USA > North Carolina > The history of North Carolina from the earliest period, Volume I > Part 3
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A fortnight after, Sir Richard Grenville arrived with three other ships, and an ample supply of provisions, but was unable to obtain any account of the ship which had preceded him, or of the men, whom, in the pre- ceding year, he had left on Roanoke; he sailed up and down the principal sounds and rivers, in useless quest of them; at last, unwilling to forego the right of posses- sion, he returned to the island, where he landed fifteen (some writers say fifty) men, to whom he gave a supply of provisions, and returned to England.
In the following year, three ships were sent to Vir- ginia, under the command of John White, who was appointed governor of the colony, and was accompa- nied by eleven persons, who were to be his counsellors and assistants. Their names were Roger Baily, Ana- nias Dare, Simeon Fernando, Christopher Cowper, Thomas Stephens, John Sampson, Thomas Smith,
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Dyonisius Harvey, Roger Pratt, George Howe, An- thony Cage. Sir Walter gave them a charter, incor- porating them under the style of " the governor and assistants, of the city of Raleigh, in Virginia;" and di- rected them to make their first settlement on the shores of the bay of Chesapeake, and to erect a fort there. This expedition took the old route, by the way of the West Indies, and narrowly escaped destruction, on the shores of cape Fear. The danger which they ran was imputed to the carelessness, and by some, to the design of a sailor, who had accompanied Amidas in his first voyage, and was now acting as a pilot; he was sus- pected of an intention of occasioning the miscarriage of the expedition; but the vigilance of captain Strafford, who commanded the vessel on board of which this man asvas, prevented any fatal consequence; and they all arrived safe at cape Hatteras, on the 22d of July.
The governor, with forty of his best men, went on board of the pinnace intending to pass up to Roanoke, in the hope of finding the men, whom Sir Richard Grenville had left there the year before; and after a con- ference with them, concerning the state of the country and the Indians, to return to the fleet, and proceed along the coast to the bay of Chesapeake, according to the orders of Sir Walter Raleigh; but no sooner had the pinnace left the ship, than Simon Fernando, the princi- pal naval commander, who was named as one of the governor's assistants, although he was destined to re- turn soon to England, called to the sailors on board the pinnace, and charged them not to bring back any of the colonists, except the governor, and two or three others whom he approved, but to leave them on the island ; for the summer, he observed, was far spent, and he would
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not land the planters in any other place. The sailors on board the pinnace, as well as those on board of the ship, having been persuaded by the master, to this measure, the governor judging it best not to contend with them, proceeded to Roanoke. At sun set, he landed with his men at the part of the island, on which Sir Richard Grenville landed his men, but discovered no sign of them, except the skeleton of a man who had been killed by the Indians. The next day, the governor and seve- ral of the new comers, went to the north end of the island, where governor Lane had built a fort and several dwelling houses, the year before, hoping there to find some sign, if not certain information of the men left there by Sir Richard Grenville. But on coming to the place, and finding the fort razed, and all the houses, though standing unhurt, overgrown with weeds and vines, and deer feeding within them : they returned in despair of ever seeing their looked-for countrymen alive. Orders were given on the same day, for the clearing and repair of the houses, and the erection of new cottages. All the colony, consisting of ninety-one men, seventeen women, and nine children, in all, one hundred and seven. teen persons, soon after landed, and commenced a second plantation.
George Howe, one of the governor's assistants, having wandered to some distance into the woods, was attacked and slain, by a party of the Dassamonpeake, a tribe who dwelt on the main opposite to the island, in the neck formed by the river Alligator and the narrows, which now forms the lower part of the county of Tyrell.
As soon as the houses were cleared, and measures taken for sheltering the colonists, governor White sent
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captain Strafford, with a party of twenty men, to the Crontans, a friendly tribe, who dwelt on the southern shore of cape Lookout, in that part of the country, now known as the county of Carteret, with the view of ob- taining some information of the place to which the men, left by Sir Richard Grenville, had retreated. He learned that they had been surprised by a party of Indians, of the Secotan, Agnascoga, and Dassamonpeake tribes, who, having treacherously slain one of them, compelled the rest to repair to the house, in which they kept their provisions and weapons, which the Indians instantly set on fire ; that the English leaving the house, skirmished with the assailants for above an hour ; that in this skir- mish, another of their number was shot in the mouth with an arrow, and died ; that they retired, fighting to the water side, where lay their boats, with which they fled to cape Hatteras ; that they landed on a little island, on the right hand of the entrance into the harbor of Hat- teras, where they remained a while, and afterwards de- parted, whither they knew not. Unable to obtain a more satisfactory acccount of his countrymen, captain Straf- ford returned with his party, to the fleet at Hatteras.
The governor endeavored to renew and preserve, a good understanding, with the nations of Indians in the neighbourhood, but found it necessary to chastise the Dassamonpeake, who had murdered George Howe, and still continued troublesome. In the dead of night, he left the island of Roanoke, accompanied by captain Strafford and a chosen party of twenty men, guided by Manteo, who had ever remained a firm friend of the English. They reached the main by break of day, marched up to the town, and, discovering some Indians sitting around a fire, they discharged their pieces at
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them : one was shot down, and the governor, judging the murder of George Howe sufficiently expiated, de- sired Manteo to inform the others, they had nothing more to apprehend. The English had scarcely groun- ded their arms, when they discovered they had fired on a party of their friends, the Croatuns. These men having heard that the Dassamonpeake Indians, fearing the re- venge which the English had come to execute, had Hled and left their corn ripe and ungathere 1, had come to cut and carry it away. Both parties joined in securing as much of it as was fit to be taken down, and retired, leav- ing the rest unspoiled.
On the 13th of August, Manteo was baptised, ac- cording to the directions of Sir Walter Raleigh, and in reward for his services to the English, was called Lord of Roanoke, and of Dassamonpeake.
On the 18th, Eleanor, a daughter of governor White, who had accompanied him, and was married to Ananias Dare, one of his assistants, was delivered of a daughter, who was the first child born from English parents, in the new world; she was named Virginia.
The supply of provisions brought from England, being considerably reduced, and necessity requiring immediate attention to the renewal of it, the colonists besought governor White to return to England, and solicit some further relief. He yielded to their entrea- ties, and sailed for England on the 27th of August, having remained but thirty-six days in his government. At his departure, the colony consisted of one hundred persons, and one of the islands near cape Hatteras, had been selected for its principal settlement.
Governor White, on his arrival in England, found the nation in a great commotion, occasioned by a rumor
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of an impending invasion by the Spaniards, who had fitted out an immense fleet for that purpose. A coun- cil of war had been formed by the queen, and charged with the direction of the warlike preparations which the emergency called for. It was composed of such persons as were in the highest reputation for military knowledge. Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Richard Gren- ville, Ralph Lane, governor White's predecessor in Vir- ginia, the persons whose exertions he had come to solicit, had been honored with seats at this board, and their time was taken up in the discharge of the duties, which their appointment imposed. However, in a little time, Sir Walter found leisure to fit out a small fleet for the relief of his colony; and it was to have sailed early in the following year, under the orders of Sir Richard Grenville; but the alarm, occasioned by the formidable armament made by the king of Spain, increasing, every ship was impressed, and Sir Richard was summoned to attend Sir Walter, in the cou. ty of Cornwall, and assist him in training the troops arrayed there. Governor White, in the mean while, exerted himself so much, that he obtained two barks, with which he sailed from Biddefort, on the 22d of April.
The crews of these vessels, who were more anxious to enrich themselves by plunder, than to hasten to the re- lief of their distressed countrymen, attacked every Spanish vessel they met; and one of the barks falling in with two large ships of that nation, was, after a bloody fight, overcome, boarded and rifled. In the most distressed condition, unable to continue her voy. age, she returned to England. Three weeks after, the other came in, in the same plight, and the voyage was abandoned to the great distress, and finally, the utter ruin
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of the colony, and the great regret of its patron and founder.
Sir Walter was much dispirited, by the disappoint- ment of the fond hopes he had hitherto entertained, and the miscarriage of all his attempts to settle his colony, notwithstanding the rare sums he spent in the prosecu- tion of his darling scheme. His attention being enga- ged in the warlike enterprises of the day, he determined on the transfer of his interest, in the discoveries made, under the patent he had obtained from his sovereign, to governor White, and some merchants and adventurers of the city of London.
Accordingly, by an indenture, which bears date, the 7th of March, 1589, he granted to Thomas Smith, John White, and others, full power to carry to Virginia, such of the queen's subjects as might be willing to go thither, and to plant and inhabit the country, with free trade, to them, their heirs, and assigns, to and from Vir- ginia, or any part of America, to which he might claim an interest, title, or privilege. Sir Walter, in this instru- ment, takes the title of chief governor of Assamacomoe, alias Wangadacea, alias Virginia; and he finally closed his concerns in the colony, by a donation of one hundred pounds sterling, to be appropriated to the promotion of Christianity among its inhabitants.
The supplies which governor White had come to so- licit, were much delayed by this transfer of property. The assignees suffered twelve months to elapse. before they procured any shipping to carry relief to the colo- nists. Three ships were at last equipped it Plymouth, and sailed under the orders of governor White. on the 20th of March, 1590; a thirst for plunder induced the crews of these ships, to lose again, a considerable time,
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by taking the West Indies in their route; and it was not till the Sd of August. that the expedition fell in with some of the sandy islands near Ocracock ; from thence they proceeded to Hatteras, which they did not reach till the 15th. On their approach. they were much re- joiced at seeing a smoke rising from the spot on which governor White had left the colonists, three years be- fore. A discharge of cannon was made to apprize them of the approach of succour, and caprais Strafford and Cooke were despatched with two boats ; but, notwith- standing the most diligent search. they returned without having been able to obtain any intelligence of the per- sons they were in quest of. They made preparations the next morning to visit the island of Roanoke; but the wind being at north east, in passing a bar, one of the boats was upset, and the other half filled with water. Captain Spicer, with six of his men, were dashed to pieces on the shoals : the other four, deterred by the fate of their companions, not trusting to their legs on the surf. but swimming in deep water, were saved by captain Cook. The courage of the survivors was so much damped by this accident, that they gave up the pursuit and returned to the shipping.
A few days after, governor White prevailed on a- party of nineteen men, to accompany him to cape Hat- teras. The people he had left there in 1587 had mani- fested. before his departure, an intention to remove to the main , and they had promised him that in case they did so. they would carve, on some conspicuous tree, door or post, the name of the place to which they might determine on removing. placing a cross over it. in case ' they found themselves in distress, at the time of their departure. In landing on the cape, he caused a trumpet
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to be sounded. a signal which he caused to be repeated at intervals, and in different places. No answer was given. When the party approached the spot from which they had seen the smoke arise. on the day of their arrival, they found that the fire had proceeded from dry grass and some rotten trees, After a very tedious search they came to a high post or tree, on which were carved the letters CRO, and at some distance. they read the word CROATAN on another .* They gladly no. ticed the absence of the sign, intended to indicate a state of distress. The houses had been pulled down, and a large space enclosed by a high pallisad ; within the pallisade, they found many bars of iron two pigs of lead, four iron fowlers iron sack shot, "and such like heavy things, thrown here and there. almost overgrown with grass and weeds." In the end of an old trench, they found five chests that had been carefully hidden, three of which, governor White recognized as his own, and adds. "about the place we found many of my things spoiled and my books torn from the covers the frames of some of my pictures and maps rotten and spoiled with rain, and my armour almost eaten through with Post . "
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Every thing seeming to preclude the hope of making any further discovery, in remaining on the cape. the party determined on returning to the shipping. In doing so they were near perishing, a violent storm having arisen, which lasted the whole night. As soon as it subsided,
* The stump of a live oak, said to have been the tree, on which this word was cut, was shown, as late as the year 1778, by the people of Roanoke Island. It stood at the distance of about six yards from the shore of Shalon-bas-bay, on the land then owned by Daniel Baum, This bay. is formed by Ballast- point and Baum's-point.
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they weighed anchor for Croatan. In the attempt, one of the cables of the ship in which governor White was, broke and carried off another anchor; they let go the third, and the ship went so far adrift that she was near being stranded. Disheartened by so many untoward accidents, the stock of provisions on board the flect heing nearly exhausted, the governor, for the present, abandoned the thought of any further search after the colonists, and sat sail for the West Indies, with the intention of refitting the vessels, wintering and pro- curing a supply of provisions, in order to return in the spring.
Perhaps the hope of a better success, than in the first part of the voyage, in cruising against the Spaniards, induced this determination : if it did, the expectations it had created were disappointed. A few days after the departure of the vessels from cape Hatteras, the wind proved unfavorable, and continuing in the same direc- tion for a long time, governor White directed his pilots to make the best of their way to the Western islands, which he reached on the 23d of September; and after a short stay they proceeded to England.
Sir Walter Raleigh's assignees, made no further at- tempt to discover or release the unfortunate colonists. They were never heard of. Lawson, who lived in North Carolina, during the first year of the eighteenth century, supposes " they were forced to cohabit with the natives for relief and conversation." He adds, that the Hatteras Indians, who then lived on Roanoke island, or much frequented it, boasted, that several of their ancestors were white people, and "could talk in a book;" the truth of which he thought confirmed, by several of them having grey eyes, a circumstance which does not
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occur in any other tribe. The ruins of a fort were ex- tant in his days, and other traces of them are still discern - able. English coin, a brass gun, a powder horn, and a small quarter deck gun, made of iron staves, with hoops of the same metal, were shown to him as existing relics of the first adventurers.
Although the French had not yet any fixed colonies "in America, they were not inattentive to their discove- ries in Canada. In 1591, a fleet sailed from St. Malo, for the river St. Lawrence. The French resorted to the islands at the mouth of that stream, to fish for morses or sea cows; the teeth of these animals were then sold much dearer than ivory ; they are a foot, and sometimes more, in length; their hides, when tanned, are as large and much thicker than a bull's. A single bark caught, this year, fifteen hundred of them.
War continuing between England and Spain, priva- teers of the former nation, frequently visited the West Indies in search of booty. In 1592, Christopher New- port conducted thither, three ships and a small bark, and took several prizes, on the coast of Hispaniola, in the bay of Honduras, and plundered and burnt several towns, and obtained considerable plunder.
In the following year, George Drake, an Englishman, made a voyage up the gulf of St. Lawrence, to the island of Nameo, and carried home intelligence of the profitable trade of the French in this part of America. Other English ships went at the same time, to cape Bre- ton, to fish for morses and whales. This is the first mention we find, of whale fishery by the English. Al- though they found no whale in this instance, yet they discovered, on an island, eight hundred whale fins, at a place where a Biscayan ship had been lost three years
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before, and this is the first account we find of whale fins and whale bone, as an article of trade to England.
Sylvester Wyat, of Bristol, soon after sailed up the bay of St. Lawrence, in a bark of thirty-five tons. as far as the rite of Assumption, for the barbs or fins of whales and train oil. Ten leagues up the bay of Plauntra, he found the fishermen of St. John de Huz, Sebibeno and Biscay, to be upwards of sixty sail, of which, eight ships only were from Spain. At Faullon, fourteen leagues to the westward of cape Brace, he found twenty sail of Englishmen; and having, in their harbor, satis- factorily made up his return cargo, he sailed for England.
Sir Walter Raleigh sent, this year, captain Whidden, an old and experienced officer, to Guiana, in South America, and receiving flattering accounts from that country, determined on visiting it in person. Fitting out a fleet at a great expense, he sailed from Plymouth on the 6th of February following: aiming at Trinidad, he spent a month in coasting the island. Learning, during this period, the state of St. Joseph, a small city lately built by the Spaniads, on that island; and knowing that the search for Guiana, could only be made in small crafts, and that his ships must be left several hundred miles behind, he deemed it unsafe to leave behind him a garrison of enemies, interested in the same enterprise, and in daily expectation of re-enforcement from Spain. Determined in this purpose, in the dusk of the evening, he boldly assailed the guards, and having put them to the sword, advanced with one hundred men, and by break of day took the city, which, at the entreaty of the In- dians, he sat on fire. He took Antonio de Bonco, the Spanish governor, prisoner, and carried him on board of his ship. Sir Walter was provoked to this measure by
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the treachery of Bono, who, the year before, had cap- tured eight of captain Whidden's men, after having given his word, that they might take wood and water safely. It appears that he and his followers, had treated the Indians with great cruelty, which accounts for the attachment, these oppressed natives manifested for Sir Walter, and the English people, whom they considered as their deliverers. Bancroft, so lately as 1766, says, "the Charibees, of Guiana, retain a tradition of an English chief, who, many years since, landed among them, and encouraged them to persevere in enmity to the Spaniards, promising to return and settle among them, and afford them assistance. It is said that they still preserve an English jack, which he left with them, that they might distinguish his countrymen." "This." adds Bancroft, "was undoubtedly Sir Walter Raleigh, who, in the year 1595, made a descent on the coast of Guiana, in search of the fabulous city of Manoa del Dorado."
Leaving his ships at Trinidad, Sir Walter proceeded, with one hundred men, in boats, four hundred miles up the Oronoque ; but the river beginning, dangerously, to swell, he returned without effecting any discovery. Se .. veral petty kings of the country, however, resigned their sovereignties into his hands, for the use of queen Elizabeth. It was his intention to seek for the colonists governor White had left in Virginia ; but violent storms compelled him to abandon his design.
On the 25th of August, Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins, sailed from England with six of the queen's ships, and twenty-one private ships and barks, on an expedition against the Spaniards, to the West Indies. On the way from Gaudeloupe to Porto Rico,
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Sir John Hawkins died; and was succeeded in his com- mand, by Sir Thomas Barkerville. The next day, Sir Francis made a desperate attack on the shipping in the harbor of Porto Rico: but, obtaining little advan- tage, he proceeded to the main, and took the towns of Rio de la Hache, Rancheria, St. Martha and Nombre de Dios. Sir Thomas Barkerville now marched, with seven hundred and fifty men, for the reduction of Panama; but the Spaniards having had notice of his design, had strongly fortified themseves, and he was obliged to abandon the enterprize.
Sir Francis Drake, proceeding to Nombre de Dios, died on his passage, between the island of Escudo and Porto Bello, on the 28th of January. His remains were, according to naval custom, sunk in the sea, very near the place where he first laid the foundation of his fame and fortune. The fleet anchored at Porto Bello, the same day; but the inhabitants fled at the approach of the English, carrying away their goods.
Sir Walter Raleigh, at his own expense, fitted out two vessels, under Lawrence Keymis, who made fur- ther discoveries in Guiana. In the following year, he sent thither Leonard Berne, in a pinnace. This man entered into a friendly correspondence with the natives, and returned to England.
Sir Anthony Shirley, commanding an English squadron, landed at Jamaica on the 29th of January, and marched six miles into the island, to the principal town. The inhabitants submitting to his mercy, he resided there about five weeks, and then sailed for Honduras, and took Puerto de Cavallos.
The earl of Cumberland having received a commis- sion from the queen, to attack and destroy the territories
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of her enemies, took the island of Porto Rico, and car- ried of eight . pieces of cannon, eighty ships, and mach wealth; but the expedition was disastrous; for about six hundred men were lost by the bloody flux, sixty slain in battle, and about forty cast away on the return of the fleet.
Monsieur de Pointis appeared, with a squadron, be- fore Carthagena, and forced it to capitulate; but his soldiers, in breach of the capitulation, pillaged the town.
Charles Leigh, a merchant of London, made, this year, a voyage to cape Breton and the island of Ramca. Having given umbrage to the French, in the latter place, by taking the powder and ammunition from a vessel, supposed to belong to Spain, but which proved to be- long to the subjects of the French king, two hundred Frenchmen assembled, and planted three peices of ord- nance on the shore, against the English, and discharged on them, one hundred small shot from the woods. There were also, in readiness to assail them, about three hundred Indians. On a parley, however, the contest subsided. In this voyage, Leigh obtained a considera- ble quantity of codfish and train oil, and had some traffic with the natives.
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