December 26, 2024 • 32 mins
What if a single word could hold the key to one of America's oldest mysteries? Join me, Carole Townsend, as we journey through the haunting story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke. Set against the dramatic and often perilous landscape of North Carolina's Outer Banks, we'll unravel the complex tapestry of hope, ambition, and possibly tragedy that defined the fateful expedition led by Sir Walter Raleigh in the late 16th century. With only the enigmatic word "Croatoan" as a clue, the disappearance of 117 settlers remains an unsolved puzzle that continues to captivate historians and curious minds alike.
We'll explore the myriad theories about what could have happened to these early settlers—from peaceful integration with the Croatoan people to more sinister suggestions such as disease or conflict. This episode also delves into the curious historical echoes of "Croatoan," a word that has appeared in other unexplained contexts, including the mysterious final days of Edgar Allan Poe. As we navigate these intriguing narratives, you'll be invited to ponder the deeper connections within Southern history and lore. So, sit back on my virtual front porch, grab your favorite drink, and let's explore the stories that prove truth is often stranger than fiction.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carole (00:09):
Music.
Centuries ago, north Americawas an unspoiled utopia, rich in
timber, game fish, clear watersand breathtaking vistas.
Bison, deer, elk and otherspecies of animals roamed freely
(00:32):
.
Oceans to the east and westprotected the continent, a great
advantage to the first countryto claim and settle this realm.
World powers at the time hadset their sights on this land,
eager to plunder its riches, itsstrategic military value and
its many prospects.
Almost 450 years ago, an entiresettlement in this promising
(00:59):
land vanished vanished 117 men,women and children disappeared
without a trace from an islandoff the coast of North Carolina.
What happened to them?
(01:20):
Here in the south, we love ourstories.
We begin in huddled aroundcampfires, whispering of things
best spoken in the dark,confiding in our small trusting
circles.
Why is that, do you suppose?
I have researched andinvestigated Southern history
for more than 20 years and Ibelieve it has to do with this
(01:43):
region itself.
There's a lot that hangs in theether here and much that is
buried deep in the soil.
There's beauty here in theSouth and shame and courage and,
make no mistake, there is evil.
There's always been the elementof the unexplained, the just
(02:04):
out of reach that we can allfeel but can never quite
describe, and the best place fortelling tales about such things
is the comfort and safety of anold front porch.
So I invite you tonight to comeup here with me, settle back
into a chair and get comfortable, pour yourself a drink if you
(02:26):
like, and I'll share with yousome of the tales best told in
the company of friends, talesthat prove that truth really is
stranger than fiction.
And I'll turn on the light.
You're gonna want that.
I'm Carole Townsend.
Welcome to my front porch.
(02:53):
The following podcast containsmaterial that may be disturbing.
Listener discretion is advised.
(03:16):
The outer banks of NorthCarolina are beautiful, rugged
and can be dangerous to navigateand inhabit.
In a hurricane, the barrierislands are extremely unsafe.
They shift, disappear and arerecreated during these storms.
The area on the outside of theislands and to the east for a
distance of 100 miles or so iscalled the graveyard of the
(03:36):
Atlantic, for good reason.
Constant shifts in topography,inlets and erosion characterize
this chain of barrier islandsthat stretches like a rare
jeweled necklace off the coastof North Carolina.
Between these islands andmainland North Carolina sits
Roanoke Island, a 10-mile long,2.5-mile wide stretch of land, a
(04:04):
half mile wide stretch of landIn 1587, a group of 117 men,
women and children left Englandon a ship about the size of a
school bus to try to settletheir nation's first permanent
village in North America.
It was to be named the City ofRaleigh in honor of Sir Walter
(04:25):
Raleigh.
Incidentally, other accountsrecord 115 souls upon that ship,
but two of the women werepregnant.
These settlers didn't agree tosail to the New World strictly
out of a desire for adventure.
No, each family was promised500 acres of land venture.
(04:48):
No, each family was promised500 acres of land.
Land acquisition in England hadbecome nearly impossible unless
one was in line for inheritance.
There were other enticements aswell, but the land was a
delicious carrot to danglebefore the colonists.
This voyage was actually thethird to sail to Roanoke Island
under the oversight of SirWalter Raleigh and ultimately,
of course, on the orders ofQueen Elizabeth I.
(05:13):
Raleigh was a favorite of theQueen's, with his gallantry,
bravery and his dashing goodlooks.
The Queen knighted him and in1584 he became a Member of
Parliament receiving extensiveestates in Ireland.
His meteoric rise under theQueen's favor ignited jealousy
(05:33):
and indignance with otherMembers of Parliament, and that
meant that he had enemies.
Ultimately, Queen Elizabethappointed Sir Walter Raleigh to
organize an expedition to NorthAmerica, it seems that she had
become quite enamored with thehandsome Raleigh, and rumors of
a relationship that went beyondEnglish government circulated
(05:56):
among the ruling class.
Raleigh lived at the Queen'spalace, you see, and this was
quite an unusual circumstance.
With Queen Elizabeth's supporthe became very influential at
court and he was the first tobegin promoting the idea of
creating permanent Englishcolonies in North America to
(06:18):
challenge Spanish colonialpolicy.
But the queen wanted to keepher favored Sir Walter Raleigh
near to her, so he was forbiddento travel overseas.
She did, however, happily fundhis expeditions, and in 1584,
1585, and again in 1587, Raleighorganized voyages to North
(06:42):
America that led to hissponsorship of an English colony
on Roanoke Island.
The first two forays were toget the lay of the land, to meet
the locals and to establish afort, and while it's not often
reported, about 15 men were loston Roanoke Island from those
first two expeditions.
(07:02):
In fact, most of those men wereleft behind with the knowledge
of the ship's captains, asweather and hostile natives
hastened their departure, whilethe lost men were scouting the
area for a suitable place toestablish a colony.
This third voyage, however, wasthe first that carried women
(07:22):
and children to the New World inorder to settle this beautiful
land rich in natural resources.
In those days, it was Spain, notEngland, who ruled the high
seas.
Spain was a powerful Europeanaggressor, and they had the
Pope's full support.
The conquistadors haddevastated South American Indian
(07:44):
empires in their lustful questfor gold, but they had left
North America untouched, exceptfor a lone settlement at St
Augustine, florida.
The French too, had set theirsights on the New World, trying
but failing to establishcolonies in Canada and in South
Carolina.
However, queen Elizabethrefused to bow to Spanish might
(08:08):
and ambition, and she scoffed atthe Pope's attempts to keep her
in check.
She too had become intrigued bythis mystical land, rumored to
be rich in natural resources aswell as being a useful strategic
military position that couldthwart Spanish control of the
seas and the unplundered NorthAmerican utopia.
Queen Elizabeth's goal was toestablish a permanent settlement
(08:34):
with the purpose of harassingSpanish shipping, of mining for
gold and silver, of discoveringa passage to the Pacific Ocean
and, of course, to Christianizethe natives.
Discovering a passage to thePacific Ocean and, of course, to
Christianize the natives thereports Elizabeth received from
the first two voyages news ofplentiful game, clear waters and
(08:56):
accommodating natives pleasedthe Queen, she allowed the
entire territory to be namedVirginia, a reference to her
status as the Virgin Queen.
The third voyage to RoanokeIsland included an artist named
John White, who was also theintended governor of the new
colony to be founded in the area.
His daughter, eleanor Dare, wasone of the two pregnant women
(09:19):
on the ship, and her husband,ananias, had also accompanied
his wife and father-in-law.
Against overwhelming odds, all117 people survived the 10-week
voyage, landing on RoanokeIsland in July 1587.
They immediately set aboutmaking a home in this new world,
(09:41):
where they chose to settle atan abandoned fort, probably one
left behind by one of theearlier English voyages.
They began to build homes andattempted to familiarize
themselves with their newsurroundings and with local
natives.
Two years before the colonistslanded in North Carolina, a
(10:01):
terrible drought struck theislands and the mainland.
Corn and any other crops thatwould otherwise thrive in the
area were scarce.
Some of the Native Americanswere welcoming and accommodating
to the newcomers, but theirfood supply was dwindling fast,
so they didn't have much toshare.
By August the situation wasalready desperate.
(10:24):
The colonists first begged,then demanded that John White
return to England for moresupplies and for more men, as
not all of the locals werefriendly to the new settlers.
White disagreed with theirwishes, wanting instead to move
the settlers to Chesapeake Bay.
It's interesting to note thathe had also written in a
(10:46):
personal journal that he fearedthe colonists would steal his
quote stuff and goods.
But Winner would no doubt beardown hard on this ragtag group
of inexperienced explorers whofaced another disadvantage, that
of being inexperienced fighters.
Giving in to the pressure ofthe settlers and not wanting to
(11:09):
fail in his mission, john Whitereluctantly left them behind and
set sail for England.
A little-known fact aboutWhite's return trip to England
is that a political enemy of SirWalter Raleigh named Simon
Fernandez made sure White was onthe slowest boat in the return
(11:29):
expedition and that that boatreturned White to Ireland, not
to England.
Many historians believe thatFernandez wanted the Roanoke
colony to fail because he wasjealous of Raleigh and the favor
he had curried with the queen.
He knew that White's delayedreturn trip would almost
(11:50):
certainly doom the settlers tostarvation.
In August, the same month thatWhite left the settlers behind,
eleanor Dare's daughter and JohnWhite's granddaughter, virginia
Dare, was born, and she becamethe first English child born in
the New World.
Two days later, a baby boynamed Harvey was born.
(12:12):
But second place rarely getsmentioned in history.
Though the return voyage toEngland and the trip back to
North America should have takenthree to four months at most, it
took John White three years toreturn to Roanoke Island.
As the war with Spain and thepowerful Spanish Armada
(12:33):
prevented his departure.
The Queen had seized allavailable English ships for war.
When White finally arrived torescue the settlers in August of
1590, he did so on hisgranddaughter Virginia Dare's
third birthday.
Instead of finding a thrivingsettlement or finding clear
(12:53):
indications that the group hadmoved farther inland, what White
found was a deserted encampment.
In fact, the settlers' homesappeared to have been long ago
dismantled and removed, with notrace left behind except some
iron bars and scattered debrisovergrown with grasses and weeds
.
While one skeleton was found atthe settlement site, it was
(13:17):
clear that the colonists hadleft in an organized, unhurried
fashion.
Also missing were the smallboats that white had left behind
.
The governor of the now lostsettlement had also buried three
of his own chests laden withbooks, maps and journals, most
of those he found torn andscattered and ruined by the
(13:39):
elements.
White found only two clues or orone really as to the fate of
the settlers upon his return toRoanoke Island in 1590.
On a gatepost of the fort nearwhich the colony was built was
carved one word Croatoan.
On a nearby tree in thedeserted encampment were carved
(14:02):
three letters, c-r-o, as if thecarving of the word Croatoan had
somehow been interrupted.
Croatoan, what did it mean?
The Croatoan people were NativeAmericans who lived on Roanoke
Island and in the surroundingarea.
They had been friendly andhelpful to the English explorers
(14:24):
and settlers, with two of themactually sailing back to England
with the first expedition toexplain how to live and thrive
there.
Had the word been carved tosignal that the settlers had
left the village to live amongthe Croatoan people?
White couldn't be sure.
(14:45):
When he left the settlers in1587 to sail back to England,
white had instructed thecolonists to carve a Maltese
cross in a tree if they werecompelled to leave the
encampment against their will.
The Maltese Cross is a symbolmade from four arrowhead shapes
pointing toward the center, likefour triangles pointing inward
(15:08):
at right angles.
It's a powerfully importantimage in the Catholic faith that
dates back to the Knights ofMalta.
White had also told the groupthat the ultimate plan was to
move 50 miles inland and that ifthey did so, before his return
they were to carve the name oftheir destination into a tree.
(15:30):
No Maltese Cross was foundanywhere near the deserted
settlement.
No signs of battle or forced orhurried departure were evident.
With the scant clues leftbehind, white wanted to sail
with his crew to Croatoan Islandto look for the colonists, but
(15:51):
inclement weather prevented that.
His men refused to stay andhelp him search for the missing
group.
So white and the crew of therescue ship set sail for England
the very next day.
John white never returned tothe island and he never saw his
daughter or granddaughter again.
(16:11):
Determined to find out what hadhappened to the lost colony, in
1602 Sir Walter Raleigh decidedto search for the colonists
himself.
He hired his own ship and paidhis sailors wages with his own
money so that they would focustheir efforts and skills on his
mission.
Only the sailors reachedVirginia, but a severe storm
(16:36):
forced them to go back toEngland before they were able to
reach Roanoke Island.
When he arrived back in England, raleigh was arrested for
treason and he was never againable to organize an
investigative and rescue mission.
You see, queen Elizabeth I,while she was quite generous,
(16:57):
demanded absolute loyalty.
She was furious to learn thatin 1592, Sir Walter Raleigh had
secretly married one of herladies-in-waiting, and to make
matters worse, the couple had anewborn son.
Upon his arrest, walter and hiswife were imprisoned in the
Tower of London along with theirbaby.
(17:19):
Sadly, the baby died after anoutbreak of plague and the Queen
, feeling sympathy for thegrieving mother, soon released
her.
Walter was himself releasedafter a few months, but he was
banished from court for fiveyears.
(17:39):
In spite of all that transpiredbetween the Queen and Raleigh,
hope remained alive with respectto solving the mystery of the
lost colony.
In 1603, bartholomew Gilbertled another fact-finding mission
that also ended in disaster.
A storm blew the expedition offcourse and the team that went
(18:02):
ashore was attacked and killedby Native Americans.
The remaining crew returned toEngland having found no trace of
the vanished settlers.
It seemed that there wouldnever be answers as to what
happened to the families who hadsettled on Roanoke Island, and
the questions remain unansweredtoday, making this riddle the
(18:24):
oldest unsolved mystery inrecorded North American history.
What could have possiblyhappened to the settlers?
What reasons did they have todismantle their homes and erase
all traces of their settlement?
Why didn't they carve a Maltesecross into a village tree if
(18:45):
they had left under distress orcoercion.
Theories regarding their fateare as plentiful as the
questions, and they range fromlogical and evidence-based to
wildly outlandish.
Many people believe thecolonists were absorbed into
local Indian populations, orperhaps they were captured as
(19:06):
slaves.
In the early 1600s to themiddle 1700s, european colonists
encountered grey-eyed Indianswho claimed to have been
descended from white settlers.
In the late 1600s, frenchHuguenots left records of
meeting blonde-haired, blue-eyedIndians in the areas of Roanoke
(19:29):
Island, proatoan Island andVirginia.
This theory one of the settlersbeing absorbed into the
friendly local population can beconsidered the happiest of
possible endings for thesettlers.
The happiest of possibleendings for the settlers.
Disease and slaughter are twoother possibilities, but
(19:53):
historians are not so quick tobuy into those scenarios.
There are so many intriguingpoints in this mystery, aren't
there?
Let's start with the simpleword Croatoan.
And the fact that it was carvedinto a post and a tree is the
only clue left by the settlersas to their fate.
Yes, the Croatoan people werefriendly and welcoming to the
(20:17):
inexperienced English settlers.
And yes, croatoan Island ispossibly where the colonists
sailed when they decided toleave.
But consider these curiousfacts Right before he died in
1849, edgar Allan Poedisappeared for a short time.
(20:37):
When he was again seen, he wasdelirious.
Now it seems to be commonknowledge that Poe was a man who
drank a great deal.
In fact, many believe that hisaltered state of consciousness
and his enduring state ofdepression were the reasons for
his brilliant weaving of thewritten word.
So a state of delirium in Poe'scase is maybe not all that
(21:00):
surprising.
But in this unexplained stateof disorientation shortly before
his death, allegedly one of thelast words he spoke was
Croatoan.
Poe's official cause of deathis unknown and his medical
records and death certificateare lost.
So no one knows for sure whathappened to him the night that
(21:21):
he died.
But why did he speak that wordto him the night that he died?
But why did he speak that word?
The word Croatoan has alsoplayed a part in several other
famous disappearances in the19th and 20th centuries.
In 1888, stagecoach RobertBlack Bart carved the word
Croatoan into the wall of hiscell just before being released
(21:43):
from prison.
Upon his release, he was neverseen or heard from again.
Amelia Earhart had written theword Croatoan as the final word
in her journal, which wasdiscovered after she disappeared
in 1937.
Horror writer Ambrose Bierce,before disappearing in Mexico in
(22:04):
1913, had carved the wordCroatoan into his bedpost, and
in 1921, the word Croatoan waswritten on the last page of the
logbook of the ship Carol ADeering.
When it crashed on CapeHatteras, North Carolina, the
ship's entire crew was lost,never to be found.
(22:29):
While the unexpected andunexplained use of the word
Croatoan intrigues us and posesmany questions and theories
about its ultimate meaning, weare still left to ponder the
bigger question what happened tothe colonists who landed and
settled on Roanoke Island in1587?
What happened in the threeyears between John White's
(22:50):
departure and his belated return?
Well, there is one more clue,though scientists still cannot
agree as to whether it'slegitimate or simply an
elaborate hoax the Dare Stoneselaborate hoax, the Dare Stones.
In 1937, a man named LewisHammond found a stone near the
(23:13):
Chowan River in North Carolina.
On this stone was aninscription which referred to
another stone which supposedlymarked a mass grave.
Could this inscription bereferring to the members of the
famed lost colony?
The discovery of thispotentially important stone of
(23:33):
course prompted an intensesearch, and the ultimate
discovery of nearly 50 inscribedstones in total sparked a media
circus.
The stones were said to havebeen inscribed and placed by
none other than Eleanor Dare,the woman who gave birth to
Virginia Dare.
Eleanor, the story goes, wastrying to leave clues for her
(23:58):
father, john White, when and ifhe ever returned from England
with the settler's supplies ifhe ever returned from England
with the settler's supplies.
Forty-eight of the so-calledDare Stones are catalogued at
Brunel University in Gainesville, georgia.
All taken and read together,the messages tell the story of
(24:19):
the fate of the missingcolonists between 1591 and 1603,
when they are said to havemigrated from Roanoke Island to
the Chattahoochee River Valleynear present-day Atlanta,
georgia.
The first stone Hammond foundis housed, with 47 more, at
Brunel.
I should note here that theother 47 stones were found not
(24:41):
long after a $500 reward wasoffered for the discovery and
authentication of a second stone.
Surprisingly, a second stonewas found in 1939 and delivered
to Brunel University by a mannamed Bill Eberhardt, and on it
were marked the names of 17deceased English colonists.
(25:02):
This second stone was dismissedbecause it was inscribed in a
different style and with anoften incorrect usage of the
English language as it wasspoken in the 16th century.
But as luck would have it,eberhardt brought another stone
and then another to BrunelUniversity In total 13 stones he
(25:25):
said he had found along theBush River in Greenville County,
south Carolina.
These subsequent stones hadmarkings on them that more
closely resembled the originalDare stone.
A media frenzy followed, as thestones Eberhardt was finding
could solve the mystery of thelost colony once and for all.
(25:45):
Now Eberhardt was finding couldsolve the mystery of the lost
colony once and for all.
Now, eberhardt was abackwoodsman with very little
education and he was also astone cutter.
But scholars didn't believe hehad the intelligence to pull off
such an elaborate hoax and fora time the stones he found were
deemed to be legitimate.
And the stones kept coming,some from Eberhardt and some
(26:09):
from others who lived in HallCounty, georgia, and in Fulton
County, georgia.
Some of the stones scholarsbelieve were headstones that
marked individual graves of someof the settlers.
Ultimately, a conference washeld that included respected
scholars from universities inthe United States and England,
(26:31):
and the stones found byEberhardt and others, except the
original stone found by Hammond, were declared to be fakes.
Unbelievably, eberhardt thentried to extort money from the
Pierce family of BrunelUniversity by threatening to
tell the media that Brunel wouldauthenticate any stone as a
darestone, simply for theprestige and publicity.
(26:54):
By 1941, both scholars and thepress had dismissed all of the
darestones as being hoaxes,although the authenticity of
Hammond's first stone has neverbeen proven or disproven and it
was never linked to BillEberhardt's convoluted deception
.
(27:20):
Dare stones aside, many believethat the settlers were
slaughtered by hostile NativeAmerican tribes in the early
1600s.
Yes, the Croatoans remainedfriendly with the English
settlers, but other tribes hadnot.
In fact, in response to Englishaggression and murder, other
tribes had become openly hostile.
(27:41):
In November 1607, eight monthsafter arriving in Jamestown,
virginia, captain John Smithwent with others to trade for
food with the natives.
Two of his comrades were killedand he was captured.
For several weeks he was takenfrom village to village until he
met the great Native Americanleader Powhatan.
(28:03):
Powhatan told John Smith thathe had killed the settlers from
Roanoke, but that some hadescaped.
He had killed them, he said,because of a dream he had in
which tribal leaders told himthat the newcomers from Europe
would rise up and take the landfrom Powhatan's people and other
tribes.
Powhatan's claim of killing theEnglish settlers has been
(28:27):
largely ignored through thecenturies, but evidence
discovered relatively recentlylends credence to what the
tribal chief told John Smith.
Others believe that diseasekilled the settlers, though it's
more likely that influenzabrought to the New World by the
English actually killed manyNative Americans.
(28:48):
The general consensus amongscholars is that the colonists
were absorbed into one or morefriendly Native American tribes,
and the descendants of thoseearly settlers still walk among
us today.
According to a book researchedand written by Scott Dawson
titled the Lost Colony andHatteras Island, the colonists
(29:09):
were never really lost at all.
They simply moved to live withtheir native friends, the
Croatoans of Hatteras.
Dawson maintains thatarchaeological digs have
uncovered evidence that theEnglish lived alongside Native
Americans on Hatteras Island inthe early 1600s.
Artifacts such as jewelry,swords and pottery found
(29:32):
together at the same depth inthe earth support this very
theory.
Even post holes that have beendiscovered on Hatteras Island,
some square and some round,support this thinking.
English colonists dug roundpostholes while Native Americans
dug square ones.
Both have been found in whatappears to have been a
(29:54):
settlement on Hatteras Island,where the friendly Croatoans
live.
Nearly 450 years, that's howlong we've been asking the
question.
What happened to the 117 peoplewho sailed here in 1587?
The mystery of the lost colonyremains just that, a puzzle that
(30:17):
is part of the fabric and loreof not just the islands off the
coast of North Carolina, but ofthe entire country.
Should anyone ever solve thismystery, leaving no doubt as to
the fate of the lost colonists,then the oldest chapter in the
history of English settlement inNorth America can be closed
(30:37):
forever.
Books have been written andstories told about the fate of
the colonists, but thedefinitive truth remains
maddeningly elusive.
In fact, the lost colony ofRoanoke can be considered the
oldest cold case in America,though the New World wouldn't be
named America for another 200or so years.
(30:59):
The shroud of secrets and theconflicting clues and historical
records make the solving ofthis case highly unlikely.
I'm Carole Townsend, veterannewspaper journalist and
six-time award-winning author.
(31:21):
You can find me on social mediaand check out my website at
https://www.
caroletownsend.
com.
As always, thanks for listening, and if you're enjoying these
tales of Southern history andlore, I hope you'll tell your
friends.
Subscribe to this podcast onSpotify, apple Play, iheart and
(31:43):
anywhere you listen.
My team and I used the followingmaterials to bring you this
account of the Lost Colony ofRoanoke.
T he book, The Lost Colony onHatteras Island, written by
Scott Dawson, https://www.
encyclopediavirginia.
org, Royal Museums, Greenwich.
Music.
Centuries ago, north Americawas an unspoiled utopia, rich in
timber, game fish, clear watersand breathtaking vistas.
Bison, deer, elk and otherspecies of animals roamed freely
(00:32):
.
Oceans to the east and westprotected the continent, a great
advantage to the first countryto claim and settle this realm.
World powers at the time hadset their sights on this land,
eager to plunder its riches, itsstrategic military value and
its many prospects.
Almost 450 years ago, an entiresettlement in this promising
(00:59):
land vanished vanished 117 men,women and children disappeared
without a trace from an islandoff the coast of North Carolina.
What happened to them?
(01:20):
Here in the south, we love ourstories.
We begin in huddled aroundcampfires, whispering of things
best spoken in the dark,confiding in our small trusting
circles.
Why is that, do you suppose?
I have researched andinvestigated Southern history
for more than 20 years and Ibelieve it has to do with this
(01:43):
region itself.
There's a lot that hangs in theether here and much that is
buried deep in the soil.
There's beauty here in theSouth and shame and courage and,
make no mistake, there is evil.
There's always been the elementof the unexplained, the just
(02:04):
out of reach that we can allfeel but can never quite
describe, and the best place fortelling tales about such things
is the comfort and safety of anold front porch.
So I invite you tonight to comeup here with me, settle back
into a chair and get comfortable, pour yourself a drink if you
(02:26):
like, and I'll share with yousome of the tales best told in
the company of friends, talesthat prove that truth really is
stranger than fiction.
And I'll turn on the light.
You're gonna want that.
I'm Carole Townsend.
Welcome to my front porch.
(02:53):
The following podcast containsmaterial that may be disturbing.
Listener discretion is advised.
(03:16):
The outer banks of NorthCarolina are beautiful, rugged
and can be dangerous to navigateand inhabit.
In a hurricane, the barrierislands are extremely unsafe.
They shift, disappear and arerecreated during these storms.
The area on the outside of theislands and to the east for a
distance of 100 miles or so iscalled the graveyard of the
(03:36):
Atlantic, for good reason.
Constant shifts in topography,inlets and erosion characterize
this chain of barrier islandsthat stretches like a rare
jeweled necklace off the coastof North Carolina.
Between these islands andmainland North Carolina sits
Roanoke Island, a 10-mile long,2.5-mile wide stretch of land, a
(04:04):
half mile wide stretch of landIn 1587, a group of 117 men,
women and children left Englandon a ship about the size of a
school bus to try to settletheir nation's first permanent
village in North America.
It was to be named the City ofRaleigh in honor of Sir Walter
(04:25):
Raleigh.
Incidentally, other accountsrecord 115 souls upon that ship,
but two of the women werepregnant.
These settlers didn't agree tosail to the New World strictly
out of a desire for adventure.
No, each family was promised500 acres of land venture.
(04:48):
No, each family was promised500 acres of land.
Land acquisition in England hadbecome nearly impossible unless
one was in line for inheritance.
There were other enticements aswell, but the land was a
delicious carrot to danglebefore the colonists.
This voyage was actually thethird to sail to Roanoke Island
under the oversight of SirWalter Raleigh and ultimately,
of course, on the orders ofQueen Elizabeth I.
(05:13):
Raleigh was a favorite of theQueen's, with his gallantry,
bravery and his dashing goodlooks.
The Queen knighted him and in1584 he became a Member of
Parliament receiving extensiveestates in Ireland.
His meteoric rise under theQueen's favor ignited jealousy
(05:33):
and indignance with otherMembers of Parliament, and that
meant that he had enemies.
Ultimately, Queen Elizabethappointed Sir Walter Raleigh to
organize an expedition to NorthAmerica, it seems that she had
become quite enamored with thehandsome Raleigh, and rumors of
a relationship that went beyondEnglish government circulated
(05:56):
among the ruling class.
Raleigh lived at the Queen'spalace, you see, and this was
quite an unusual circumstance.
With Queen Elizabeth's supporthe became very influential at
court and he was the first tobegin promoting the idea of
creating permanent Englishcolonies in North America to
(06:18):
challenge Spanish colonialpolicy.
But the queen wanted to keepher favored Sir Walter Raleigh
near to her, so he was forbiddento travel overseas.
She did, however, happily fundhis expeditions, and in 1584,
1585, and again in 1587, Raleighorganized voyages to North
(06:42):
America that led to hissponsorship of an English colony
on Roanoke Island.
The first two forays were toget the lay of the land, to meet
the locals and to establish afort, and while it's not often
reported, about 15 men were loston Roanoke Island from those
first two expeditions.
(07:02):
In fact, most of those men wereleft behind with the knowledge
of the ship's captains, asweather and hostile natives
hastened their departure, whilethe lost men were scouting the
area for a suitable place toestablish a colony.
This third voyage, however, wasthe first that carried women
(07:22):
and children to the New World inorder to settle this beautiful
land rich in natural resources.
In those days, it was Spain, notEngland, who ruled the high
seas.
Spain was a powerful Europeanaggressor, and they had the
Pope's full support.
The conquistadors haddevastated South American Indian
(07:44):
empires in their lustful questfor gold, but they had left
North America untouched, exceptfor a lone settlement at St
Augustine, florida.
The French too, had set theirsights on the New World, trying
but failing to establishcolonies in Canada and in South
Carolina.
However, queen Elizabethrefused to bow to Spanish might
(08:08):
and ambition, and she scoffed atthe Pope's attempts to keep her
in check.
She too had become intrigued bythis mystical land, rumored to
be rich in natural resources aswell as being a useful strategic
military position that couldthwart Spanish control of the
seas and the unplundered NorthAmerican utopia.
Queen Elizabeth's goal was toestablish a permanent settlement
(08:34):
with the purpose of harassingSpanish shipping, of mining for
gold and silver, of discoveringa passage to the Pacific Ocean
and, of course, to Christianizethe natives.
Discovering a passage to thePacific Ocean and, of course, to
Christianize the natives thereports Elizabeth received from
the first two voyages news ofplentiful game, clear waters and
(08:56):
accommodating natives pleasedthe Queen, she allowed the
entire territory to be namedVirginia, a reference to her
status as the Virgin Queen.
The third voyage to RoanokeIsland included an artist named
John White, who was also theintended governor of the new
colony to be founded in the area.
His daughter, eleanor Dare, wasone of the two pregnant women
(09:19):
on the ship, and her husband,ananias, had also accompanied
his wife and father-in-law.
Against overwhelming odds, all117 people survived the 10-week
voyage, landing on RoanokeIsland in July 1587.
They immediately set aboutmaking a home in this new world,
(09:41):
where they chose to settle atan abandoned fort, probably one
left behind by one of theearlier English voyages.
They began to build homes andattempted to familiarize
themselves with their newsurroundings and with local
natives.
Two years before the colonistslanded in North Carolina, a
(10:01):
terrible drought struck theislands and the mainland.
Corn and any other crops thatwould otherwise thrive in the
area were scarce.
Some of the Native Americanswere welcoming and accommodating
to the newcomers, but theirfood supply was dwindling fast,
so they didn't have much toshare.
By August the situation wasalready desperate.
(10:24):
The colonists first begged,then demanded that John White
return to England for moresupplies and for more men, as
not all of the locals werefriendly to the new settlers.
White disagreed with theirwishes, wanting instead to move
the settlers to Chesapeake Bay.
It's interesting to note thathe had also written in a
(10:46):
personal journal that he fearedthe colonists would steal his
quote stuff and goods.
But Winner would no doubt beardown hard on this ragtag group
of inexperienced explorers whofaced another disadvantage, that
of being inexperienced fighters.
Giving in to the pressure ofthe settlers and not wanting to
(11:09):
fail in his mission, john Whitereluctantly left them behind and
set sail for England.
A little-known fact aboutWhite's return trip to England
is that a political enemy of SirWalter Raleigh named Simon
Fernandez made sure White was onthe slowest boat in the return
(11:29):
expedition and that that boatreturned White to Ireland, not
to England.
Many historians believe thatFernandez wanted the Roanoke
colony to fail because he wasjealous of Raleigh and the favor
he had curried with the queen.
He knew that White's delayedreturn trip would almost
(11:50):
certainly doom the settlers tostarvation.
In August, the same month thatWhite left the settlers behind,
eleanor Dare's daughter and JohnWhite's granddaughter, virginia
Dare, was born, and she becamethe first English child born in
the New World.
Two days later, a baby boynamed Harvey was born.
(12:12):
But second place rarely getsmentioned in history.
Though the return voyage toEngland and the trip back to
North America should have takenthree to four months at most, it
took John White three years toreturn to Roanoke Island.
As the war with Spain and thepowerful Spanish Armada
(12:33):
prevented his departure.
The Queen had seized allavailable English ships for war.
When White finally arrived torescue the settlers in August of
1590, he did so on hisgranddaughter Virginia Dare's
third birthday.
Instead of finding a thrivingsettlement or finding clear
(12:53):
indications that the group hadmoved farther inland, what White
found was a deserted encampment.
In fact, the settlers' homesappeared to have been long ago
dismantled and removed, with notrace left behind except some
iron bars and scattered debrisovergrown with grasses and weeds
.
While one skeleton was found atthe settlement site, it was
(13:17):
clear that the colonists hadleft in an organized, unhurried
fashion.
Also missing were the smallboats that white had left behind
.
The governor of the now lostsettlement had also buried three
of his own chests laden withbooks, maps and journals, most
of those he found torn andscattered and ruined by the
(13:39):
elements.
White found only two clues or orone really as to the fate of
the settlers upon his return toRoanoke Island in 1590.
On a gatepost of the fort nearwhich the colony was built was
carved one word Croatoan.
On a nearby tree in thedeserted encampment were carved
(14:02):
three letters, c-r-o, as if thecarving of the word Croatoan had
somehow been interrupted.
Croatoan, what did it mean?
The Croatoan people were NativeAmericans who lived on Roanoke
Island and in the surroundingarea.
They had been friendly andhelpful to the English explorers
(14:24):
and settlers, with two of themactually sailing back to England
with the first expedition toexplain how to live and thrive
there.
Had the word been carved tosignal that the settlers had
left the village to live amongthe Croatoan people?
White couldn't be sure.
(14:45):
When he left the settlers in1587 to sail back to England,
white had instructed thecolonists to carve a Maltese
cross in a tree if they werecompelled to leave the
encampment against their will.
The Maltese Cross is a symbolmade from four arrowhead shapes
pointing toward the center, likefour triangles pointing inward
(15:08):
at right angles.
It's a powerfully importantimage in the Catholic faith that
dates back to the Knights ofMalta.
White had also told the groupthat the ultimate plan was to
move 50 miles inland and that ifthey did so, before his return
they were to carve the name oftheir destination into a tree.
(15:30):
No Maltese Cross was foundanywhere near the deserted
settlement.
No signs of battle or forced orhurried departure were evident.
With the scant clues leftbehind, white wanted to sail
with his crew to Croatoan Islandto look for the colonists, but
(15:51):
inclement weather prevented that.
His men refused to stay andhelp him search for the missing
group.
So white and the crew of therescue ship set sail for England
the very next day.
John white never returned tothe island and he never saw his
daughter or granddaughter again.
(16:11):
Determined to find out what hadhappened to the lost colony, in
1602 Sir Walter Raleigh decidedto search for the colonists
himself.
He hired his own ship and paidhis sailors wages with his own
money so that they would focustheir efforts and skills on his
mission.
Only the sailors reachedVirginia, but a severe storm
(16:36):
forced them to go back toEngland before they were able to
reach Roanoke Island.
When he arrived back in England, raleigh was arrested for
treason and he was never againable to organize an
investigative and rescue mission.
You see, queen Elizabeth I,while she was quite generous,
(16:57):
demanded absolute loyalty.
She was furious to learn thatin 1592, Sir Walter Raleigh had
secretly married one of herladies-in-waiting, and to make
matters worse, the couple had anewborn son.
Upon his arrest, walter and hiswife were imprisoned in the
Tower of London along with theirbaby.
(17:19):
Sadly, the baby died after anoutbreak of plague and the Queen
, feeling sympathy for thegrieving mother, soon released
her.
Walter was himself releasedafter a few months, but he was
banished from court for fiveyears.
(17:39):
In spite of all that transpiredbetween the Queen and Raleigh,
hope remained alive with respectto solving the mystery of the
lost colony.
In 1603, bartholomew Gilbertled another fact-finding mission
that also ended in disaster.
A storm blew the expedition offcourse and the team that went
(18:02):
ashore was attacked and killedby Native Americans.
The remaining crew returned toEngland having found no trace of
the vanished settlers.
It seemed that there wouldnever be answers as to what
happened to the families who hadsettled on Roanoke Island, and
the questions remain unansweredtoday, making this riddle the
(18:24):
oldest unsolved mystery inrecorded North American history.
What could have possiblyhappened to the settlers?
What reasons did they have todismantle their homes and erase
all traces of their settlement?
Why didn't they carve a Maltesecross into a village tree if
(18:45):
they had left under distress orcoercion.
Theories regarding their fateare as plentiful as the
questions, and they range fromlogical and evidence-based to
wildly outlandish.
Many people believe thecolonists were absorbed into
local Indian populations, orperhaps they were captured as
(19:06):
slaves.
In the early 1600s to themiddle 1700s, european colonists
encountered grey-eyed Indianswho claimed to have been
descended from white settlers.
In the late 1600s, frenchHuguenots left records of
meeting blonde-haired, blue-eyedIndians in the areas of Roanoke
(19:29):
Island, proatoan Island andVirginia.
This theory one of the settlersbeing absorbed into the
friendly local population can beconsidered the happiest of
possible endings for thesettlers.
The happiest of possibleendings for the settlers.
Disease and slaughter are twoother possibilities, but
(19:53):
historians are not so quick tobuy into those scenarios.
There are so many intriguingpoints in this mystery, aren't
there?
Let's start with the simpleword Croatoan.
And the fact that it was carvedinto a post and a tree is the
only clue left by the settlersas to their fate.
Yes, the Croatoan people werefriendly and welcoming to the
(20:17):
inexperienced English settlers.
And yes, croatoan Island ispossibly where the colonists
sailed when they decided toleave.
But consider these curiousfacts Right before he died in
1849, edgar Allan Poedisappeared for a short time.
(20:37):
When he was again seen, he wasdelirious.
Now it seems to be commonknowledge that Poe was a man who
drank a great deal.
In fact, many believe that hisaltered state of consciousness
and his enduring state ofdepression were the reasons for
his brilliant weaving of thewritten word.
So a state of delirium in Poe'scase is maybe not all that
(21:00):
surprising.
But in this unexplained stateof disorientation shortly before
his death, allegedly one of thelast words he spoke was
Croatoan.
Poe's official cause of deathis unknown and his medical
records and death certificateare lost.
So no one knows for sure whathappened to him the night that
(21:21):
he died.
But why did he speak that wordto him the night that he died?
But why did he speak that word?
The word Croatoan has alsoplayed a part in several other
famous disappearances in the19th and 20th centuries.
In 1888, stagecoach RobertBlack Bart carved the word
Croatoan into the wall of hiscell just before being released
(21:43):
from prison.
Upon his release, he was neverseen or heard from again.
Amelia Earhart had written theword Croatoan as the final word
in her journal, which wasdiscovered after she disappeared
in 1937.
Horror writer Ambrose Bierce,before disappearing in Mexico in
(22:04):
1913, had carved the wordCroatoan into his bedpost, and
in 1921, the word Croatoan waswritten on the last page of the
logbook of the ship Carol ADeering.
When it crashed on CapeHatteras, North Carolina, the
ship's entire crew was lost,never to be found.
(22:29):
While the unexpected andunexplained use of the word
Croatoan intrigues us and posesmany questions and theories
about its ultimate meaning, weare still left to ponder the
bigger question what happened tothe colonists who landed and
settled on Roanoke Island in1587?
What happened in the threeyears between John White's
(22:50):
departure and his belated return?
Well, there is one more clue,though scientists still cannot
agree as to whether it'slegitimate or simply an
elaborate hoax the Dare Stoneselaborate hoax, the Dare Stones.
In 1937, a man named LewisHammond found a stone near the
(23:13):
Chowan River in North Carolina.
On this stone was aninscription which referred to
another stone which supposedlymarked a mass grave.
Could this inscription bereferring to the members of the
famed lost colony?
The discovery of thispotentially important stone of
(23:33):
course prompted an intensesearch, and the ultimate
discovery of nearly 50 inscribedstones in total sparked a media
circus.
The stones were said to havebeen inscribed and placed by
none other than Eleanor Dare,the woman who gave birth to
Virginia Dare.
Eleanor, the story goes, wastrying to leave clues for her
(23:58):
father, john White, when and ifhe ever returned from England
with the settler's supplies ifhe ever returned from England
with the settler's supplies.
Forty-eight of the so-calledDare Stones are catalogued at
Brunel University in Gainesville, georgia.
All taken and read together,the messages tell the story of
(24:19):
the fate of the missingcolonists between 1591 and 1603,
when they are said to havemigrated from Roanoke Island to
the Chattahoochee River Valleynear present-day Atlanta,
georgia.
The first stone Hammond foundis housed, with 47 more, at
Brunel.
I should note here that theother 47 stones were found not
(24:41):
long after a $500 reward wasoffered for the discovery and
authentication of a second stone.
Surprisingly, a second stonewas found in 1939 and delivered
to Brunel University by a mannamed Bill Eberhardt, and on it
were marked the names of 17deceased English colonists.
(25:02):
This second stone was dismissedbecause it was inscribed in a
different style and with anoften incorrect usage of the
English language as it wasspoken in the 16th century.
But as luck would have it,eberhardt brought another stone
and then another to BrunelUniversity In total 13 stones he
(25:25):
said he had found along theBush River in Greenville County,
south Carolina.
These subsequent stones hadmarkings on them that more
closely resembled the originalDare stone.
A media frenzy followed, as thestones Eberhardt was finding
could solve the mystery of thelost colony once and for all.
(25:45):
Now Eberhardt was finding couldsolve the mystery of the lost
colony once and for all.
Now, eberhardt was abackwoodsman with very little
education and he was also astone cutter.
But scholars didn't believe hehad the intelligence to pull off
such an elaborate hoax and fora time the stones he found were
deemed to be legitimate.
And the stones kept coming,some from Eberhardt and some
(26:09):
from others who lived in HallCounty, georgia, and in Fulton
County, georgia.
Some of the stones scholarsbelieve were headstones that
marked individual graves of someof the settlers.
Ultimately, a conference washeld that included respected
scholars from universities inthe United States and England,
(26:31):
and the stones found byEberhardt and others, except the
original stone found by Hammond, were declared to be fakes.
Unbelievably, eberhardt thentried to extort money from the
Pierce family of BrunelUniversity by threatening to
tell the media that Brunel wouldauthenticate any stone as a
darestone, simply for theprestige and publicity.
(26:54):
By 1941, both scholars and thepress had dismissed all of the
darestones as being hoaxes,although the authenticity of
Hammond's first stone has neverbeen proven or disproven and it
was never linked to BillEberhardt's convoluted deception
.
(27:20):
Dare stones aside, many believethat the settlers were
slaughtered by hostile NativeAmerican tribes in the early
1600s.
Yes, the Croatoans remainedfriendly with the English
settlers, but other tribes hadnot.
In fact, in response to Englishaggression and murder, other
tribes had become openly hostile.
(27:41):
In November 1607, eight monthsafter arriving in Jamestown,
virginia, captain John Smithwent with others to trade for
food with the natives.
Two of his comrades were killedand he was captured.
For several weeks he was takenfrom village to village until he
met the great Native Americanleader Powhatan.
(28:03):
Powhatan told John Smith thathe had killed the settlers from
Roanoke, but that some hadescaped.
He had killed them, he said,because of a dream he had in
which tribal leaders told himthat the newcomers from Europe
would rise up and take the landfrom Powhatan's people and other
tribes.
Powhatan's claim of killing theEnglish settlers has been
(28:27):
largely ignored through thecenturies, but evidence
discovered relatively recentlylends credence to what the
tribal chief told John Smith.
Others believe that diseasekilled the settlers, though it's
more likely that influenzabrought to the New World by the
English actually killed manyNative Americans.
(28:48):
The general consensus amongscholars is that the colonists
were absorbed into one or morefriendly Native American tribes,
and the descendants of thoseearly settlers still walk among
us today.
According to a book researchedand written by Scott Dawson
titled the Lost Colony andHatteras Island, the colonists
(29:09):
were never really lost at all.
They simply moved to live withtheir native friends, the
Croatoans of Hatteras.
Dawson maintains thatarchaeological digs have
uncovered evidence that theEnglish lived alongside Native
Americans on Hatteras Island inthe early 1600s.
Artifacts such as jewelry,swords and pottery found
(29:32):
together at the same depth inthe earth support this very
theory.
Even post holes that have beendiscovered on Hatteras Island,
some square and some round,support this thinking.
English colonists dug roundpostholes while Native Americans
dug square ones.
Both have been found in whatappears to have been a
(29:54):
settlement on Hatteras Island,where the friendly Croatoans
live.
Nearly 450 years, that's howlong we've been asking the
question.
What happened to the 117 peoplewho sailed here in 1587?
The mystery of the lost colonyremains just that, a puzzle that
(30:17):
is part of the fabric and loreof not just the islands off the
coast of North Carolina, but ofthe entire country.
Should anyone ever solve thismystery, leaving no doubt as to
the fate of the lost colonists,then the oldest chapter in the
history of English settlement inNorth America can be closed
(30:37):
forever.
Books have been written andstories told about the fate of
the colonists, but thedefinitive truth remains
maddeningly elusive.
In fact, the lost colony ofRoanoke can be considered the
oldest cold case in America,though the New World wouldn't be
named America for another 200or so years.
(30:59):
The shroud of secrets and theconflicting clues and historical
records make the solving ofthis case highly unlikely.
I'm Carole Townsend, veterannewspaper journalist and
six-time award-winning author.
(31:21):
You can find me on social mediaand check out my website at
https://www.
caroletownsend.
com.
As always, thanks for listening, and if you're enjoying these
tales of Southern history andlore, I hope you'll tell your
friends.
Subscribe to this podcast onSpotify, apple Play, iheart and
(31:43):
anywhere you listen.
My team and I used the followingmaterials to bring you this
account of the Lost Colony ofRoanoke.
T he book, The Lost Colony onHatteras Island, written by
Scott Dawson, https://www.
encyclopediavirginia.
org, Royal Museums, Greenwich.
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