Manteo History

We stayed in two SC anchorages before arriving in Oriental NC (Calabash Creek and Mile hammock Bay). Then we made our way to Manteo, on Roanoke Island by way of Pungo River and South Lake.

Manteo was the site of the first English colony which “mysteriously disappeared “. The town was named after the Indian Chief who befriended the settlers over 400 years ago. The mysterious disappearance intrigued me so we set out to investigate the colony which lasted three years (1584-1587).

The history goes something like this:

Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603) commissioned Sir Walter Raleigh to plan colonies in the New World. Sir Walter never came to North America in fact he was executed (1618) for allegedly plotting to dethrone James I.

1584-Captains Amadas and Barlow return from a new world expedition where they discovered that Roanoke Island has good soil and scenery.

1585-Sir Richard Greenville, Sir Walter’s cousin, sailed with 500 men, 108 were colonist, to Roanoke Island. The colonist left England in the spring of 1585. This is a documented fact. So, why do the pamphlets date The Lost Colony from 1584-1587?

The colonists were dependent on the Roanoke Indians. At some point they began stealing their food. In addition, the settlers brought smallpox and measles over from England which began killing the Indians.

1586 -The colonist who survived (some surely died from the disease), realized they needed to move.

1587 - Sir Walter Raleigh, still in favor with the Queen, planned another settlement on the lower end of the Chesapeake Bay. 110 Colonists included 17 women and 9 children sailed to Roanoke Island. The governor of this settlement was John White. John was an artist. This makes me wonder why people were so surprised when Ronald became president and when Arnold became governor.

White and his crew were unable to find the original colonists. They found that the settlement buildings were torn down. On a tree “CRO” was craved. The White party believed the message; “CRO” indicated that Croatoan, a nearby island, was the Colonists’’ destination. What if, CRO was an acronym which stood for’ crazy royal order’. I imagine the colonist were irked by their situation and angry at the Queen. I bet a lot of us have blamed ‘the person in charge’’ for something going wrong in their lives.

While on Roanoke Island, White’s daughter gave birth to Virginia Dare, the first English person to be born in the New World. A week later he was forced by lack of supplies to return to England. I’m thinking that Virginia Dare was only in Roanoke one week. I’ll have to Google information on her.

Sir Walter made several attempts before 1590-1602 to find the original colonists. An AT & T lineman we met at Fort Raleigh said if we wanted to find the Lost Colony we should look in the water.

Sometimes I think history is written around tourist attractions instead of the other way around.

More on Manteo latter, I'm needed a to assist at a lock.