The once dominant Chowanoke tribe, ruled by Menatonon during the 1585–86 Grenville-Lane colonization attempt at Roanoke, had dwelt along the Chowan and Meherrin Rivers. It will be recalled that John Smith sent Michael Sicklemore to Chowanoke on a fruitless search for the Lost Colonists in 1607. In 1663 the Chowanoke entered into a “treaty of friendship” with the English, but went to war against the encroaching colonists in 1675. By 1677 the Chowanoke were utterly defeated and removed to a reservation at Bennett’s Creek in present-day Gates County. With the defeat of the Chowanokes all the tribes to the immediate north of Albemarle Sound became tributaries of the newly established North Carolina Colony and no longer posed a threat.16
Far to the south of Albemarle Sound, where the Lost Colony had relocated, were the Coree, Pamlico, and Hatteras tribes, plus the Machapunga and Bay (or Bear) River tribes who were most likely remnants of the late 16th century Secotans. One of these tribes with whom the Lost Colony may have had contact was the previously mentioned Coree or Coranine, known to the Roanoke colonists as Cwareuuock. This tribe dwelt on the coastal mainland south of the Neuse River and, since they occasionally established hunting and fishing camps on the Outer Banks,17 they were certainly well known to the Croatoans, and perhaps even the 1587 colonists or any surviving admixed descendants at Hatteras. As suggested earlier, it is possible that the Coree could have been involved, through the intercession of Manteo, in the colonists’ selection of a mainland settlement location in 1587–88. Again, according to Sprunt the Corees at Cape Fear in 1665 had knowledge about the Lost Colony. At some point—apparently in the mid 17th century—a portion of the Coree tribe was deceived and destroyed by the Machapunga, a tribe that was most probably part of what had been called the Secotans by the Roanoke voyagers. The event seems to have taken place on the Outer Banks, since Lawson places it “on the Sand-Banks,” where the Hatteras dwelt and both the Coree and Machapunga are known to have frequented the barrier islands. Lawson described what happened:
Another Instance was betwixt the Machapunga Indians, and the Coranine’s, on the Sand-Banks; which was as follows. The Machapungas were invited to a Feast, by the Coranines; (which two Nations had been a long time at War together, and had lately concluded a Peace.) Thereupon, the Machapunga Indians took the Advantage of coming to the Coranines Feast, which was to avoid all Suspicion, and their King, who, of a Savage, is a great Politician and very stout, order’d all his Men to carry their Tamahauks along with them, hidden under their Match-Coats, which they did; and being acquainted when to fall on, by the Word given, they all (upon this Design) set forward for the Feast, and came to the Coranine Town, where they had gotten Victuals, Fruit, and such things as make an Indian Entertainment, all ready to make these new Friends welcome, which they did; and, after Dinner, towards the Evening, (as it is customary amongst them) they went to Dancing, all together; so when the Machapunga King saw the best Opportunity offer, he gave the Word, and his Men pull’d their Tamahauks or Hatchets from under their Match-Coats, and kill’d several, and took the rest Prisoners, except some few that were not present, and about four or five that escap’d. The Prisoners they sold Slaves to the English. At the time this was done, those Indians had nothing but Bows and Arrows, neither side having Guns.18
The fact that these “two Nations had been a long time at War together” could harken back to the “mortall warre” between Wingina’s Secotans and the tribes south of the Pamlico River, first reported by Amadas and Barlowe in 1584. The tribes allied against the Secotans at that time were certainly the Pomouiks/Pamlicos, the Neuse, and very likely the Cwareuuocks/Corees, who were adjacent to, and likely affiliated with, the Neuse. Two years before the arrival of the Amadas-Barlowe reconnaissance, a deadly event occurred that was remarkably similar to the aforementioned deception of the Corees:
… about two yeeres past there was a peace made betweene the King Piemacum, and the Lord of Secotan … but there remaineth a mortall malice in the Secotanes, for many iniuries and slaughters done vpon them by this Piemacum. They inuited diuers men, and thirtie women of the best of his countrey to their towne to a feast: and when they were altogether merry, and praying before their Idol, (which is nothing els but a meer illusion of the deuill) the captaine or Lord of the town came suddenly vpon them, and slewe them euery one, reseruing the women and children.19
The location and fate of any possible admixed Lost Colony descendants is, of course, most likely connected to the Hatteras tribe, which is widely accepted to be the later name for what the Roanoke colonists called the Croatoans. As proposed earlier, the Croatoans and whatever Lost Colonists remained after the 1589 hurricane had abandoned the Outer Banks. As must have been the case following previous hurricanes, however, their abandonment was temporary and they would have returned to their towns on the sound side of Hatteras once the fields were again arable. The most notable clues about the English/Croatoan admixed descendants were Lawson’s well-known comments in his New Voyage to Carolina:
A farther Confirmation of this [the ‘infant colonies’ at Roanoke] we have from the Hatteras Indians, who either then lived on Ronoack-Island, or much frequented it. These tell us, that several of their Ancestors were white People, and could talk in a Book, as we do; the Truth of which is confirm’d by gray Eyes being found frequently amongst these Indians, and no others. They value themselves extremely for their Affinity to the English, and are ready to do them all friendly Offices. It is probable, that this Settlement miscarry’d for want of timely Supplies from England; or thro’ the Treachery of the Natives, for we may reasonably suppose that the English were forced to cohabit with them, for Relief and Conversation; and that in process of Time, they conform’d themselves to the Manners of their Indian Relations. And thus we see, how apt Human Nature is to degenerate.
I cannot forbear inserting here, a pleasant Story that passes for an uncontested Truth amongst the Inhabitants of this Place; which is, that the Ship which brought the first Colonies, does often appear amongst them, under Sail, in a gallant Posture, which they call Sir Walter Raleigh’s Ship, And the truth of this has been affirm’d to me, by Men of the best Credit in the Country.20
While it is true that the “gray Eyes” recessive trait is confirmation of European genetic admixture, it has been correctly pointed out that the Lost Colonists were not the only Europeans to have contact with the Croatoan/Hatteras Indians on the Outer Banks. “Many shipwrecked or similarly jettisoned Europeans,” Kupperman wrote, “must be added to the famous Lost Colonists of Roanoke, left in 1587, so that hundreds must have joined Indian societies all along the coast.”21 In addition the Englishmen of the 1585–86 Grenville-Lane colony made several visits to Croatoan, some of which were for extended periods. Nevertheless, more than a century later the oral tradition of these Hatteras Indians still retained memories of “the Ship which brought the first Colonies…. Sir Walter Raleigh’s Ship.” Although not conclusive by any means, Lawson’s commentary offers the possibility that admixed Croatoan/Lost Colonist descendants may have existed about 112 years after the colony collapsed.
The expansion of white settlements in the 17th century brought with it deadly diseases which took a heavy toll on the tribes and, unless the admixture transferred an acquired immunity, would have reduced the chances of survival for the descendants as well. Harriot had remarked in 1585–86 that “within a few dayes after our departure from euery such Towne, the people began to die very fast, and many in short space, in some Townes about twentie, in some fourtie, and in one sixe score, which in trueth was very many in respect of their numbers.”22 In 1696–97 a smallpox epidemic swept down from Virginia and devastated the Carolina tribes. Another tribe with whom the Lost Colonists could have had contact was the Pamlico Indians, particularly if they relocated to Pananoic, where Smith wrote in 1608 “our men” were reported to be. John Archdale noted, “When I was in the North about eleven Years since [1696], I was told then of a great Mortality that fell upon the Pemlicoe Indians.”23
Lawson told
of the Indians at the Santee River who had “lost much of their former Numbers … most by the Small-pox, which hath often visited them, sweeping away whole Towns.”24 Of the effect on the Indians in general, he wrote,
formerly it destroy’d whole Towns, without leaving one Indian alive in the Village…. The Small-Pox and Rum have made such a Destruction amongst them, that, on good grounds, I do believe, there is not the sixth Savage living within two hundred Miles of all our Settlements, as there were fifty Years ago. These poor Creatures have so many Enemies to destroy them, that it’s a wonder one of them is alive near us.25
If the admixed descendants of George Howe, Jr., dwelt in the Cape Fear area during the latter part of the 17th century, as the Bullard legend claims, they would have been confronted by another threat, the expansion of the Indian slave trade out of Charles Town. Shortly after Charles Town was founded in 1670 by English colonists from Barbados, settlers to the north of Charles Town on Goose Creek developed a lucrative trade with the adjacent tribes. Soon these traders started exchanging merchandise for Indian slaves, and it was not long before Indians themselves were raiding other villages for captives who would be sold to the slave traders. These slave raids ranged far into North Carolina, and would be one of the principal causes of the Tuscarora War in 1711. Although most of these Indian slaves were shipped to the Caribbean, by 1700 there were 800 Indian slaves in South Carolina.26 At that time “the most important items shipped out of Charles Town were deer hides and Indian slaves.”27 The actual identity of the Indians who dwelt at the Cape Fear River is unknown, but Swanton believed they were possibly offshoots of the Waccamaw tribe.
According to one source, the Indians in North Carolina’s Coastal Plain numbered approximately 30,000 in 1660, but prior to the start of the Tuscarora War in 1711, “rum, small pox, and intertribal warfare had reduced them to no more than 5,000.”28 By 1700 the Hatteras were reported to have one village named Sandbanks and sixteen fighting men. The Corees had two towns and twenty-five warriors. The Pamlico had one village on an island in the river and fifteen fighting men.29 Based alone on the dramatic eighty-three percent decline in the population of the Coastal Plains tribes, the probability of Lost Colony/Hatteras admixed descendants surviving into the 18th century would have been greatly reduced.
22
The Search for Descendants
18th Century and Beyond
On the slim chance that any admixed descendants of the Lost Colonists did survive into the 18th century, 1711 and the succeeding few years would have presented another major obstacle. In the early morning hours of September 22, 1711, a combined force of about 500 Tuscaroras, Corees, Pamlicos, Machapungas, Weetocks, and Bay/Bear River Indians swept down along the Pamlico and Neuse Rivers in a surprise attack that initiated what would afterwards be called the Tuscarora War, the bloodiest Indian war in North Carolina history. The account of this conflict has been well documented and need not be repeated here, other than to look at the effect it had on the tribes in general and particularly those who either may have had contact with, or claimed descent from, the Lost Colonists.
By the time the Tuscarora War was over in 1715, about 2,000 to 3,000 Indians had been enslaved or killed, and, according to David La Vere, “that number could easily be higher.”1 Several tribes, such as the Pamlico, Neuse, Bay or Bear River, and Weetock disappeared altogether from the historical record. By 1716 only seven named tribes remained on the eastern North Carolina Coastal Plain: the Tuscarora, Chowanoke, Poteskeet, Coree, Machapunga, Meherrin, and the Hatteras. All were now tributaries of North Carolina, and eventually they were provided with surveyed reservation tracts, subject to—and supposedly protected by—English law and justice. The Chowanoke and Poteskeet had already been assigned reservations north of Albemarle Sound before the end of the previous century. After the war the remaining Corees and Machapungas were given a reservation at Lake Mattamuskeet, and the Meherrins would have a reservation at the Chowan and Meherrin Rivers in 1729. Most of the remaining hostile Tuscaroras left North Carolina and reunited with the Five Nation Iroquoian Confederacy in New York. Chief Tom Blount’s Tuscaroras of the Upper Towns, who had remained neutral and actually aided the English during the war, were assigned a reservation between the Neuse and Pamlico Rivers. In 1717 Chief Blount requested permission to relocate and received a new tract on the Roanoke River which would come to be called Indian Woods. The Hatteras, who turned to North Carolina for protection during the war, did not receive a reservation until 1759, when they were given a 200-acre tract at the south end of Hatteras Island.2
As noted previously, from what can be reconstructed about the movements and activities of the Lost Colonists after 1587, the tribes with a reasonable likelihood of contact with them would have been the Panauuaioc (Pamlico), the Cwareuuock (Coree), the unnamed tribe or tribes later to be called Cape Fear Indians, and of course the Croatoan (Hatteras), about whom there is little doubt. As also noted, however, the Pamlicos, who joined with the hostile Tuscaroras against the English, ceased to exist as a tribe by the end of the Tuscarora War. It will be recalled that the Pamlicos had already been reduced by the smallpox epidemic in 1696 to just fifteen fighting men. Furthermore, under a treaty with the English in the early stages of the war, Blount’s friendly Tuscaroras agreed to exterminate several of the small hostile tribes, one of these being the Pamlicos.3 Any who were not killed outright would have been enslaved. If there had been Lost Colony descendants living among the Pamlicos, they would not have survived the war.
The Coree tribe, referred to by Yeardley as “a bloody and barbarous People,” was one of those also reduced in numbers by the smallpox epidemic, but they fought aggressively against the English during the war and were still troublesome after they were assigned to the reservation at Lake Mattamuskeet along with the Machapunga. Swanton said that they probably “became extinct” at Mattamuskeet, but La Vere wrote that they apparently left the Machapunga reservation because of irreconcilable differences,4 a plausible conclusion considering their long adversarial history which included the Machapunga’s previously mentioned deception and slaughter of the Coree at the celebration on the Sandbanks. The Corees were certainly among the last holdouts in the war, and remnants of the tribe may have joined other groups. Although affiliations could certainly change over a century, given the Corees’ strong antipathy towards the English, it seems unlikely that any Lost Colony descendants who still retained traditions of their mixed origins could have been among them.
The Cape Fear Indians are included in this group of tribes having potential contact with Lost Colony descendants partly because of the “Legend of the Coharie,” which places colonist George Howe’s descendants in the Cape Fear River area for more than a century. There are also two other sources that put remnants of the Cape Fear Indians at a location supposedly occupied by Lost Colony descendants. One of these is Coharie tribal member and author C.D. Brewington, who wrote that the amalgamated Indians who were found on the Lumber and Coharie Rivers were also found “on the banks of the Cape Fear.”5 Swanton made a similar connection.6 The so-called Cape Fear Indians are difficult to follow because there were many tribes in the Cape Fear River area, and, since the tribal name of the group referred to by the English as “Cape Fear” is not known, they could have been associated with any of them. Swanton believed the Cape Fears may have been part of the Waccamaw tribe who dwelt near present-day Myrtle Beach. Some of the Indians at the Cape Fear River were recruited by Col. Barnwell on his march north in late 1711 during the early stages of the Tuscarora War. Later the Cape Fears were among the dozen or so groups that attempted to destroy the English in South Carolina at the outset of the Yamassee War in 1715. The Indians at the Cape Fear were driven from the area during that war, and remnants may have joined other tribes in South Carolina. The “Legend of the Coharie” claims that the admixed descendants of the Lost Colony, “very much desiring peace and tranquility,” continued to migrate farther inland along the Cape Fear River as white settlements advanced.
If true, it would mean that these admixed Indians managed to remain together as a coherent group, apparently undetected and unmolested for more than a century until their eventual arrival in present-day Sampson County.
The Croatoans, of course, had frequent interaction with both the 1585–86 and the 1587 colonies, and consequently the Hatteras tribe is the most likely of all the potential tribes to have had English descendants among them in the 17th century. Regarding the 1585–86 colony, Harriot mentioned that “they [the Indians] noted also that we had no women among vs, neither that we did care for any of theirs.”7 If Harriot’s statement was accurate, it would strengthen the probability that any admixed English/Croatoan offspring would have been descendants of the 1587 colony. Those chances are enhanced considerably by the likelihood that any Lost Colony survivors after 1589 would have quickly integrated with the Croatoans.
There are few references to the Hatteras tribe in the North Carolina colonial records, but it is clear that the Hatteras struggled during and after the Tuscarora War. In late May 1714, the Hatteras sought help from the English military commander, Col. Thomas Boyd, who reported the problem to the Governor’s Council. The minutes of the Council for May 29 read:
The Lost Colony of Roanoke Page 30
