Chapter 17

THEORIES

The model for colonization that Raleigh, Harriot, White and Hakluyt envisioned of harmony with the Native peoples and mutually benefiting societies almost happened, even if only on a tiny island called Croatoan. Unfortunately, this model for settlement was abandoned just like the 1587 colony.

To this day, you cannot find a more complete ethnography of tidewater Indians than the one Thomas Harriot made in the late sixteenth century. The English did not attempt to understand Native society again until the eighteenth century, when John Lawson was commissioned to study tribes in North Carolina. Lawson, shockingly, is the next surviving record of Hatteras Island. The entire 1600s is missing from the written word. As mentioned earlier, the next time someone finally went to Croatoan after John White was not for one hundred years; John Lawson visited Hatteras and was told by the tribe they were descendants of white people who came on Raleigh’s ship and that their ancestors could speak out of a book. What Lawson learned about the culture of the tribes he visited is also very telling. Lawson boldly wrote:

They naturally posses the righteous man’s gift; they are patient under all afflictions and have a great many other natural vertues, which I have touched throughout the account of these savages. They are really better to us, than we are to them; they always give us victuals at their quarters, and take care we are armed against hungar and thirst: We look upon them with scorn and disitain and think them little better than beasts in human shape, though if well examined, we shall find that for all our religion and education, we posess more moral deformities and evils than these savages do or are aquainted withal.

After Lawson, there is very little reference to the Hatteras/Croatoan tribe. They fought on the side of the English in the Tuscarora War (1711–15) and apparently appealed to the Governor’s Council for “Some Small relief from ye Country for their services being reduced to great poverty.” A mere sixteen bushels of corn were issued to the Hatteras tribe from the public store by the Governor’s Council for their help in defeating the Tuscarora. The Tuscarora had attacked English settlements along the Pamlico and Neuse Rivers in 1711. These attacks wiped out entire towns and even mutilated some of the victims. Lawson himself was burned to death by the Tuscarora. An interesting side note is that the pirate Blackbeard’s sister was among the survivors of one such attack in Bath, North Carolina, that left three hundred English dead.

The last scrap of information on the Hatteras tribe comes from Governor Burrington in 1731. At that time, the tribe was still on the island but was reduced to fewer than twenty families. In other words, the Tuscarora War nearly wiped out what little was left of the tribe in the eighteenth century. A Hatteras Indian village also appears in the Buxton vicinity on a 1733 map called the Mosely map. By 1761, missionaries found a few people from the Hatteras and Roanoke tribes living together with remnants of other tribes by Lake Mattamuskeet, and that is the last mention of them in history. To be sure, a good number of them had assimilated with white settlers on the island, and over time, their genetics were simply overwhelmed by Caucasians. The land grant to the Hatteras tribe from Governor Dobbs is dated 1759 and lists European last names for the heads of households of the tribe. The grant was for two hundred acres on the sound side of Buxton on Hatteras Island.

THE ELIZABETHAN VOYAGES TO the New World are a story of what could have been, almost was and, if not for a storm in 1590, might have been. When I stand on the beach at Hatteras Island and look out to the sea, as the colonists must have done, waiting for ships that never came, I can’t help but wonder…what if ?

I often think about the Natives during the contact period with the English, particularly Manteo. What a strange fate he had. I am sure as a boy he never could have imagined his future. Manteo met the first English explorers in 1584 and sailed back with them to England. He spent two months living on an English ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean and had to wonder when they would arrive. He and Wanchese were the first Americans ever to go to England, and while there, they met Queen Elizabeth. On the return voyage, he saw European warfare as the English unloaded cannons against Spanish ships and sacked Puerto Rico. Manteo was there when the Mandoag ambushed Ralph Lane in 1585 on the Chowan River. He was present when Lane ambushed and killed Wingina, the chief of the Secotan tribe. Manteo made another trip to England with none other than Francis Drake, probably England’s most accomplished sea captain. Manteo was there for the birth of Virginia Dare, the first English child born on American soil. Manteo himself was the first American Indian baptized by the English. He was dubbed Lord of Roanoke and Dasamonquepeu by the English and left with the abandoned colony of 1587, who indicated they went to live in Manteo’s hometown of Croatoan. It is logical that Manteo rests beneath the sands of Hatteras Island today. He deserves a plaque or statue or some sort of recognition other than the fictional role he has been tied to from the Lost Colony play. Almost all who have heard of him think he was a chief from Roanoke Island who fought against Wanchese, none of which is true.

IT HAS OFTEN BEEN asked why no one from the abandoned colony contacted Jamestown a mere twenty years later. The colony would almost certainly have gotten word about the English return to the New World at some point. The assumption is that they had all died already.

Most people are not aware that the winter of 1600–1 was one of the harshest on record. A volcano called Huaynaputina erupted in Peru on February 19, 1600, spitting a lot of ash into the sky. It is comparable to the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa and is estimated to be one of the largest eruptions on Earth in the last two thousand years. Huaynaputina caused a horrifically cold winter that killed thousands across Russia and Europe.

The oral history of the Native Americans in North Carolina given to John Lawson in 1701 was that one hundred years prior (1601), the Neuse River froze so solid it could be walked across at the width of a mile and that many people perished. This date fits with the global bad winter of the northern hemisphere caused by the volcano. For those not familiar with North Carolina, the Neuse River does not freeze over. In fact, on the coast it is considered a lot if it snows more than two inches a year. If the oral history is even remotely true, it means the Pamlico Sound would also have frozen. The Pamlico freezing for any length of time would devastate the Croatoan.

In the winter that followed the eruption, wine production in France was destroyed, and the effects are mentioned worldwide. Was the winter of 1601 the straw that broke the camel’s back for the colony? If so, why did the tribe survive and not the colony? Could this winter have frozen the Pamlico Sound and caused the colony to divide? Who knows?

Another theory that many have put forth is that after some time, the colony left Croatoan and headed to Chesapeake, where they were later killed by Powhatan Indians. This idea has some weak support from the primary sources. Chesapeake Bay was where the colony was supposed to go in 1587 before the ship’s pilot, Simon Fernando (a former Portuguese pirate), refused to take them there. It is reasonable speculation that the colonists might have thought John White never made it back to England and that the resupply ships were headed to Chesapeake, and thus the colonists, or some of them at least, headed up there to check.

Powhatan told John Smith of a few white people living with the Chesapeake Indians whom he had killed before or shortly after the Jamestown settlers arrived. These white men may also have been the remnants of the thirteen men chased off by the Secotan in 1586. There is a brief mention of the Chesapeake Indians by Ralph Lane in 1585. Lane stated that he had two Chesapeake Indians with him when he ambushed Wingina, so some contact with this tribe must have transpired prior to the 1587 colony’s arrival.

However, the source for Powhatan telling John Smith about some white people living with the Chesapeake Indians does not come from John Smith. In fact, Smith never mentions anything in his accounts that even hints white people were living with the Chesapeake Indians or of any slaughter of this tribe by Powhatan. This idea was put forth instead by English cleric Samuel Purchase in 1625 in an anti-Indian propaganda piece titled “Virginia’s Verger.” Purchase claims that Smith told him of this dubious tale, yet Smith, who gives two of the most detailed accounts of early Jamestown, never mentioned it in his own accounts. It is important to consider the historical context to understand the mindset of Purchase when (clearly) he made up this information. The Powhatan in 1622 had slaughtered over three hundred Jamestown colonists, including women and children, after hiding hatchets under furs they were pretending to bring into the fort to trade. When Purchase made up this tale pinning the murder of the Lost Colony on the Powhatan, it was during the height of conflict with that tribe, and Powhatan was already dead and thus could not dispute it.

Spanish accounts tell us that in June 1588, not quite a year after the “Lost” Colony was abandoned, they searched the Chesapeake Bay thoroughly and found no trace of or even word of the English colony.

It is also possible that the colony—or again some of them—made a break for home and were lost at sea. Contrary to popular fiction that states the colonists were left with no boats, they had two pinnaces, which are small ships up to forty feet in length. We know that a pinnace was built and sailed from Puerto Rico to the Outer Banks in 1585 with Richard Grenville and Thomas Cabindish, who captained the Tiger and the Elizabeth, respectively. Therefore, it was possible for a small ship to cross the ocean, although not recommended. If the colony went to Croatoan only to later try and sail home, it would explain why no one from the colony ever contacted Jamestown, which was settled a mere twenty years later.

Another theory that is somewhat alluded to in the Jamestown records is that the colony was at some point enslaved by Indians to mine copper. The abandoned colony did include some Welsh miners, and copper was valued by the Natives as much as gold was by Europeans. Probably the most useful skill the colonists would have had to offer the Natives would have been mining and metal working. The smelted copper bun found on Hatteras Island in the same context as the Nuremberg token had a small sample of shavings tested. The presence of large levels of arsenic and a good look at the isotopes tell us if the copper is in fact European. This test was explained on the History Channel’s In Search Of, hosted by Zachary Quinto in 2019, and featured the copper bun we excavated and tested in 2015.

It is possible that the colonists were mining copper and bringing it back to Croatoan to be worked. In the first year, the colony would not have had any way of knowing they had been abandoned and might have been searching for silver and other precious metals to make a huge profit from once the English returned. They also could have simply been after copper, which would allow them to contribute something to their host tribe.

In the spring of 1608, the chief of the Paspahegh in eastern Virginia told William Strachey that the colonists were at a place called “Panawicke beyond Roonok” and offered to take them there, although this never came to fruition, according to Rountree. Roonok was probably Roanoke Island, and beyond it was a place called Paquiwoc, modern-day Avon on Hatteras Island. There was also a town that looks to be near Chocowinity, North Carolina, called Panauuioc, but there is no connection to that town or mention of it in the primary sources. It was also located in the heart of enemy territory.

Unknown copper item. Author’s collection.

If what John Smith heard in 1607 about the colony being at a “great turing of saltwater” and what Strachey was told about them hunting for copper were both true, it may be that some were mining copper and bringing it back to the island. As it stands now, there simply is not enough evidence to come to any solid conclusions. What is puzzling is that no attempt was made by Jamestown to go to the coast to Croatoan or to the mountains to seek out the colonists. The reason for the lack of motivation to find a twenty-year-old colony is probably because Jamestown had its hands full just surviving. Perhaps after 154 of 214 died in one year, Jamestown assumed the colony from twenty years back was as good as dead, and they may have been correct. The only expeditions to search for the colony were halfhearted trips to Chowan in North Carolina and to Nottoway lands near the coast of Virginia. These odd adventures to lands not even remotely close to where the colonists had reportedly been seen turned up absolutely nothing other than proving they were not in the Chowan Indian village (modern-day Bertie County) nor in Nottoway. King James had motivation not to find the colony because if found, it would strengthen the claims and hold on lands by Sir Walter Raleigh and the other investors whom the king hated. Eventually, King James had Raleigh and most of the queen’s inner circle arrested, killed or both, including Raleigh.

How did all the sixteenth-century English artifacts end up in Croatoan? Perhaps it is all from the 1585 voyage and not 1587. This is unlikely given the presence of mixed architecture found at the site. Square beam building among dozens of longhouses indicated the Lost Colony because the men in 1585 slept in military field tents on Croatoan. The forge is also an indication of 1587. The 1585 group was only on the island for a couple months and with only twenty people to spot ships, not to build a town and set up a forge.

There are more questions than answers. We still don’t know exactly how much of Hatteras Island has been lost to erosion in the last 430 years, or, for that matter, Roanoke Island as well. Both islands have tree stumps jutting out of the water and obvious signs of land loss, but exactly how much is anyone’s guess. The motherload of artifacts may very well be under water or destroyed long ago by development. Tales of dozens of skeletons being found when houses were built 30 and 40 years ago are common. The Croatoan site is littered with modern houses, septic fields and driveways. It is amazing we have been able to locate any archaeology undisturbed and intact.

Another interesting account to consider when it comes to the smelted copper we found in the Croatoan village site comes from one of the most unlucky men in the sixteenth century, Darby Glande. Glande was an Irishman pressed into service twice by the English. He was part of Grenville’s 1585 voyage. He returned again in the 1587 voyage, presumably pressed into service for a second time. Darby escaped the English on the way over in 1587 at Puerto Rico, finally ending his servitude. This freedom was short-lived, however, because he was almost instantly captured by the Spanish and sent to prison for seven years of hard labor.

During his capture, Glande was interrogated by the Spanish. He told the Spanish that Richard Grenville had taken an arroba (twenty-five pounds) of native copper back to England in 1585 to be tested for any silver mixed in. Glande also reported to the Spanish that he once had a pearl the size of an acorn, which was given to him by the Natives of Croatoan, but this pearl had been confiscated from him by Grenville once he found out about it.

Glande was very helpful to the Spanish, providing details on the number of ships and men the English had, and he even gave the latitude of the inlet the English had entered. Interestingly, that latitude matched the latitude given by Governor John White for the northeast corner of Croatoan: 35.5 degrees. One must keep in mind that for the first few months of the 1585 voyage and for the entirety of the 1584 voyage, the base of operations was not Roanoke Island but Croatoan. Grenville was only in the New World from June until August 25, 1585, and supplies and men were not transferred to Roanoke until August 24. This means that Grenville either spent only one day on Roanoke Island in 1585 or perhaps not at all. Therefore, if Grenville was interested in testing Native copper, as Glande reported to the Spanish that he was, then the first tests performed (for the purpose of seeing what other elements such as silver could be separated from the copper) would have taken place on Croatoan.

German metallurgist Joachim Ganz accompanied the 1585 English voyage specifically to test metals found in the New World. This German is the most likely one to have tokens from Nuremberg, and our token was found near a smelted copper bun and iron firebar and ceramics from a sixteenth-century Germanic jug. As an interesting side note, Ganz was the first Jewish person to come to America.

Could it be we have found artifacts from both 1585 and 1587? More investigation may answer this question. For every question that was answered, it seemed two more emerged. No doubt the fort Dr. Horton has located thanks to a token found in the 1930s and modern technology is the future of the project. Science is an endless quest for knowledge, and history is a puzzle that can never be fully completed. I believe our digs have uncovered a wealth of information and added a little more to the mystery of the abandoned colony. It is my hope that the Croatoan will not be forgotten and that their true role in history will one day be taught in schools. May they live on in our minds and hearts, for if so, they are truly eternal. Their art and tools and housewares are on display for all to see in Hatteras Village, and it costs nothing to view them. Preserving the history of the Croatoan has always been the goal of the Croatoan Archaeological Society, and I encourage all to learn more.