by Lee Miller
England erupts in massive protest. Critics condemn the theft of Powhatan land, charging that Jamestown is no better than Spain, glossing robbery under cunning and coloured falsehoods. Promoters cry this isn’t true: Spain urged Catholicism whereas our invasion, much more current, and so far different, is not intended to bring the Powhatan out of the frying pan into the fire, but to make their condition truly more happy.11 All outgoing mail from Jamestown is censored. You must take especial care, Jamestown is warned, what relations come into England, and what letters are written.13
There will be no war, Johnson croons in the midst of the fighting, because Wahunsonacock will be won over by fair and loving means, suiting to our English natures, like that soft and gentle voice, wherein the Lord appeared to Elias: How honourable will this be, in the sight of men and of ages to come?14
Protesters react in anger. Many good religious devout men, declares a shocked Smith, have made it a great question, as a matter in conscience, by what warrant they might go to possess those countries which are none of theirs, but the poor savages. The Virginia Company bewails the vulgar opinion and clamorous and tragical narrations thus spread by foul mouths that have divided the universal spirits of our land.15
As propaganda, the Company dredges up the Lost Colonists. The English right to settle Virginia, Robert Johnson lashes back, stems from John White. It was long since discovered, peopled, and possessed by many English, both men, women, and children, the natural subjects of our late Queen Elizabeth, of famous memory, conducted and left there at sundry times. And that the same footing and possession is there kept and possessed by the same English, or by their seed and offspring, without any interruption or invasion, either of the savages (the natives of the country) or of any other Prince or people (for ought we hear or know) to this day.16
But Robert Johnson, while vindicating Jamestown, makes a terrible mistake. He says the Lost Colonists are alive! Yet this simple truth will soon become clear: the Virginia Company cannot prosecute an unpopular war without White’s colonists dead.
A World Oppressed with People
The crisis in Virginia is complicated by the fact that England suffers from massive overpopulation. It must be remedied: either the birth rate must be reduced, the people must emigrate, or both. Those who favor emigration point out that North America is not yet deforested; its land is as good, or rather better than any we possess…. If this be not a reason sufficient to such tender consciences; for a copper kettle and a few toys as beads and hatchets, the Powhatan will sell you a whole country.11
But if the Powhatan will really sell their whole country for baubles, why is a war necessary? Protesters, not fooled, decry the seizure of Powhatan territory despite Jamestown’s claim that it is not unlawful that we possess part of their land.18
It is clear that the only way to get the country behind the war is to turn the Powhatan into villains. Enter William Strachey.
William Strachey was born in Saffron Waiden, the town that had once had such a problem with God and cut flowers.19 A gentleman, he hobnobbed in London with Ben Jonson, John Donne, and denizens of the Mermaid Club in Bread Street. People who know Raleigh. June 1610. William Strachey arrives in Jamestown as the new secretary of the colony. 1611. He composes a manuscript entitled the Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannia. It circulates widely; a copy is sent to Raleigh’s friend, the Earl of Northumberland, imprisoned in the Tower. Raleigh must have read it.
At the height of the protest against the war, something new had been needed to turn public opinion. Strachey provided it and, indeed, may have believed it. Wahunsonacock, he said, murdered White’s colony.
23 REQUIEM
Wahunsonacock doth often send unto us to temporize with us, awaiting perhaps but a fit opportunity (inflamed by his bloody and furious priests) to offer us a taste of the same cup which he made our poor countrymen drink of at Roanoak.
William Strachey1
A Power Play
The news explodes across London; bursting into parlors, intruding on every conversation. White’s colonists are dead. The Powhatan massacred innocent Englishmen! The rumor is repeated on trembling lips — though it is not true. There is no proof that the Powhatan did anything of the kind.
So who, or what, in Jamestown was responsible for the Powhatan murder story? Did Strachey invent it? Was it propaganda to create an enemy? To seize Powhatan lands? Or did Wahunsonacock himself concoct the tale to intimidate Jamestown?
Whatever its source, Jamestown seized upon it. King James hath been acquainted, Strachey reports, that the men, women, and children of the first plantation at Roanoak were by practice and commandment of Powhatan (he himself persuaded thereunto by his priests) miserably slaughtered without any offence given him either by the first planted (who twenty and odd years had peaceably lived intermixed with those savages, and were out of his territory) or by those who now are come to inhabit. A clever ploy, associating the murder of White’s colony with the current events at Jamestown. King James has given order, Strachey adds, that the Powhatan shall be spared, and revenge taken only upon the priests. Hereafter, Powhatan subjects must depend on his Majesty for guidance, acknowledging him for their superior Lord.1 The thirty nations will pay James tribute. It is all about money.
The Versatile Smith Reader
It is odd, to say the least, that Smith never mentioned a massacre in his conversations about the Lost Colonists with Wahunsonacock or the kings of Pamunkey, Werraskoyack, Paspahegh, or Quiyoughquohanock. In fact, each provided information that the colonists were still alive. Was the massacre edited out of Smith’s writing? Perhaps. But how, then, do we explain the fact that he sent search parties to the locations the Powhatan specified? If the colonists really had been exterminated, then Newport’s instructions to look for them, which Smith found so odious, would not have to be carried out.
The truth is that Smith never said that Wahunsonacock murdered the colonists. Samuel Purchas did. Powhatan confessed that he had been at the murder ofthat colony, Purchas wrote, and showed to Captain Smith a musket barrel and a brass mortar and certain pieces of iron which had been theirs? Hardly proof—the items could have come in trade from anywhere. Stranger still, Smith’s General History, written between 1623 and 1624, and a reworking of his earlier Proceedings, no longer mentions Lost Colony survivors. That information was removed and replaced by an entirely new episode. Smith, who had claimed he was extremely well treated during his captivity, now says he was dragged to an altar and that Powhatan’s men gathered with clubs to beat out his brains* He was saved from death, he said, by Pocahontas. One of the versions is false.
Search No More
The explanation that the Powhatan murdered the Lost Colonists is too neat and tidy. Were it believed, then Jamestown could justify wiping out the Powhatan. The implications are profound: from the moment war is declared, no further searches are made. Strachey’s story and thirty years of ensuing hostility destroy any information we might have recovered.
Jamestown laws divine, moral and martial, article 38: No soldier may speak or have any private conference with any of the savages without leave of his captain, nor his captain without leave of his chief officer, upon pain of death.5 In England, even Smith complains that although I have tired myself in seeking and discoursing with those returned thence from Virginia, few can tell me anything but of that place or places they have inhabited, and he is a great traveller that hath gone up and down the river of James Town, been at Pamaunke, Smith’s lies, or Accomack.6 No more than fifty miles. No one can verify or gainsay the Lost Colony murder story. And thus, for four hundred years, it has stood.
Execution
The principal players are fast disappearing. Raleigh, by order of King James on the former charge of high treason, is condemned to death, having been released long enough to make a voyage to Guiana. Rumor had it, recalling John White’s misfortune, that Raleigh had intended to abandon his men there. Another slander was raised, he said, that I would have gone away fro
m them and left them.1 Queen Anne and her father, the King of Denmark, begged his life; others pleaded on behalf of Queen Elizabeth, who so dearly respected him.8 James remained unmoved. You have been as a star at which the world has gazed, said the King’s Attorney-General to Raleigh, but stars may fall, nay they must fall when they trouble the sphere wherein they abide.9
October 29, 1618, 9 A.M. Amid immense throngs of supporters, Raleigh is executed. Thus died that Knight, says John Shirley, who was Spain’s scourge and terror… whom the whole nation pitied, and several Princes interceded for; Queen Elizabeth’s favourite, and her successor’s sacrifice.1®
James is sharply condemned for his action, even within his own Court. The commotion continues for weeks without end. The Spanish ambassador anxiously reports that the outpouring of grief shows no signs of abating.11 A Ned Wymark is hauled before the Privy Council to explain his comment that Raleigh’s head would do very well on the shoulders of tht Secretary of State. Wymark mumbles that what he meant was that two heads are better than one. Wymark — a relation of John White? He counted Wymarks among his kin.12
Wahunsonacock also dies this year — of a broken heart, they say.13
The Curious Travels of John Pory
It is not quite true that after Strachey’s statement was released to the public no further searches were made for the Lost Colonists. There was one. One person in Jamestown did indeed believe the colonists were still alive. His name was John Pory.14 A graduate of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, he entered the university a year after John White’s colony sailed for Roanoke. He counted Raleigh as a friend. 1619. Pory is sent to Jamestown as the newly appointed Secretary of Virginia.
April 18, 1622. At Bow Church in London the Reverend Patrick Copland preaches a sermon, startling the congregation with news that hints of the Lost Colonists. Master Pory is to be encouraged, he says, for his painful discoveries to the southward as far as the Choanoack.15
Could it be? Was Pory renewing the search at last? Virginia Dare would be thirty-five years old. Pory was the first to make contact with the Chowanoc since Michael Sicklemore’s failed expedition thirteen years before.
In February last, announced the Virginia Company, Pory discovered a country (the great King giving him friendly entertainment, and desirous to make a league with us). … The Indians have made relation of a copper mine that is not far from thence, how they gather it, and the strange making of it.16
The King there told him, a 1649 report confirmed, that within ten days’ journey westward towards the sun setting, there were a people that did gather out of a river sand, the which they washed in selves, and had a thing out of it, that they then put into the fire, which melted & became like to our copper, and offered to send some of his people to guide him to that place. But master Pory being not provided with men as he would have had of English, returned to Jamestown.17 He had been very close to finding the Lost Colonists. Closer, perhaps, than he ever knew.
March 1622. Before John Pory can return to the Chowanoc with better supplies, bitter fighting erupts again between the English and the Powhatan. An attack on Jamestown leaves 350 dead. Among them, Nathaniel Powell.18 The English launch horrendous reprisals. It is bedlam. Pory quickly ships for England, lucky to get out alive. His sorrow may only be guessed for, surprisingly, his stake in the matter was personal. Pory’s sister Anne married Robert Ellis.19 A Thomas Ellis and son Robert were Lost Colonists. And thus we left seeking our colony, that was never any of them found, nor seen to this day, 1622.20
24 DEEP IN THE INTERIOR
In few words, mysteries are due to secrecy.
Sir Francis Bacon1
Where Are the Lost Colonists?
Our murder investigation is drawing to a close. John White’s colonists were deliberately sabotaged and left for dead on Roanoke Island. Were it prosecuted, we would have a good case against Walsingham as perpetrator, with Raleigh as his intended victim. Essex we suspect of collusion: he was a useful tool. Slandering Raleigh, he effectively covered the crime and prevented a rescue. Contrary to received wisdom, the Spanish Armada had little to do with it. Other ships made it to the Indies despite the war. Raleigh’s did not; someone made sure of it, and, in that sense, the Armada provided a convenient excuse. The awful truth of the Lost Colony is that it was never lost at all. Instead, it was deliberately concealed, prevented from contacting the outside world. John White, reduced to misery.
This is a murder case, not a case of missing persons. Still, the fact remains, 115 people have gone from Roanoke Island, and we must find them. The only hard evidence we have comes from their own hands: they said they were going to Croatoan. This barrier island was where Manteo was born and the people our friends.1 So how, then, twenty years later, did Jamestown pick up reports that White’s colonists were living in scattered villages deep within the interior? What are the pieces to this puzzle? If Virginia Company officials had only investigated more thoroughly, we would not now be asking questions.
The Colony Divides
We have several facts at our disposal. To begin with, the colonists were not killed on Roanoke Island. All the evidence indicates that the evacuation was orderly and complete. The site was dismantled and everything methodically removed except the heaviest items — weapons — which were left behind. Despite Stafford’s violent attack on Dasamonquepeuc, Wingina’s men took no reprisals. They stayed away. It is a phenomenal tribute to the Secotan and, perhaps, to the nature of White’s colonists themselves, that there was no cross or sign of distress.
Nevertheless, the company clearly could not stay on Roanoke Island. Lane, as well as Stafford, had seen to that. Betrayed, left to die, and entirely alone, the colonists prepared to leave the island until such time as John White could effect their rescue — if indeed he could convince anyone in England of their plight. Before he left, it was discussed: they intended, White said, to remove so miles further up into the main presently, where they mean to seat themselves.3
The question is, did they? What about Croatoan? Someone went there, at any rate. They said so. Yet Croatoan was on the coast, not fifty miles inland. Moreover, its people were both unwilling and unable to feed 115 additional mouths, as they had made abundantly clear. They told us, White said, not to gather or spill any of their corn, for that they had but little. We answered them that neither their corn, nor any other thing of theirs should be diminished by any of us… which answer seemed to please them well.4
It is not unreasonable, then, to propose a separation.5 The colony divided; what else could they do? The majority moved inland fifty miles, where food was abundant and the Chowanoc friends. A smaller number of White’s colonists — Eleanor Dare and Margery Harvie, who had recently given birth; the woman with a nursing baby; a handful of men, perhaps, to keep them company — went to Croatoan to wait for White. This is conjecture, but certainly Eleanor Dare might logically have refused to leave the coast without her father. Residence at Croatoan made perfect sense. It was close to the sea; White was familiar with the place. Far easier to guarantee a successful reunion there than to leave detailed directions (on a tree!) to an uncertain destination in the interior. Those who remained behind would lead White to the main body of colonists.
Fifty Miles into the Main
It was decided; they were going. But why fifty miles into the main? The distance is specific and therefore must be of some significance. It could be that fifty miles was the limit of the Roanoke military base. When Jamestown was first settled, the planters were advised that all the land, woods, and marshes within a fifty-mile radius of their seat was theirs to exploit.6 Since White’s instructions were merely to call at the fort before heading north, perhaps his beleaguered company wanted to make absolutely certain that they were clear of the Roanoke fort’s claims. An interesting idea, because if White’s colonists felt that they had no rights within that fifty-mile zone, then very likely they did not order the 1587 attack on Dasamonquepeuc led by Stafford. What we may be witnessing is a division between ci
vilian and military.
On the other hand, fifty miles into the main would bring the colonists into the borderland between the Weapemeoc and Chowanoc countries. This was an ideal region southwest of the Dismal Swamp along the Chowan River. Amazingly rich, well wooded, plentiful. Into the main and country, we found the soil to be fatter, said Hariot, the trees greater and to grow thinner, the ground more firm and deeper mould, more and larger champions, finer grass and as good as ever we saw any in England… more plenty of their fruits, more abundance of beasts, the more inhabited with people. Even deer, because of better feed, were fatter.7 Survival was the issue. Relocation to the Chowan River, therefore, was the best decision that could have been made.
So why have so many past investigations focused on the Chesapeake Bay? Much had changed since the City of Raleigh was first conceived of in England. There is no reason to believe, once the sabotage had occurred, that the colonists would stick to their original plan. Indeed, the greatest hope for their survival lay in intercepting White upon his return. White himself was very clear on this subject. If the colonists proposed removing fifty miles and no farther, then the Chesapeake Bay was no longer their intended destination. At least not until White returned. Perhaps not ever.
We must therefore direct our inquiry into the region in which White himself told us to look. The place to start is fifty miles into the main.
A Country Laid Desolate
It will be remembered that when John Smith questioned the Powhatan about the Lost Colonists, their advice was to search among the Chowanoc. Indeed, they seemed so certain that this was where White’s company would be found that Michael Sicklemore was dispatched there first. From the accounts of Lane, Hariot, and Barlowe, what Smith expected him to find — along with the colonists — was a land populously inhabited, where villages lay distant the one from the other not above j English miles, and social gatherings brought above yoo persons, young and old together, on a plain} Michael Sicklemore found nothing.