Sir Walter Raleigh, an English Soldier, was in charge of hiring the ships captains and crew for the trip to the New World. He would provide the financing and all necessary food and supplies to sustain the travelers during their journey. Find recruits among England’s population to be possible colonists, and those willing to invest capital. Sir Walter Raleigh does not take this trip to the New World; he is just the coordinator and financier. In 1584, after the discovery of this island, Sir Walter Raleigh, sends two explorers, Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe to North America to check out the island. On the island they meet Native American Indian chief Wingina, and return to England taking two of the Indians with them after deciding the island is suitable for settling. The Indians are taught English and used as part of publicity for populating the colony.
The first colony to arrive at Roanoke Island was in 1585. This first expedition had one hundred and eight men whose main purpose for being there was to repair and restock warships. The colonists quickly realized this was not a good place because of the inability for ships to seek shelter and anchor safely due to shallow water around the island, plus low production rate of the land would not be capable of sustaining the colonists and the local natives. At first the Roanoke Indian people accept the colonists, but after awhile they begin to see them as a source of depletion for their food and resources. With winter and very small crops, relations between the colonists and the natives become hostile, and the colonists had come to rely on the natives and England to supply their needs. They were at war with the natives now and resorting to desperate measures to survive. A ship came to save the colonists, and all returned to England except 15 men. They were left with supplies to sustain them for two years. Practically passing each other going different directions was the handful of ships sent by Sir Walter Raleigh to the island with supplies and more eager “colonists” to settle in the New World.
When the ships landed on the island and everyone realized that the earlier settlers had gone back to England, most of them returned also with the exception of 15 men, left behind to ensure the possession of the island for Queen Elizabeth. They had been left as a sort of small force, meant to protect ownership of the island for England and continue searching the island for the permanent settlement for the new colonists that would come on the next wave of ships. They had to keep the process of fortifying the soil and erecting structures in anticipation of the next ships. The third charter in 1587 of almost 120 people included 91 men, 17 women, and 9 children was said to be insured because unlike the missions before it, it included the whole family instead of just the men. This plan to establish a permanent colony provided a favorable outlook for Puritans looking for religious freedom and hoping to escape the degradation of a vastly overcrowded population with rapidly diminishing resources under the rule of Queen Elizabeth. This third group of colonists to arrive in America landed on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. The leader of this expedition and also named governor of the island, John White, was an artist and Englishman who was also a member of the first colony. During his first trip, he created many pictures that depicted the images of the island and its inhabitants. They had come looking for the 15 men that had been left behind from the last charter. They were then to find the new settlement site. The structures built by the men a year ago had been abandoned and the men were nowhere to be found. This new settlement of colonists attempts to rebuild relationships with the Croatoan Indians. Governor White’s daughter, Eleanor gives birth to a daughter that she names Virginia because she is the first child with parents from England that is born in the New World. While the Croatoan pretend to like the settlers for a while, they eventually decide to let them fend for themselves, and John White ends up having to leave the settlement and head back to England for more supplies. When he gets there, England is at war with Spain, and Queen Elizabeth makes him fight. He does not make it back to Roanoke for three more years. When he finally arrives in 1590, there is absolutely no sign of the colonists or any signs that they had ever been there. They simply vanished. John White tried to make it back to the settlement a few more times after that, but was thwarted by bad weather and lack of funds to finance a trip. The settlement has been known as the Lost Colony since then.
Bibliography
Miller, Lee., Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony., Penguin Books:
Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England, 2002
