For Kids
The true story of Sir Walter Raleigh and the Lost Colony.
A long time ago in England, in the 1500s, there was a young man named Walter Raleigh. One day, Walter found himself in a crowd of people who had gathered to watch their queen, Elizabeth, walk by. She was not alone of course. She had her ladies in waiting and other people with her, but it was actually the Queen of England herself walking by. She came to a muddy place in the road, and stopped. She probably expected someone with her would manage to solve this muddy problem so that she could continue walking. But it was young Walter Raleigh stepped forward instead, and quickly spread his cloak over the mud so the queen could walk forward without getting muddy herself.
The queen was quite impressed and very pleased. She sent for the young man, made him a knight, and asked him to join her court. And he did!
Being ambitious, the young man, now Sir Walter Raleigh, convinced the queen to allow him to set up a colony in the New World. He did not travel to the New World himself. Instead, he funded the a ship full of colonists and a whole bunch of supplies. In 1584, this ship reached the New World, and landed on Roanoke Island, off the coast of what is now North Carolina. But things did not go very well. The colonists suffered one problem after another. They nearly starved. They would have starved if the Indians in the area had not helped them. They decided to return to England.
They did not return empty handed. They brought back some things they had learned from the Indians.
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The potato, introduced to them by the local Indian tribe, was a new vegetable to the people back home in England. Sir Walter Raleigh planted some potatoes on his farm in Ireland. They grew like crazy. Soon everyone in Ireland was growing potatoes. They had just the right soil and just the rainfall and temperature to produce bumper crops. Potatoes turned out to be easy to grow and provided such good food. Since that time, the potato has been known as the famous Irish potato., but it would be more accurate to call it the famous Indian potato.
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The colonists brought back tobacco, also introduced to them by the local Indian tribe. Smoking tobacco was brand new to the English. Legend says that Sir Walter Raleigh, while trying to learn how to smoke a pipe, had a pitcher of ale dumped over his head. His servant thought he was on fire. She acted quickly to put it out.
About a year later, in 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh once again funded an attempt to set up a colony in the New World, with new colonists and new supplies. These colonists had been warned that things would not be easy, but they were eager to find a new place to call home and raise their families. Once again, their ship landed at Roanoke Island. These colonists were composed of scientists, military men, and their families. Unfortunately, this time, the colonists did not get along with the local Indian tribes but they were determined to stay. John White was governor of this new colony.
Since the local Indians were not helping this time, the colonists soon found themselves low on supplies. John White headed back to England to stock a ship with what they needed. Once again, Sir Walter Raleigh helped with funds, but not enough funds for what John White wanted. It took John White three years to collect the supplies they needed, and the money to pay for them. He did return finally. When he did, he found the Roanoke colony deserted.
Before John White left to get supplies, the settlers had built several two-story homes with thatched roofs. They had built a rough fort, surrounding the settlement. They worked the surrounded fields and planted crops. But when he got back, no one was there. Every man, woman, and child, including his own family, had disappeared. John White found the fields overgrown with weeds. The houses inside the fort had all been taken down. There was no sign of a struggle. There were no bones or evidence of graves. John White did dig. He had buried chests with drawings and books and maps near the settlement before he left for England. He found them but they were torn apart by what appeared to be the weather. He had not buried them deep enough to keep them safe. His family was gone and he wanted to find them. He wanted to find everyone.
The people left behind two clues. The word "Croatoan" was carved into a gatepost in the fort they had built, and the word "Cro" was carved into a tree. It was always assumed that they had left these carved words to tell people where they had gone - to Croatoan, another settlement. Croatoan may have been the name of another island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Captain White searched for them on "Croatoan", now called Hatteras Island. The Roanoke group was not there. He did hunt on other islands. But he not find them, or any evidence of them.
There have been many theories about what happened to this group of people. Some theories suggest they died of disease that swept the settlement, and wild animals dragged away their bones. Others suggest they were killed by the local Indian tribes or perhaps taken prisoner. To this day, no one knows what happened to them.
This early colony on Roanoke Island is remembered first, because the local Indian tribe helped the colonists when they first arrived, and introduced them to the potato and to tobacco, both of which the colonists brought with them back to England. Second, before the second group of colonists disappeared, the first English child born in the New World was born here. She was born one month after the second group of colonists arrived. Her name was Virginia Dare. And third, because the colonists disappeared without a trace. Historians today refer to the Roanoke settlement as "the lost colony".
