, M i 7 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh's 
 Lost Colony 
 
 Historical Sketch of the attempts 
 made by Sir Walter Raleigh to 
 Establish a Colony in Virginia, 
 with Traditions of an Indian 
 Tribe in North Carolina, Indi- 
 cating the Fate of the Colony of 
 Englishmen Left on Roanoke 
 Island in 1587 
 
 Eevisetl Edition 
 by 
 
 Hamilton McMillan 
 
Sir Walter Raleigh^s 
 Lost Colony 
 
 Historical Sketch of the Attempts Made by Sir Waher Raleigh to 
 
 Establish a Colony in Virginia, with Traditions of an Indian 
 
 Tribe in North Carolina, Indicating the Fate of the 
 
 Colony of Englishmen Left on Roanoke 
 
 Island in 1587 
 
 Revised Edition by 
 
 Hamilton McMillan 
 
 Edwards & Broughton Printing Co. 
 Raleigh, N. C. 
 

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 Copyright, 1888 and 1907 
 by 
 
 Hamilton McMillan 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In the pages of this book the author presents the view 
 that the Indians inhabiting Robeson County in North Caro- 
 lina and counties adjoining, known as Croatans, are the 
 descendants of the English Colony left by Governor White 
 on Roanoke Island in 1587. 
 
 These Indians were found on the Lumber and Cape Fear 
 rivers by white settlers in the early part of the eighteenth 
 century, and there were indications of their having dwelt 
 there for a long period prior to the coming of white men. 
 Lands were held in common among them till it became neces- 
 sary for them to obtain grants from the King of England. 
 The oldest land grant extant is that of one hundred acres 
 granted to James Lowrie and Henry Berry by George Sec- 
 ond, 1732. Henry Berry is claimed by tradition to have 
 been a lineal descendant of Henry Berry, of the Roanoke 
 Colony. 
 
 While they possessed many Indian characteristics, they 
 spoke English, cultivated the land and practiced many of the 
 arts of civilization. They were enrolled in the militia, exer- 
 cised the right to vote, attended the white schools and seemed 
 contented with their lot. 
 
 In 1864 an incident occurred which led to the investigation 
 of their traditions. 
 
 Three young men of a Lowrie family were conscripted by 
 the Confederate authorities to work on the batteries at Fort 
 Fisher, and while on the road to the nearest railway station 
 were killed, it is supposed, by the officer who had them in 
 charge. The funeral of these young men was numerously 
 attended by whites and Indians, and an old Indian named 
 George Lowrie, made a short address, the substance of which 
 is as follows: ''We have always been the friends of white 
 men. We were a free people long before the white men 
 3ame to our land. Our tribe lived in Roanoke, in Virginia. 
 
4 Preface. 
 
 When the English came to this land we treated them kindly. 
 One of our men went to England in an English ship and saw 
 that great country. We took the English to live with us. 
 There is the white man's blood in these veins as well as that 
 of the Indian. In order to be great like the English we 
 took the white man's religion and laws, for we were told that 
 if we did that, we would prosper. In the fights between the 
 Indians and white men we always fought on the side of white 
 men. We moved to this land and fought for liberty for 
 white men, yet white men treated us as negroes. Here are 
 our young men killed by a white man and we get no justice, 
 and that in a land where we were always free." 
 
 The incident above alluded to occurred during the civil 
 war, and it was not till 1875 the author became a citizen and 
 found opportunity of investigating the traditions prevalent 
 among them. The result of many years of patient investi- 
 gation is presented in the following pages. 
 
 The name Dare is pronounced among this people variously 
 as Darr, Dorr and Durr. We traced the Durrs to Lincoln 
 County, North Carolina. The name Dorr occurs among the 
 soldiers enlisted in Robeson County in the War of 1812. 
 
 In preparing this work for publication, the author is in- 
 debted to Mr. James M. Black, of the firm of A. D. Black ^' 
 Son, of Red Springs, N. C. The author is also indebted to 
 the kindness of D. Appleton & Co., of New York. 
 
 To the favorable consideration of the public this volume is 
 respectfully submitted. Hamilton McMili^n. 
 
 Red Springs, N. C. 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH'S LOST COLONY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 In 1583, "Elizabeth, by the Grace of God, of England, 
 France and Ireland, Queen, Defender of the faith," granted 
 to Sir Walter Raleigh, his heirs and assigns forever, letters 
 patent ''to discover, search, find and view such remote and 
 heathen and barbarous lands, countries and territories, not 
 actually possessed of any Christian Prince, nor inhabited by 
 Christian people, as to him, his heirs and assigns, to every 
 or any of them shall seem good, and the same to have, hold 
 and occupy and enjoy, to him, his heirs and assigns forever." 
 
 It was provided that a settlement should be made in the 
 territory granted within six years next succeeding the date of 
 the letters patent. 
 
 This grant was made during one of the most critical periods, 
 of British history. The Protestant Elizabeth had espoused 
 the cause of the I^etherlands and had given high offense to 
 Spain by rejecting the proposed matrimonial alliance with 
 Philip, the reigning monarch of that country. The Armada, 
 consisting of one hundred and forty ships of war and carry- 
 ing fully thirty thousand men, threatened an early attack 
 upon England. Powerful allies stood ready to assist King 
 Pliilip. The length of time necessary to complete this power- 
 ful armament had afforded to Queen Elizabeth opportunity 
 to prepare for the impending danger. Sir Walter Raleigh 
 then enjoyed high favor at court. The Queen early discov- 
 ered his soldierly qualities and intellectual ability and, in 
 addition to high rank which she bestowed upon him, readily 
 granted him and his heirs extensive territory in North 
 Anaerica. 
 
 Raleigh was one of the most skillful generals of his time, 
 and while actively engaged in the preparation for resisting 
 the threatened invasion of England, found opportunity to fit 
 
6 8ir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 
 
 out an expedition to the coast of North America to make dis- 
 coveries and to locate a colony in compliance with the terms 
 of his grant. The commanders of the expedition were Philip 
 Amadas and Arthur Barlowe, who sailed from the coast of 
 England on the 15th day of April, 1584, O. S., and reached 
 the coast of America in July of the same year. They sailed 
 along the coast for one hundred and twenty miles before they 
 found any entrance or river issuing into the sea. These navi- 
 gators probably entered at Hatteras Inlet on the coast of 
 what is now North Carolina, and having anchored "within 
 the haven's mouth on the left-hand of the same," they went 
 in boats "to view the land adjoining and to take posses- 
 sion of the same in right of the Queen's most excellent 
 majesty as rightful Queen and Princess of the same." The 
 land thus taken into possession included Roanoke Island, 
 which was seven leagues distant from the anchorage. 
 
 After a stay of two months, the expedition returned to Eng- 
 land carrying two of the natives, Manteo and Wanchese. The 
 disposition of the natives toward the English was friendly, 
 and though no reason is given for carrying these two Indians 
 to England, it was probably understood that another expedi- 
 tion would soon follow and they could return to their own 
 country at an early day. There was good policy in impress- 
 ing them, as prominent men of their own country, with the 
 greatness of England. 
 
 Manteo and Wanchese returned in another expedition to 
 Roanoke, the former to become Lord of Roanoke and Dasa- 
 monguepeuk, the latter to become the determined enemy of 
 the English. 
 
 The second expedition, under Sir Richard Grenville, the 
 cousin of Sir Walter Raleigh, sailed from England on the 
 9th of April, 1585. This expedition consisted of seven ves- 
 sels, and arrived at Roanoke during the month of July fol- 
 lowing. In August Sir Richard Grenville returned to Eng- 
 land after leaving a colony on Roanoke Island under Master 
 Ralf Lane. 
 
8ir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 7 
 
 Lane explored the surrounding country, making many 
 valuable discoveries, and finally despairing of aid expected, 
 embarked with his entire colony on the fleet of Sir Francis 
 Drake, which had stopped at Roanoke, and sailed for England. 
 
 The departure of Lane's colony left no Englishmen on the 
 shores of North America. 
 
 In less than one month from the departure of Lane, Sir 
 Richard Grenville arrived at Roanoke with supplies and, after 
 a fruitless search for the colonists, he left fifteen men on the 
 island to hold possession of the country. After the departure 
 of Grenville these men were seen no more by Englishmen. 
 Not discouraged by repeated failures, Sir Walter Raleigh 
 fitted out another expedition under John White as Governor, 
 who with others of the colonists were incorported as ''The 
 Governor and Assistants of the City of Raleigh in Virginia." 
 The city of Raleigh was designed to be built on the shores of 
 the Chesapeake Bay. 
 
 Governor White was instructed to call at Roanoke Island 
 to ascertain the fate of the fifteen men left there by Sir Rich- 
 ard Grenville. The commanders of the ships seemed to have 
 been independent of the authority of Governor White, and 
 being fully aware that a voyage to Chesapeake Bay would 
 delay the expected cruise in the West Indies, refused to trans- 
 port the colony to its destination, and thus compelled Gover- 
 nor White to stop at Roanoke Island. The vessels departed 
 soon after in search of Spanish prizes. 
 
 After meeting many incidents, Governor White relates that 
 on the 13th of August our savage Manteo, by the command- 
 ment of Sir Walter Raleigh, was christened in Roanoke and 
 called Lord thereof and of Dasamonguepeuk, in reward of his 
 faithful service." "The 18th, Eleanor, daughter of Governor 
 White, and wife of Ananias Dare, one of the colonists, was 
 delivered of a daughter in Roanoke, and the same was chris- 
 tened there the Sunday following, and because this child was 
 the first Christian born in Virginia, she was named Virginia." 
 
 Governor White relates that a violent tempest arose on the 
 
8 Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 
 
 21st of August, which lasted for six days and threatened the 
 destruction of one of the vessels then ready to sail for Eng- 
 land. At the solicitation of the colonists, Governor White 
 was sent back to England to obtain supplies and to act as fac- 
 tor for the colony. 
 
 The Croatan Indians who visited Roanoke Island, and who 
 were very friendly to the English, had invited the colonists 
 to reside with them, and they, prior to the departure of White, 
 had expressed to him their intention to accept the invitation 
 and remove fifty miles "up into the main." It was under- 
 stood that if they went to Croatan they were to carve the word 
 Croatan on the bark of a tree in some conspicuous place, that 
 the Governor might know where to find them on his return 
 from England. It was further understood that if they left 
 the island in distress, they were to carve the Christian cross 
 above the word Croatan. On the 27th of August, 1590, Gov- 
 ernor White sailed for England and the colonists were seen 
 no more by white men. 
 
 On his arrival in England Governor White found all things 
 in commotion. The long threatened storm of v/ar had burst 
 upon England, and the services of Sir Walter Raleigh and 
 others who were interested in the distant colony were enlisted 
 in the national defense. It was a critical period of British 
 history. Queen Elizabeth relied upon the skill of Raleigh, 
 under whose guidance the formidable Armada was defeated 
 and "liberty of person and liberty of conscience were once 
 more free." 
 
 On the 22d of April, 1588, Governor White, by aid of Sir 
 W^alter Raleigh, sailed from England with two' barques, to 
 visit the colony at Roanoke. These vessels, disabled in fight- 
 ing ships encountered during the voyage, were compelled to 
 return to England, and no further attempt to reach the colony 
 was made till the 20th of March, 1590, when White again 
 sailed for Virginia with three vessels. Nearly six months 
 passed before the vessels reached Roanoke in the following 
 August. 
 
Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 9 
 
 In his account of this voyage as published by Hakluyt, 
 Governor White says that ''on the 15th of August, toward 
 evening, we came to anchor at Hattorask in 36 1-3°, in five 
 fathoms of water, three leagues from the shore. At our first 
 coming to anchor on this shore we saw a great smoke rise in 
 the isle of Roanoke, near the place where T left our colony in 
 the year 1587, which smoke put us in good hope that some of 
 the colony were there expecting our return out of England. 
 The 16th, and next morning, our two boats went ashore, and 
 Captain Cook and Captain Spicer and their company with 
 me, with intent to pass to the place at Roanoke where our 
 countrymen were left. At our putting from the ship, we 
 commanded our master gunner to make ready two minions 
 and a falcon, well ioaded, and to shoot them off with reason- 
 able space between every shot, to the end that their reports 
 might be heard to tlie place where we hoped to find some of 
 our people." 
 
 Omitting some unimportant details, we extract from White's 
 narrative as given by Hakluyt, the following: 
 
 "Our boats and all things filled again, we put off from 
 Hatterask, being the number of nineteen persons in both boats ; 
 but before we could get to the place where our planters were 
 left, it was so exceeding dark that we overshot the place a 
 quarter of a mile, when we espied towards the north end of 
 the island (Roanoke) the light of a great fire through the 
 woods, to which we presently rowed. When we came right 
 over against it, we let fall our grapnel near the shore and 
 sounded with a trumpet a call, and afterwards many familiar 
 tunes and songs, and called to them friendly ; but we had no 
 answer. We therefore landed at daybreak, and coming to 
 the fire we found the grass and sundry rotten trees burning 
 about the place. From hence we went through the woods to 
 that part of the island directly over against Dasamonguepeuk, 
 and from thence we returned by the water side round about 
 the north point of the island until we came to the place where 
 I left our colony in the year 1587. In all this way we saw 
 
10 Sir Walter Ilaleigh's Lost Colony. 
 
 the prints of the savages' feet of two or three sorts trodden in 
 the night, and as we entered up the sandy bank^ upon a tree 
 in the very brow thereof, were curiously carved these fair 
 Roman letters : C. R. 0., which letters presently we knew to 
 signify the place where I should find the planters seated 
 according to a secret token agreed between them and me at 
 my last departure from there, which was, that in any way 
 they should not fail to write or carve on the trees or posts of 
 the doors the name of the place where they should be seated; 
 for at my coming away they were prepared to remove from 
 Roanoke fifty miles into the main. Therefore, at my de- 
 parture from them in August, 1587, I willed them that if 
 they should happen to be distressed in any of those places, 
 that they would carve over the letter or name a cross {^) 
 in this form, but w^e found no such sign of distress. And 
 having well considered of this, we passed through the place 
 where they were left in sundry houses, but we found the 
 houses taken down and in their place very strongly enclosed 
 with palisade of great trees, with curtains and flankers, very 
 fortlike, and one of the chief trees or posts at the right side 
 of the ground, in fair capital letters, was graven 'Croatan,' 
 without any cross or sign of distress. This done we entered 
 into the palisade, where we found many bars of iron, two 
 pigs of lead, four iron fowlers, iron locker shot and such like 
 heavy things thrown here and there, almost overgrown with 
 grass and weeds. But although it grieved me much to see 
 such spoil of my goods, yet, on the other side, I greatly joyed 
 that / had safely found a certain token of their being at 
 Croatan, which is the place where Manteo was born, and the 
 savages of the island our friends." 
 
 Foul weather compelled Governor White to return to the 
 fleet, and on the following day, with a favorable wind, they 
 prepared to sail to Croatan ; but owing to the loss of all their 
 anchors, save one, and the approaching foul weather, it was 
 determined to sail to St. John or some other island south- 
 ward for fresh water ; and after obtaining victuals and neces- 
 
Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony 11 
 
 saries in the West Indies and spending the winter there, to 
 return in the spring to seek the colonists at Croatan. One 
 of the vessels, being in a leaky condition, was compelled to 
 sail for England. The other vessels, cruising for awhile in 
 search of Spanish prizes, finally sailed for England, and ar- 
 rived at Plymouth on the 2-ith day of October, 1590. 
 
 From the story of Governor White, it is evident that Croa- 
 tan was situated southward from Roanoke Island and upon 
 the coast, for the voyagers attempted to sail to it upon the 
 open sea. 
 
 It is probable that the island mentioned was one of the 
 long islands curtaining the coast and embraced within the 
 present county of Carteret. It is so located on one of the 
 oldest maps, bearing date of 1666. On a map published by 
 order of the Lords Proprietors in 1671, the peninsula em- 
 bracing the present county of Dare is called Croatan. Law- 
 son's map of the year 1709 also located Croatan in the same 
 region. The sound immediately west of Roanoke Island still 
 bears the name of Croatan. The name of the island occupied 
 by the friendly tribe was Croatoan, while other localities are 
 called Croatan. The difference in the two names we can not 
 explain, and presume that the two names were pronounced 
 alike. We must remember that the name Croatan was ap- 
 ])lied to the tribe by the English on account of their occupa- 
 tion of the island of that name. As will be shown in subse- 
 quent pages, the friendly tribe of Manteo was of Cherokee 
 origin. 
 
 i'lanteo was made Lord of Roanoke and Dasamonguepeuk, 
 but there is no evidence that Manteo's tribe inhabited either 
 lorrality permanently or even temporarily. The territory 
 along the coast was occupied by any tribe that saw fit to hunt 
 ilicreon, and the nomadic character of the Indians forbids 
 the idea of settled boundaries and permanent occupation, 
 rhe name Croatan carved upon a tree according to the secret 
 understanding between Governor White and the colonists, 
 -]>rior to the departure of the former, was understood by him 
 
12 Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 
 
 to niean an island southward from Roanoke, "for there," he 
 relates, "Manteo was born and the savages of the island, our 
 friends." 
 
 According to Scrocter's map of Indian localities in Nortli 
 Carolina, the distance from Roanoke Island to Croatan as 
 located on Nnremberg map of 1666, is about sixty-five miles 
 in a direct line across Pamlico Sound. To reach Croatan by 
 the sea the distance is gi'eater, and 'vessels would have to pass 
 around Cape Hatteras, always dangerous to navigation. On 
 De Bry's Map of Lane's Expedition, in the year 1585, the 
 island of C*roatan is located to the south of Roanoke and 
 about the same distance as given on the map of Scroeter. 
 This island is called 'Iny Lord Admiral's Island" by Master 
 Ralf Lane in his letter to M. Hakluyt, Esq., "'and another 
 gentleman of the Middle Temple, fi'om Virginia." The ex- 
 pression "fifty miles into the main" by Governor Wliite, in 
 alluding to the understanding between him and the colonists, 
 apparently means "fifty miles into the main" from Roanoke 
 Island, and if this is true, then the colonists were preparing 
 to move into a hostile country, for the region west of Roanoke 
 was peopled by tribes \vho had shown themselves to be ene- 
 mies. If thev had accepted the invitation of the tribe of 
 jtanteo to live v.-ith them, v;hy, we may ask, would the 
 friendly Croatans carry the English among hostile tribes and 
 into a region where they themselves had no abiding place? 
 The island of Croatan was a narrow strip of land separated 
 from the main land by Pamlico Soimd, and while occupied 
 occasionally as a fishing and hunting ground by the tribe of 
 Manteo, as their necessities might require, yet it is more 
 reasonable to sujnpose that these friendly Indians had an 
 abiding j)lace on the nuiinland and that it was to this place 
 that the colonists were preparing to move on the departure of 
 Governor White for England in 1587. "Fifty miles into the 
 main" from Croatan would locate them in the region called 
 Secotan, between the Keuse and Pamlico rivers. This region 
 was occupied by a tribe called Mandoags or Doegs, as we will 
 show presently. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 After the departure of Governor White, the colonists were 
 seen no more by white men. Dr. i Lawks, the historian of 
 North Carolina (Vol. i, j^age 288), says: 
 
 '^What had become of them i No man can, with certainty, 
 answer; but any man can readily conjecture what must have 
 been the miseries of these poor creatures, as sickening under 
 hope deferred, they looked from day to day, but looked in 
 vain, for the return of White. They knew nothing of the 
 troubled state of England which prevented his condng, and 
 the mother must have looked sorrowfully upon her child, as 
 each setting day closed another day of suffering and disap- 
 pointment, and wept as she thought of the starvation of her 
 oit'spring. The probability is that, driven by want of sup- 
 plies, perhaps by the savage enemy, they sought an asylum 
 auiong their friends, the Hatteras Indians at Croatoan." 
 
 That the colonists did remove to Croatan and that they did 
 not leave in distress is clearly set forth in the narrative of 
 Governor White. What became of them? 
 
 There is a chart of Virginia extant, which probably was 
 sent by Captain .Francis Xelson, who left Virginia on June 
 2, 1608, (Vide Genesis of the U. S., Vol. . . ., page 184), and 
 the legends on this chart are as follows : 
 
 "Here remaineth 11 men clothed that came from Roanoke 
 to Ocanahawan." 
 
 ''LIY says, 'What he knew of the Dominions, he spared not 
 to acquaint me with, as of certaine men cloathed like me, and 
 many Kingdoms he (Powatan) describes to me.' The people 
 clothed at Ocamahowan he also confirmed." 
 
 "CCVII says, 'Where at Peecaracamnick and Ocanahoen, 
 by the relation of Machumps, the people have houses, built 
 with stone walles and one story above another, so taught them 
 by those English who escaped the slaughter at Roanoak, at 
 v/hat tyme this our colony, under the conduct of Captain ISTew- 
 
14 Sir M' alter Baleiah's Lost Colony. 
 
 port, landed within the Chesapeake Bay, where the people 
 breed up tame turkeys about their houses, and take apes in 
 the mountaines and where, at Ritanoe, the Weroanee Eyanoko 
 preserved seven of the English alive— fower men, two boyes, 
 and one yonge mayd (who escaped and fled up the river Cha- 
 noke) to beat his copper, of which he has certaine mynes at 
 the said Ritanee, as also at Pamawank are said to be store of 
 salt stones, tame Turkyes and Monkyes supposed at Paccart- 
 canick.' " 
 
 "The three rivers," says the historian, ''given on the chart, 
 south of the James, were probably intended for the ISTeuse, 
 the Tar and Roanoke rivers. Ocanahowan was probably sup- 
 posed to be on the ISTeuse." 
 
 "Here the King of Paspahege reported our men to be and 
 wants to go. Here Paspahege and 2 of our men landed to 
 go to Pananiock." 
 
 The legends on this chart of the year 1608 relate to inci- 
 dents which happened within twenty-one years after the col- 
 ony was left at Roanoke and indicate the fact that white men 
 from Roanoke were alive at Ohanahowan on the Neuse 
 River and at Passarapanick in same region, having stone 
 houses, two stories high, tame turkeys and other evidences of 
 civilization, and Machumps says expressly that the people 
 were taught to build by those English who escaped the slaugh- 
 ter at Roanoke. What is meant by the slaughter at Roanoke 
 we do not know, unless the allusion is to the men left on the 
 island to hold possession and who were never seen again. The 
 allusion could not be to the colonists left by White, for there 
 was no evidence that they left the island in any distress. 
 
 The name Pananiock is variously spelled. On DeBry's 
 map of Lane's Expedition it is spelled Pomeiock and located 
 between Lake Paquipe or Mattamuskeet and Pamlico Sound 
 and in the present county of Hyde. On Scroeter's map of 
 Indian Localities there is a territory designated as Pomouik 
 in the southern part of the present county of Craven. 
 
Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 15 
 
 In a chart sent from England lOth of September, 1608, by 
 Zuniga, the Spanish ambassador to the King of Spain, and 
 first published by Alexander Brown, of Virginia, in "Genesis 
 of the United States," there is a river which we understand to 
 represent the ISTeuse, and on that river is located Passara- 
 panick on south side and Ohanahowan on the north side, with 
 the legend, "Here remayneth 4 men that came from Eoanoac 
 to Ohanahowan." This locality was in the territory called 
 Secotan on several maps and within the boundaries of the 
 present county of Craven. 
 
 From a "True and Sincere Declaration," published in 
 London December 14, 1609, (Vide Genesis U. S., Vol. I, 
 pages 348, 349), I copy the following: "But to come to our 
 purpose; that which seems to dishearten or shake our first 
 grounds in this supply; ariseth from two principal sources, 
 of which one was cause of the other ; first, the Tempest ; and 
 can any man expect an answer for that ? Next, the absence 
 of the Governor (White), an effect of the former, for the 
 loss of him is in suspense and much reason of his safety 
 against some doubt, and the hands of God reacheth all the 
 Earth. Now if these two be the only Crosses, which stagger 
 the feasableness, consider that of three voyages before, no man 
 miscarried in the way, and that all other depend on these, as 
 the misgovernment of our men, their illness, their want and 
 the empty return of our fleet, wherein if we recover and cor- 
 rect the cause, we vanquish all things consequent unto it, and 
 yet in appearance, if with these we compare the advantages 
 which we have gotten, in the shortness and the security of 
 the passage, in the intelligence of some of our nation planted 
 by Sir Walter Raleigh, yet alive, within fifty miles of our 
 fort who can open the womb and bowels of this country; as 
 is testified by two of our colony sent out to seek them, who, 
 (though denied by the savages speech with them), found 
 crosses and Letters and Characters and assured Testimonies 
 of Christians newly cut in the barks of trees ; if we consider 
 the assuredness of the commodities, Wines, Pitch, Soap — 
 
16 Sir Waltei' Raleigh's Lost Colony. 
 
 Ashes, Timber for all uses, Iron, steel, Copper, Duyes, Cord- 
 age, silk grass, Pearl, which (though discolored and softened 
 hj fire, for want of skill in the naturals to pierce them) was 
 found in great abundance in the house of their sepultures." 
 
 We copy the foregoing to show that in the year 1609 re- 
 ports of the existence of "Raleigh's men" were current among 
 the people of England. 
 
 From the date of 1609 to 1660 we have no account of the 
 lost colonists of Roanoke. 
 
 In Baldwin's "Ancient America," page 285, we find an 
 account of the Welsh in America. The story of Madog's 
 emigration from Wales is related in support of the theory 
 that a Welsh colony was established in the Carolinas. Bald- 
 win says: "It is supposed that Madog settled somewhere in 
 the Carolinas and that his colony, unsupported by arrivals 
 from Europe, and cut off from communication with that side 
 of the ocean, became weak and, after being much reduced, 
 was destroyed or absorbed by some powerful tribe of Indians. 
 In our colony times, and later, there is no lack of reports 
 that relics of Madog's Welshmen had been discovered among 
 the Indians ; but generally they w^ere entitled to no credit. 
 The only report of this kind having a show of claim to re- 
 spectful consideration is that of the Rev. Morgan Jones, made 
 in 1686, in a letter giving an account of his adventures 
 among the Tuscaroras. These Tuscarora Indians were lighter 
 in color than the other tribes, and this peculiarity was so 
 noticeable that they were frequently mentioned as "White 
 Indians." 
 
 Mr. Jones's account of his experiences among them was 
 written in March, 1686, and published in the Gentleman's 
 Magazine for the year 1740, as follows : 
 
 REV. MORGAN JONEs's STATEMENT. 
 
 "These presents certify all persons whatever, that in the 
 year 1660, being an inhabitant of Virginia, and chaplain to 
 Major-General Bennett of Mansonan (Nansemond) County, 
 
Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 17 
 
 the said Major-General Bennett and Sir William Berkeley 
 sent two ships to Port Royal, now called South Carolina, 
 which is sixty leagues southward of Cape Fair, and I was 
 sent therewith to be their minister. 
 
 "Upon the 8th of April we set out from Virginia and ar- 
 rived at the harbor's mouth of Port Royal the 19th of the 
 same month, where we waited, for the rest of the fleet was 
 to sail from Barbadoes and Bermuda with one Mr. West, who 
 was to be the deputy governor of said place. As soon as the 
 fleet came in, the smallest vessels that were with us sailed up 
 the river to a place called the Oyster Point ; there I continued 
 about eight months, all of which time being almost starved 
 for want of provisions : I and five more men traveled through 
 the wilderness till we came to the Tusearora country. 
 
 "These Tusearora Indians took us prisoners, because we 
 told them we were bound to Roanoak. That night they car- 
 ried us to their town and shut us up close, to our no small 
 dread. The next day they entered into a consultation about 
 us, and after it was over, the interpreter told us that we must 
 prepare ourselves to die the next morning, whereupon, being 
 very much dejected, I spoke to this effect in the JBritish 
 (Welsh) tongue: 'Have I escaped so many dangers, and 
 must I be knocked on the head like a dog V Then presently 
 came an Indian to me, which afterward proved to be a war 
 captain belonging to the Sachem of the Doegs (whose original, 
 I find, must needs be from the old Britons) and took me by 
 the middle, and told me in the British (Welsh) tongue I 
 should not die, and thereupon went to the Emperor of the 
 Tuscaroras, and agreed for my ransom and the men that were 
 with me. 
 
 "They (the Doegs) then welcomed us to their town, and 
 entertained us very civilly and cordially four months, during 
 which time I had the opportunity of conversing with them 
 familiarly in the British (Welsh) language, and did preach 
 to them three times a week, and they would confer with me 
 about anything that was difficult therein, and at our depar- 
 ture they abundantly supplied us with whatever was necessary 
 to our support and well doing. They were settled upon 
 Pontigo River, near Cape Atross. This is a brief recital of 
 my travels among the Doeg Indians. 
 
 "Morgan Jones. 
 
18 Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 
 
 "The son of John Jones, of Basateg, near Newport, in the 
 county of Monmouth. I am ready to conduct any Welsh- 
 man or any others to the country. 
 
 "New York, March, 1685-6." 
 
 This letter was written by a minister of the Church of Eng- 
 land, a hundred years after the colony was left at Roanoke, 
 and was written evidently in support of the story of emigra- 
 tion to America of Prince Madog or Madoc, as told in the 
 chronicles preserved in the abbeys of Conway and Strat Flur 
 in Wales. The locality is described as situated on the Pon- 
 tigo River and near Cape Atross. The name Pontigo is now 
 known as Pamlico. The old Indian name was Pamtico. The 
 Cape mentioned is now Hatteras. 
 
 The historian asks, "What shall be said of this statement? 
 Were the remains of Prince Madog's company represented in 
 these 'Doeg' Tuscaroras ? He is very explicit in the matter 
 of language, and it is not easy to see how he could be mis- 
 taken. They understood his Welsh not without needing ex- 
 planation of some things difficult therein.' He was able to 
 converse with them and to preach to them in Welsh, and yet 
 if he got an explanation of the existence of the Welsh lan- 
 guage among these 'Doegs' or sought to know anything in 
 regard to their traditional history, he omits entirely to say so." 
 
 If we have located the Tuscaroras correctly, they resided in 
 the west of the Doegs and the latter dwelt in the region known 
 as Secotan. If the English colonists moved "fifty miles into 
 the main" from Croatan Island they must have dwelt in the 
 region where Rev. Jones found the Doegs. In one of the old 
 maps there is a tribe of Indians mentioned as living in this 
 same region, who were called Mandoags, and the Doags and 
 Mandoags may have been the same. The Mandoags may 
 have been the remains of Madog's colony. The name Madog 
 in the lapse of four hundred and ninety years may have been 
 changed to Mandoag. 
 
 The Rev. Jones had been living among, and preaching to, 
 English-speaking people before this experience among the 
 
8ir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 19 
 
 Tuscaroras, and it is reasonable to infer that the interpreter 
 who was present with him understood English as well as the 
 language of the Indians. The Welsh chronicle says that 
 Madog left Wales in 1170 A. D, with a few ships, going 
 south of Ireland and steering westward. "He described a 
 pleasant, fertile region where his settlement was established. 
 Leaving 120 persons, he returned to Wales, prepared ten 
 ships, prevailed on a large company, some of whom were 
 Irish, to join him, and sailed again to America." 
 
 It is a matter of little concern to us whether these ''White" 
 Indians in 1660 A. D. spoke Welsh or English, as the preva- 
 lence of either language would indicate beyond any doubt 
 that this people had had communication with the white race. 
 We do not infer from Rev. Jones's statement that the Doegs 
 were a part of the Tuscarora tribe. From his preaching to 
 them we may infer that they knew something of the Chris- 
 tian religion before his appearance among them. 
 
 The history of this tribe as described by Rev. Morgan 
 Jones is of some interest and worthy of notice. 
 
 Harriot, who accompanied Lane's expedition to Virginia, 
 in describing the Indians on our coast, says: "They are a 
 people clothed with loose mantles made of deer skins and 
 aprons of the same around their middles, all else naked, of 
 such a difference of stature as we of England, having no edge 
 tools or weapons of iron or steel to offend us withal, neither 
 know they how to make any. 
 
 "The language of every government is different from any 
 other, and the further they are distant the greater is the dif- 
 ference. They believe that there are many gods, which they 
 call Mantoac, but of different sorts and degrees, one only 
 chief and great God, which has been from all eternity. 
 They also believe in the immortality of the soul, that after 
 this life, as soon as the soul is departed from the body, ac- 
 cording to the works it has done, it is either carried to heaven, 
 the habitacle of the gods, there to enjoy perpetual bliss and 
 happiness, or else to a great pit or hole, which they think to 
 
20 Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 
 
 be in the further part of the world towards the sunset, there 
 to burn continually, the place they call Popogusso." 
 
 In reading this account of the religion of the Indians on 
 our coast with whom Harriot came in contact, we may reason- 
 ably conclude that at some period they had communication 
 with civilized races from the East, who imjDressed upon them 
 some idea of faith more exalted than that common among 
 savages. Some may be ready to accept the absurdities of 
 monkish fancy and readily believe them to be descendants of 
 the ''lost tribes" who had retained something of the ancient 
 Jewish faith. The difference in color, language, and other 
 characteristics renders it difficult to accept any such theory. 
 
 The knowledge of western land is as old as the time of 
 Plato and Solon, who mentioned an island in the west called 
 Atlantis. Dr. McCausland, in "Adam and the Adamite," 
 says that the Persians established a colony in the West Indies 
 a thousand years ago, which, "by abstaining from all admix- 
 ture with the black aborigines, differs but little from their 
 progenitors in the parent country," Long before the discov- 
 ery of America by Columbus, the Basques sent fishing vessels 
 to the northern part of America. The Norse records de^- 
 scribe voyages to the American coast, reciting facts and dates 
 which are confirmed by Irish and Arabic chronicles, and also 
 by the record on Woman's Island, on our northern coast, bear- 
 ing date of April 25th, 1135 (vide Mallett's Northern An- 
 tiquities). If we discredit the accounts of these early voy- 
 ages from Europe to America, we may discredit anything of 
 ancient date recorded in history. The Sanscrit syllable ap 
 and the Latin root ak, both meaning water, are detected in 
 hundreds of names of rivers and bays on the Atlantic coast 
 facing Europe, where vessels driven by the trade winds would 
 probably reach our shores. 
 
 We cite these facts in support of the theory that colonies 
 were in past times located on our coast, and in course of 
 time were neglected and forgotten by the parent countries 
 and became absorbed by the native tribes. If this theory is 
 
Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 21 
 
 accepted it will account for traditions of wrecked vessels, 
 prevalent among the Indians, described by Harriot, as well 
 as their religious faith so far above that commonly found 
 among savages. 
 
 Prescott, as quoted by Dr. Hawks, in speaking of the In- 
 dians found on the Atlantic coast of North America, says: 
 ''They had attained to the sublime conception of one Great 
 Spirit, the creator of the universe, who, immaterial in his 
 own nature, was not to be dishonored by an attempt at visible 
 representation, and who, pervading all space, was not to be 
 circumscribed within the walls of a temple." 
 
CHAPTEE III. 
 
 After the departure of Governor White from the coast of 
 Virginia in 1590, several expeditions were fitted out at the 
 expense of Sir Walter Raleigh for the relief of his distressed 
 countrymen at Roanoke. These expeditions returned with 
 no tidings of the lost colony, and it became the settled convic- 
 tion of those interested that it perished from starvation or 
 savage cruelty. 
 
 After the settlement at Jamestown in 1607, Captain John 
 Smith sent a hardy woodsman to the Chowanoke Indians, who 
 lived near the head of the Albemarle Sound, under pretense 
 of sending presents to their King, but his object was to make 
 inquiries concerning the Roanoke colony. Captain Smith 
 sent two other men to the Mangoaks on the river Nottoway, 
 but they returned as the other had done, without any informa- 
 tion except that the white people were all dead. (Vide W^il- 
 liamson's His. of ]^. C, Vol. 1, page 73.) 
 
 Governor White, writing from Newton in Kilmore the 4th 
 of February, 1593, to his friend, Master Richard Hakluyt, 
 says : "Thus you may plainly perceive the success of my 
 fifth and last voyage to America, which was no less unfortu- 
 nately ended than frowardly begun, and as luckless to many 
 as sinister to myself." (Hawks's His. of N. C, Vol. I, 
 page 215.) Four of the five voyages were in search of the 
 missing colonists, and it is surprising to us at this day that 
 Governor White did not call at Croatan Island in one of his 
 voyages at least to make inquiries concerning the lost English- 
 men. There was a secret understanding that in case he 
 should not return, that the colonists were to move fifty miles 
 into the mainland and were arranging to move when he left. 
 
 It is evident from the story of Governor White, as already 
 quoted, that the colonists went southward along the coast to 
 Croatan Island, now a part of Carteret County in North 
 Carolina, and distant about sixty-five miles from Roanoke 
 Island. 
 
Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 23 
 
 The Mangoacks on the river Nottoway were seated north- 
 west from Albemarle, and it is not surprising that the mes- 
 sengers sent by Captain Smith returned without definite in- 
 formation. 
 
 Lawson, an early historian, who wrote in 1714, says: "The 
 Hatteras Indians, who lived on Roanoke Island, or much fre- 
 quented it, tell us that several of their ancestors were white 
 people, and could talk in a book, as we do, the truth of which 
 is confirmed by gray eyes being frequently found amongst 
 these Indians and no others. They value themselves ex- 
 tremely for this affinity to the English and are ready to do 
 them all friendly offices." 
 
 Purchas tells us of several voyages made at the expense of 
 Sir Walter Raleigh to discover his lost countrymen, but with- 
 out success. Commanders of ships, in those days, were more 
 anxious to capture Spanish ships than to find lost English- 
 men, and it is doubtful if a single ship touched at Croatan or 
 Roanoke after the departure of White in 1590. 
 
 Sixty-nine years after the settlement on the island of 
 Roanoke and sixty years before the events related by Lawson, 
 Roanoke was visited by an Englishman, Francis Yeardly, 
 who, in a letter to John Farrar, Esquire, dated May 8, 1654, 
 relates a visit made to Roanoke Island by himself and others, 
 "where or thereabouts they found the great commander of 
 these parts with his Indians ahunting, who received them 
 civilly, and showed the ruins of Sir Walter Raleigh's fort, 
 from which I received a sure token of their being there. 
 After some days spent to and fro, in the country, the young 
 man, the interpreter, prevailed with the great man and his 
 war captains to come in and make peace with the English, 
 which they willingly condescended unto." (Vide Hawks's 
 His. N. C, Vol. II, page 17.) So this Englishman saw the 
 ruins of Raleigh's fort and discovered no tradition of the 
 fate of those who built it. Lawson, who wrote a few years 
 later, leaves no account of any tradition of those ancestors 
 who "could talk in a book!." 
 
24 Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 
 
 Kev. Mr. Blair, who was a missionary to the settlements on 
 Pamlico Sound, after describing the difficulties of his situa- 
 tion, writes to his patron Lord Weymouth as follows: ''I 
 think it likewise reasonable to give you an account of a great 
 nation of Indians, who live in that government, computed to 
 be no less than 100,000, many of which live among the Eng- 
 lish, and all, as far as I can understand, a very civilized 
 people." This letter was written in 1703. 
 
 Mr. Blair speaks of a desert of fifty miles in extent to be 
 crossed in reaching the place. At the time at which he 
 writes, the descendants of the missing colonists must have 
 held only a tradition respecting the events attending the at- 
 tempts at colonization on Roanoke Island, The number men- 
 tioned by Mr. Blair is evidently an exaggeration and the loca- 
 tion of the tribe is indefinite. There is reason to believe that 
 the descendants of the lost colonists were living in a region of 
 country southwest of Pamlico at the time in which he writes, 
 and that they emigrated westward to the interior, where a 
 large body of Indians and descendants of the lost English- 
 men had previously settled. It is probable that the civilized 
 Indians, mentioned by the missionary, were a portion of the 
 tribe to-day known as Croatans, as there was no other tribe 
 to which the reference could apply. At that early day very 
 little was known of the region to the southwest of Pamlico 
 Sound, and the missionary may have traveled one hundred 
 miles in reaching the place of his labor, which seemed to be a 
 great distance from other precincts visited by him. 
 
 At the time in which Mr. Blair wrote (1703) there were 
 no settlements of white men known to exist beyond the region 
 around Pamlico Sound. Subsequently to that date white 
 emigrants penetrated the wilderness, and in 1729 there was 
 a settlement on Heart's Creek (now Cross Creek), a tribu- 
 tary of the Cape Eear, at the site of the present town of 
 Fayetteville. 
 
 Scotchmen arrived in what is now Scotland County as early 
 as 1730. French Huguenots, in large numbers, emigrated 
 
Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 25 
 
 from France to South Carolina, after the Revocation of the 
 Edict of Nantes, and some of them had penetrated as far 
 north as the boundary line of JSTorth Carolina in the early 
 part of the eighteenth century. 
 
 At the coming of white settlers there was found located on 
 the waters of the Lumbee, as the Lumber River was then 
 called, a tribe of Indians, speaking English, tilling the soil, 
 o\\Tiing slaves and practicing many of the arts of civilized 
 life. These Indians called themselves "Malungeans," and 
 this name is still retained among the Indians in Butler 
 County, Tennessee, whose ancestors are claimed by the tribe 
 in Robeson County to have come originally with their ances- 
 tors from Eastern North Carolina. French emigrants, as 
 early as 1690, had settled on Pamlico Sound, where they 
 came in contact with a mixed race, to whom they gave the 
 name Melange. The descendants of these people were called 
 Melangeans, and the transition from Melange-an to Malun- 
 gean was easy. 
 
 During the seventeenth century a great plague swept away 
 large numbers of the Indians in the vicinity of Pamlico 
 Sound, and Martin, the historian of North Carolina, states 
 that the disease was smallpox. (Vide Martin's His. of N. C, 
 Vol. I, page 200.) Another colony of French immigrants 
 settled on the Neuse and Trent rivers in 1707. ''These last 
 immigrants were all Protestants and brought with them into 
 Carolina their clergyman, Phillipe de Richebourg, some of 
 whose descendants are still living in our county of Bun- 
 combe." (Vide Hawks's His., Vol. I, page 211.) "After a 
 time," says Dr. Hawks, "he, (Richebourg), with a portion 
 of his people, proceeded farther south, and they planted 
 themselves on the S&ntee River, where De Richebourg died." 
 
 In December, 1710, the Germans and Swiss, under De 
 Graffenried and Mitchell, landed at the confluence of the 
 Neuse and Trent and built there the town of New Bern. In 
 the accounts handed down to us of these early settlements, 
 no mention worthy of note is made of the tribe of Indians 
 
26 Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 
 
 who dwelt there in the time of Eev. Mr. Blair, in 1703. If 
 we credit the traditions of the Croatans in Robeson, the 
 greater part of the tribe had previously moved towards the 
 southwest and were settled at various places along the great 
 trails leading from the mountains to points on the coast. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 At the coming of white settlers in the early part of the 
 eighteenth century, there was an Indian settlement in Samp- 
 son Connty, Xorth Carolina, and another at "Indian Wells," 
 on the sonth bank of the Cape Fear River, in Bladen County. 
 There were other settlements, at Fayetteville and Averasboro. 
 The largest settlement was on the Lumber River, and the ter- 
 ritory occupied by them embraced a large part of the present 
 county of Robeson. There is abundant evidence that the 
 land lying between the Big Raft and Little Raft swamps was 
 a great camping ground. This tribe, now known as Croatans, 
 occupied the country as far southwest as the Pee Dee, but 
 the principal seat was on the Lumber, extending along the 
 river for twenty miles. They held their lands in common 
 and land titles only became kno^vn on the approach of white 
 men. The first grant of land to any of this tribe, of which 
 there is written evidence in existence, was made by King 
 George the Second, in 1732, to Henry Berry and James 
 Lowrie, two leading men of the tribe, and this land was lo- 
 cated on the Lowrie Swamp on east side of Lumber River 
 and now owned by Hon. D. P. McEachern. This land was 
 on the old Lowrie road, later knowm as the Camden road. A 
 subsequent grant was made to James Lowrie, 1738. Accord- 
 ing to tradition there were grants of older date, but no trace 
 of f^eir existence can be found at this time. Many of the 
 tribe at a later period purchased their lands from persons who 
 had obtained large patents from the King. 
 
 Occasional bands of immigrants arrived on the Lumber 
 from old settlements towards the east, while others moved 
 towards the Pee Dee, Catawba and French Broad rivers. In 
 the early part of the past century a considerable number emi- 
 grated to Indiana, but were not allowed to settle in that State, 
 and while many returned to their former homes, others be- 
 came incorporated with a tribe then located on LakeMichigan. 
 
28 Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 
 
 These Indians had great roads or trails connecting' their 
 settlements with the principal scats of the tribe (the Chero- 
 kee) in the Alleghany Mountains. One of these roads ex- 
 tending through the upper part of South Carolina and pass- 
 ing through Marll)oro County in that State and through Robe- 
 son, Cumberland, Sampson, Duplin, Jones and Craven coun- 
 ties in North Carolina to ''Roanoke." This great road was 
 known throughout its entire length as the "Lowrie Road," but 
 is only known by that name at this time in Robeson and Cum- 
 berland counties. There was another road from the moun- 
 tains in Buncombe County almost directly east and uniting 
 with the Lowrie road at Fayetteville. The Morganton and 
 Yadkin roads, leading from the mountains to the present town 
 of Fayetteville, were originally Indian trails leading to hunt- 
 ing and iishing grounds in Eastern North Carolina and 
 uniting with the great Lowrie road at the Cape Fear River, 
 near the mouth of Cross Creek, These trails were subse- 
 quently adopted as post roads, and in many places, especially 
 in Cumberland and Robeson counties, were straightened in 
 1817 by General Bernard, who came to America after the 
 battle of Waterloo, and obtained control of the postal routes 
 leading from the town of Fayetteville. We have traced the 
 great Lowrie road only as far to the east as the ancient settle- 
 ment in Sampson County, and find there was a branch of it 
 leading to a crossing at Averasboro on the Cape Fear. From 
 what we can gather, in investigating the traditions among the 
 Indians, this branch road was used when the streams along 
 the original route were swollen by freshets. This Lowrie 
 road, leading to Eastern North Carolina, passed through ter- 
 ritory occupied by the Tuscaroras, a warlike tribe, and if 
 these Indians took offense against Rev. Morgan Jones and his 
 companions because they were going to Roanoke, it is prob- 
 able that the island was occupied by some tribe not friendly 
 to them. Why these travelers were going to Roanoke is not 
 explained. The Croatans of Robeson and other counties claim 
 to be of Cherokee descent, and it is possible that enmity 
 
Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 29 
 
 existed between these powerful tribes. It was among the 
 Cherokees that many men were enlisted to fight the Tuscaro- 
 ras in 1713, when North Carolina called upon South Carolina 
 for assistance. This call was responded to by hundreds of 
 white men, Cherokees and other Indians under Colonel Barn- 
 well. Along the great Lowa-ie road Colonel Barnwell passed 
 with his army to fight the Tuscaroras. The army took the 
 upper road at Fayetteville and crossed the Cape Fear at 
 Averasboro. Ramsay, in his history of South Carolina, says, 
 in volume 1, page 156: "Governor Craven lost no time in 
 forwarding a force to their assistance. The Assembly voted 
 four thousand pounds for the service of the war. A body of 
 militia, consisting of 600 men, under the command of Colonel 
 Barnwell, marched against the savages; 218 Cherokees under 
 the command of Captains Harford and Turston,' 79 Creeks 
 under Captain Hastings, 41 Catawbas under Captain Cantey, 
 28 Yainassees under Captain Pierce joined the Carolinians 
 in this expedition." This army passed through Robeson 
 County, and there are traditions among the Croatans regard- 
 ing the army of ''Bonnul," as they pronounce the name Barn- 
 well. One of these traditions is that several of the Cherokees, 
 on their return from the Tuscarora war, located in Robeson 
 County and bringing their prisoners with them as slaves. 
 These prisoners intermarried among the Cherokees and be- 
 came free, as was the custom among Indian tribes. 
 
 In 1888 the writer interviewed an aged woman of the 
 Croatan tribe, who may have been ninety years of age, who 
 related that her "faythers" came from '^Roanoke in Virginia.'' 
 When inquiry was made in regard to the exodus of the White 
 Colony from Roanoke Island, she made the statement that the 
 colonists were carried to a settlement on the Neuse River by 
 a chief named Wyonoke, who conducted them by land, as 
 they could not be safely conveyed by water across Pamlico 
 Sound in the frail boats of the Indians. She further stated 
 that the English gradually moved westward. The chief, 
 whose name is mentioned in '^Genesis of the United States" 
 
30 Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 
 
 on a previous page, was called Eyanoko and Wjonoke and 
 Eyanoko, were probably one and the same person. 
 
 Tradition is an Indian's history. Xomadic in their habits 
 they leave no record of their existence, save camping places, 
 and rude pottery in places where they temporarily dwelt. 
 Along the great Lowrie road there were in early times bands 
 of Indians passing to and from their hunting grounds in 
 Eastern Carolina, and finding resting places at the different 
 settlements along the route. 
 
 From the boundary line of South Carolina to the settlement 
 in Sampson county in North Carolina the Lowrie road has 
 been traced and many evidences of civilization were found. 
 Large mounds exist in close proximity to this road in the 
 counties of Robeson and Cumberland. There is a Lowrie 
 road leading from Fayetteville, IST. C, in a westerly direction 
 through upper Robeson, and from the crossing of Lumber 
 River running almost directly west through the counties of 
 Scotland, Richmond and Anson and on to the mountains. 
 On this road and on the main Lowrie road are found numer- 
 ous mounds indicating that battles had occurred there in 
 past times. The bones found in these mounds are, in every 
 instance under our notice, those of adults. The crania found 
 in these mounds are all of Caucasian type and show greater 
 intellectual development than those of savage Indians. 
 
 In a mound immediately beside the Lowrie road at Davis's 
 bridge in Cumberland County numerous bones were found 
 in a good state of preservation. In Starling's Mills Town- 
 ship, in Robeson County, a large number of skeletons were 
 found, and in many instances the bodies were buried with 
 faces downward, and the bones were in excellent state of 
 preservation, though they quickly crundDled on exposure to 
 the air. The skulls were all of Caucasian type. The mounds 
 examined are all evidently very old, and two mounds are 
 generally found in close proximity to each other, with a 
 stream of water or a marsh intervening. Nine mounds were 
 examined, all circular in shape, and raised from two to three 
 
Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 31 
 
 feet above the ground. In all the mounds examined there 
 was an entire absence of any arrow or spear points, and only 
 in one instance did we find a broken stone hatchet. The 
 arrow points, usually attributed to the Indians, are found 
 over the entire jSTorth American continent, in the British 
 Isles, in continental Europe and in Australia and China, and 
 evidently belong to an older race than that of the Indian. 
 
 The Cherokees, from whom the Croatans claim descent, 
 were to some extent an agricultural people. The clay pottery 
 found in this section is ornamented by having a full ear of 
 corn rolled over the surface while the material of the pottery- 
 was in a plastic state. In the beginning of the War of Inde- 
 pendence the colonial troops captured thousands of bushels of 
 corn among the Cherokees in the mountains of Western North 
 Carolina. 
 
 When the first settlers entered the land near the present 
 town of Hope Mills in Cumberland County they found an 
 ancient dam on Little Rockfish Creek, and remains of a mill 
 for grinding. The mill rocks are still buried in the sand in 
 the bottom of the stream. This mill was distant about one 
 mile from the Lowrie road. Within a mile of this road and 
 about one-half a mile west of the to\vn of Hope Mills No. 1 
 there were found situated on a sand hill what were called the 
 "Indian Walls." These walls remained till about the year 
 1837, when they were removed by the Rockfish Manufactur- 
 ing Company and used in the construction of a cotton mill. 
 The material was red sand-stone, and may be seen to-day in 
 the basement story in the east end of Hope Mills cotton fac- 
 tory. The structure was originally about forty by sixty feet 
 and must have been two stories in height, though the walls 
 had fallen to only six or seven feet above the surface. Red 
 sand-stone is abundant in that region, but no quarry has yet 
 been found where the material was obtained. 
 
 A few miles east of the Lowrie road and on the west side 
 of the Cape Fear River was an immense swamp, and in cut- 
 ting a canal to drain it in 1860 a great crossway was dis- 
 
32 Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 
 
 covered leading towards the east, and on this crossway trees 
 were cut whose concentric grains showed an age of two hun- 
 dred years. 
 
 As we progressed toward the southwest in our investigationj 
 we found abundant evidence of a very great population in 
 this region in former times. Thousands of camping places 
 are found in the territory lying between Big Raft and Little 
 Raft swamps, and this region must have been the abiding 
 place of many thousands of people. While the Croatans 
 claim that this whole region was occupied by their ancestors, 
 yet they furnish no particular tradition as to those who left 
 walls of stone and other evidences of civilization ! 
 
 We have historic and traditional evidence that the great 
 caravans of traders traversed this country and passed along 
 these Indian highways as far west as the Santee and French 
 Boad. 
 
 In Hawks's History of North Carolina, Vol. II, page 288, 
 we find the following: ''From Colonel Byrd we learn some- 
 thing of the particulars of the Indian trade. Articles fit for 
 the business were imported from England, and the importers 
 either sent them out to the Indian towns at their own risk, or 
 else sold them on credit to responsible Indian traders, who 
 paid for them on their return in skins and peltry. The busi- 
 ness carried on by caravans, the goods having been made up 
 into suitable packages for transportation by horses. Each 
 animal carried from one hundred and fifty to two hundred 
 pounds, and the caravan traveled about twenty miles a day. 
 The number of horses in the most active time of the trade 
 was sometimes as great as a hundred. The trail on which 
 they traveled was always the same, and the journey was as 
 much as two hundred and fifty miles from Roanoke River. 
 The goods carried were chiefly guns, powder and shot, hatchets 
 and tomahawks, kettles, coarse red and blue cloth, blankets, 
 some cutlery, brass rings and cheap trinkets. They took a 
 southwest course from Roanoke and crossed the country and 
 streams between it and the Yadkin and thence passed down to 
 
Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 33 
 
 the Catawba Indians on tlie Santee, with whom they had the 
 largest trade. The returns were almost wholly in skins." 
 
 Colonel Byrd, whose statement is here quoted, was one of 
 the commissioners appointed by the State of Virginia to sur- 
 vey the boundary line between that State and North Carolina. 
 He was killed by the Tuscaroras about the year 1712. 
 
 If we can rely on the traditions prevalent among the Croa- 
 tan Indians in Robeson County, the descendants of the lost 
 English colonists were living on the Lumber and at other 
 places in the interior of the State long before the war with 
 the Tuscaroras. Those Indians living at that time in what 
 is now Robeson County were on the line of march of Colonel 
 Barnwell's army on the way, and no doubt recruits were ob- 
 tained in this section, though tradition is silent as to that 
 fact. They have traditions that many men on their return 
 from the war settled among them, bringing as slaves the 
 prisoners captured. 
 
 An intelligent citizen, now dead, related to the writer that 
 the past generation of Croatans had better preserved tradi- 
 tions of their past history than the present. "Several of 
 them," said our informant, "could locate with accuracy the 
 places in Eastern North Carolina or Virginia, as they called 
 it, where their ancestors lived prior to their removal towards 
 the southwest. The Lochlayahs came from the region near 
 Mattamuskeet Lake, in the present county of Hyde." Ac- 
 cording to an old chronicler of the tribe, interviewed in 1888, 
 the Lowries are the descendants of a Cherokee chief of that 
 name, who was a prominent man among the Cherokees. In a 
 treaty between the United States and the Cherokees in rela- 
 tion to a boundary along the Santee River in the State of 
 South Carolina, the name of Colonel Lowrie is mentioned as 
 one of the commissioners on the part of the Indians. The 
 name Lowrie is common among the Cherokees in Indian Ter- 
 ritory at this time, as stated by a Croatan who visited the 
 Cherokee tribe within recent years. Lowrie, Oxendine and 
 
34 Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 
 
 Lochlayah are the only Indian names preserved among the 
 tribe in Robeson County, as far as ascertained by the writer. 
 The name Maynor or Mayno, common in Robeson and Har- 
 nett counties, may be a corruption of the name Manteo. These 
 Maynors are a quiet, law-abiding people, and in Harnett 
 County they have the cross-bow in use and constructed on 
 the model of the old English cross-bow. In the use of this 
 weapon they are very expert, and they frequently interest 
 visitors by splitting a grain of corn as a target at the distance 
 of thirty feet. 
 
CHAPTEE V. 
 
 In investigating the traditions prevalent among this sin- 
 gular people, we find many family names identical with 
 those of the lost colonists. For the information of the reader 
 we give a list of the names of all the men, women and chil- 
 dren of Raleigh's colony, which arrived in Virginia and re- 
 mained to inhabit there. The list is found in Hawks's His- 
 tory of North Carolina, and copied from Hakluyt, Vol. I, 
 page 280: 
 
 ANNO EEGNI REGINAE ELIZABETHAE 29. 
 
 John White. 
 Roger Baily. 
 Ananias Dare. 
 Christopher Cooper. 
 Thomas Stevens. 
 John Sampson. 
 Dionys Harvie. 
 Roger Prat. 
 Greorge Howe. 
 Simon Fernando. 
 Nicholas Johnson. 
 Thomas Warner. 
 Anthony Cage. 
 William Willes. 
 William Brown. 
 Michael Myllet. 
 Tliomas Smith. 
 Richard Kemme. 
 Thomas Harriss. 
 Richard Tavener. 
 William Clement. 
 Robert Little. 
 Hugh Tayler. 
 John Jones. 
 John Brooks. ^ 
 C'uthbert White. 
 John Bright. 
 Clement Taylor. 
 William Sole. 
 John Cotsmuir. 
 
 Richard Shabedge. 
 Humphrey Newton. 
 Tliomas Coleman. . 
 Thomas Gramme, or 
 Oraham, Graeme. 
 Mark Bennett. 
 John Gibbes. 
 John Stillman. 
 John Earnest. 
 Henry Johnson. 
 John Start. 
 Richard Darige. 
 William Lucas. 
 Arnold Archard. 
 William Nichols. 
 Thomas Phevens. 
 Robert Wilkinson. 
 John Tydway. 
 Ambrose Viccars.^ 
 Edmund English. 
 Thomas Topan. 
 Henry Berry. 
 Richard Berry. 
 John Spendlove. 
 John Hemmington. 
 Thomas Butler. 
 Edward Poioell. 
 John Burdon. 
 James Hynde. 
 Thomas Ellis. 
 John Wright. 
 
 William Button. 
 Maurice Allen. 
 Williams Waters. 
 Richard Arthur. 
 John Chapman. 
 James Lasie. 
 John Cheven. 
 Thomas Hewett. 
 William Berde. 
 Richard Wildye. 
 Lewes Woton. 
 Michael Bishop. 
 Henry Browne. 
 Henry Rufotte. 
 Richard Tomkins. 
 Henrj'^ Dorrel. 
 Charles Florrie. 
 Henry Milton. 
 Henry Paine. 
 Thomas Harris. 
 Thomas Scot. 
 Peter Little. 
 John Wyles. 
 Bryan Wyles. 
 George Martin. 
 Hugh Patterson. 
 Martin Sutton. 
 John Farre. 
 John Bridger. 
 Griffin Jones. 
 
36 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 
 
 WOMEN. 
 
 Eleanor Dare. 
 Margery Harvie. 
 Agnes Wood. 
 Winnifred Powell. 
 Joyce Archard. 
 Jane Jones. 
 Elizabeth Glane. 
 Jane Pierce. 
 Andry Tappan. 
 Alice Charman. 
 
 Emma Merrimoth. 
 
 Colman. 
 
 Margaret Lawrence. 
 Joan Warren. 
 Jane Mannering. 
 Rose Payne. 
 Elizabeth Vicca^s. 
 
 BOYS AND CHILDREN. 
 
 John Sampson. 
 Robert Ellis. 
 
 Ambrose Viccars. 
 Thomas Archard. 
 Thomas Humphrey. 
 Thomas Smart. 
 George Howe. 
 John Pratt. 
 William Wythers. 
 
 CHILDREN BORN IN 
 VIRGINIA. 
 
 Virginia Dare. 
 Harvie. 
 
 Manteo and Towaye, or Wanchese, that were in England, 
 returned to Virginia with the colony. 
 
 Governor John White, at the solicitations of the colonists, 
 returned to England. Simon Fernando, the Spanish pilot of 
 the expedition, also returned. George Howe, one of the 
 "Assistants" of Governor White, was killed by the Indians 
 on Roanoke Island soon after his arrival. 
 
 Omitting the name of the perfidious Simon Fernando, we 
 have 120 persons in all, including men, women and children, 
 and about ninety family names represented in the colony. 
 The names in italics in the foregoing list are those which arc 
 found at this time in Robeson County and in other counties 
 of North and South Carolina. It is significant that the tra- 
 ditions of every family bearing the name of one of the Lost 
 Colony, point to "Roanoke" as the coimtry of their white 
 ancestors. 
 
 If we accept their traditions, they held communication 
 with the coast of North Carolina long after the exodus of the 
 colonists, and it is not improbable that it was a party of this 
 tribe which Lav/son describes in 1714 as visiting their old 
 hunting grounds and who described their ancestors as people 
 who could "talk in a book." 
 
 As to the intellectual character of this singular people in 
 the past, little can be written, as public schools were un- 
 known prior to 1885, and such education as they obtained up 
 
Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 37 
 
 to that date was confined to reading and writing and the fun- 
 damental rules of arithmetic. Since the North Carolina 
 constitution was amended, in 1835, the elective franchise was 
 denied to the Robeson County Indians, till the Canby consti- 
 tution of 180 8 was adopted, which restored to them the right 
 of suffrage and free schools. They had been classed by the 
 politicians as ''free persons of color," and under the law of 
 1868 they were denied the right to attend the white schools. 
 This gave them great offense, as the only chance of public 
 instruction was in the schools provided for the negro race. 
 Hundreds have growm up to manhood and womanhood in 
 perfect ignorance of books. This they preferred to associa- 
 tion with the colored race. 
 
 Many of this people lived on the Pee Dee, and Richmond 
 County was more generous toward them than Robeson. They 
 continued to vote in that county, as their ancestors had done, 
 from colonial times. Being classed as "free persons of color" 
 in Robeson and Cumberland counties, they were denied the 
 privilege of public school instruction and Avere denied by 
 law the privilege of keeping or carrying a gun without ob- 
 taining a license from the county courts. They quietly sub- 
 mitted to the injustice done them. 
 
 By nature they are quick-witted, and judging by the few 
 educated ones among them, they are equal to the whites in 
 mental capacity. Hiram R. Revels, ex-TJnited States Sena- 
 tor from the State of Mississippi, belongs to this tribe. He 
 was born near Prospect Church in the western part of Robe- 
 son County, and after a brief residence in Fayetteville, N. C, 
 removed with his father to Oberlin, Ohio, where he grad- 
 uated and subsequently moved to Mississippi. John S. 
 Leary, a native of Fayetteville, N. C, was educated at How- 
 ard University, in the District of Columbia, where he grad- 
 uated with some distinction. He represented Cumberland 
 County in the General Assembly, became a lawyer, and lo- 
 cated finally in the city of Charlotte, where he died in recent 
 vears. Although classed as a colored man he had not a drop 
 
38 Sir WaUer Raleigh's Lost Colony. 
 
 of negro blood in his veins. He was considered an able law- 
 yer and for some years w^as Dean of Shaw University at 
 Ealeigh, N. C. 
 
 The action of the North Carolina Legislature in establish- 
 ing separate schools for this people and recognizing them as 
 descendants of the friendly Croatans known to the English 
 colonists, was one great step toward their moral and intellec- 
 tual elevation. They are almost universally land-owners, and 
 occupy a territory in Robeson County of about sixty thou- 
 sand acres. Their lands are adapted to the growth of cotton, 
 corn and tobacco. 
 
 It has long been a settled conviction that the colonists per- 
 ished from starvation or savage cruelty. This conviction has 
 arisen from the fact that, after the departure of Governor 
 White, they were seen no more by white men. 
 
 The particulars given by Governor AVhite of the under- 
 standing which existed between him and the colonists prior to 
 his departure for England in 1587, and his finding the word 
 Croatan on a tree in a conspicuous place, on his return in 
 1590, seem to prove conclusively that the English had ac- 
 cepted the invitation of Manteo's tribe to reside with them, 
 and that they were at Croatan. Governor White made five 
 voyages to America, four of which were made in search of 
 the missing colony. After four unsuccessful attempts to re- 
 lieve his lost coimtrymen, he seems to have abandoned all 
 hope of seeing them again. Writing to his friend, Hakluyt, 
 on the 4:th of February, 1589, he says: ''Thus committing 
 the relief of my discomfortable company, the planters in 
 Virginia, to the merciful help of tlie Almighty, whom I most 
 hmnbly beseech to help and comfort them, according to His 
 most holy will, and their good desire, I take my leave." 
 (Hakluyt, Vol. ..., page 288.) 
 
 The fact that the English colonists were seen no more by 
 white men does not prove that they perished. The Croatan 
 Indians were seen no more by white men, and the same argu- 
 mont would prove their destruction also. We must remember 
 
8ir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 39 
 
 that the region of country south and west of Pamlico Sound, 
 embracing Croatan Island and the adjacent mainland, was 
 unexplored for a long period after the attempted settlement 
 on Roanoke Island. In 1609 the northeast corner of North 
 Carolina was settled by colonists from Virginia. In 1654, 
 sixty-seven years after the English colonists were last seen on 
 Roanoke Island, Virginia adventurers had explored as far 
 south as the Pamlico and Neuse rivers. A settlement was 
 made on Albemarle Sound in 1656. A colony from Massa- 
 chusetts was located on the Cape Fear in 1660, but was soon 
 abandoned. Sir John Yeamans's colony landed on the same 
 river in 1664. In 1690, more than one hundred years after 
 the colony was last seen on Roanoke Island, a French colony 
 from Virginia settled on Pamlico Sound. Emigrants from 
 Albemarle also located in that region in 1698. 
 
 We cite these facts to show how little was known, from 
 1587 to 1690, of the region where tradition says the English 
 colonists were located. 
 
 In 1690, the date of the settlement of the French on Pam- 
 lico Sound, all the English must have been dead, and the sad 
 story of the colony was held only in tradition, and that the 
 descendants remaining in that region, on the approach of the 
 new colony, removed farther into the interior where, accord- 
 ing to tradition, portions of the tribe had previously located. 
 
 The traditions of the Indians in Robeson County are suffi- 
 ciently clear to prove that at an early period their ancestors 
 at one time were located on the mainland southwest of Pam- 
 lico Sound. 
 
 Traditions in regard to their ancient dwelling places on the 
 Cape Fear and the tributaries of the Black River, in the 
 present county of Sampson, are more definite. 
 
 The fact that English, French, Irish, and perhaps Grer- 
 man names are found among them is accounted for by the 
 tradition that marriages frequently occurred between mem- 
 bers of the tribe and the early immigrants. Chavis is prob- 
 ably a corruption of the name Cheven, a name found in the 
 
40 Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 
 
 list of the colonists. Goins was originally O'Guin, as our 
 court records pro^'e. Leary, pronounced Layree, was O'Leary. 
 Blanks was originally Blanc. 
 
 Notwithstanding family names of different nationalities 
 are found among this people, the Robeson County Indians 
 have been, from the earliest settlement by white men, an Eng- 
 lish-speaking race. Their language has many peculiarities 
 and reminds one of the English spoken in the days of Chaucer. 
 A number of old English words, which have become obsolete 
 in English-speaking countries, are in common use among 
 them. The custom of raising patches of tobacco for their own 
 use has been handed do\Am from time immemorial. In travel- 
 ing these people march in "Indian file," and, like all Indians, 
 they are fond of bright red colors. They exhibit much skill 
 in building, but in road making they excel. Some of the 
 best roads in North Carolina can be found within their terri- 
 tory. They are universally polite and hospitable to strangers. 
 They are proud of their race and their English ancestry. 
 
 Their traditions are generally preserved by the old mem- 
 bers of the tribe, but the tradition universal among them, 
 from infancy to old age, is that they are descended from the 
 Cherokees and English, and that their ancestors came from 
 "Roanoke in Virginia." 
 
 By Virginia they mean Eastern North Carolina. In re- 
 ligious faith they are generally Baptists and Methodists. 
 
 "They never forget a kindness, an injury nor a debt," said 
 an old citizen. "They may not pay you when a debt is due, 
 as they are poor financiers, but they seldom forget an obliga- 
 tion, and are sure to pay you after a time." In common with 
 all Indians, they have great respect for the Quakers and look 
 upon them as the true friends of the Indian. 
 
 The line of emigration from their location in Eastern 
 North Carolina has been traced as far west as Butler County, 
 Tennessee, on the Lowrie trail running west, and as far as 
 the Santee River on the southwestern trail. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Summary of the Traditions of the Croatan Indians. 
 
 1st. The universal tradition among the Indians found in 
 Robeson County, North Carolina, and counties adjoining, is 
 that they are the descendants of English people and the 
 Cherokees. To inquiry as to whence they came, they in- 
 variably respond 'Trom Roanoke in Virginia." This re- 
 sponse, we find, refers to their English origin. They per- 
 sistently desig-nate Eastern Carolina as Virginia. Their 
 white ancestors, they contend, were English people who dwelt 
 in Roanoke ''in Virginia," who united with their tribe and 
 gradually moved westward till they reached the Lombee, as 
 the Lumber River was known to them, and that many emi- 
 grated to points farther west. 
 
 2d. Their Indian ancestors, the Cherokees, according to 
 their tradition, had their principal abiding place in the moun- 
 tains to the west, and had trails or roads leading to various 
 points on the coast. On the principal one of these roads, 
 known as the Lowrie road, they had settlements on the Neuse 
 River, on the waters of Black River, on the Cape Fear, Lom- 
 bee, and as far as the Santee in South Carolina. Their prin- 
 cipal settlement was in the territory along the Lombee and 
 covering a large part of the present county of Robeson, and 
 extending through what is now Cumberland County as far as 
 Averasboro on the Cape Fear. They had other trails leading 
 from the mountains eastward, and three of them united with 
 the Lowrie road or trail where there was a crossing of the 
 Cape Fear, where the present town of Fayetteville is situated. 
 3d. Formerly these Indians called themselves "Melun- 
 geans," and some of their old people still adhere to that name. 
 The only explanation, given by a recent writer, is that being 
 a mixed race, the early French colonists coming in contact 
 with them, called them Melange, which means mixed, and 
 that the descendants of the Melange were called Melange-ans 
 or "Melungeans," as these Indians pronounce it. 
 
42 8ir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 
 
 4th. Their tradition is that the English amalgamated with 
 their tribe and dwelt with them on the Neuse River. Wjo- 
 noke (Eyonoko?) was the Indian chief who conducted the 
 English to their settlement on the Neuse, and part of the 
 journey was made by land. As far as we can understand 
 their tradition, the term Roanoke embraced all the country 
 adjacent to Pamlico Sound. They claim that their tribe was 
 always friendly to white men, and they received the white 
 man's language, religion and laws, and because they were per- 
 suaded by so doing they would become gi'eat and powerful, 
 and that in all contests they fought on the side of the white 
 men. They complain that the white people have treated them 
 as negroes, and that, too, in a land where they were always 
 free. They have no written history and everything relating 
 to their origin is preserved only by tradition. The trails 
 along which their ancestors traveled are now public highways, 
 along which are scattered remains of stone buildings, roads 
 and cross-ways, rude mills for grinding grain, and mounds 
 enclosing their dead. They are a reticent people, and to 
 strangers tell no secrets of their past history beyond the 
 simple statement that they came originally from Roanoke. 
 Complaining of unjust treatment by the white people, they 
 are ever suspicious of strangers, and only after years of pa- 
 tient investigation has this writer been enabled to chronicle 
 the traditions and facts recorded in these pages. 
 
 Summary of Facts Corroborative of Their Traditions. 
 
 1st. Governor White, in his letter to his friend, Hakluyt, 
 says that, on his departure for England from Roanoke Island 
 in 1587, there was a secret understanding between the colo- 
 nists and himself, that in the event of his not returning, they 
 were to go to Croatan, and were to carve the name of the 
 place to which they should go, in conspicuous places, and with 
 the Christian cross carved above the name, if they left in dis- 
 tress. On White's return to Roanoke, in 1590, he found the 
 name Croatan in fair Roman letters but without the cross, 
 
8ir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 43 
 
 indicating that the colonists had accepted the invitation of 
 the Croatan Indians and had gone to Croatan, where Manteo 
 was bom and the savages of the island were friends. It 
 seems certain from Governor White's account that the Eng- 
 lish went to Croatan Island and that they did not leave in 
 distress. 
 
 Croatan Island lay to the south and is embraced in tlie 
 present county of Carteret in North Carolina. 
 
 2d. The finding of crosses and letters carved in the bark 
 of trees in the region between the Neuse and Pamlico rivers, 
 in the region known as Secotan, corroborates the statement of 
 White, who states that on his departure for England they 
 were preparing to remove ''fifty miles into the main." If the 
 colonists went to Croatan, and from that point removed fifty 
 miles into the mainland, they must have located in the region 
 of Secotan, between the ISTeuse and Pamlico rivers, and in the 
 very region where Rev. Morgan Jones found the Doegs or 
 "White Indians" in 1660. 
 
 3d. The tribe of Indians in Robeson County, now number- 
 ing about thirty-five hundred, was at one time more numerous 
 than at present. In the northern part of Robeson County, 
 between the Big Raft and Little Raft swamps, are found 
 thousands of "camp fires," arranged in straight lines and 
 crossing each other at right angles. These camping places 
 show a numerous population in former times. 
 
 4th. Remains of stone buildings on the north and south 
 sides of Little Rockfish Creek, a mill for grinding, situated 
 in close proximity to the Lowrie road, together with cross- 
 ways on swamps, iron tomahawks and rods of wrought iron 
 found in a region once possessed by these Indians, afford evi- 
 dence that the intelligence which constructed them was 
 greater than that ordinarily found among Indians. The mill 
 rocks found on Little Rockfish Creek, and another still pre- 
 served near Pate's Station, on Seaboard Air Line in Robeson 
 County, are rude in construction, but answered the purpose of 
 grinding in early times. 
 
/ 
 
 44 Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 
 
 5th. The language of these people is old English and simi- 
 lar to that used in the time of Chaucer. Among the numer- 
 ous uneducated class, hit is used it, hwing for wing, aJcs for 
 ask, hosen for hose, housen for houses, lovend for loving, 
 mension for measurement , and mon for man. 
 
 6th. In an old medical work, brought to North Carolina by 
 some immigrants over two hundred years ago, are found 
 many curious remedies for treatment of diseases prevalent 
 among the English in the seventeenth century. It is sig- 
 nificant that many of these quaint remedies are in common 
 use among the Indians of Robeson County to-day. 
 
 7th. The only name given by these people to their Indian 
 ancestors is Cherokee, and there is communication between 
 persons of this tribe and the Cherokees in the Indian Terri- 
 tory. They are very proud of their English origin, but com- 
 plain very bitterly of their treatment by the whites in 1835 
 in depriving them of the elective franchise and classing them 
 ''as free persons of color." The iron tomahawk, described 
 by Colonel Byrd as an article of traffic wath the Indians over 
 two hundred years ago, is found in Robeson County within 
 their former territory. The old English cross-bow is still 
 used in a Croatan settlement on the Cape Fear. The model 
 is as old as that used in the battle of Hastings. 
 
 8th. The scuppernong grape was discovered by the Eng- 
 lish on Roanoke Island in 1585. This grape is a hybrid 
 and can only be propagated by cuttings, and it is a significant 
 fact that this variety of grape is found along the old Lowrie 
 road from the l^euse River in E^orth Carolina to the Santee 
 in South Carolina. 
 
 The early settlers found this grape gi'owing in the region of 
 the Cape Fear, formerly occupied by these Indians, and it is 
 significant of the fact that in early times there was com- 
 munication with our eastern coast. 
 
 9th. That the Croatans served as soldiers in the War of 
 Independence is only a tradition which it is impossible to 
 verify, as no record of enlistments was kept. No one has 
 
Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 45 
 
 ever seen a muster roll of the patriots who fought at King's 
 Mountain or of those who followed Francis Marion, but the 
 fact that many of this tribe enlisted in the United States 
 army in the War of 1812 is attested by the military records 
 in the office of the Secretary of State at Kaleigh, North 
 Carolina. 
 
 In January, 1885, the author introduced a bill in the Gen- 
 eral Assembly of North Carolina to recognize these Indians 
 as a separate race and to give them separate schools and a 
 separate school fund. This bill passed both houses of the 
 Assembly unanimously. A census of Croatan children showed 
 over eleven hundred entitled to public instruction under the 
 act of Assembly. A subsequent act was passed at the session 
 of 1887 to establish a Normal School for the training of 
 teachers of the Croatan race. The passage of these acts 
 created much enthusiasm among this people. So eager were 
 they to show their appreciation of friendly legislation that 
 indictments for violation of law followed rapidly and the 
 tribe seemed to forget the past and to be inspired with a 
 new hope. 
 
 It is unfortunate for the law-abiding element in this tribe 
 that a comparatively few reckless men, such as are found in 
 all races, whose names appear on the criminal calendars of 
 our courts, should give character to a whole tribe. 
 
 Since the recog-nition of this tribe as a separate race, a 
 great change for the better has occurred in their condition. 
 
 The State of North Carolina now makes a liberal annual 
 appropriation in the support of the Croatan Normal School. 
 
 A lost colony may be mentioned on the historic page and 
 may excite in the reader "the passing tribute of a sigh," but 
 the historian seldom troubles himself to ascertain the fate of 
 that colony. 
 
 Lawson, the historian of North Carolina, who wrote in 
 1714, speaks of Hatteras Indians with blue eyes and auburn 
 hair, who boasted that their ancestors "could talk in a book," 
 jet if he made any inquiry as to the origin of these Indians, 
 
46 Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. 
 
 he failed to mention it. The Rev. Morgan Jones, in 1660, 
 preached for several months in Welsh to the Doegs on Pontigo 
 (Pamlico) River, near Cape Atross (Hatteras), yet if he 
 made any discovery as to whence they came, he does not 
 record it. 
 
 The name of Caledonia Bay suggests the sad story of a lost 
 colony of three thousand Scotchmen who, abandoned by their 
 government, were left to perish of disease and starvation on 
 that inhospitable coast. 
 
 The ''lost tribes" are still "sown among the nations" and 
 becoming great "in tlie isles beyond the sea," while we appro- 
 priate to ourselves the specific promises made the Jews and 
 do not trouble ourselves to trace the "footprints" made by 
 them "in the sands of time." 
 
 The saddest story of a lost colony recorded in history is 
 that of the English colony left on Roanoke Island in 1587. 
 We can imagine the grief and anxiety of helpless mothers 
 and of still more helpless children, who strained their eyes 
 daily across the sea for the ships that never came, and weary 
 "with hope deferred" and sick at heart, turned their steps to 
 that resting place in the mainland, to be seen no more by their 
 countrymen. 
 
 Through centuries of time there comes down to us the sad 
 story of the lost legions of Varus, but the mystery that h\mg 
 over their fate was at last solved by the army of Drusus, 
 which found their bleaching bones in a German forest near 
 the Baltic Sea. 
 
 The fate of Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony, Vv'e submit, 
 is revealed in the foregoing pages. To the charitable, who 
 are interested in the moral uplifting of humanity, we heartily 
 commend the Croatans. 
 
 THE END. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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