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Roanoke Island: What Happened to the Lost Colonists of 1587?
A Novel of America ^ | 1/25/2009 | Errol Lincoln Uys

Posted on 02/01/2009 4:59:35 PM PST by Vendek

“We found the houses taken down and the place very strongly enclosed with a high palisade of great trees, with curtains and flankers very fortlike, and one of the chief trees or posts at the right side of the entrance had the bark taken off, and five feet from the ground in fair capital letters was graven CROATAN, without any cross or sign of distress. We entered the palisade, where we found many bars of iron, two pigs of lead, four fowlers, iron sacker-shot and such like heavy things, thrown here and there, almost overgrown with grass and weeds.” -- John White, Second Voyage, 1590.

On July 22, 1587, 116 men, women and children landed on Roanoke Island off the coast of present-day North Carolina, the second English settlement sponsored by Walter Raleigh. Raleigh's enterprise was launched under a charter granted by Elizabeth I to discover and colonize the “remote heathen and barbarous lands of North America.”

Three years passed before the artist-explorer Governor John White could return with supplies for Roanoke in 1590, primarily because of the Spanish Armada. The colonists had disappeared, among them White's grand-daughter Virginia Dare, first child of English parentage born in the New World.

The mystery of the “lost colony” has endured for four centuries; theories of what happened abound, of which these are most potent:

(Excerpt) Read more at blog.erroluys.com ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: bertiecounty; croatan; godsgravesglyphs; history; lostcolony; mystery; nicholasmluccketti; northcarolina; roanoke; roanokecolony; sitex; virgineapars; virginia; virginiahistory; walterraleigh
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To: databoss; Age of Reason

No it was Bush’s fault, since it happened before the Caliphate’s immaculation


21 posted on 02/01/2009 5:53:24 PM PST by GreyFriar (Spearhead (3rd Armored Division 75-78 & 83-87))
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To: cripplecreek; machogirl
One of the first things the English settlers did was to count up all the Europeans in the area about 1609 or 1610.

By that time (Lord Delaware arrived just in time to save them) they knew Virginia was pretty rugged so they needed to find out quick how to live there.

What they seemed to be unaware of was that they had landed just at the tail end of a 17 year drought period, so salt water was all the way up to the Fall Line. They did discover the Fall Line though, probably in their search for fresh water.

The folks in Maryland could simply have been folks dropped off by pirates, or maybe they were the pirates' support team, or maybe lots of Croatians. There are about 27 early European settlements older than Jamestown on the East Coast that have not yet been archaelogically surveyed.

I don't know how many of them are in Maryland ~ could be some.

Regarding settlement sizes, the local Indians in Fairfax County had a town of about 20,000 population near Beacon Hill (in Fairfax county VA). They manufactured ceramic dishes and pots in traditional Indian designs and styles until shortly after Jamestown was founded. As that area became available as a market for their wares, the Indians began manufacturing ceramics in European designs and styles.

That area eventually became part of Mount Vernon plantation.

22 posted on 02/01/2009 6:02:26 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: Vendek

The sign was misspelled. They meant to say “Croatia”.


23 posted on 02/01/2009 6:10:24 PM PST by Redcitizen (This tagline is 100% recycled from other taglines. It's "green")
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To: Redcitizen

Wasn’t there a nearby Indian tribe called the Croatoans?

Just asking, I really did read this once.


24 posted on 02/01/2009 6:33:52 PM PST by elcid1970 ("O Muslim! My cartridges are lubricated with pig grease!")
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To: cripplecreek

I am pretty sure they are dead too. ;)


25 posted on 02/01/2009 6:36:25 PM PST by Mikey_1962 (Obama: The Affirmative Action President)
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To: elcid1970

You got me. I read about that once too. But that was many years back. I haven’t kept up on the Eastern tribes. Plenty of tribess here in the Southwest to keep me busy. =)


26 posted on 02/01/2009 6:37:38 PM PST by Redcitizen (This tagline is 100% recycled from other taglines. It's "green")
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To: elcid1970

Yes, the Croatan Indians lived on southern part of Hatteras Island...Manteo, a Croatan, was go-between settlers and the Indians. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manteo_(Croatan)


27 posted on 02/01/2009 6:44:00 PM PST by Vendek
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To: muawiyah
Fascinating theory...This American Heritage article tackled the question of John Smith's tales of his service against the Turks. http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1958/6/1958_6_28.shtml He was not a liar, as the research shows... "There were also, at the time of the English landing in what is now Virginia, well over 20,000 persons of European descent already living in what is now Maryland." I would find this very hard to believe... There were pockets of French and English, usually survivors of shipwrecks, often living in harmony with the Indians. John Smith's journals give us a very true account of Virginia and New England. I reckon the old adventurer would have shared a word or two about his Croatian adversaries were this the case!
28 posted on 02/01/2009 7:02:25 PM PST by Vendek
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To: Vendek

I found the site you referenced fascinating. That would be interesting to read how this author goes about constructing a book.

When I taught fourth grade American history the kids were always fascinated by this mystery.


29 posted on 02/01/2009 7:11:36 PM PST by AUsome Joy
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To: Vendek
Let's imagine John Smith, chosen for his facility in Turkish, dealing with Turkish speaking Europeans ~ Christians in fact ~ the Spanish did not kill their Orthodox prisoners.

Probably struck him as quite normal and unremarkable.

Going beyond the French and English, there' been Welsh, Scottish, Breton and Scandinavian fishermen drying catches in America for the last 75 years (as the Grand Banks, et al, slowly recovered fish-stocks after the harp seals had been killed off).

Chesapeak Bay was a great place to be during hurricane season, so you'd had all sorts of people wintering over. As long as they gave Powhattan and a couple of other Iriquois tax collectors their share, they could do what they wished.

30 posted on 02/01/2009 7:19:35 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: Age of Reason

“The Storm of the Century”-give me all that I ask and I will go away.


31 posted on 02/01/2009 7:23:16 PM PST by Texas Songwriter
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To: Age of Reason

“The Storm of the Century”-give me all that I ask and I will go away.


32 posted on 02/01/2009 7:23:46 PM PST by Texas Songwriter
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To: elcid1970
There's a band of Indians called the Pechanga Band in the Pechanga Valley in San Diego County. The Valley was named by Jedediah Smith after "someplace" he'd heard about ~ it had meaning to Jedediah.

I believe I have discovered that place along the Pechanga Valley in NW Nikel Oblast near the Norway/Russia border.

Some of the earliest settlers in what is now the United States came from Nikel Oblast and were members of the Skolt Sa'ami tribe (which is down to 500 native speakers in the Old World, and may number as many as 2 million people in America ~ virtually none of whom know they are an ancient people called Skolt). Many settled around Nickel Mines Pennsylvania (and a gazillion other places with a Christmasy, or traditional Scandinavian motif name, e.g. Santa Claus, Christmas Valley, Deer Park, Elkins, Elkton, etc.)

Jedediah Smith would necessarily have had considerable contact with American Skolt.

Why I posted that bit of early settlement lore is because we face a similar problem with "Croatan" ~ a place named Croatan Island, a band of Indians at Croatan Island, next thing you know you have the Croatan Indians.

The Indians didn't name themselves Pechanga. The Indians didn't name themselves Croatan.

"River Avon" is yet another instance of this sort of thing ~ "Avon" means "river" in Welsh.

33 posted on 02/01/2009 7:31:27 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: Vendek

Alien abduction. But don’t worry, they’ll be back presently wondering what happened in the past few minutes.

Or at least that’s what I’ve heard.


34 posted on 02/01/2009 7:40:28 PM PST by count-your-change (You don't have be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
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To: SunkenCiv

ping


35 posted on 02/01/2009 8:50:57 PM PST by BBell
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To: cripplecreek

Personally I think they intermingled and were absorbed by the indians.

You don’t mean in a culinary sense, right? Always heard the only canabals were on Galveston Island.


36 posted on 02/01/2009 8:58:11 PM PST by dusttoyou (HNIC)
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To: muawiyah

interesting read


37 posted on 02/01/2009 8:58:39 PM PST by machogirl (not one of Rush's top-ten gal names)
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To: BBell; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...

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Gods
Graves
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Thanks BBell.
...five feet from the ground in fair capital letters was graven CROATAN
About ten years ago I read (for the first time I believe) about an old discovery, another inscription apparently left by at least a small party of these colonists, many miles inland and south, apparently making their way toward the Euro-colonies of Florida. They didn't make it, obviously. Or at least, no known records exist.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
 

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38 posted on 02/01/2009 9:33:09 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/____________________ Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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To: dusttoyou

Other tribes were accused of it, including the Commanche.


39 posted on 02/01/2009 11:58:00 PM PST by dsc (A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.)
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To: Age of Reason

Aliens abducted by Aliens.


40 posted on 02/02/2009 5:07:07 AM PST by wolfcreek (There is no 2 party system only arrogant Pols and their handlers)
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