Outer Banks, NC to Norfolk, VA

Today was my day to explore the story of the 'Lost Colony' on Roanoke Island, North Carolina.  That we know much of anything about what happened is on account of an Englishman named John White.  He was on the first voyage as a naturalist artist.  That first voyage in 1584 was a reconnaissance that landed on Roanoke Island and made contact with the native Algonquians, and after several weeks returned to England with two of the natives, Manteo and Wanchese.  The next year 600 people sailed to Roanoke Island in seven ships led by Sir Richard Grenville.  John White was again on board.  Soldiers in the party built an earthen fort.  It was a small, star-shaped affair.  It has been reproduced at its original site based on documents and the uncovering of a trench in 1950.

Rebuilt Earthen Fort at Ft. Raleigh National Historic Site

Once the fort was finished, Grenville returned to England with most of the company, leaving 107 soldiers and colonists.  In short order the English traded with the natives for food, infected the natives with strange diseases, and got into a fight with the natives that resulted in the death of Algonquian Chief Wingina and possibly others.  Sir Francis Drake happened by and the English skeedaddled.

The next and last colonization effort started in 1587.  The group this time was led by John White and included his daughter and son-in-law, Elenora and Ananias Dare, among 117 colonists.  They repaired the fort and dwellings left by the 1585 colonists.  A colonist was killed by the Algonquians in retaliation for the previous murder of their chief.  The colonists then attacked a nearby village and killed a native before realizing it was a friendly group.  With the situation deteriorating and food running low, John White sailed back to England to solicit more assistance, leaving behind the Dares, including his granddaughter, Virginia Dare, the first English child born in America.  By now, Sir Walter Raleigh had lost interest in the colony, and it took White three years to gather the money for another expedition.  There was also the problem that Queen Elizabeth had embargoed the movement of all ships so they would be available to defend against the Spanish Armada.  When White arrived on Roanoke Island, no one was there and the fort and settlement had been destroyed.  Hence, the 'Lost Colony".  No trace of them was ever found.

The 'great man' Raleigh never set foot in North America.  Why they named the fort and the historic site after him I don't know.  He and his friends did put up the initial money.  A monument on site erected in 1896 says the name of the fort was 'New Fort in Virginia'.  The fondness for Queen Elizabeth in the area is also a puzzle  since she apparently did not fund the expeditions and her action (justifiable as it was) of embargoing ships impeded the rescue of the colony.  Whether or not the colony would have been saved is an unanswerable question.

Queen Elizabeth is honored in the nearby Elizabethan Gardens, which have been developed and are run by the Garden Club of North Carolina.  Below is a statue of Good Queen Bess that is on the grounds of the gardens.

Statute of Queen Elizabeth I at the Elizabethan Gardens, Roanoke Island

A gallery of photos from the Elizabethan Gardens is published on the Miscellany page.

Mileage: 181.  Cumulative mileage: 1,592.  Today's earworm: "A Woman Left Lonely" Janis Joplin