28 The Lost Colony

It looks like a reasonable enough place to start a colony.

The soil is deep brown, there are lots of hardwood trees, and it is on a defensible island in protected water. (It was also going to be a base for privateering against the Spanish).

Anyway this is where Raleigh (then 31 years old) set down hundred or so men on the tip of Roanoke Island in Albemarle Sound in 1585. This was to be Britain’s first settlement in North America. The men made a fort (in case the Spanish attacked them first) but were evidently not experienced campers. They became dependent on the Indians and quickly antagonized them. (They stole from the Indians’ fish traps and shot the Indian chief at a ‘peace’ meeting). When Drake showed up the next year they grabbed the chance to get a ride back to England. The venture was not entirely wasted. Thomas Hariot (25 years) recorded and John White painted in beautiful detail the Indians and their customs, and the animals and plants that were unknown to Europeans.

The next year Raleigh came back with a hundred or so new colonists, including women and children. But when ships returned in 1590, they had vanished.

Archeologists have identified the remains of the fort. It is a park now. You can walk through the trees, which are full of edible squirrels and birds, and look at the mounds and moats that were probably surrounded by palisades.