by James Horn
FIRST CONTACT occurred three days after the English dropped anchor off Hatarask. Curious about the new arrivals, three Indians approached the ships in a boat and landed on the island. Amadas, Barlowe, and Fernandes went to meet them, and with their consent took one of the Indians back to their ship, where they gave him a shirt, hat, and some other things that “he liked very well.”
The next day several boats, bearing forty to fifty Indians, came to the island, including the chief, Granganimeo, and waited for the Englishmen to come meet them. Barlowe described the Indians as a very handsome and “goodly people” of a yellowish hue with black hair. The chief seated himself on a mat with four of his councilors next to him and the rest of his men standing some way off. When Amadas, Barlowe, and their armed guard arrived, the chief beckoned them over and invited them to sit. He welcomed them, striking his head and chest and smiling to let them know his joy at their arrival. After Granganimeo delivered a long speech, the Englishmen returned his welcome and gave him gifts to signify trade and their peaceful intentions.
Both sides were interested in trading. The English acquired deer and bison skins and the Indians various metal goods. Granganimeo was particularly delighted with a bright tin dish given to him, which he pierced at the brim and wore around his neck, “making signs, that it would defend him against his enemies’ arrows.” With an eye to attracting support from merchants for future ventures, Barlowe mentioned that they received twenty skins worth £5 for the tin dish and fifty skins worth £12.10s. for a copper kettle. Hatchets, knives, and axes also brought good returns.12
Relations with the Indians were friendly and relaxed during the first few weeks. One of Granganimeo’s wives and three or four of his children visited the ships often. His wife was described as a good-looking woman of small stature and “bashful [modest]” demeanor. She wore a leather cloak over a short deer-skin skirt, a band of white coral around her head, pearl earrings, bracelets, and a long necklace down to her waist that was made of pearls as large as peas. Granganimeo’s apparel was similar to his wife’s, but he wore a large plate of copper on his head as well as pendants in his ears. He and his wife were accompanied by forty attendants when they visited the English. No people in the world pay more respect to their chiefs than these people, Barlowe observed; their behavior was as “mannerly and civil as any of Europe.”13
2.4 John White, One of the Wives of Wingina, 1585. The painting may have been done when White visited the town of Secotan. He renders naturalistically the woman’s body paint and tattoos. Her apron-skirt is made of deer skin and her jewelry of pearls and painted bone. The wife of Granganimeo, who greeted Amadas and Barlow on Roanoke Island in 1584, was dressed similarly in a short leather skirt and wore pearls and coral around her neck.
When exploring the sounds and lands adjoining, however, the English received a very different reception. Barlowe and seven men, including Thomas Hariot, made their way to Roanoke Island, where Granganimeo lived. According to Hariot, “as soon as they saw us [the Indians] began to make a great and horrible cry, as people who never before had seen men appareled like us, and came away making out cries like wild beasts or men out of their wits.” The English called them back and showed them their trade goods—glass beads, knives, dolls, “and other trifles”—which, according to Hariot, they delighted in. Realizing the strangers were no threat, the Indians took them to their town, where the English were entertained. The incident may have been a misunderstanding; Hariot possibly misinterpreted the Indians’ behavior. But another possibility is that Hariot’s account is a more accurate description of how the English were initially viewed by the Indians, compared to the rosy version provided by Barlowe for readers in England.14
Worse was to befall Amadas and Fernandes, who had taken the pinnace to lands bordering the northern shore of Albemarle Sound. Details are sketchy, but it seems that a number of the English were killed in a skirmish with Indian warriors, forcing Amadas’s men to withdraw quickly and return to Roanoke, where they joined Barlowe. No explanation for the attack was given, but Amadas had likely stumbled into the middle of hostilities between the Secotans (Granganimeo’s people) and the Weapemeocs. The attack was a clear message to Amadas that not all peoples of the region welcomed the arrival of the English. Relations between the colonists and various Indian groups would likely be more complicated than he may have first assumed.15
By mid-August Amadas and Barlowe were ready to leave Roanoke Island. They had arranged to take two Indians back to England—Manteo, the son of the chief of the Croatoans, and a Secotan named Wanchese—and in return left two of their own men with the Indians. White, Hariot, and the two Indians sailed on board the pinnace and made a rapid crossing, arriving in Plymouth a month later. Amadas and Fernandes went cruising for Spanish prizes off the Bermudas and Azores and returned to England empty-handed in early November.
Amadas and Barlowe had good reason to be pleased with the outcome of their voyage. They had successfully navigated a route to America and discovered a bountiful land, larger than England, bordered by a mighty sea (the sounds) that enclosed scores of islands of different sizes. One island in particular might turn out to be a suitable location for the first English colony: Roanoke, ten miles long and two and a half wide, described by Barlowe as “a most pleasant and fertile ground” inhabited by peaceful Indians, the Secotans, the Englishmen’s friends and allies. Manteo and Wanchese, from whom Thomas Hariot had begun learning Algonquian on the return voyage, provided more information about the peoples of the coastal lands and to the west, including a people who inhabited a great city called Skicóak.
Most important of all, if a Spanish report of a couple of years later is to be credited, the English had picked up news from the Indians of gold and silver to be found in the interior as well as a passage to the South Sea that lay at the head of a large river called Occam. The coastal region was rich in natural resources, but possibly greater treasures beckoned inland.16
WHILE AMADAS and Barlowe had been exploring the coast of North Carolina, in London the court was aflame with talk of war with Spain. Relations with Madrid had deteriorated alarmingly over the past four years as the Catholic powers appeared to be in the ascendant once more. Early in 1580 old Cardinal Henry, king of Portugal, had died, and by the following spring Philip II, who had a strong dynastic claim to the throne, succeeded him. Spain had thereby gained control not only of strategically important Atlantic ports such as Lisbon but also of Portuguese possessions in Africa, the Far East, the Atlantic, and Brazil. Philip’s already vast empire was translated into truly global proportions, the first on which the sun never set.
Elizabeth’s ministers were also deeply concerned by developments nearer to home. In France, Henry III and his Catholic supporters were growing in strength and drawing closer to Spain. In Ireland, rebellion against English rule was spreading. And in Scotland, the overthrow of the pro-English regent, James Douglas, Earl of Morton, opened the door to the possibility of the young Scottish king, James VI (the future James I of England), falling under Catholic influence.17
But the major threat to England’s security, as well as the epicenter of conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Europe, was the Spanish Netherlands. Ever since the late 1560s, when Philip’s leading general, Don Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, third duke of Alba, had crushed opposition to Spanish rule and unleashed a reign of terror to bludgeon Protestant rebels into submission, the presence of a massive army of seasoned veterans just across the English Channel had been a constant source of concern to Elizabeth and her advisors. The Dutch had fallen victim to Spanish tyranny; the English might be next.18
During the early 1580s the crisis intensified. In 1581 Dutch Protestants rose again and declared Philip II deposed, taking as their sovereign ruler the Duke of Anjou (Elizabeth’s amorous “frog”), who was given the title “Prince and Lord” of the Netherlands. In response, the new Spanish governor-general of the Netherlands, Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, led a brilliantly successful milita
ry campaign that pushed through the southern Dutch provinces, seizing the key Flemish ports of Dunkirk and Nieuport in 1583, and Bruges and Ghent the next year. Then in July 1584 the rebel cause suffered a catastrophic blow with the murder of its charismatic leader, William of Orange, by a French assassin.
The manner of William’s death and Parma’s praise of his killer, whose “heroic action,” he wrote, was “an example to the whole world,” would not have been lost on Elizabeth’s ministers. Only the year before, the queen’s spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, had unmasked a plot to assassinate Elizabeth and place the queen’s Catholic cousin and heir, Mary, Queen of Scots, on the English throne. Orchestrated by the Spanish ambassador in London, Don Bernardino de Mendoza, with the aid of the French ambassador and an English Catholic gentleman, the plot was uncovered early and never came close to succeeding. Yet the fear of assassination lingered, and the cold-blooded murder of William, one of Europe’s foremost Protestant leaders, was another reminder of how vulnerable the English queen was. Elizabeth had escaped this time, but how long would it be before she too fell victim to an assassin’s knife or bullet?19
England and Spain were moving inexorably toward open confrontation. The quasi-war that had been fought in American waters for the last fifteen years was coming to an end. In August 1583 Philip II’s preeminent naval commander, the Marquis of Santa Cruz, had advised the king to launch a seaborne invasion directly from Spain, overthrow the “heretic woman,” and take the English throne for himself. With England in Spanish hands, Santa Cruz reasoned, the king could finally subdue the Dutch. Philip was thinking along similar lines and wrote to Parma shortly afterward to sound him out. Parma believed the king could not rely solely on English Catholics to rise in support of a force sent from Spain and argued that a powerful army of at least 34,000 men should be sent from the Netherlands. This could only be accomplished, however, after the Dutch rebels had been reduced to submission.
Philip thought both proposals had merit, and so the plan was conceived for the “enterprise of England” that combined the two: a Spanish armada would sail from Spain, secure the English Channel, and escort battalions of Parma’s army in the Netherlands to England. Elizabeth would then be deposed, and a Catholic nominee favorable to Spain would take her place. All the king had to do was be patient and wait for an opportune moment to strike.20
As the threat of a massive Spanish attack on England loomed larger in 1584, Elizabeth’s councilors urged her to take action. Diplomatic relations with Spain were severed and Mendoza was expelled early in the year. London authorities called out local militias for drill, and 4,000 men mustered before the queen at Greenwich in May. And in the fall, a Bond of Association circulated throughout the country that bound signatories by oath to put to death anyone seeking to gain the throne by harming Elizabeth. If Elizabeth was murdered by a Catholic assassin, in other words, Mary, Queen of Scots, would be put to death.
Thousands signed in an outpouring of popular sentiment for the queen that reflected a determination not to submit to a Catholic successor should she be killed. Yet whatever the strength of domestic support for Elizabeth, England had no allies in Europe other than the Dutch rebels. She remained dangerously isolated. Lord Burghley, the lord treasurer, remarked bleakly that in confronting Spain, the queen could look to “no help but her own.”21
Rather than wait to be attacked, during the winter of 1584- 1585 the queen and her ministers began to formulate a strategy to take the initiative. Convinced there could be no more prevarication in providing aid to the Dutch, Elizabeth’s government entered into negotiations with the Protestant rebels to send an English army to the Netherlands. At the same time, Sir Francis Walsingham dusted off proposals put forward by Gilbert and Ralegh several years before that involved harassing Spanish and Portuguese fishing fleets off Newfoundland, dispatching a large fleet to the West Indies, and the establishment of a colony on the North American mainland.
Along with Walsingham and the Earl of Leicester, Walter Ralegh counted himself foremost among the war party at court. Although he did not hold a formal office and was excluded from the high councils of state, his privileged position close to the queen enabled him to remain fully informed about the approaching war with Spain, a war in which he expected to play a major part. This was the moment to marry his personal ambitions with Elizabeth’s foreign policy, and as the queen’s ministers developed plans to mount a major assault on Spanish America, his proposal to plant a colony north of Florida took on greater significance.
The double-edged attack was planned on a grand scale. Sir Francis Drake would command a powerful fleet that would ransack the West Indies and Spanish Main, delivering an immediate and shattering blow to Spanish America. Ralegh would organize (but not lead) a large expedition to establish a harbor on Roanoke Island, from which English privateers could harass Spanish shipping in the Caribbean and western Atlantic, establishing a long-term English presence in the New World that would in time fatally undermine Spain’s empire.22
SINCE THE RETURN of Amadas and Barlowe to England in the fall of 1584, Ralegh had been working feverishly on arrangements to establish a colony. Recognizing that the two Indians brought back to London could play an important role in his efforts to stimulate interest in the voyage, in October he presented Manteo and Wanchese to the court along with a copy of Barlowe’s account of “Wingandacon” (as the English initially called coastal North Carolina) to Elizabeth. The Indians had been living at Durham House since their arrival, where they were taught En - glish by Thomas Hariot. Hariot, in turn, had been able to master sufficient Algonquian to have simple conversations with them.
A traveler from Pomerania, Leopold von Wedel, visited Durham House at the end of October and painted an unflattering portrait of the two Indians: “In face and figure they were like white Moors. Normally they wear no shirt, just a wild animal skin across the shoulders and a piece of fur over the privies, but now they were dressed in brown taffeta [a silky fabric]. No one,” he continued, “could understand what they said, and altogether they looked very childish and uncouth.” Manteo and Wanchese proved extremely valuable, however, in providing information about the newfound land and in raising public awareness of Ralegh’s venture.23
Given the enormous expense of the undertaking, Ralegh’s first priority was to raise as much financial support as possible from Elizabeth, the court, and London’s mercantile community. Promotional pieces by Richard Hakluyt (the lawyer) and his younger cousin of the same name explained the many benefits of American colonies to the nation and individual investors. Ralegh’s emphasis on trade was not entirely mercenary. He, like John Dee and the two Richard Hakluyts, viewed commerce as indispensable to England’s ambition to rival Spain: “This was Themistocles’ opinion long since, and it is true,” Ralegh later wrote, “that 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.”24
The younger Hakluyt played a vital role in Ralegh’s propaganda efforts. His “Discourse on Western Planting,” completed in 1584, brought together a huge amount of current information about America. Shaped into a forceful and urgent appeal for English action, the “Discourse” was intended for the queen’s and her councilors’ eyes only. Authoritative and persuasive, the “Discourse” was highly influential in government circles in summarizing opinions about how to undermine Spanish power in America and advocating the benefits of English colonization.
A recurrent theme of Hakluyt’s argument was the importance of colonies to the expansion of commerce. America, Hakluyt promised, “will yield to us all the commodities of Europe, Africa and Asia.” The New World offered a cornucopia of goods—fish, furs, hides, fruits, dyestuffs, precious minerals, timber, and naval supplies—which would supplant England’s traditional reliance on the Mediterranean and Baltic for imports. But to produce these goods, large numbers of English colonists would have to settle in America. For Hakluyt, the demand for laborers in the colonies was an advan
tage in its own right: the able-bodied poor, unemployed, and idle, an “altogether unprofitable” drain on the English economy, could be profitably put to work in the New World. England would gain doubly from the growing volume of colonial goods that could be sold in Europe and the export of home-produced goods to her American colonies.
Developing colonial trade was not the only motivation for establishing colonies. Planting English settlements in North America, Hakluyt believed, would promote the “godly and Christian work” of converting millions of Indian peoples to the “glorious gospel of Christ.” Spanish conversion of Indians showed that they could be redeemed, and he looked forward to the establishment of the Anglican Church in North America, which would serve as a counterbalance to the expansion of Catholicism in Spain’s possessions. North America would become a stronghold of Protestantism and provide a bulwark against Catholicism in the West Indies and South America.
English colonization and the erosion of Spanish power in America went hand in hand, in Hakluyt’s view. Cutting off the flow of American treasure was critical. “If you touch him in the Indies, you touch the apple of his eye,” he wrote of Philip II. By attacking the source of the king’s wealth in the New World, his armies in Europe would wither, his strength would be “diminished, his pride abated, and his tyranny utterly suppressed.”25
But perhaps the greatest prize of all for English colonists would be the discovery of fabulous wealth in North America, riches to rival or surpass those of Mexico and Peru: gold and silver mines and a passage through the continent to the Pacific Ocean. Breaking Spain’s monopoly over the New World would open up untapped riches to the English. Hakluyt wrote that the River May (St. Johns) in Florida, where Jean Ribault and the French Huguenots first settled in 1562, penetrated through the landmass to the Pacific, “from whence great plenty of Treasure is brought thither.” Indians had informed Ribault that the South Sea (Pacific) was only about twenty days away by boat. Hakluyt believed that the evidence pointing to the existence of a passage made the case for English colonization even more compelling. He therefore urged the queen to support her most willing “and forward” subjects (such as Ralegh) in planting colonies and exploring the continent.26