White must have been keenly aware of this dilemma when he found the “Croatoan” carvings at Roanoke, but he gave no hint of it in his journal. On the contrary, as previously noted, only five days after taking the soundings at Croatoan and just one day after the excursion to Kindrikers mountes, he wrote that he “greatly ioyed that I had safely found a certaine token of their safe being at Croatoan.” Given the contact opportunities at Croatoan and Kindrikers mountes over the previous four days, especially the proximity of the soundings location to the Croatoan village indicated on White’s own maps, not to mention the colony’s expressed intention to settle at a location on the mainland and not the barrier islands, it is difficult to understand the seemingly unwavering assurance expressed in his published account that his colony was safe at Croatoan in 1590.
Unless White was afflicted with a severe case of wishful thinking, there is one logical explanation for White’s insistence—despite his awareness of all the evidence to the contrary—that the colony was safe at Croatoan in 1590: the preservation of Raleigh’s 1584 Charter. As mentioned earlier, the charters granted by English sovereigns provided the legal entitlement for colonizing the New World, but they were contingent upon actually establishing colonies and otherwise expired after a set term of years. Raleigh’s charter, granted by Queen Elizabeth and issued on March 25, 1584, was titled:
THE LETTERS PATENTS, GRANTED BY THE QUEENES MAIESTIE TO M. WALTER RALEGH NOW KNIGHT, FOR THE DISCOVERING AND PLANTING OF NEW LANDS AND COUNTRIES, TO CONTINUE THE SPACE OF 6. YEERES AND NO MORE.18
The charter, portions of which are excerpted here, conferred…
to our trustie and welbeloued seruant Walter Ralegh, Esquire, and to his heires and assignes … free libertie and licence … to discouer, search, finde out, and view such remote, heathen and barbarous lands, countreis, and territories, not actually possessed of any Christian Prince, nor inhabited by Christian People … [to] goe or trauaile thither to inhabite or remaine, there to build and fortifie … [to] haue, take, and leade in the saide voyage, and trauaile thitherward, or to inhabit there with him, or them, and euery or any of them, such and so many of our subjects as shall willingly accompanie him or them…. And further that the said Walter Ralegh … shall haue, holde, occupie, and enioye to him, his heires and assignes … all the soile of all such landes, territories, and Countreis, so to bee discouered and possessed … where the saide Walter Ralegh, his heires, or assignes, or any of them, or his, or their or any of their associates or company, shall within sixe yeeres (next ensuing) make their dwellings or abidings….19 (Underlining added.)
The “sixe yeeres” limitation of this charter would commence on the “next ensuing” year giving Raleigh a total of seven years to establish a permanent settlement. Unless such a permanent colony was established, his charter would expire in 1591. It will be recalled that Raleigh certainly wasted no time in this effort. On April 27, 1584, he sent the Amadas/Barlowe expedition followed by the 1585 Grenville/Lane colonization effort at Roanoke. It should be noted, by the way, that for the expressed purpose of perpetuating Raleigh’s Roanoke claim, Grenville left the contingent of men there upon his return in 1586 when he discovered that Lane and the 1585 colonists had unexpectedly abandoned the island. Establishing and maintaining a continuing territorial claim was of vital importance to the terms of Raleigh’s charter.
The year 1587 should have been a banner one for Raleigh’s colonization efforts. If all had gone according to plan, Raleigh would have had two permanent domains in the New World. The first of these was the original claim at Roanoke. On August 13, 1587, “by the commandement of Sir Walter Ralegh,” the loyal Croatoan Indian Manteo was baptized into the Church of England and appointed Lord of Roanoke and Dasamonguepeuk “in reward of his faithfull seruices.”20 This was more than just a meaningless gesture of generosity. Manteo became a titled baron, an English peer, and lord of the realm of Roanoke and Dasamonguepeuk, thereby becoming one of Raleigh’s “assigne[e]s” in accordance with the provisions in the royal charter. Raleigh’s second and more important domain in the New World, the “Cittie of Ralegh,” was originally intended to be located at the Chesapeake Bay in 1587.
By the time White was finally able to return in 1590, Raleigh’s colonization efforts had virtually crumbled, and consequently his royal charter was in jeopardy of expiring. The Chesapeake location had been eliminated in 1587 because the Spanish were searching there for the English at that time. The whereabouts of the colony was unknown. Roanoke had been abandoned, not only by the 1587 colony, but also by the Indians, including Lord Manteo, whose titled domain included Roanoke. Despite the messages left at Roanoke, it was evident that by 1590 Croatoan had also been abandoned. For the moment it appeared that Raleigh had no territorial claim whatsoever in the New World, without which his 1584 charter would soon expire.
The only way to prevent the expiration of that charter was to provide evidence of the survival and location of the 1587 colony, neither of which had been determined by the 1590 voyage. To the contrary, as explained above, White must have realized that the colony could not have been at Croatoan in the summer of 1590, and yet his account states in no uncertain terms that the colony was indeed alive and well at that location. It is quite plausible, then, that White’s account intentionally misrepresented the significance of the “CROATOAN” carvings to provide evidence of the colony’s continued existence and location, thereby preventing the termination of Raleigh’s charter.
It is unclear when, and actually by whom, this deception would have been conceived and incorporated into White’s account, but Raleigh certainly could have had a hand in it. The final draft of White’s account of the 1590 voyage was obviously completed after his return to England and almost certainly after reporting directly to Raleigh. It is not inconceivable that Raleigh either personally edited, or directed the editing of, the final published version of the account for the purpose of extending his charter and preserving his rights and interests in Virginia. Had the truth been known, Raleigh’s charter would have expired, since the colony had already ceased to exist. As proposed, at least part of the Lost Colonists had made a failed attempt to reach Newfoundland in 1588 or 1589, and possibly just a few of the remaining colonists survived the hurricane of September 1589. The mainland settlement had been eradicated and the planting fields on the Outer Banks had been contaminated. The few Lost Colonist survivors, along with some of the coastal Indians, were somewhere on the mainland in the summer of 1590.
A somewhat subtle point to be made about the account itself, written after the voyage, is its subdued tone, its lack of urgency regarding the colonists. As mentioned above, virtually all of the interest in this voyage has been focused on White’s commentary regarding the events of just four days, from the morning of August 16 to the 19th, but this needs to be put into some perspective. The 1590 voyage lasted seven months, from March 20 until October 24. For the first five months—from March 20 until August 15, when the Hopewell finally anchored off Hatorask at Roanoke—White’s account is taken up entirely with the details of their travels through the Canaries, the first landfall at Dominica, and the many encounters with various ships as they wound their way through the Caribbean. It seems odd that White made no mention whatsoever of the colonists at all, neither his intention to locate them nor his expectations about finding them, during the entire first half of the account, until the evening of August 15, when they mistook smoke “in the Ile Raonoak neere the place where I left our Colony in the yeere 1587.”21 His apparent indifference may have been a reflection of his true belief that the colonists were not at Croatoan and were indeed lost.
White’s claim regarding the agreement to winter in the Caribbean and return to Croatoan in the spring of 1591 is also rather impassive. According to White, Captain Cooke and the entire crew of the Hopewell agreed on August 19 to sail either to Hispaniola, St. John, or Trinidad, and “returne to visit our countreymen at Virginia”22 after spending the winter in the Caribbean. The master of the Moonli
ght, however, informed Captain Cooke that he was unable to accompany them due to the Moonlight’s poor condition and would sail directly to England. Cooke then “set his course for Trynidad,” as planned, “which course we kept two dayes.”23 The colonists were never mentioned again in the account. On August 28 the winds changed, and White wrote, “wee were driuen to change our first determination for Trynidad, and stoode for the Ilands of Açores [Azores],”24 some 2,500 miles northwest of the Caribbean. On September 19 they arrived at Flores in the Azores, where White described in great detail the various English ships and men-of-war assembled there and the Spanish prizes they had seized in the Caribbean. They remained with the English fleet for a week, during which White’s account described the meetings with some of the captains and their plans to intercept the Spanish treasure ships returning from the Caribbean. On September 27 “wee tooke our leaue of the Admirall and the whole fleete,” and soon set sail for England, where on October 24 “we came in safetie, God be thanked, to an anker at Plymmouth.”25
After the brief reference to the colonists on August 19 when the Hopewell left Roanoke, White’s account did not include another word about them. Nothing else was mentioned regarding the plan to return to Croatoan in the spring, and no regret or concern about the colonists was noted in his account. As suggested, perhaps White’s indifferent attitude may be taken as a further indication that he knew no one awaited him at Croatoan in August of 1590.
As mentioned above, most Lost Colony authors and historians have focused exclusively on just the morning of August 16 to August 19 of the seven-month voyage, and have assumed one of two scenarios. The first and less plausible of the two is that the Lost Colonists relocated from Roanoke directly to Croatoan, and that White would have been reunited with them if only he had sailed there in 1590. This theory ignores all the previously discussed reasons that Croatoan could not have been their relocation destination in 1587–88. The second scenario is that the Lost Colonists split into two groups, the primary group going on to the mainland settlement location, and the smaller group going to Croatoan to await White’s return. Quinn, for example, postulated that the main group relocated to their originally intended destination at the Chesapeake—a theory flawed in itself—while a smaller group waited for White at Croatoan. As discussed earlier, there were likely a few colonists waiting for White at Croatoan in 1588, but all theories that have the main group of colonists settled far to the west or north of Roanoke seem highly improbable.
John White never ventured to Virginia again. The last record of his thoughts about his colonists were contained in the letter sent by him to Richard Hakluyt in 1593: “Thus committing the reliefe of my discomfortable company the planters in Virginia, to the merciful help of the Almighty, whom I most humbly beseech to helpe and comfort them, according to his most holy will and their good desire, I take my leaue.”26
12
Raleigh and Guiana; Rumors of Survivors
1594–1606
For about a decade after White failed to find his colony in 1590, there were no known attempts by the English to locate the Lost Colony, nor was there any serious discussion about further colonization in Virginia. Raleigh fell out of favor with Queen Elizabeth in 1591 after he secretly married Elizabeth Throckmorton, one of the queen’s ladies-in-waiting, who were not permitted to marry without the queen’s consent. Furthermore, “Bess” Throckmorton had the audacity to marry Raleigh, the queen’s court favorite. Once the marriage was discovered, both Raleigh and his wife were imprisoned in the Tower of London for a time, in 1592. Although Raleigh was released from the Tower in August (his wife was not released until December) he remained out of favor with the queen for several years afterwards.
It was during this time that Raleigh’s concern about the 1587 colony seems to have waned, at least temporarily, and was replaced with an obsession about the fabled legend of El Dorado and thoughts of establishing an English colony in South America. The El Dorado legend pre-dated the arrival of the Spanish and told of a fabulously rich tribe somewhere in the mountains of Guiana, where there was said to be so much gold that the natives covered their chief with it. The Spanish, who called the gilded king “El Dorado,” had sent out a number of expeditions in search of the legendary kingdom of gold, but failed to locate it. Raleigh’s research into the legend convinced him that El Dorado was located near the source of the Caroni River in Guiana. He believed that an English colony could be established there which would challenge Spain’s dominance in the region. He also very likely hoped that a quest for potential riches and an English foothold in South America would rehabilitate his reputation and standing in the court of Queen Elizabeth. In 1595 he led the first of two expeditions to Guiana, but it produced little other than his exaggerated account, “The Discovery of Guiana,” published in 1596.
There is one reference to the Lost Colony in his Guiana account. Raleigh wrote that at one point during his voyage some Spaniards came aboard and
… those poor soldiers having been many years without wine, a few draughts made them merry, in which mood they vaunted of Guiana and the riches thereof … but [I] bred in them an opinion that I was bound only for the relief of those English which I had planted in Virginia, whereof the bruit was come among them; which I had performed in my return, if extremity of weather had not forced me from the said coast1 [emphasis added].
The italicized portion of this quote has been used by some to demonstrate Raleigh’s continued interest in the 1587 colonists and his intention to resupply them personally in 1596, but that conclusion is inaccurate. The full context of Raleigh’s passage clearly indicates that his intention to sail “for the relief of those English which I had planted in Virginia” was just a deception to explain his presence in those waters. Just how serious Raleigh was about searching for the colonists on his return trip is highly questionable. He had assembled a fleet of five ships for the Guiana expedition, which would seem to indicate that he had the resources, but not the resolve, to launch a serious search for the Lost Colony. Six years later Raleigh would focus briefly on Virginia and the colonists one last time, as will be seen below, but once he was back in the Tower in 1603 he continued to fund several expeditions to Guiana, a further indication that, after 1603 at any rate, his interests were no longer involved with the abandoned colonists. In a letter dated January 9, 1610, John Chamberlain wrote to his friend Sir Dudley Carleton, clerk of the Privy Council, “Sir Walter Raleigh hath a ship come from Guiana, richly laden, they say with gold ore,”2 but the rumors of gold would turn out to be baseless. Raleigh would make one more voyage to Guiana in 1616. The riches of El Dorado never materialized and his last voyage resulted in the death of Raleigh’s son in Guiana and, due to his men’s violation of a peace treaty with Spain, Raleigh’s execution in 1618.
By the time of Raleigh’s first Guiana venture in 1595, White’s colonists had been missing for eight years. As proposed, at least thirty-five to forty and perhaps as many as eighty-five to ninety of them may have disappeared in the pinnace or pinnaces in 1588 or 1589 in a failed attempt to reach Newfoundland. Perhaps half or more of those who remained at the mainland settlement would likely have drowned when the hurricane surge inundated Croatoan and swept the mainland settlement away in September of 1589. It is conceivable that there were only a few colonists alive by 1590. The surge survivors, both colonists and natives alike, would have been forced to abandon the Outer Banks and the coastal mainland as well. As demonstrated in the previous chapter, Croatoan was still deserted in August of 1590, when White finally returned.
The aftermath of the hurricane and surge would have presented additional difficulties, to say the least, for the handful of English survivors, who may have been at different locations before the surge struck. As far as can be reasonably reconstructed, by the early summer of 1588 there would have been colonists at two locations. The majority of them were already situated at the nearby mainland settlement somewhere directly across from the Wokokon inlet. A much smaller group was at Croatoa
n, perhaps at an outpost near present-day Frisco, waiting for White’s return. There would have been no need to man the outpost after White failed to appear by summer’s end in 1588, and many—if not most—of the colonists would likely have given up on the colonization venture at that point. As proposed, the plans to sail to Newfoundland would likely soon have been conceived, raising the question of whether to build another pinnace.
The number and location of the remaining Lost Colonists in September of 1589 depends largely on the existence of that second pinnace. If the colonists decided to build a second vessel—a realistic possibility—then the few colonists who may have remained behind would almost certainly have moved to Croatoan. Some of these colonists could have survived a hurricane surge on the high bluffs at Frisco. If just the original pinnace was used in the attempt to reach Newfoundland, and sixty or so colonists remained behind, they may have still occupied the mainland settlement when the hurricane and surge struck. If any of these survived, they would have been driven to higher ground somewhere farther inland.
The Lost Colony of Roanoke Page 17