Big Chief Elizabeth: The Adventures and Fate of the First English Colonists in America (37 page)
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Authors: Giles Milton
BOOK: Big Chief Elizabeth: The Adventures and Fate of the First English Colonists in America
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John Rolfe’s tobacco was snapped up by London’s merchants. “No country under the sunne doth affoord more pleasant, sweet and strong tobacco then I have tasted in Jamestown,” wrote one
But the best news of all was the fact that the Indians and the English were at long last living in peace. It had come at a terrible price, but it had led to a “quiet enjoying” of the land. The suits of armour were packed into their crates, the gunpowder was placed in storage, and the muskets remained silent. With no more need for warfare or bloodshed, the search could once again begin for the lost colonists of Roanoke.
More than three decades had passed since there had been any news of the settlers left behind on Roanoke, and much had changed in the intervening years. England was now a great sea power, and was respected throughout Europe—a cause of celebration for all the captains and mariners who had challenged Spain’s self-proclaimed rule over the oceans. But Queen Elizabeth’s brilliant reign was fast fading into history—a glittering epoch that was already being spoken of as a golden age.
Yet two of the greatest Elizabethans, Sir Walter Ralegh and Thomas Harriot, were still alive. Stiff-jointed and withered by age, these doughty champions of American colonisation retained an immense pride in the role they had played in the establishment of a settlement over the seas. The lost colonists were the only reminder that not all had gone according to plan, that there had been much disaster and mishap on the way. They also provided a timely warning that Ralegh’s bold and audacious experiment had two endings: one happy and one distinctly tragic.
John White’s settlers were not the only ones to be lost on American soil. Three men had been left behind when Sir Francis Drake evacuated Ralph Lane’s colonists in 1586. Sir Richard Grenville
had deposited a further fifteen men on Roanoke as a holding party in the same year. Some of these had been killed, including Master Coffin and one of his deputies, but that still left a total of at least 123 English men, women, and children unaccounted for—lost in the unmapped wilderness of America. The fate of these unfortunate souls had long fired the imagination of a curious England, and there were many—even in 1618—who believed that some had survived their thirty-two-year ordeal.
had deposited a further fifteen men on Roanoke as a holding party in the same year. Some of these had been killed, including Master Coffin and one of his deputies, but that still left a total of at least 123 English men, women, and children unaccounted for—lost in the unmapped wilderness of America. The fate of these unfortunate souls had long fired the imagination of a curious England, and there were many—even in 1618—who believed that some had survived their thirty-two-year ordeal.
Four centuries after they were “lost,” their fate continues to fascinate and intrigue. Did White’s settlers really move to Croatoan Island? Were they clubbed to death or starved into submission? Or did they settle and intermarry with the local Indian tribes?
Their disappearance has been the subject of endless speculation, and numerous theories have been advanced. Although many have seemed initially plausible, almost all have rested upon slender evidence that has later been proved false.
The most exciting “proof” of the survival of the lost colony surfaced in the latter part of the nineteenth century, when a North Carolinian enthusiast, Hamilton McMillan, claimed to have discovered the descendants of White’s settlers. McMillan had become intrigued by a group of “red-bones,” or mixed-blood Indians, living in the southeastern corner of the state. His research into their archaic language led to the hypothesis that they used an Elizabethan dialect similar to that spoken by White’s colonists. This seemed plausible, and many were inclined to believe him. But when linguistic experts were called in to conduct a detailed investigation into McMillan’s work, they found it to be blighted with errors. His English “red-bones” turned out to be nothing more than a figment of his own fantasy.
In the 1930s an exciting new piece of evidence came to light. A chiselled stone was unearthed which bore Eleanor Dare’s initials, as well as a lengthy inscription written in Elizabethan English. This revealed the surprising news that the colonists had indeed moved
their settlement—not to Croatoan Island, but to the banks of the Chowan River. At first, there was great excitement at the find, but disappointment set in when mistakes were found in the Elizabethan inscription. Soon after, scientific tests conclusively proved that the stone had been carved in the recent past.
their settlement—not to Croatoan Island, but to the banks of the Chowan River. At first, there was great excitement at the find, but disappointment set in when mistakes were found in the Elizabethan inscription. Soon after, scientific tests conclusively proved that the stone had been carved in the recent past.
The next theory, promulgated by Robert E. Betts in London’s
Cornhill
Magazine
, was that a Spanish military force had located and killed the lost colonists soon after White’s departure. But this, too, was quickly disproved when new evidence was discovered in Spain’s archives in Seville.
Cornhill
Magazine
, was that a Spanish military force had located and killed the lost colonists soon after White’s departure. But this, too, was quickly disproved when new evidence was discovered in Spain’s archives in Seville.
One by one the claims and theories fell apart, and the riddle of the lost colonists remained as mysterious and intriguing as ever. Too many theoreticians looked for evidence among the records of Ralegh’s Roanoke enterprise, and neglected the diaries and journals kept by the early Jamestown settlers—the very men who actually went in search of the lost colonists. It was they who scoured the forests; they who quizzed the Indians; and they who were in the best position to establish the truth. Although their eyewitness accounts are not supported by concrete proof—only a spectacular archaeological discovery will be able to supply that—their findings are as compelling as they are exciting, and offer the only plausible hypothesis as to what happened to John White’s lost colonists.
The first clues of their whereabouts were found by John White on his 1590 search-and-rescue mission. He determined that they no longer remained on Roanoke, but brought back little more than supposition as to where they might have gone. There was the word CROATOAN carved into a tree—suggesting that the colonists had headed to Manteo’s island home—and there was White’s perplexing statement that the colonists had previously told him of their intention to move “50 miles further up into the maine.” Neither of these facts made much sense: Croatoan—the first option—was little more than a giant spit of sand, on which its native inhabitants found it hard to produce enough crops to feed themselves. When White had
visited the island in 1587, their first concern was that his emptybellied men would eat into their precious food stocks, “for that they had but little.”
visited the island in 1587, their first concern was that his emptybellied men would eat into their precious food stocks, “for that they had but little.”
The second choice was only slightly more plausible. It would have been hard, though not impossible, for 107 colonists to transport themselves to another location without a much larger vessel than the pinnace that they had at their disposal. Not only did they need to be moved, there were also their personal belongings—which amounted to perhaps 120 large wooden sea chests—as well as a significant quantity of weaponry, tools, and general supplies. To transport such a stockpile of material would have taken three or four journeys, even allowing for the fact that the heavy weaponry had been left behind on Roanoke.
From 1590 until 1607, the colonists were both lost and abandoned. Although the 1603 expedition led by Samuel Mace appears to have brought back news of their survival—or at the very least some plausible rumours—he had no contact with them. The first hint that they might be alive, but in grave danger, came in the last week of April 1607, when Captain Christopher Newport sailed into Chesapeake Bay with the first batch of Jamestown colonists. His initial landfall was on the southern shores of the bay, where, he had been reliably informed, he would find the friendly Chesapeake tribe and their impressive settlement. Much to Newport’s surprise, there was no sign of any settlement, nor were there any friendly tribesmen waiting to greet his men. Indeed, scarcely had they landed than they came under a vicious attack from a band of hostile Indians.
Newport continued along the shoreline, puzzled by the fact that although the land had been cleared for farming, there were no tribesmen to be seen. “We went on land and found the place five miles in compass without either bush or tree,” wrote George Percy. They wandered through “excellent ground full of flowers … [and] came into a little plat of ground full of fine and beautifull strawberries,” but “[in] all this march we could neither see savage nor
towne.” All they did see, rather ominously, were “great smoakes of fire” rising from the clearing in the forest—a fire that appeared to have been started deliberately.
towne.” All they did see, rather ominously, were “great smoakes of fire” rising from the clearing in the forest—a fire that appeared to have been started deliberately.
Some months after Newport landed his men at Jamestown, he gleaned information about the tribes that lived on the shores of Chesapeake Bay. All of them, he was told, fell under the rule of Powhatan, except for the Chesapeake tribe. These “Chessipians” had steadfastly refused to submit to Powhatan’s authority and were “perceived to be an enemy generally to all these kingdoms.” Newport could learn nothing of the lost colonists, and was bewildered as to why the Chesapeake tribe had proved so hostile to his own men—soldiers and musketeers who might have been considered useful allies in their struggle against Powhatan. Nor was he privy to the startling news that John Smith would learn during his visit to Powhatan the following winter.
The purpose of Smith’s visit was to acquire desperately needed food supplies, but he soon learned that the emperor had no intention of handing over any grain. Powhatan was by now heartily sick of the Jamestown colonists and had decided to demonstrate his powers of life and death over the Englishmen by revealing the truth about the lost colonists. After years of speculation and rumour, he told an astonished Smith that John White’s settlers had survived for almost two decades on the southern shores of Chesapeake Bay, and that most of them—but not all—had been brutally murdered by his henchmen in the spring of 1607, just days before Newport’s landfall in the bay. “The men, women and children of the first plantation at Roanoke were by practize and commaundement of Powhatan … miserably slaughtered without any offence given him.”
Smith was stunned by what he heard. He had long doubted that White’s lost colonists could have survived the harsh terrain of Chesapeake Bay—a conclusion reached from the terrible sufferings endured by his own band of settlers. Jamestown’s colonists had only survived by the skin of their teeth, even though they had arrived in
America with plentiful victuals and supplies. Now, Smith was being told that White’s hardy men and women had achieved something far more remarkable. Their deep well of resourcefulness had enabled them to survive for twenty years in the forest, scratching an existence from the shrubs and berries of the land, collecting crabs on the foreshore, and occasionally snaring rabbits and deer.
America with plentiful victuals and supplies. Now, Smith was being told that White’s hardy men and women had achieved something far more remarkable. Their deep well of resourcefulness had enabled them to survive for twenty years in the forest, scratching an existence from the shrubs and berries of the land, collecting crabs on the foreshore, and occasionally snaring rabbits and deer.
It was extremely doubtful that any of the Jamestown settlers could have held out for so long. White’s lowborn artisans—brought up in the violent backstreets of London—had proved tougher than them all. Their success was perhaps due to their governor’s secret ingredient, the presence of women. Widows, housewives, and young maidens: all knew how to till the land, plant seeds, and tend crops. It was they who had kept their menfolk and children in rude health.
White’s lost colonists had defied all the odds. Cut off from the rest of the world, without ships, supplies, or company, they had nonetheless managed to keep themselves alive. How tragic it was that their hopes had been dashed by a single, brutal attack on a bright spring day in 1607. And what made it all the more terrible was the fact that it was their own fellow countrymen who had been the trigger for their demise. For the English were later able to put a date on the massacre, discovering that “the slaughter [occurred] at what tyme this, our colony, under the conduct of Captain Newport, landed within the Chesapeake Bay.” Since the date of Newport’s arrival is well documented, the massacre must have taken place between April 24 and 27, 1607.
It was the grim prophecies of Powhatan’s priests that lay behind his bloody actions. “[They] told him how that from the Chesapeake Bay a nation should arise which should dissolve and give end to his empier, for which he destroyed and put to the sword all such who might lye under any doubfull construccion of the said prophesie.” The roll call of the dead included all of “the inhabitants, the weroances, and his subjects of that province,” and had left the Chesapeake tribe “at this daie, and for this cause, extinct.” The extent of the massacre—and the annihilation of the tribe—account
for the hostile attack experienced by Newport and his men when they first landed on the southern shores of the bay. The warriors who ambushed them were not the Chesapeake Indians, as Newport had mistakenly thought, but tribesmen loyal to Powhatan—probably the very men who had just committed the massacre.
for the hostile attack experienced by Newport and his men when they first landed on the southern shores of the bay. The warriors who ambushed them were not the Chesapeake Indians, as Newport had mistakenly thought, but tribesmen loyal to Powhatan—probably the very men who had just committed the massacre.
The date of the attack also explains the great plumes of smoke rising from the forest clearings. Powhatan’s henchmen were destroying the dwellings of White’s settlers, because they did not wish the English arrivals—sighted on the horizon by sharp-eyed lookouts—to discover their murderous deeds.
The onslaught, when it came, probably followed a depressingly familiar pattern. As long ago as 1587, Thomas Harriot had warned that the Indians’ favourite method of fighting was “by sudden surprising one another, most commonly about the dawning of the day.” The ambush must have come without any warning: a hail of arrows, a scream from the forest, and a ferocious and terrifying assault. The Indians would have formed themselves into small bands whose task was to single out the toughest of the English. These poor victims would have been seized and bound before the tribesmen “beat out their braynes” with wooden cudgels. Only when the strongest men had been slaughtered would they have turned their attentions to the weak, the sick, the women and children. Some, perhaps, were “broyled to death”—slowly burned on a bed of charcoal. Others would have been stripped and flayed alive. Only the fortunate would have been killed in the initial onslaught on the village.
Details of the attack were never recorded, but if archaeologists ever retrieve the skeletons of these lost, unfortunate Elizabethans, they are likely to find skulls and bones that have been crushed, fractured, and pierced with arrows. Powhatan’s murderers were always ruthless, and many a colonist must have had his brains dashed out by the thick wooden clubs of the paint-daubed Indians.
The news that Powhatan broke to Captain Smith was both shocking and amazing, but what made it also tantalising was the fact that
a few survivors had escaped the massacre. Smith realised that these battered survivors must surely be alive, somewhere in the limitless forest, living in terror of being captured by Powhatan’s brutal henchmen. How they had escaped from the attack remained a mystery for the time being, for Powhatan declined to tell Smith exactly what had happened. He chose, instead, to show him “a musket barrel and a bronze mortar and certain pieces of iron which had been theirs.” These were his trophies of war, a signal of his superiority over the English colonists, and he reminded Smith that he now had the weaponry that he had craved for so long.
a few survivors had escaped the massacre. Smith realised that these battered survivors must surely be alive, somewhere in the limitless forest, living in terror of being captured by Powhatan’s brutal henchmen. How they had escaped from the attack remained a mystery for the time being, for Powhatan declined to tell Smith exactly what had happened. He chose, instead, to show him “a musket barrel and a bronze mortar and certain pieces of iron which had been theirs.” These were his trophies of war, a signal of his superiority over the English colonists, and he reminded Smith that he now had the weaponry that he had craved for so long.
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