Roanoke: A Colony. A Word. A Vanishing.Episode 21:39
The Skeleton Waiting at Roanoke
A ship captain forces 118 settlers onto the wrong island, where a skeleton and a killing announce that Roanoke is already dangerous.
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Transcript
A sun-bleached skeleton was the only clue waiting at Roanoke.
Grenville later left fifteen men on Roanoke to hold possession of the country. Those fifteen men were never seen again by Englishmen.
July 1587: 118 men, women, and children reached the island.
The colonists intended to settle in the Chesapeake Bay, not Roanoke Island. Instead, they arrived at Roanoke in July 1587.
Simon Fernandes refused to take the colonists farther up the coast.
John White and colonists set foot on Roanoke Island, July 22nd, 1587.
They rebuilt and refurbished fortifications and dwellings the earlier expedition left.
In August, Virginia Dare was born—the first English child born in the New World.
Earlier, George Howe was ambushed and killed shortly after the colonists arrived.
The settlers had arrived with families, tools, and a newborn child. Now the island had announced that rebuilding would not mean safety.
Threat, unreliable food, and approaching winter forced White to return to England. The colonists asked John White to return for help.
White left in late August after spending slightly more than a month there. The colonists agreed to carve their destination into nearby trees.
White told colonists to carve a cross over the letters or place-name when distressed.
Before White left, English attacked a village they thought was Secotan—but it was Croatoan.
Where it leaves off
White thought he was attacking a Secotan village—but his men had attacked Croatoan instead.
Sources
- 1587: The Lost Colony - Fort Raleigh National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)nps.govsecondary
- Sir Walter Raleigh'stile.loc.govsecondary
- The Lost Colony - Fort Raleigh National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)nps.govsecondary
- John White Returns to Roanoke; an excerpt from "The fift voyage of Master John White into the West Indies and parts of America called Virginia, in the yeere 1590" (1600) - Encyclopedia Virginiaencyclopediavirginia.orgprimary
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