Excerpt
You may have heard the tale of the Lost Colony. If so, you probably heard that 117 English colonists disappeared in 1587 and left no clues as to where they went and that nothing has ever been found to shed some light on the mystery.
This book is an attempt to educate the public about the Lost Colony of 1587, America’s oldest mystery, and a story so wrapped in myth that many facts as to their whereabouts seemed to have been ignored over the years. Recent archeological digs on Hatteras Island, together with genealogy, oral history, and the primary sources of the many voyages that took place from 1584 to 1590, give clues as to the whereabouts of the missing colony.
The first clue is a message carved on a palisade that was discovered by Governor John White in 1590 on Roanoke Island. The message said CROATOAN in capital letters. Before John White left the colony in 1587 to get supplies from England, he told the colonists to carve the name of the place they were going on a tree if they left Roanoke Island and to put a cross under it if they left for reasons of danger. No cross was found, and John in his own records stated he was relieved to know that the colony was safe in Croatoan with Manteo. Manteo was an Indian from Croatoan who had been to England twice, spoke English and had been used as an interpreter. John White had a daughter and granddaughter among the missing colonists and made an attempt to go to Croatoan to pick them up during his 1590 voyage, but he was turned back by foul weather that drowned seven of his company.
So where is Croatoan and were the English familiar with this place? Croatoan is modern day Buxton on Hatteras Island. Croatoan was an island the English had visited on all of their voyages. It was where they had originally landed in 1584 and even lived for a time in 1585. The Lost Colony went there again in 1587 and had a feast. It was the hometown of their ally and interpreter Manteo and appears on all of John White’s maps. So yes, the English were familiar with Croatoan and there has never been a mystery as to where that place was.
However, after John White’s failed attempt to reach the island in 1590, no other attempt to reach Croatoan was made for another 114 years! If anything, the fact that no one went back to Croatoan is a greater mystery than where the colony went. The next European to travel to Hatteras (on purpose and not by shipwreck) was John Lawson in 1701. Lawson published a book called A New Voyage To Carolina that is the definitive work on the North Carolina Indians of the 1700’s. In this book, Lawson recorded that many of the Hatteras Indians or Croatoan had grey eyes and said that their ancestors could speak out of a book (read) and that they were indeed descendents of the 1587 colony. These Indians even said that a ship, which they called Sir Walter Raleigh’s ship, still appeared among them. Lawson goes on to say that this tribe was very proud of their affinity to the English and some still wore English clothes.
So we have the message on the palisade, Manteo’s home town, and the oral history of the Hatteras Indians all pointing to Croatoan. All of this is old news though. What is really interesting is what happened in 1993. The native families of Hatteras Island can show you arrowheads, pottery and other artifacts that they have found from what all who live there believe to be, the old Croatoan village site. In the 1970’s, locals of the island used to sit by the road and sell arrowheads for a nickel each to tourists. Buckets full of pottery and arrowheads could be found all over the ridges where Croatoan Village once stood. In 1993, however, Hurricane Emily surged 10 feet of sound tide over this village site and ripped out many layers of sand in the process. As a result, an enormous amount of new artifacts were uncovered and found by local residents, Zander Brody, Eddie Oaks, Keri Hooper and many others.
Eventually, archeologists came to the site. Dr. David Phelps had found some Croatoan artifacts before back in the 1980’s while doing some work for the 400th anniversary of the first English voyages to the New World. Phelps returned to the island and with help from a lot of volunteers, struck pay dirt. This time not only were Croatoan artifacts found but European ones as well. Among the European artifacts were the iron ring of a caulking hammer, lead shot, nails, bricks and, most importantly, a gunlock that dates to 1583 and a gold insignia ring that probably belonged to a man named Master Kendall, who was part of the 1585 voyage. This ring and gunlock found by David Phelps now reside at East Carolina University. More and more artifacts come out of the Croatoan site each time they dig. Even European skeletons have been found along with Native American bones.
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To help tell the story, I have created a narrative history in modern English of the 16th century voyages and added some smells, sights and sounds to help the story come to life from the primary sources. At the end of each chapter are excerpts from the primary sources that the chapter was based on along with analysis of the facts. The last few chapters of this book deal with the recent discoveries and theories in a strictly factual manner. I hope to shed some light on America’s greatest mystery and also entertain the reader.
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