56. How the First Colony Disappeared
BY GOVERNOR JOHN WHITE (1590)[207]
WHEN our boats were fitted again, we put off from
Hatteras, numbering nineteen persons in both boats. Before
we could get to the place where our settlers were left, three
years before, it was so exceedingly dark that we overshot the
place by a quarter of a mile. There we espied, towards the
north end of the island, the light of a great fire through the
woods, to which we presently rowed. When we came right
over against it, we let fall our grapnel near the shore and
sounded a call with a trumpet, and afterwards many familiar
English tunes. We called to them in friendly tones, but had
no answer; we therefore landed at day-break, and coming to
the fire, found the grass and sundry rotten trees burning
about the place. From thence we went through the woods to
that part of the island where I left our colony in the year
1587. All along this way we saw in the sand the print of the
savages feet of two or three sorts, trodden during the night.
As we went up the sandy bank, upon a tree and on the very
brow thereof, were curiously carved these fair Roman
letters, C R 0: which letters at once we knew to signify the
place
where I should find the settlers living, according to a secret token
agreed upon between them and me, at my last departure from them. This
agreement was, that they should in no wise fail to write or carve on the
trees or posts of the doors the name of the place where they should be
seated; for when I came away they were prepared to remove from Roanoke
fifty miles inward. Therefore at my departure from them, in the year
1587, I told them that if they should happen to be distressed in any of
those places, that then they should carve over the letters or name, a
cross in this form but we found no such sign of distress Having well
considered all this, we passed towards the place where we had left the
people in sundry houses; but we found the houses taken down, and the
place very strongly enclosed with a high palisade of great trees,
looking very fort-like. One of the chief trees, or posts, at the right
side of the entrance, had the bark taken off, and five feet from the
ground, in fair capital letters, was graven C R O A T O A N, without any
cross or sign of distress. This done, w e entered inside the palisade,
where we found many bars of iron, two pigs of lead, four iron fowlers,
iron sacker-shots, and such heavy things, thrown here and there, almost
overgrown with grass and weeds. From thence we went along the waterside,
towards a point of the creek, to see if we could find any of their boats
or the pinnace, but we could perceive no sign of them nor any of the
small arms which were left with them at my departure from them.
At our return from the creek, some of our sailors,
meeting us, told us that they had found where several chests
had been hidden, and long since dug up again. These had
been broken up, and much of the things
in them spoiled and scattered about. Presently Captain Cook
and I went to the place, which was in the end of an old
trench made six years ago by Captain
Amadas. Here we found fine chests that had been
carefully hidden by the planters, and among the same
chests three were my own. About the place I found many
of my things spoiled and broken, and my books
torn from the covers, the frames of some of my pictures and maps rotten
and spoiled with rain, and my armor almost eaten through with rust. This
could be no other but the deeds of the savages, our enemies, who had
watched the departure of our men to
Croatoan,
[208] and as soon as they were
departed, these men dug up every place where they suspected anything to
be buried; but although it grieved me much to see such spoil of my
goods, yet on the other hand, I greatly rejoiced that I had safely found
a certain token of their safe being at Croatoan, which is the place
where Manteo was born, and where the savages of the island were our
friends.
[209]
[[207]]
White went to England leaving eighty-nine men,
seventeen women, and eleven children at Roanoke; but he could not get
back till three years later. This extract tells us what he found.
[[208]]
White did not get to Croatoan, and nothing was
ever seen again of a single one of the one hundred and seventeen white
people who were left there three years before.
[[209]]
Nobody knows what became of little Virginia
Dare.