Big Chief Elizabeth: The Adventures and Fate of the First English Colonists in America (38 page)
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Authors: Giles Milton
BOOK: Big Chief Elizabeth: The Adventures and Fate of the First English Colonists in America
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Smith knew that news of the slaughter had to be kept secret, since it was certain to prove deeply embarrassing to King James. He, after all, was still celebrating the fact that he now had a vassal king in America. If news leaked out that Powhatan was actually a mass murderer, James would be the laughingstock of England. Smith therefore took the highly unusual precaution of sending his confidential report directly to the king, thereby circumnavigating the Virginia Company.
Powhatan had also intended his secret to remain undisclosed, for he had vowed to murder Smith that very night. But the unexpected intervention of Pocahontas caused his plans to misfire and Smith was able to escape—taking with him the news of the lost colony. But Smith remained true to his word about keeping silent, and it was more than a decade before he publicly revealed that “Powhatan confessed that hee had been at their slaughter and had divers utensils to show.” Others among King James’s courtly circle were less discreet: news of Smith’s tragic discovery was soon leaked to the Virginia Company. When colonial secretary William Strachey was sent to Jamestown in 1609, he was sufficiently intrigued to spend time and effort piecing together all the evidence. His findings, along with the other evidence, allow for a tentative reconstruction of events that occurred between the departure of John White in 1587 and the great slaughter of 1607.
It seems certain that the colonists concluded that their best
chance of survival was to split into two groups. One set—numbering, perhaps, ten or twelve men—headed for Croatoan Island to keep a lookout for the supply ships that were believed to be bringing Governor White back to America. Croatoan was an excellent place to keep watch, for its eastern coastline looked out over the Atlantic breakers and any vessel could be quickly contacted by the traditional method of fire and smoke. The main body of the colonists, meanwhile, moved to the southern shores of the Chesapeake, close to the settlement of Skicoac, where John White and Thomas Harriot had been given such a warm welcome in 1586.
chance of survival was to split into two groups. One set—numbering, perhaps, ten or twelve men—headed for Croatoan Island to keep a lookout for the supply ships that were believed to be bringing Governor White back to America. Croatoan was an excellent place to keep watch, for its eastern coastline looked out over the Atlantic breakers and any vessel could be quickly contacted by the traditional method of fire and smoke. The main body of the colonists, meanwhile, moved to the southern shores of the Chesapeake, close to the settlement of Skicoac, where John White and Thomas Harriot had been given such a warm welcome in 1586.
It is impossible to put an exact date on when the colonists moved from Roanoke, but Governor White’s journal reveals that it is likely to have occurred soon after he left for England. When he arrived back on the island in 1590, he had found the settlement “almost overgrowen with grasse and weedes”—an important piece of evidence. The houses had collapsed and his buried chests had been “long sithence digged up againe and broken up.” Indeed, his most treasured possessions had clearly spent several seasons exposed to the elements, for his “pictures and mappes [were] rotten and spoyled with rain, and my armour almost eaten through with rust.”
The colonists would certainly have wanted to establish their new settlement before the onset of winter, allowing themselves time to build their framework dwellings and clear some of the land. The presence of wives and children would have been an added stimulus for the men to prepare fields in readiness for spring. They must have been cordially welcomed by the Chesapeake tribe, who saw them as useful allies in their struggle against Powhatan, and for the next two decades the two communities appear to have lived in peace. “[For] twenty and od yeares [they] had peaceably lyved,” wrote Strachey, “and intermixed with those savadges [the Chesapeakes] and were off his [Powhatan’s] territory.”
Two decades in America would have transformed the colonists—perhaps making them more Indian than English—and they would have almost certainly intermarried with the local tribeswomen. The
writers of the 1605 play
Eastward
Hoe may not have been altogether fanciful when they claimed that “a whole country of English is there … they have married with the Indians and make them bring forth as beautiful faces as any have in England.” White’s men and women would have learned to hunt, trap, and fish—skills they did not possess when they had first arrived—and they would have given the Indians many benefits in return: smelting metal, the wheel, firearms, and the art of constructing two-storey dwellings. These formed the source of many of the rumours about the lost colonists that filtered back to Jamestown in the early years of the settlement.
writers of the 1605 play
Eastward
Hoe may not have been altogether fanciful when they claimed that “a whole country of English is there … they have married with the Indians and make them bring forth as beautiful faces as any have in England.” White’s men and women would have learned to hunt, trap, and fish—skills they did not possess when they had first arrived—and they would have given the Indians many benefits in return: smelting metal, the wheel, firearms, and the art of constructing two-storey dwellings. These formed the source of many of the rumours about the lost colonists that filtered back to Jamestown in the early years of the settlement.
It is intriguing to wonder who, among the 1587 settlers, was still alive in the year of the massacre. Virginia Dare would have been in her twentieth year and might have given birth to a number of children. Young “Harvie,” known only by his surname, would have been a similar age, and perhaps espoused to an Indian girl. The older generation would be approaching their forties—old age—but it is quite likely that many of them would still have been in robust health. America’s climate had already proved itself to be far more healthy than the damp, disease-ridden air of England.
As the years rolled on, the lost colonists would have become more and more accustomed to their new homeland. Many, perhaps, preferred life in America to England; food, after all, was plentiful, and hostility from the Indians was little more than a distant memory. Lulled into a false sense of security, they were caught completely off guard when Powhatan launched his attack—the single biggest massacre in the early history of the New World.
Strachey’s research into that massacre—and John Smith’s account of Powhatan’s confession—might have closed the case once and for all. But not all of the lost colonists were butchered on that April day in 1607. A few swift-footed survivors fled for their lives into the surrounding forest, throwing themselves on the mercy of less hostile Indians. The sensational rumours that filtered back to England—that some of them were still alive—were indeed true.
The Virginia Company was the first to take seriously these shadowy stories. Its 1608 official pamphlet,
A true and
sincere declaration,
revealed the exciting news that “some of our nation, planted by Sir Walter Ralegh, [are] yet alive, within fifty miles of our fort.” The merchants were desperate to find these colonists, aware that they could “open up the womb and bowels of this country.” They ordered a search party to be sent into the forests to track them down, and this diligent band—the first serious attempt to locate the lost colonists—came within a whisker of finding them. They only gave up when they found their path blocked by the Indians. Nevertheless, the evidence they produced was exciting. “Though denied by the savages speech with them, [they] found crosses and letters, the characters and assured testimonies of Christians cut in the barks of trees.”
A true and
sincere declaration,
revealed the exciting news that “some of our nation, planted by Sir Walter Ralegh, [are] yet alive, within fifty miles of our fort.” The merchants were desperate to find these colonists, aware that they could “open up the womb and bowels of this country.” They ordered a search party to be sent into the forests to track them down, and this diligent band—the first serious attempt to locate the lost colonists—came within a whisker of finding them. They only gave up when they found their path blocked by the Indians. Nevertheless, the evidence they produced was exciting. “Though denied by the savages speech with them, [they] found crosses and letters, the characters and assured testimonies of Christians cut in the barks of trees.”
Within a year, the Company had received further news of their survival. It was able to assure Sir Thomas Gates of their exact location, informing him that at a village called Pakerikanick, close to the Chowan River, “you will find four of the English alive, left by Sir Walter Rawley, which escaped from the slaughter of Powhatan.” They added that these men were captives, living “under the protection of a
weroance
called Gepanocon, by whose consent you will never recover them.” He was said to be holding them against their will, because he had recently discovered a rich source of copper and needed the English expertise to help him forge it into utensils and weapons.
weroance
called Gepanocon, by whose consent you will never recover them.” He was said to be holding them against their will, because he had recently discovered a rich source of copper and needed the English expertise to help him forge it into utensils and weapons.
It was unfortunate that by the time Gates arrived in Jamestown, he was not in a position to go searching for the lost colonists. His ship had been wrecked in Bermuda and he landed at the settlement to find a pitiful band of half-starved men. Not only were the lost colonists left to their fate, but Jamestown itself was abandoned.
The diligent Strachey continued to hunt for more information about these survivors, with some success. He was assured by an amicable Indian, Machumps, that the rumours were true and that proof
was to be found in the half-timbered and gabled dwellings built by the Indians, “so taught them by those English who escaped the slaughter.” He said that the four survivors held captive by Gepanocon were not the only ones to have escaped the bloody massacre. “At Ritanoe,” he said, “the
weroance
Eyanoco preserved seven of the English alive, fower men, twoo boys and one young maid, who escaped and fled up the river of Choanoke, to beat his copper, of which he hath certayn mynes at the said Ritanoe.”
was to be found in the half-timbered and gabled dwellings built by the Indians, “so taught them by those English who escaped the slaughter.” He said that the four survivors held captive by Gepanocon were not the only ones to have escaped the bloody massacre. “At Ritanoe,” he said, “the
weroance
Eyanoco preserved seven of the English alive, fower men, twoo boys and one young maid, who escaped and fled up the river of Choanoke, to beat his copper, of which he hath certayn mynes at the said Ritanoe.”
Although news of their survival had been confirmed by several different sources, there were few efforts made to recover the lost colonists in the years between 1609 and 1611. The tribes holding them hostage were too powerful, and the colonists in Jamestown were themselves in a desperate plight, stricken with famine and warfare. There was a renewed opportunity to resume the search under the regime of Sir Thomas Dale, but Dale was an unsentimental man who showed little interest in discovering the fate of John White’s colonists. Besides, by 1612, the Jamestown settlers had learned a great deal about their surrounding landscape and the new colony was beginning to find its feet. There was no longer a pressing need to locate the survivors from 1587.
Nor was there any search along the Outer Banks for the small party of colonists who were believed to have settled on Croatoan, presumably with Lord Manteo. No ships visited these desolate shores for many years. Their story remained a mystery for almost a century—a band of missing adventurers who seemed to have vanished without trace, along with the three colonists and several hundred slaves left behind by Drake and the troops left on Roanoke by Grenville. Although there was an attempt to look for them in 1619, the search parties returned with little new information. In 1622, John Smith put what seemed to be a full stop to the story when he wrote that after thirty-five years, “we left seeking our colony, that was never any of them found, nor seen to this day.”
These were almost the final words. But the tale of the lost colonists was to have an intriguing and thrilling postscript. In the
year 1701, a sober-minded surveyor of the Carolinas, John Lawson, edged his ship towards the Outer Banks and dropped anchor at Croatoan Island. As he trudged across the sand dunes to the little settlement where Manteo had been born more than a century earlier, he was astonished to find himself greeted by a band of Indians who looked quite unlike any other tribe that inhabited this stretch of coastline. Their skin was pale and their hair was light brown. A curious Lawson struck up a conversation with the amiable elders, only to be told that “several of their ancestors were white people and could talk in a book [read] as we do, the truth of which is confirmed by gray eyes being found frequently amongst these Indians and no others.” He added that “they value themselves extremely for their affinity to the English, and are ready to do them all friendly offices.” After a lengthy investigation into the history of their tribe, Lawson, a skeptical individual, nevertheless concluded that “the English were forced to cohabit with them for relief and conversation and that in the process of time they conformed themselves to the manners of their Indian relations.”
year 1701, a sober-minded surveyor of the Carolinas, John Lawson, edged his ship towards the Outer Banks and dropped anchor at Croatoan Island. As he trudged across the sand dunes to the little settlement where Manteo had been born more than a century earlier, he was astonished to find himself greeted by a band of Indians who looked quite unlike any other tribe that inhabited this stretch of coastline. Their skin was pale and their hair was light brown. A curious Lawson struck up a conversation with the amiable elders, only to be told that “several of their ancestors were white people and could talk in a book [read] as we do, the truth of which is confirmed by gray eyes being found frequently amongst these Indians and no others.” He added that “they value themselves extremely for their affinity to the English, and are ready to do them all friendly offices.” After a lengthy investigation into the history of their tribe, Lawson, a skeptical individual, nevertheless concluded that “the English were forced to cohabit with them for relief and conversation and that in the process of time they conformed themselves to the manners of their Indian relations.”
It was a remarkable discovery, for it revealed that the small group of White’s colonists who had ensconced themselves on Croatoan had also survived their long years of abandonment. Isolated, helpless, and utterly dependent on Manteo’s kinsmen, they had eventually tired of gazing forlornly at the horizon, hoping for a glimpse of the flag of St. George. England’s promise of a relief ship had proved hollow, and these men realised that they were doomed to see out their days on a remote and desolate spit of sand—far from their families and loved ones. Abandoned by the Old World, they eventually sought solace in the New—seeking comfort with the Indians and forging ever closer ties until the idea of intermarriage was no longer as shocking as it must have seemed all those years before. Here, on Croatoan Island, the first fruits of their union were born—the mixed-blood descendants of Ralegh’s failed experiment. Deprived of contact with England for almost a century, these children grew up knowing only that their fathers had come from a strange and faraway land.
Lawson’s discovery was the final word on the lost colony. It was a haunting end to the story, and one that still echoes to this day on the wild, windswept Outer Banks. When, in 1998, an Elizabethan gold signet ring was unearthed in the sandy soil close to the site of Manteo’s village, there was great excitement in the local community. Four centuries after John White’s family and colonists set sail, a new generation of Americans remains captivated by the ghosts of Sir Walter Ralegh’s brave, foolhardy, and ultimately doomed settlers.
Ralegh himself kept the lost colonists in his thoughts and prayers until his dying day. After a disastrous expedition to Guiana, in which his soldiers broke King James’s express command to avoid conflict with the Spanish, Sir Walter limped home to face his execution. As he prepared to lay his head on the block on that grim October day in 1618, he positioned himself so that he was facing west, towards America, instead of the customary east. When an onlooker asked if he would not prefer to lie in the direction of the promised land, he gave a wry smile. “So the heart be right,” he said, “it is not matter which way the head lieth.”
A few seconds later, the executioner’s axe sliced through the chill air and Ralegh’s silver-haired head fell to the ground. It was held up to the crowd, but the axeman refused to utter the traditional words: “Behold, the head of a traitor.” Instead, one of the onlookers called out a more appropriate epitaph: “We have not another such head to be cut off.”
Fifteen years after the death of the Virgin Queen, and more than three decades after Manteo was first introduced to the court, the Elizabethan age had finally come to an end. It was Sir Walter Ralegh who had made possible its lasting and crowning achievement: the establishment of England’s first permanent settlement on the far side of the Atlantic. It was the dawning of modern America.
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