Calling at Roanoke

In June of 2008, our family drove across East Tennessee and the entire state of North Carolina to the Outer Banks, a whopping 12 hour drive. We made the smart decision of splitting the drive into two days, stopping in Raleigh on the first night. I had been looking forward to our vacation for about a year and could hardly stand the excitement. The next day we had almost reached our destination, but first we had to drive over the sound to Roanoke Island and then cross the sound again to get the the rest of the Outer Banks. I could write about everything we did over the course of our week, but I decided to do it in parts as a way of anticipating our trip next summer. I want to talk about Roanoke, anyway.

On the third or fourth day, we went back to Roanoke. It was by far the hottest day of the week we were at the Outer Banks, and everyone except me would rather have stayed inside our beach house's air-conditioned paradise. I persisted because I had been intrigued by the true story of the "Lost Colony" ever since I first heard it back in 8th grade American History class. The history nerd in me wouldn't pass up the chance to visit the place where it happened.

We arrived at the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, which was a in a forested area that was basically a state park. We didn't waste time in getting out of the heat and into the main building, where we browsed around until a ranger told a large group of us the story of the Roanoke colony:

In 1584, an English colonial project for North America was being planned. It was backed by the flamboyant Sir Walter Ralegh, who sent a group of explorers to search the American coastline for a suitable spot for the colony. They soon fell in love with the Outer Banks, particularly Roanoke Island. The island was protected by the barrier of the Outer Banks, which minimized the risk of attack by the Spanish, the soil was good for agriculture, and the explorers received a warm reception from the native Algonquian tribes that lived in the area. On the return voyage, they brought back two tribesmen, Manteo and Wanchese. Manteo was curious about the English way of life and worked with Thomas Harriot, an important member of Ralegh's team. He and Harriot worked together to learn each other's language.Wanchese was less eager to learn, he saw himself as a prisoner during his time in England and later deserted the colony.

For the most part, things looked hopeful for Ralegh's enterprise. A second expedition was sent to the Outer Banks in 1585. Sir Richard Grenville, who took the colonists to Roanoke, appointed Ralph Lane to be the governor. Their ship was wrecked when it tried to enter the Outer Banks through dangerously shallow waters. Nearly all of the food and farming supplies were ruined by the seawater. Despite the accident, they arrived on the island and met the chief, Wingina. The colonists were in need of food, and requested use of the tribe's food supply. Wingina obliged, but soon the extra mouths to feed, along with several violent clashes between natives and colonists, would stretch his tolerance of the English to its breaking point. He eventually planned an attack on the colonists with the goal of wiping them out entirely. Governor Lane caught wind of the planned massacre ahead of time, so he responded with a massacre of his own. The colonists' main target was Wingina himself, so they chased him into the forest and beheaded him. With the tribe practically obliterated, the threat from Wingina was gone, but so was the food supply. The colony was in an awful situation, so they jumped at the chance to return to England with Sir Francis Drake who was passing the Outer Banks on his way back from the Caribbean. It was unlucky that Sir Richard Grenville came back to Roanoke with a new food supply shortly after their departure.

Grenville left 15 soldiers at Roanoke to hold down the fort and went back to England. The Roanoke experiment was deemed a total failure by Ralegh, so he chose a new site, Chesapeake Bay. The next expedition was sent in 1587, this time led by an artist named John White. Governor White was a weak leader, so when the expedition pilot, Simon Fernandez, did not want to go to Chesapeake Bay, White tried to avoid a confrontation by handing over command of the expedition to Fernandez. The colonists were dropped off at Roanoke Island, which was 50 miles south of their planned destination. Fernandez set sail almost immediately, leaving the colonists to fend for themselves. The 15 men left by Grenville were gone, the only clue was a skeleton found near the fort. The colonists found out that they had all been killed by warriors who were the remnants of Wingina's tribe. White's daughter gave birth to a baby girl, Virginia Dare, the first English child born in North America. Things soon got worse for the colony, the food supply ran low and one of the colonists was found dead, murdered by hostile natives. The colonists unanimously decided that Governor White should return to England to request more supplies.White reluctantly agreed. Before he left, the colony planned that if they should leave Roanoke while White was away, they would carve the name of their location into a tree along with a Maltese Cross if the move was made by force.

Due to several delays, John White's return to the colony did not happen until 1590. He finally made it back to Roanoke Island to find that the colonists had disappeared. The fort had broken down and was empty, everything that had been used to build the houses was gone. Some of his possessions, which had been placed in a chest and buried for safekeeping, had been dug up and looted. Even a few of his precious watercolors had been left exposed to the weather and were ruined. The only clue left behind was a word carved into a post of the fort: CROATOAN. There was fortunately no cross. White could only assume that the colonists had gone to Croatoan Island, which was not far from Roanoke. White planned to visit Croatoan the following day, but his luck had run out. A nasty storm came up which forced his ship far enough out to sea that it wasn't worth going back to the Outer Banks. John White never tried to return again. The mystery has remained unsolved ever since.

The ranger finished telling the story. I was spellbound. I drifted over to the souvenir shop, where I bought a copy of John White's watercolor map of the Outer Banks (which is remarkably accurate). I found out later that my parents bought me Big Chief Elizabeth, which is about the Roanoke colony, and is also my all-time favorite book. Before we left Roanoke, we stopped at an oasis also known as 7-Eleven. I guess the real reason the colonists vanished was because they didn't have Slurpees!