its colonies in the Caribbean and Central and
South America. And that’s what it was all about – finding these precious metals
and getting rich! The English considered themselves pretty good explorers, but
they weren’t finding the figurative “pots of gold” at the end of their jaunts
to the New World. And tiny Portugal was outshining them in the discovery and
exploitation of new lands. Indeed, the Portuguese began the “Age of
Exploration” with their exploration of the Azores, Madeira and the African
Coast in the early 15th century. Portuguese ship captain Bartolomeu
Dias rounded the southern tip of Africa in 1488, nearly a century before the
Roanoke Colony was even a gleam in Walter Raleigh’s eye.
In 1497, after Columbus had made several voyages
of exploration, Italian explorer John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) was commissioned
by Henry VII of England to sail across the Atlantic in search of a shorter
route to the West Indies. This was England’s first big effort to get into the
“game” (the search for gold in the New World). Caboto landed somewhere near
Newfoundland, not known for its gold mines. Oh well. As a navigator, I feel his
pain. Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese navigator sailing under Spanish
auspices, had much greater success, as he found a way to the Pacific Ocean in
1519 – through the eponymous Strait of Magellan. (There! I finally used
“eponymous” in a sentence.) Seriously, in the 15th century, except
for the exploitations and explorations of Englishman Francis Drake, the Spanish
and Portuguese ruled the seaways between Europe and the Americas. The Dutch
started moving in on these two superpowers in the late 15th century
and certainly came into their own during the 80 Years War (1568 – 1648) with
Spain. Also known as the Dutch War of Independence, the 80 Years War certainly
tops both Iraq and Afghanistan for longevity, also for results. At its
conclusion, the Dutch Republic was freed of the rule of Spain and was
recognized as an independent nation.
But
back to the English – Sir Francis Drake wasn’t always revered. In fact, the
Spanish and Portuguese governments and their navies hated him. He was a “privateer”,
a nice word for pirate. He hung around the ports where the Spanish and
Portuguese were bringing the gold from Peru, and he stole it whenever he could.
Oh sure, he did some exploring as well – probably when he was forced to flee
from his many enemies. In the Pelican, later renamed the Golden Hind, he sailed
up the California Coast and claimed the entire West Coast for England, dubbing
it New Albion. No one knows for sure where he landed – it’s still a big secret
– but Marin County swears he landed somewhere along their coast. For some
reason the date of his landing, June 17, 1579, is not in dispute. While the
dreaded Drake was plying the waters of the Pacific and ultimately
circumnavigating the globe, back home in England, a plan was brewing to send
English citizens to colonize the New World. Again, the motive was greed. These
efforts predated the cross-Atlantic journey of the Puritans to escape religious
persecution. In the immortal, money-grubbing words of Sir Walter Raleigh: “he
that commands the sea, commands the trade, and he that is lord of the trade of
the world is lord of the wealth of the world.” Oh, and you’ll love his mission
statement: “To seek New Worlds for Gold, for Praise, for Glory.” What did
Elizabeth I see in this guy?
According
to the narrative at the National Park Service’s Fort Raleigh Historic Site on
Roanoke Island, Elizabeth I was in need of a “big win” to maintain her
popularity. England was inferior to Spain in every way that counted to an
empire builder. Sir Walter Raleigh easily convinced her that a colony in the
New World would provide England (and the Queen herself) power, prestige and
wealth. Naturally, Raleigh wasn’t just in this endeavor to help the Queen – he
intended to amass a personal fortune from this venture as well. How noble!
Raleigh’s persuasive skills not only moved the Queen to back him, but also
helped him enlist London citizens to make the difficult transatlantic trip of
several months to become the first English colonists. By 1584 he had signed up
a captain and a co-captain for two ships and a crew of 80 men. This was basically the scouting party
for the first of 3 expeditions, called the Roanoke Voyages. Captain Arthur
Barlowe took the lead. Philip Amadas was the other ship’s captain. This
intrepid group explored the Outer Banks and determined that Roanoke Island
looked inhabitable. Barlowe was assigned to report his findings to Raleigh. He
wrote, in part, the following: “We found it To be a Most Pleasant and Fertile
Ground, Replenished With Goodly Cedars and Diverse Other Sweet Woods Full of
Currants, Of Flax, And Many Other Notable Commodities…The Soil is The Most
Plentiful, Sweet, Fruitful, And Wholesome of the Whole World.” Barlowe went
from sea captain to realtor in record time – think he wanted to keep his job?
Of
course, Roanoke Island was habitable, you 16th century idiots! Duh!
It was already inhabited by native Americans who had first moved to this area in
600 to 900 CE (common era). They were part of the Carolina Algonquian group.
Algonquians populated the entire Atlantic Coast from Carolina to Canada. The
subset of Carolina Algonquians who lived on Roanoke Island and the mainland
were known as Roanoc – get it? The entire Outer Banks area, called Ossomocomuck
by the Carolina Algonquians, had been the home of this group of native
Americans for a long time. They survived by hunting, farming and fishing. They
fished in the summer, planted squash, beans, corn and other crops which they
harvested in the fall. And they hunted in the winter months. “Where does the
gold come in?”, you may well ask. Roanoke Island was not Peru – no huge
civilization like the Incas. And it was not full of gold mines. But it did
provide a place that was defensible, from which it was believed that English
ships (privateers) could attack Spanish and Portuguese ships returning to
Europe laden with gold and silver from their South American colonies. Clearly,
the Brits in the 1584 crossing had not experienced the horrendous storms that
regularly torment the Outer Banks, giving them the moniker “Graveyard of the
Atlantic.”
To
his credit, Barlowe developed a keen interest in the Native Americans who were
living where he landed on Roanoke Island. He wrote about them in some detail,
particularly the Secotan subset of the Carolina Algonquians, with whom he had
the most contact. The Secotan leader at the time, Wingina (called a wereoance
or chief), tried to get Barlowe to side with him and his tribe against their
rivals, the Neusiok tribe, who lived at the mouth of the Neuse River. Wingina’s
group had tried to form a lasting peace with the Neusiok, and they agreed to
get together for a feast to celebrate their arrangement to coexist. However,
the Neusiok used the gathering as an opportunity to ambush and kill all the
Secotan men attending the feast. Wingina wanted Barlowe to retaliate with an
ambush of the Neusiok. Barlowe wouldn’t do it. But he apparently liked Wingina
and the Secotans so much that he took two Secotan men, Manteo and Wanchese,
back to England with him. This is odd, but true. Manteo is identified in
Wikipedia as a Croatan Indian. He is credited with helping the English through
the harsh winter of 1585 when they arrived too late to plant crops and build up
a store for winter. He actually went to England twice, in 1584 and 1585, then
returned to Roanoke Island in 1587 with the third Roanoke Voyage group led by
Governor John White. But now we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Back to Barlowe’s
first expedition in 1584.
Raleigh
was so stoked by Barlowe’s report that he himself wanted to lead the next
expedition, the colonizing one, to Roanoke. He came to his senses, however, and
hired Sir Richard Grenville, his cousin, and Ralph Lane, an equerry and officer
of Queen Elizabeth’s household staff, to take 8 ships with 600 men – 300
sailors and 300 soldiers and “specialists” – back to the Outer Banks. Grenville
himself was a scientist. It was relatively easy to recruit warm bodies for the
adventure, given the living conditions in London at the time. According to the
National Park Service narrative, “London in the 1580’s was crowded and polluted
and opportunities were limited. [Hm – sounds like the East Coast today] Sir
Walter Raleigh recruited young, middle-class men and women with promises of
social mobility and land grants of at least 500 acres each in the New World.”
Let’s see – eke out a subsistence living in squalor and filth rubbing elbows
with your neighbor OR be the lord of 500 acres of land in an unpolluted country
with boundless opportunities. If you didn’t get seasick, it was a steal of a
deal – a no-brainer. Plus, Barlowe’s description of the lushness and richness
(emphasis on “rich”) of the New World – along with the exotic, yet friendly,
presence of Manteo and Wanchese – was the talk of London. Everyone who was
anyone – and everyone who was not – wanted to join the next expedition to the
wondrous New World.
The
name of the area “discovered” by Barlowe, Ossomocomuck, did not resonate with
Raleigh or his Queen. So, just as she rewarded him with a knighthood for
Barlowe’s successful recon visit, he honored Elizabeth I by renaming the
Algonquian settlements “Virginia”. Who knew better than Sir Walter that
Elizabeth was still a virgin? For some reason, the Queen really liked the name –
an inside joke? Anyway, the name “Virginia” stuck for quite some time, although
North Carolinians chafe at the notion that Roanoke Island was ever considered a
part of their northern neighbor.
The
second Roanoke Voyage was dominated by soldiers and scientists. This was not a
group of colonizers so much as a group sent to gather more information on the
resources available in “Virginia” and to hold the Native Americans at bay,
while at the same time depending on their largesse to make it through the
winters. Permanent housing was not built by the men on this second expedition.
They built a fort. They had arrived too late (August 17, 1585) to plant crops,
and they had not brought enough supplies to last through the winter months, so
they were indeed relying on “the kindness of strangers”, namely the Roanoc
tribes, the Secotans and Croatans and other Native American subsets. Manteo and
Wanchese returned to “Virginia” with the second group. Manteo had become fluent
in English and was indispensable as an interpreter for the English with the
tribal leaders. It’s not surprising that some of his Native American brothers
looked at him as a traitor, but for the most part he played a key role upon the
arrival of Grenville’s group in communicating with the local Native Americans
and garnering support for the English.
However,
Manteo could not overcome the boorishness or stupidity of Ralph Lane, who was
put in charge of the fort the English built, while Grenville returned to England.
Grenville promised to return in April, 1586 with more men and new supplies. One
of Lane’s assignments before being military governor of Fort Raleigh was
“commissioner of piracy” in 1571. This is hard to believe, but the British
Government fostered piracy against the Spanish and Portuguese ships, and when
the English pirates, such as Francis Drake, stole the loot from these ships,
the British Government was cut in on the proceeds. With his background working
with pirates, Lane was not suited to the diplomatic niceties required to
establish and strengthen good relations with the Native Americans, upon whose
territory he had intruded. With Manteo’s help, Lane made contact with Chief
Wingina and other local Native Americans. However, according to historians,
Lane treated them with “suspicious harshness; on several occasions the
colonists kidnapped Indians to extract supplies or information.”
Even
though his group of 107 “settlers” was at times totally dependent on the
generosity of the Native American tribes, Lane continuously took actions
hostile to them. At first believing information from Chief Wingina that inland
tribes, particularly the Chowanocs, were planning to destroy the English, Lane
led a troop of soldiers inland to take military action against them. He took the
Chowanoc tribal chief and his son as hostages, and that chief, Menatonon, and
his son, Skiko, told him that Wingina was the one to fear. Based on nothing but
that chief’s word (a chief who was trying to get out of custody of the English),
Lane decided that Wingina was involved in a “conspiracy” to bring down the
English. Since there are no written records prepared by Native Americans of the
second arrival of the English on Roanoke Island, historians have only the
journals written by the British scribes, who expressed suspicion regarding the
motives of all the local Native Americans. Why? I can’t tell you. Here were
these folks providing the English much needed food and other supplies, when
they could have overrun them with their far superior numbers. Oh yes, the
English had better weapons and they had brought their diseases to “share” with
the Native Americans, ultimately decimating their population. Still, there is
no record, even by the English, of any attacks on the British fort by Chief Wingina
or any other local tribe leaders. Indeed, one reliable journalist among the English,
Thomas Harriot, an expert navigator, naturalist and language specialist,
reported that “relations between the Roanoke Indians and the English settlers
were mutually calm and prosperous.” (A Brief and True Report of the New Found
Land of Virginia, by Thomas Harriot, first published in 1588).
Whether
Chief Wingina was trying to get the Brits to help him subdue his rivals, or
whether Chief Menatonon and Skiko were
trying to get the Brits to go after Wingina’s tribe, we have no way of knowing
for sure. However, one thing we do know is that Lane gave the order to his
soldiers to kill Chief Wingina. Wingina had withdrawn
his tribe from Roanoke Island to the western banks of the Croatan Sound, a
place called Dasemunkepeuc (easy for you to say). He had intended to deny
further supplies to the English. That is probably the real reason for Lane’s
order to kill him, not a concern that Chief Wingina was planning to attack. At
any rate, in the summer of 1586 the English attacked Chief Wingina’s tribe, and
Wingina was shot by Philip Amadas. He managed to run into the woods, but a
young Irish servant of Lane named Edward Nugent pursued the Chief into the
woods and when he found him, he beheaded him. Nugent even carried Chief
Wingina’s head out of the woods to display his handiwork. Wonder if the
non-Islamic non-State reads British history. They certainly did not invent
barbarism – the English were centuries ahead of them in committing barbarous
murders to advance their own agenda. You can read about the beheading of Chief
Wingina in the book, “The Head in Edward Nugent’s Hand”, by Michael Oberg. Funny
how the English colonists are never referred to as the “Savages”. Lane’s group
earned that moniker.
One
interesting footnote: Prior to the English assault which led to his beheading,
Chief Wingina had changed his name to Chief Pemisapan. It apparently was not
unusual for Native Americans to change their names, according to sources I have
read, especially when they foresaw a momentous change in their lives. The new
name, Pemisapan, meant “one who vigilantly watches.” His new name said it all: Chief
Pemisapan had decided to keep his distance from the English so as to better
observe them and to protect his people from them. Sadly, the bellicose English
did not leave him or his tribe alone. Whatever else you remember from this
lengthy summary of the Roanoke Voyages, remember that Chief Wingina/Pemisapan
did not deserve to die at the merciless hands of the English.
The British
contingent on Roanoke Island had proved far better at killing than planting and
harvesting crops. They had waited in vain for Grenville’s return, scheduled for
April 1586. They attacked The Secotans that summer, and soon thereafter, they
were offered the chance to flee from Roanoke Island. Their savior? None other
than the renowned English pirate, Francis Drake, who had sailed to Roanoke in
hopes of finding a good place from which to launch surprise attacks upon
gold-laden Spanish ships. Lane and his lot begged for a return trip to English,
and Drake obliged. Lane’s group left behind a fort, but the remains have never
been located. “Fort Raleigh” at the National Historic Site is comprised solely
of some raised earthen works where Lane’s fort is believed to have been built. Just
two weeks after Lane and his group escaped from Roanoke Island, Grenville’s
ships finally showed up with more supplies – and found no one. Grenville left
behind 15 men to “hold down the fort” and returned to England. As if Lane’s
stay on Roanoke Island weren’t disastrous enough, what with his unjustified
murder of Chief Pemisapan, he and his men returned to England with tobacco and
introduced that filthy weed to British society, along with the benign crops of
corn and potatoes.
Needless to
say, Sir Walter Raleigh was not happy with the abrupt return of Ralph Lane and
most of his men from Roanoke. I’m just wondering if he was filled in on the
beheading of the first Native American to welcome the English to their land. Or
maybe Lane and his men kept that dirty little secret from Raleigh. Given that
Manteo – loyal, steadfast Manteo – was still helping the English, it is hard to
believe that the gory details were shared with him about his fellow Native American’s
fate. Somehow Raleigh overcame his initial anger and proceeded to round up
another willing group of colonists to ship back to Roanoke to establish a
“permanent” settlement. He recruited 117 settlers, comprised of men, women and
children for the first time. Among the would-be colonists were John White, who
was a noted painter and who had made the Second Voyage to Roanoke with
Glenville and Lane. White’s daughter, Eleanor Dare, pregnant and all, and her
husband, Ananias Dare, were also in this star-crossed group. Yes, you’re
getting ahead here – Virginia Dare was their daughter, the first English child
born and baptized in the New World. And, of course, what voyage to Roanoke
would be complete without Manteo? Sure enough, he hopped on one of the ships for
his 2nd or 3rd return to Ossomocomuck, er, Virginia. John
White was appointed Governor of the City of Raleigh (ego control, Walter?). And
off the merry group went to their bright futures in the New World.
And the rest
is history, as they say. It was not at all like Caesar’s “Veni, Vidi, Vici”. Oh
no. It was more like, “They came, they saw, they vanished.” They arrived July
22, 1587, Virginia Dare was born shortly thereafter, Governor White returned to
England (August 27, 1587), and sometime after that the entire colony
disappeared into thin air. That is why there are thousands upon thousands of
pages written by historians about “The Lost Colony.” That is why, to this day,
archeologists are searching Roanoke Island and the shore around the island for
any bones, any artifacts – anything to indicate that the 100 plus men, women
and children died in the area. The scientists have already determined that 1587,
1588 and 1589 were the worst drought years in 800 years on the island – this
would lend itself to the theory that the colonists starved to death. But where
are their bones? And would they just remain in the same location, knowing that
they could not survive without rain water? Or did they move off the island and
intermingle with Native American tribes to save their lives? Throughout the
years, stories have emerged of blue-eyed or gray-eyed Native Americans and of
Native Americans with the same last names as some of the colonists. But there
is nothing definitive about these stories.
The members of
the “Lost Colony” were not the first Roanoke settlers to disappear without a
trace. Remember the 15 men who stayed behind when Lane and the rest of his crew
hightailed it to English with Drake? None of them was found by Governor White,
upon their arrival in 1587. Bones for one of the fifteen were allegedly found,
according to White, but who determined that conclusively? White also wrote
gratuitously that “the Savages” had slain the person, whose bones were found.
Not so fast, Governor. We already know who the real savages were on Roanoke,
and they weren’t Native Americans. Perhaps knowing how savagely Lane and his
men had treated Chief Wingina and his tribe, Governor White naturally assumed
that the Native Americans had retaliated. But there is no evidence of that. However,
White and his fellow colonists were rather foolish to try to settle so close to
the area where their English predecessors had killed the very people who had
tried to help them. The original plan for the Third Voyage was to settle on
land further north on the Chesapeake, but for a number of reasons – weather,
the recalcitrance of the ship’s captain – they ended up in nearly the same
place that Lane had deserted the year before. In hindsight, that was a colossal
mistake.
Governor White
left his charges ostensibly to get necessary supplies for them. He was supposed
to do a quick turnaround – go to England, get the supplies and rush back to
Roanoke. Not. The first time he tried to send ships back to Roanoke, in the
spring of 1588, the captains decided it was a far better idea to try to capture
some Spanish ships they came upon crossing the Atlantic. The English ships that
tried this maneuver were themselves captured by the Spanish, so no supplies
made it to Roanoke in 1588. When White tried to muster some more ships to make
the crossing, the Spanish Armada intervened. The Anglo-Spanish War went into
high dudgeon, and there were no ships to spare for a return to Roanoke.
Finally, when things settled down a bit in 1590, Governor White was able to
return on a privateering vessel – 3 years later! – with supplies for his
colonists, including his daughter and grand-daughter. Governor White landed on
Roanoke Island on August 18, 1590, his granddaughter’s 3rd birthday.
The sound of silence was deafening. Not a trace of anyone, and no sign of
struggle whatsoever. The word “Croatoan” was carved into a fence post and the
word “Cro” was carved into a tree. Thinking it was possible that the whole
colony moved to Croatoan Island (now known as Hatteras Island), White intended
to search for them there. However, a huge storm prevented his men from heading
there, and they left. Yes, they left without looking for their fellow colonists
in Hatteras Island.
I know what
you’re thinking – this doesn’t stop the archeologists from looking for their
remains on Hatteras Island, does it? Technically, it doesn’t. However, I don’t
know of any such ongoing archeological project. And as one jaded Fort Raleigh
Historic Site ranger put it: “These colonists did not die with gold in their arms.”
He took the somewhat skeptical view that archeologists are more likely to
search for the remains of wealthy cadavers buried with valuable metals and
precious stones than to search for starving, impoverished settlers who were
abandoned even by their own kin. The ranger may be right on this one. There is
not a great deal of money being expended on poking around Roanoke Island to
look for the remains of The Lost Colony.
Had
enough? I did. I drove straight from Fort Raleigh’s meager landscape to the
lush terrain of the Elizabethan Gardens just a stone’s throw away. The Garden
Club of North Carolina has been very, very busy. They have created ten acres of
pure bliss. I wore a bright pink top and yellow butterflies flocked to me as
soon as I entered the Gardens. I can only imagine what spring would be like
along the rhododendron and azalea paths. In October there were still plenty of
flowers – roses, hydrangeas, camellias – to ooh and aah over. Whenever you
visit the Outer banks, get thee to the Elizabethan Gardens and your mind will
be assuaged, your soul will be filled. Fort Raleigh – not so much.
