Fergie's Tech Blog

22 July 1587: Roanoke Colony Established for the Second Time

In 1587, Raleigh dispatched another group of colonists. These 91 men, 17 women, and 9 children were led by John White, an artist and friend of Raleigh's who had accompanied the previous expeditions to Roanoke. The new colonists were tasked with picking up the fifteen men left at Roanoke and settling farther north, in the Chesapeake Bay area. Upon arrival at Roanoke, however, the fleet's navigator, Simon Fernandez, refused to transport the colony further than the Outer Banks, claiming that continuing to the bay would delay his return to England into the North Atlantic storm season, thereby risking the fleet. This was probably an excuse; it is highly likely that Raleigh's captain was merely impatient to leave in search of Spanish prizes.

Forced to accept this reasoning, which was unveiled by Fernandez only after forty of the colony's men had already been shipped to Roanoke Island to search for the fifteen men stationed there, the Roanoke settlement was re-established. Of the fifteen men left the year before, only the bones of a single man were found. The one local tribe still friendly towards the English, the Croatans on present-day Hatteras Island, reported that the men had been attacked, and the nine survivors had taken their boat and sailed up the coast.

The settlers landed on Roanoke Island on July 22, 1587. On August 18, Governor White's daughter had the first English child born in the Americas: Virginia Dare. Before her birth, White reestablished relations with the neighboring Croatans and tried to reestablish relations with the tribes that Ralph Lane had attacked a year previously. The aggrieved tribes refused to meet with the new colonists.

Shortly thereafter, George Howe was killed by natives as he crabbed alone in Albemarle Sound. Knowing what had happened during Ralph Lane's tenure in the area and fearing for their lives, the colonists convinced Governor White to return to England to explain the colony's situation and ask for help. There were approximately 117 colonists—115 men and women who made the trans-Atlantic passage and 2 new-born babies (including Virginia Dare)—when White returned to England.

posted by Fergie @ 7/22/2006 12:01:00 AM