Lost Colony
Sir Walter Raleigh's plan for his next attempt to colonize the new world was
well thought out. He planned to have a civil government including men,
women, and children and the colonists would receive grants of land. John
White was chosen to govern the colony of 117 people. They set out
for the new world on May 8, 1587 and a month and fourteen days later they
arrived. Simon Fernandez wouldn't drop off White and his colonists at
Chesapeake Bay so they set to rebuilding the colony on Roanoke Island. It
seemed all was well and that the Indians and the colonists were at peace till
George Howe was killed while fishing. Governor White approached this
problem carefully and sent Manteo and a group of twenty one men to the village
of the Croatoan Indians. An agreement was made for the Indians and the
English people to live as friends. To signify this, Manteo was baptized on July 28, becoming
the first baptized Protestant Christian in the New World. On August 18, Virginia
Dare was born, which made her the first Christian baby
born in Virginia. Virginia was the grand daughter of Governor White
and nine days after she was born he had to return to England to get much needed
supplies. At that exact time he had left England and Spain had began a war.
Queen Elizabeth was afraid of Spanish attack on ships so she ordered no ships to
leave the ports of England. Although White was ready to return to his
colony in 1587 he could not until 1588. When he was able to leave, he took two small ships, but the
first was captured by French pirates and the second returned to England.
Finally on August 17, 1590 White arrived with two ships of supplies for his
colony. The people aboard the ship made noises and calls to
attract the attention of the colonists but there was no answer. The next
morning the men journeyed on to the beach but didn't find anyone in the abandoned
colony. On one of the trees in the colony were the letters CRO but no
cross, which was the distress signal decided on by White. By the looks of
the land, the colonists had not been there in a long time because it was over
grown and items once buried were destroyed. Another tree was found with
the carvings of CROATOAN and White was sure they had moved to Croatoan Island,
which is now Cape Hatteras. He planned to search this area but a fierce
storm sent him back to England because of fear for his ship never to resolve the
mystery of the "Lost Colony".
What happened to the
"Lost Colony"?
No one really knows what happened
to the "Lost Colony", but there are many theories on their disappearance.
Probably one
of the popular theories is the theory White had, which was they moved to
Croatoan
Island. Many historians believe that the colonists carved the word
"Croatoan" on the tree, allowing White to know they where headed to
Croatoan Island to find better food, land, etc.
Another theory is that the
colonist were killed by the Native Americans, and some say this is the most
probable of the theories. One fact that is important is previously when other
colonist were on the island, they found a dead white man, which proves that the
Natives were capable of killing and hiding bodies.
There is also a theory that the
colonist died of starvation and disease. The reasons for White leaving the
colony in the first place was because of the shortage of food, so the colonists
would have most likely run out and died. When the English arrived they
brought diseases with them and such things as hypothermia in the winter could
have killed many.