Memorable World History/Authors

Lost Colony of Roanoke (Part II)

Investigations into Roanoke

Sir Walter Raleigh

Although White failed to locate hiscolonists in 1590, his report suggested they had simply relocated andmight yet be found alive. However, it served Raleigh's purposes tokeep the matter in doubt; so long as the settlers could not be provendead, he could legally maintain his claim on Virginia. Nevertheless,a 1594 petition was made to declare Ananias Dare legally dead so thathis son, John Dare, could inherit his estate. The petition wasgranted in 1597.

During Raleigh's first transatlanticvoyage in 1595, he claimed to be in search of his lost colonists,although he would admit this was disinformation to cover his searchfor El Dorado. On the return voyage, he sailed past the Outer Banks,and later claimed that weather prevented him from landing.

Raleigh later sought to enforce hismonopoly on Virginia—based on the potential survival of the Roanokecolonists—when the price of sassafras skyrocketed. He funded a 1602mission to the Outer Banks, with the stated goal of resuming thesearch. Led by Samuel Mace, this expedition differed from previousvoyages in that Raleigh bought his own ship and guaranteed thesailors' wages so that they would not be distracted by privateering.However, the ship's itinerary and manifest indicate that Raleigh'stop priority was harvesting sassafras far south of Croatoan Island.By the time Mace approached Hatteras, bad weather prevented them fromlingering in the area. In 1603, Raleigh was implicated in the MainPlot and arrested for treason against King James, effectively endinghis Virginia charter.

Bartholomew Gilbert

There was one final expedition in 1603led by Bartholomew Gilbert with the intention of finding Roanokecolonists. Their intended destination was Chesapeake Bay, but badweather forced them to land in an unspecified location near there.The landing team, including Gilbert himself, was killed by a group ofNative Americans for unknown reasons on July 29. The remaining crewwere forced to return to England empty-handed.

John Smith

Following the establishment of theJamestown settlement in 1607, John Smith was captured by the Powhatanand met with both their leader Wahunsenacawh (often referred to as"Chief Powhatan") and his brother Opchanacanough.They described to him a place called "Ocanahonan",where men wore European-style clothing; and "Anone",which featured walled houses. Later, after Smith returned to thecolony, he made arrangements with Wowinchopunk, the king of thePaspahegh, to investigate "Panawicke", another placereportedly inhabited by men in European dress. The colony produced acrude map of the region with labels for these villages. The map alsofeatured a place called "Pakrakanick" with a noteindicating, "Here remayneth 4 men clothed that came fromRoonocok to Ocanahawan."

In the summer of 1608, Smith sent aletter about this information, along with the map, back to England.The original map is now lost, but a copy was obtained by Pedro deZúñiga, the Spanish ambassador to England, who passed it on to KingPhilip III of Spain. The copy, now commonly referred to as the"Zúñiga Map", was rediscovered in 1890.

Smith planned to explore Pakrakanick,but a dispute with the Paspahegh ended the mission before it couldbegin. He also dispatched two search parties, possibly to look forthe other villages reported to him, with instructions to find "thelost company of Sir Walter Rawley". Neither group could findany sign of the Roanoke colonists living in the area.