1602 - In search for the Lost Colony

March 1602 - Captain Samuel Mace leaves the port of Weymouth to Virginia. He is sent by Sir Walter Raleigh in search of traces of the Roanoke colony.

Mace was an experienced seafarer. He had previously sailed twice to Virginia. For his part, Sir Walter Raleigh hoped to find live settlers and extend the validity of his chart, come to an end.

March 26, 1602 - Bartholomew Gosnold leaves Falmouth (Devon) to the North American continent aboard the Concord. He intends to found a lasting settlement in North Virginia (name given at time to New England) and takes with him 8 crewmen and 24 "gentlemen" looking for adventure.

Despite limited resources, his plan was rather ambitious. He hoped to find the famous refuge discovered by Giovanni da Verazzano in 1524 (Narragansett Bay) and found a colony, or at least, a trading post. But he had to bring back from the New World enough convertible goods to clear his expenses and cover the expedition cost. Two things interested him actually, pelts and sassafras roots. The latter were quite popular in Europe for their medicinal properties and allowed its suppliers to reap huge profits. The sassafras, however, only grew in America. Apart from the project's funding, Gosnold had to solve another problem : his father was imprisoned for debts and it was his reponsibility to pay them off.

Some historians have argued that Gosnold hired captain Bartholomew Gilbert's services due to his links with Lord Cobham, owner of an old license granted to Edward Hayes by Sir Walter Raleigh. Lord Cobham was indeed the brother-in-law of Sir Robert Cecil, Secretary of State of Queen Elizabeth but this hypothesis was not confirmed.

We also worried about the small quantity of supplies shipped but Gosnold had decided to be the first navigator to achieve in direct line the ocean crossing. It was about a particularly audacious strategy because, with its 30 tons, the Concord was a rather modest ship, added to the fact that it was originally designed to follow the trade winds to the Caribbean and up the North American coast pushed by southwest winds. Gosnold knew that from the Azores, it would certainly save a siginficant distance, but he would have to tack unabated.

Among people who accompanied him were his friend Gabriel Archer and chaplain John Bereton, both  responsible to the expedition account ; William Street, one of the Concord's owners ; Robert Salterne and John Angell, who went on one year later to accompany Martin Pring in the Great Sassafras Hunts ; Robert Meriton, a botanist-pharmacist who knew well the plants curative properties.

Bartholomew Gosnold (Grundisburgh (Suffolk) 1572 - Jamestown (VA)  August 22, 1607) 
Both lawyer, privateer and explorer, he played a leading role in the founding of the Virginia Company of London and the Jamestown colony. He was born in a family of the landed gentry that gravitated in the wake of the Earl of Essex. He spent his early years in the family manor at Otley Hall before leaving to follow studies at Jesus College, Cambridge. After graduation, he came to London to study law at Middle Temple where he met Richard Hakluyt, the famous geographer of the queen with whom he befriended. The latter conveyed his interest in the colonization of the New World, quite as Sir Thomas Smythe, the rich cousin of his wife and founder of he East India Company. Gosnold apprenticed for adventure on a first trip to the Azores in 1597 and accompanied the Earl of Esssex Robert Devereux, in a piracy campaign off the Spanish coast. He began to develop his project to colonize Virginia following the publication by Hakluyt of "Principal Navigations of the English Nation", a campaigning book for merchants. He lost however in 1601 his two main financial supports: Essex first, convinced of treason and beheaded, and Sir Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, disgraced and imprisoned in the Tower of London. He had therefore to assume virtually alone achieving his projects.

Robert Salterne - ()
Born in Bristol, he was the son (or the grandson) of William, deputy of the " traders-adventurers " of the city. Richard Hakluyt had consulted him in 1583, at the request of Secretary of State Sir Francis Walsingham, to get his support for hatching an expedition in America, supervised by Sir Humphrey Gilbert. It is likely that Richard Hakluyt was not foreign to the fact that the young Robert had been at first oriented towards an ecclesiastical career.

John Bereton (1572-1619?) 
Born in a wealthy drapers family from Norwich, he attended Cambridge University where he was graduated in 1596. He chose then the priesthood and was ordained two years later to be assigned to Lawsall parish. He met there cousins of Bartholomew Gosnold and began to acquire the taste for adventure. He was the one who made the "Relation" of the 1602 journey, referring in great detail the explored coasts, vegetation and wildlife, bartering furs with the Indians and the first sowing experiences on an exceptionally fertile soil. He never tired to be impressed by the great quantity of fish found in these waters, up to whale skeletons seen on Martha's Vineyard’s beaches. His work was, in fact, a plea, liable to encourage all English merchants and potential migrants to settle in North America.

Gabriel Archer (1575 - Jamestown 1609) 
Hailing from Essex, he studied at Cambridge and Gray Inn and worked at first as lawyer. He had known Bartholomew Gilbert at University and it was due to their friendship that he was appointed in 1602 second captain on the Concord.

Bartholomew Gilbert (Plymouth - 1603) 
Second captain of the Concord, he had previously been involved in a swindle affair with precious stones whose victim Queen Elizabeth had been. This man seemed involved in a number of financial embezzlements and it is difficult to understand why Bartholomew Gosnold had chosen him for the trip to America, except perhaps the fact that he owned shares in the ship or was a distant cousin. He had been in charge of the boat supply but, disturbing effect of chance, foods quickly proved insufficient, undermining the purpose of the colonization project. Had Gilbert diverted a part from it in his profit? It is, however, certain that on the return of the expedition, he arranged with Sir Walter Raleigh and gave him some valuable information about the importance of the sassafras cargo loaded on the Concord.

May, 1602 - Bartholomew Gosnold reaches Cape Elizabeth, Maine, after only 18 days at sea. Not finding an anchoring place, he decides to follow the coast southwards.

His ship was approached by eight Indians whose boat looked strangely like those of Biscay fishermen, letting believe that the Basques attended this place. The Natives were invited aboard the Concord and seemed quite understand English, mixing Christian words with their comments. Then they sketched with a chalk the outlines of the coast of the area and placed even Newfoundland. The Indians proved very hospitable and suggested to Gosnold to make a short stopover but he declined politely their offer.

May 14, 1602 - Bartholomew Gosnold anchors at the mouth of York River in South Maine.

May 15, 1602 - Bartholomew Gosnold reaches a strip of land that he names Cape Cod ans casts anchor in Milford Haven bay (today Princetown).

May, 1602 - Having set sail southward, Gosnold by-passes an island that he names Nomans land (Nomans coming certainly from Tequenoman, the name of the local Indian leader) before approaching the large nearby island that seems rather hospitable and that he calls Martha's Vineyard.

This island he had so called up because of wild grapevine profusion and to honor the memory his daughter Martha's memory, gone to an early grave, was full of woods and fruit shrubs among which gooseberries, raspberries, dog roses and of all kinds of game. Navigator Giovanni da Verazzano had recognized it in 1524 and included it on his map by attributing it Luisa's name. It was lived by the Wampanoag Indians who formed a powerful Algonquian speaking federation taking over southern New England. They had given it the name of Noepe, meaning " land amid the currents ".  The Wampanaoags welcomed these newcomers with a watchy curiosity and Gosnold used their hospitality to swap with them stuff he had brought for pelts and sassafras.

According to some sources, the name originally given to the island was not Martha but Martin's Vineyard, in reference to captain John Martin, one of Gosnold's seconds.

May 24, 1602 - Gosnold lands on the small Cuttyhunk Island that he calls Elizabeth in honor of the queen, a name given afterward to the archipelago to which it belongs. He chooses this place to start a settlement and decides to build a fort and a house.

This islet was rich in plants of all kinds (oaks, cedars, sassafrases, cherry trees, grapevine, gooseberries, hawthorns, honeysuckle, locust trees) and was apparently uninhabited. The soil proved, on the other hand, extremely fertile and plants grew at an amazing pace. The settlers took advantage of it to sow wheat, barley and peas.

May 31, 1602 - on a scouting mission, Bartholomew Gosnold puts ashore, a few miles North of Cuttyhunk,in a place he names Smoking Rocks (today New Bedford, MA). He becomes aware of the existence of a large Indian population.

June, 1602 - Gosnold's men are making their picking of sassafras when they are approached by about fifty Wampanoag bowmen. These show however courteous and display their want to barter.

Bartholomew Gosnold offered their leader a straw hat and a pair of knives the sharpening quality of which made a strong impression on him.

June 13, 1602 - Some of the men intended to stay on Cuttyhunk inform Gosnold that they prefer to return to England, by fear of Indians, winter harshness and lack of reserves.

June 17, 1602 - the Concord leaves Cuttyhunk with onboard all the members of the expedition.

July 23, 1602 - Bartholomew Gosnold is back to Exmouth. He brings with him an important shipcargo of sassafras and cedar wood, the best price of which he hopes to get.

He considered however his journey as a failure. He had sailed with the naive ambition to found a long-lasting settlement in North America and returned three months later with all his crew, without either having discovered the large bay described by Verazzano.

Known for their curative virtues, sassafras roots used to make drinks supposed to keep youthful and healthy, were at the time very valued by the English. They were especially supposed to guard against syphilis. Gosnold hoped, thereby, to make a good profit. It was however without relying on the legalistic acumens of Sir Walter Raleigh, who had hired captain Martin Pring for equivalent purposes and argued on this occasion the privileges granted to him by Queen Elizabeth.

Raleigh was previously hardly concerned with rights that could be levied on goods from America but the sassafras loading brought back by Gosnold caused such a collapse in prices that he did not hesitate to react. He thus accused Gosnold of having encroached on lands located between the 34 and the 45th parallels that he regarded as his own and made seize all the ship's contents.

Despite the poor result of this expedition, Barthomew Gosnold was convinced of all the interest that represented the American continent, because of the nature of its climate and the fertility of its soils. He felt having never seen such a nice place, with its orchards, meadows and brooks, up to the  Wampanoag Indians who had appeared to him as peaceful people.

September, 1602 - having left Weymouth in May, Samuel Mace returns to London without having collected information on the Roanoke colony.

He had preferred to stop near Cape Fear to stock up an important loading of sassafras and actually engaged no serious research. Mace found as excuse that bad weather had prevented him.

1588 - The Armada Year

With Governor John White's leaving on August 27, the story of the planter's colony will become a tragic mystery. It was question of moving about 50 miles inland and White had arranged to get appropriate information on its location in case of abandoning Roanoke before his return. This was going to be constantly delayed with no means to hear from his daughter and grand-daughter Virginia remained on the other side of the ocean.

Thomas Harriot publishes his Briefe and True Report in which he describes all the observations made during the first Roanoke colony in 1585.

March 1588 - Urged by John White, Sir Richard Grenville has managed to prepare six boats in the port of Bideford intended to set sail as soon as possible to attack the Spaniards in the West Indies and supply the settlers in Roanoke. They are not allowed to leave England due to the impending war with Spain and must return to Plymouth. 

Reported unsuitable to military service, the Bark Brave, a 30-ton vessel and the Roe, a 25-ton pinnace were left at White's disposal.

April 22, 1588 - White's flotilla commanded by Captain Arthur Facy leaves Bideford, Devonshire, headed for Virginia but the two small boats are poorly equipped and carry few provisions.

Although his two boats were ill-suited to the open sea, John White hoped to reach Roanoke in mid-July. It was however not counting on captain Facy who was more concerned with piracy than with the fate of the colony.

May 6, 1588 - The Brave is attacked by two bigger French ships coming from La Rochelle. The fight causes several casualties including Governor White, wounded in the buttock. The English boat owes surrender, all its provisions and weapons are looted. Severely damaged, the Brave reaches however to join Bideford harbor. The Roe had also to sail back.

Discouraged, John White believes to be born under a "hapless star".

June, 1588 - The Spanish governor of St Augustine sends a boat with about 30 men including his nephew Juan Menendez Marquez under the orders of captain Vincent Gonzalez to locate the Roanoke colony in view of a possible attack.

Having looked out Chesapeake Bay, Vincente Gonzalez arrived somewhat by chance at Port Ferdinando. He found there all the appearances of a mooring place and an English settlement. He hastily left to share his discovery convinced that the little harbor was still used but the attack planned, once delayed and later irrelevant due to the poorness of fittings, never seems to have occurred. This is at least the conclusion that can be drawn from Spanish documents of that time.

August 10, 1588 - Only a half of the 122 ships forming the Spanish Armada will return home to Spain after being wrecked by the unusual gales that plague the North Atlantic during three days. For England, this victory foreshadows the maritime decline of Spain and its new supremacy on the seas.

1590 - the Lost Colony

On March 7, 1589, Sir Walter Raleigh transferred his interests in Virginia (excluding one-fifth of all gold and silver) to a group of merchants and adventurers of London, to Governor John White and nine other gentlemen. Seven of them, at least, were planters that White had left in Roanoke including his son-in-law Ananias Dare. Among others appeared Richard Hakluyt and Thomas Smythe.

Months went by, and it became clear that White and the London merchants were unable to raise à consistent enough fleet to relief and strenghten the colony.

March, 1590 - Raleigh endeavors to support White through his influence with the Court when he is learned that a government order aims to form a fleet of privateers headed for the West Indies. It is maybe by chance but this project comes timely to Raleigh, offering him the opportunity to bring new settlers and supplies to Virginia. The plan turns nevertheless evil.

March 20, 1590 - Gov. John White leaves Plymouth for Virginia without the planters nor the expected supplies.

He was actually the only passenger of a fleet headed by Captain John Wattes. It consisted of 3 small ships, the Hopewell, the Admiral 150 ton-vessel with Captain Abraham Cocke, the John Evangelist, a pinnace captained by William Lane, the Little Hope, a 120 ton-vessel with captain Christopher Newport and two shallops. It had been planned to go to rescue the settlers left on Roanoke but the purpose of the journey was primarily to do with piracy. Before leaving, Wattes had complied to the request of the Merchants and Noblemen of London to relief the settlers but once at sea, free from the Court influence, he showed no more eagerness to respect his promise towards White.

March 25, 1590 - Both shallops sink during the night further to a carelessness of the vigil crew.

March 31, 1590 - The fleet anchors in Mogador Island, retrieving by the way the Moonlight, a 80-ton pinnace of London captained by Edward Spicer.

April 1, 1590 - Dropping anchor at Santa Cruz, they meet English ships whose captains hand over two shallops that will replace those lost a few days earlier.

April 5, 1590 - Wattes' fleet chases after a flyboat off Canary Islands and loots it. Some men are killed during the collision.

April 30, 1590 - the expedition arrives at Dominica.

During May, June and July, the fleet commanded by John Wattes was engaged in the West Indies in ordinary piracy, sailing from island to island in search of some booty. Two Spanish ships were prized uncluding the Buen Jesus, a 300-ton galleon of Sevilla but results were rather weak. They followed coasts often deserted or inhospitable, only lived by some starving fugitives. Some casualties were to regret but the boats had to suffer no additional damage.

August 1, 1590 - Having sailed along Florida, the expedition reaches the coast of North Carolina. Strong gale and rain strike the ships.

 August 3, 1590 - Gov. White and the men of the expedition catch sight of the outerbanks west of Wococon but the bad weather prevents their ships from getting to the shore.

August 9, 1590 - As the storm passed, the boats can anchor about 1 mile from the coast. The men land on a narrow sandy island west of Wococon, in order to make water supply. They also bring back a big quantity of fish.

August 12, 1590 - the ships cast anchor in the morning at the northeast end of Croatoan Island.

August 15, 1590 - Gov. White and the relief expedition anchor at Hatoraske. They observe a trail of smoke rising from the island of Roanoke, what they consider as the sign that the settlers are still alive.

For Gov. John White, there was no doubt that the colonists had expected his return and that he would soon see his daughter and grand-daughter Virginia to bring them back safely to England.

August 16 , 1590 - Gov. White sails to Roanoke with two boats and some crewmen commanded by Captains Cocke and Spicer, intending to land near the village where the settlers are supposed to live. It is agreed to fire shots at regular intervals to warn their people of their arrival. They search the area without finding anything until they see another smoke rising in the sky, southwest of Kindrikers Mounts. Thinking that it is a new sign, they decide to go in this direction.

 The smoke was not so near as they thought and they reached the supposed place only after long hours of walking. They found finally no trace of the colonists and returned to the harbor in the evening. They took the opportunity to make freshwater provision  and returned at dusk to their ships.

August 17, 1590 - Captain 
Spicer and Captain Cocke return to their ships 
anchored at sea when their small boats loaded with fresh water are surprised by a gale causing a sudden tide rise. Captain Abraham Cocke almost sinks during the operation after a leak that damages a part of provisions and ammunitions while Captain Spicer's first mate keels over, unable to control his boat. Four sailors succeed in escaping by swimming from the wreck but 7 others die drowned, including Captain Spicer .

Despite this misfortune, White and his crew tried hard to conduct research. They left again to Roanoke on two boats but the sky darkened so fast that they failed the colony a few miles. They saw then the light of what seemed to be a great fire at the northern end of the island and moved to its direction. They hoped to be recognized by blowing a horn and singing familiar English tunes but got no response.

August 18, 1590 - Gov. White and his company land at dawn in the place where they had seen the fire but find only grass and pieces of wood ending up to be consumed. Thence, they cross thickets to the side of the island facing the village of Dasamonquepeuc and leave by the shore towards the northern end of the island, where the colony was settled. They see nothing interesting on the way, except footprints left during the night by two or three Natives.

While they climbed a sandy embankment, they found the letters "CRO" carved in Roman characters on a tree, on top of a hill. They found that all the houses had been taken down and saw an entrenchment protected by a palissade forming a kind of small fort. The bark on the largest beam had been removed and was inscribed in capital letters the word CROATOAN but without the Maltese cross, a distress signal that White had asked the settlers to include in their messages in case of forced abandonment.
Crossing the fence, they found scrap and various objects scattered here and there, half covered with grass, meaning that the place had been left for a long time. Gov. White headed then southward along the shore up to the fitted out cove (today Shallow Bag Bay) where the settlers boats used to be anchored but he found nothing. He went in search of chests and personal things that he had secretly buried in 1587 but the Indians had discovered the hiding place. They had forced lids, torn the books bindings and scattered to the winds illustrations and maps.

According to his own words, Governor John White was however happy with the idea that the word CROATOAN carved on a beam of the palisade was maybe the sign that her daughter, her grand-daughter Virginia and the planters had taken refuge on Croatoan Island where lived Manteo and where the Indians always showed friendly to the English.

As the storm threatened, White and his men went back hurriedly to the harbor where their boats were at anchor.

 August 19, 1590 - Governor White and captain Abraham Cocke decide to go to the Croatoans where the settlers could have found refuge according to the clues discovered the day before. However, the rope of their anchor breaks while weighing and the stream rushes their ship to the shore. They reach fortunately deep water but have no more than an anchor on four. The weather becoming increasingly bad, it is decided to head to St John in West Indies to search provisions and fill up with fresh water.

It seemed too late in summer to return quickly to Virginia and Gov. White agreed with the proposal of spending winter in the Caribbean and to go back to Roanoke early the next year. The Hopewell 's crew approved the principle but the men on the Moonlight chose to go back without delay to England.

August 28, 1590 - The winds have changed and a storm is brewing forcing captain Cocke to choose a new destination. He decides to head for Trinidad but winds being opposite, he has to set sail to the Azores.

October 24, 1590 - Gov. White arrives safe at Plymouth.

He found no traces of the planters but indications left on Roanoke Island supposed that they could have survived. The mystery of the Lost Colony would not, henceforth, cease to haunt minds.

John White had no means to fund himself a new expedition in Virginia and despite comfortable incomes, Raleigh kept squandering his fortune. He could have spent a little money and energy to the Virginia project but preferred at the time to beautify the estates he had been rewarded in Ireland. Walsingham died in 1590 and his death soon compromised Raleigh's business, already fallen out with the queen for having dared to marry Elizabeth Thockmorton without her consent. Disgraced, he ended up in prison in July, 1592. With the loss of his sponsor, White had to renounce his last hopes. He died the following year.

Threatened with losing his charter, Sir Walter Raleigh put himself again in search of the colony. He sent for it in spring, 1602, an expedition under the command of certain Samuel Mace who reached the area 40 miles from Hatoraske nearby Croatoan Island. Mace traded with coastal Indians but made do with summary searches that proved logically unsuccessful. He justified by accusing the bad weather of being primarily responsible for his failure. In a letter sent to Sir Robert Cecil dated August 21, 1602, Raleigh expressed again his belief in the setting up of an overseas English empire, as he attempted to do. The memory of the lost Roanoke colony became from that time a true myth having for background the mysterious fate of Virginia Dare, the first English born on the American continent.

After the founding of Jamestown in 1607, the settlers did attempt to obtain from Indians informations in order to clear up this enigma but none provided credible answer.
One of the haunting images of the American memory is that of Eleanor Dare cradling her baby, lost in the vast wilderness, abandoned by a father who brought her in this foreign country where she has to fight for her survival. Four centuries after their disappearance, Eleanor and Virginia Dare became the heroines of an epic mystery which always interests historians and archaeologists. In 1587, more than a hundred men, women and children had arrived from England to found a colony on a small island in North Carolina. Less than three years later, they had all vanished without leaving any trace except an only word carved on a beam. This first attempt of colonization ended in a disaster but one of the most long-lived legends of America had been born.

 In 1709, an English traveler named John Lawson went to Roanoke Island and spent some time together with The Hatteras Indians, descendants of the Croatoan tribe. He wrote that among the oldest were people with white skin who could read in a book and that some of them were grey-eyed, a character not found among other Indians. In the 1880s, as the 3rd centennial of the colony approached, Hamilton McMillan, native from North Carolina, proposed a theory which meets today still some credit. He had lived in Robeson County, southeast of the State near Pembroke Indian Reserve among which some claimed that their ancestors came from Roanoke. According to McMillan, the Pembroke spoke out not only pure English but bore former settlers names. They had further European characters as clear eyes, blond hair and a British-style body.

Other more or less plausible theories, even fanciful were devised during the 20th century. Thus, a series of mysterious stones discovered in 1937 in eastern North Carolina appeared a time to remove the mystery. The original stone was picked up by a walker in a swamp 60 miles west of Roanoke. It was covered with strange engravings which, having been decrypted proved to be Eleanor Dare's message sent to her father stating that the colonists had fled after an Indians' attack. Over the next three years were found not less than about forty similar stones which, put end to end, told the fantastic journey of the settlers southward with for strongest moment Eleanor's death. The scientific world, rightly, appeared skeptical and the papers, having made their front page with it, felt rather deceived when a reporter unveiled in 1940 that it was just a huge hoax. Over the past forty years, researchers found in the English and Spanish archives documents hitherto unknown which suggested a logical solution to the mystery. Many historians believe that after White’s leaving, the colony was divided into two groups whose main headed to Chesapeake Bay, which was originally the purpose of the expedition. Lane had explored the area two years before and settlers could orient themselves with maps drawn by White himself.

When John Smith and the Jamestown settlers landed in 1607, they began looking for the Roanoke planters and learned that they had probably stopped in the area. During his dealing with the Powhatan leader, Smith heard from him that the first colonists have lived peacefully alongside the Chesapeake Indians settled in the region. Powhatan boasted of having attacked them and slain the most. As proof, he showed Smith a musket barrel, a brass mortar and some iron pieces which would have belong to them.

By 1612, the Jamestown administrators had recorded several testimonies according to which some of the former Roanoke colonists were still alive. Researches were unfortunately all unsuccessful. What happened to the group remained in Roanoke ? Historians have thought they had early enough found refuge at Croatoan and the inscription was a message for White. Spanish archives reveal that they had already left the island in June 1588, when a reconnaissance expedition found the place deserted. They have subsequently been assimilated by the Croatoan tribe. 

A recent finding by English researchers based on a map drawn by John White would have suggested an indication of a place at the end of Albemarle Sound where the settlers would take refuge, but this one comes to contradict the deep feeling of failure in aftermath of his fruitless trip to Roanoke.

We must actually recognize that the mystery remains and we will probably never know what really happened at Fort Raleigh 429 years ago.