by Lee Miller
48 “of the age of 8 or 10,” White’s annotation of a woman and child of Pomeioc, British Museum, P & D, 1906-5-9-1 (13); “They are greatly delighted …” De Bry, America, 1, plates viii, ii.
49 Hakluyt, Principall Navigations (1589), p. 735. In 1605 Englishmen referred to North Carolina (“Wingandecoia”) as the “land of parrots,” Hall, Mundus. Jamestown colonist Francis Perkins described the country as full of “the prettiest parrots there are”; Barbour, Jamestown, 1, p. 161. According to Lawson {History of North Carolina [1903], p. 83), they were gorgeous, with a brilliant green plumage and a splattering of orange on the head. The Carolina parrot has been hunted to extinction.
50 De Bry, America, 1, plates viii, ix.
51 Strachey, Historie ofTravaile (1849), p. 78.
52 De Bry, America, 1, plate xix.
53 “most courteous …” Hakluyt, Principall Navigations (1589), p. 793; “esteem our trifles …” Hariot, Briefe and True Report (1589), p. 759.
54 Smith, Map of Virginia, p. 17. Strachey gives the word as appones, while corn bread boiled in water was ponepopi; Historie (1849), P- 74- Other familiar loan words have come into the English language from Powhatan, for example, chum, which Smith defines as “friend,” ibid., Powhatan vocab., p. 3v. The word may derive from a canoe partner, one who is trusted, cf. Shawnee choom, “paddle,” Pearson, Shawnee Language, p. 23.
55 De Bry, America, 1, plate xix. For examples of woven house mats throughout the Southeast, see Swanton, Indians of the Southeastern United States, pp. 244, 247, 4H-15; 602-3, 606.
56 Hariot, Briefe and True Report (1589), p. 761. That the missing silver cup was a communion chalice is likely. According to Harrap (Byrne, Elizabethan Life, p. 184) the Anglican service utilized common loaf bread and wine served in a silver cup.
57 “fairer,” De Bry, America, 1, plate xx; “well entertained,” Hakluyt, Principall Navigations (1589), p. 736.
58 White’s annotation of the village of “Secoton,” British Museum, P & D, 1906-5-9-1 (7).
59 De Bry, America, 1, plate xx.
60 “Six or seven foot…” Hariot, Briefe and True Report (1589), p. 753; “In their corn fields …” De Bry America, 1, plate xx.
61 Ibid., plate iv.
62 Ibid., plates xiii, vi.
63 Ibid., plate xviii. The original text read “certain markes on the backs.”
64 Ibid., plate xiv.
65 Ibid., plate xv. The original text read “boil together like a galliemaufrye” (a stew). The menu suggested here and below was generated by comparing accounts of foodstuffs grown and gathered, as reported by Raleigh’s men and the Jamestown colonists, to American Indian cuisine extant in North Carolina and Virginia. For an excellent summary of food items, see Swanton, Indians of the Southeastern United States, pp. 244-95, 351—68; also various cookbooks available, such as Mary Ulmer and Samuel E. Beck (ed.), Cherokee Cooklore, Cherokee, N.C.: Museum of the Cherokee Indian, 1951.
66 De Bry, America, 1, plate xv. Grenville’s men were almost certainly witnessing the Green Corn Celebration held just before the cobs of flour corn reached maturity, generally in July or August. The ceremony occurred iNVJIJDO AINU KJLT JlKHiNH_.JL5
throughout the agricultural Southeast and was (and is) the greatest ceremony of the year, marked by a sense of tranquillity and the absence of discord, which was exactly the mood that Hariot reported at Secota.
67 “void of all…” De Bry, America, 1, plate xx; “trifles,” Hariot, Briefe and True Report, p. 759.
68 Hakluyt, Princip all Navigations (1589), p. 736.
69 Ibid.
70 British Museum, P & D, 199^.3.
71 Hariot, Briefe and True Report (1589), p. 759.
72 Holinshed, Chronicles (1807), iv, p. 598. We could wish for a far more detailed account of this episode. However, the three-day delay off Wococon, coupled with Lane’s zealousness to remain in the country, his vehement letters to the government condemning Grenville, Grenville’s instructions to occupy the coast, and the disastrous inadequacy of supplies with which to do so lend credibility to this sequence of events, which must remain conjectural until further evidence is found to clarify it.
73 “bold letter …” Lane to Walsingham, August 12, 1585, State Papers Colonial, 1/1, 4; “intendeth to accuse …” Lane to Walsingham, ibid., 1/1, 3.
74 Lane to Walsingham, September 8, 1585, State Papers Colonial, 1/1, 6.
75 Ibid.
76 Hakluyt, Princip all Navigations (1589), p. 737; for the military complement, see State Papers Domestic, Elizabeth, clxxxv, 36; Wright, Further English Voyages, p. 15.
77 Lane to Walsingham, September 8, 1585, State Papers Colonial, 1/1, 6.
78 Ibid.
11 THE SECOND ROANOKE EXPEDITION: LANE’S COMMAND (1585-1586)
1 Bacon, “Of Plantations,” Essays (1887), p. 353.
2 Hakluyt, Principall Navigations (1589), p. 736. No document has yet been discovered that explains the nature of the agreement reached between Lane and Granganimeo. However, it is clear that since Lane was proposing a settlement within his territory, Granganimeo was brought aboard the Admiral with Manteo as interpreter for some form of negotiation. Given that Lane’s company doubled Roanoke’s population, and that an agricultural crisis was unfolding whose severity had yet to be determined (see n. 17 below), I think it not unlikely that part of the negotiation concerned the food supply, with Granganimeo refusing to commit himself to any provisioning arrangement for the fort beyond the sale of surpluses. Excess corn from the previous year had been reduced by the first Roanoke expedition of 1584.
3 Hariot claimed that Lane had only enough provision to last twenty days! Briefe and True Report (1589), p. 763.
4 ForVaughan’s identification, see Quinn, Roanoke Voyages, vol. i, p. 194, n. 7; also Corbett, Spanish War, p. 293.
5 Hakluyt, Discourse, chapter 20, #21.
6 Lane to Sidney, August 12, 1585, State Papers Colonial, 1/1, 5.
7 Lane to Walsingham, August 12, 1585, State Papers Colonial, 1/1, 3. In 1574, Lane proposed leading a crusade of two thousand Englishmen, under Spain’s Christian banner, against the Turks — on condition that he retain disciplinary authority within his own regiment. Lane claimed that the Queen initially favored the project as recompense for his past ill fortune (Strype, Annals, 11, i, p. 518), which may have been caused by the Earl of Leicester; see Chapter 16, n. 13.
8 uwe discharged any piece …” Hakluyt, Principall Navigations (1589), p. 732; “were amazed …” De Bry, America, 1, plate ii.
9 Haag, Archeology, pp. 62-4.
10 Hakluyt, Princip all Navigations (1589), p. 730.
11 Ibid., p. 729; for the identification of Wingina as head of the Secotan, as well as the practice of shifting residence, see Appendix A.
12 Ibid., p. 736.
13 Lane to Walsingham, September 8, 1585, State Papers Colonial, 1/1, 6. The holy day in question was the Green Corn Ceremony, or Busk.
14 Hariot, Briefe and True Report (1589), p. 749.
15 “pagatowr …” ibid., p. 753; “have found here…,” Hakluyt, Principall Navigations (1589), p. 793; “sweet juice,” Strachey, Historie (1849), P- II7-
16 Hariot, Briefe and True Report (1589), p. 753.
17 Lane to Walsingham, August 12, 1585, State Papers Colonial, 1/1, 3.
18 Stahle et al, “Lost Colony and Jamestown Droughts,” p. 565. Stahle places the start of the drought at 1587. In the absence of correlating historical data, his conclusion that it caused the death of the Lost Colonists is reasonable. However, there are several factors that can prevent the occurrence of a late-season drought from being recorded in tree rings (Cook and Kariutskis, Methods of Dendrochronology, pp. 43, 45, 68-70; Stokes and Smiley, Tree-Ring Dating, pp. 48-9, 53). Stokes and Smiley stress the need for correlating tree ring dating with other available information (p. 61). The historical data, the absence of skeletal remains on Roanoke, and the message left by the colonists themselves provide that information. Stahle’s work shows the
presence of an intense drought in the vicinity of 1587, while Hariot’s record dated it to 1585 or 1586. Very little attention has been paid to Hariot’s statements about the drought, and thus the severity of Lane’s food demands upon the Secotan have been drastically underestimated.
19 Hariot, Briefe and True Report (1589), p. 761.
20 Ibid., p. 761.
21 Ibid., pp. 760-1.
22 Ibid.
23 Lane to Walsingham, August 12, 1585, State Papers Colonial, 1/1, 3.
24 “daily discovery …” Lane to Walsingham, September 8, 1585, State Papers Colonial, 1/1, 6; “Cedar, a very sweet wood …” Hariot, Briefe and True Report (1589), p. 751-
25 Ibid.
26 Hariot reported dugout canoes carrying “20 men at once … their timber being great, tall, straight…” ibid., p. 758. In the Powhatan country, Captain John Smith marveled at the great open spaces underneath the massive trunks, such “that a man may gallop a horse amongst these woods any way, but where the creeks or rivers shall hinder,” Smith, Map of Virginia, p. 21. Smith then destroyed what he admired, for he ordered timbering crews to hack down the woods — it was a “delight,” he said, “to hear the trees thunder as they fell”; Proceedings, p. 48.
27 Hakluyt, Principal! Navigations (1589), p. 793.
28 There were four comets that might have appeared to the naked eye over Roanoke that summer, but the largest and by far the closest to earth was c/1585 TI. Unfortunately, although the dating of the comet is crucial in determining the sequence of events during Lane’s tenure on Roanoke Island, Hariot does not do so. Since he stated that it appeared “but a few days before the beginning” of an epidemic that struck the Secotan (Briefe and True Report, p. 762), and given that they blamed the Englishmen for the illness, the event, in all probability, occurred after Lane had moved into the fort in September and there was sustained contact between them. On September 27 c/1585 TI appeared in the sky almost directly south of the island at 13 degrees, 3 minutes (presumably the minimum height to be seen above the tree line), at its closest position to earth thus far at 197356 at 9 P.M. On October 17 it reached its brightest and most visible at 34 degrees, 42 minutes, having achieved its maximum proximity to earth at 135492, before receding. This was spectacularly close — by comparison, Hale-Bopp appeared over Roanoke on July 27, 1996, at a distance of 2.744585. Based on the position of c/1585 TI, therefore, we might suppose that the disease struck the Outer Banks sometime toward the later half of September; data supplied by RedShift computer software program.
29 “rare and strange accident…” Hariot, Briefe and True Report (1589), p. 761; “sundry that came sick …” Lane to Walsingham, August 12, 1585, State Papers Colonial, 1/1, 3.
30 Ibid., p. 761.
31 Ibid.
32 Ibid., pp. 758, 760.
33 Ibid., pp. 761-2.
34 Ibid., p. 761.
35 Hakluyt, Principall Navigations (1589), p. 738.
36 Quinn, Set Fair, p. 75.
37 Adamson and Folland, Shepherd of the Ocean, pp. 100-3.
38 Hakluyt, Principall Navigations (1589), p. 736.
39 For Grenville’s assessment of the cargo: Andrews, Elizabethan Privateering, p. 192; Rowse, Grenville, p. 222. For Grenville’s enemies’ claim: Quinn, Roanoke Voyages, 1, pp. 218-21. Portuguese/Spanish claims: ibid., 1, p. 169; Rowse, Grenville, p. 218. Anonymous account: Quinn, Roanoke Voyages, 1, pp. 225-6. The anonymous writer appears to have been none other than William Herllie, an agent employed by Burghley and, in 1585, by Walsingham.
40 Lane to Burghley, January 7, 1592, Lansdowne Mss. 69, folios 29-29v., British Museum; Quinn, Roanoke Voyages, 1, p. 229.
41 Grenville to Walsingham, October 29, 1585, State Papers Colonial, 1/1,7.
42 Lane to Walsingham, August 12, 1585, State Papers Colonial, 1/1, 3.
43 “oyssan …” Quinn, New American World, v, p. 115; “as common there …” Hakluyt, Principall Navigations (1589), p. 793; “piece of silk …” Hariot, Briefe and True Report (1589), p. 750. The “silk” grosgrain was presented to Queen Elizabeth (Va. Co. A Note of Shipping [1906-35], in, p. 642). The word oyssan was possibly a corruption of wighsacan or wysauke (wisak-an-wi “it is bitter”). John White’s drawing of a milkweed “wisakon” was utilized by Gerard, who called it “wisanck” and described it as having pods “stuffed full of most pure silk” (Herball, p. 752; Barbour, Complete Works, 1, p. 154, n. 6; Quinn, Roanoke Voyages, 11, p. 900).
44 Platter, Travels (1937), pp. 171-3.
45 Taylor, Two Richard Hakluyts, 1, p. 45, n. 4; “It is a world also to see …” Harrison, Description of England (1807), p. 351.
46 “very large diamonds …” Wirtemberg, True and Faithful Narrative (1865), p. 18; the unicorn horn, ibid., p. 17; “that horn of Windsor,” Peacham, Sights and Exhibitions in England.
47 Weelkes, Ayeres or Phantasticke Spirites; Rye, England as Seen by Foreigners, p. 202, n. 37.
48 Hakluyt, Inducements (1602), p. 30 (D3).
49 See Chapter 19, n. 3.
50 Hariot, Briefe and True Report (1589), p. 760. Although Quinn (Roanoke Voyages, 1, p. 374, n. 1) states that this story is without precise parallels, there are, in fact, many. Johnson (Ojibway Ceremonies, pp. 134-50) records almost exactly the same story among the Ojibway. There is a numerous literature on messianic, millenarian, and revitalization movements following extreme social disruption, in which individuals receive divine instruction. Often this involves death, a journey to the afterlife, a return to the living, a rejection of foreign influences, and a revival of the old traditions according to the instructions given in the other world. That a revival of this nature occurred among the Secotan has, to my knowledge, never before been proposed, but seems quite clear given Hariot’s statements.
5i Hariot, Briefe and True Report (1589), pp. 755-6. See Quinn, Roanoke Voyages, 1, pp. 347-50, for identification of the wild plants and roots consumed.
52 Hariot, Briefe and True Report (1589), pp. 763, 755, 750. As relations worsened with Lane’s men and the drought increased, Wingina commanded that his people “should not, for any copper, sell us any victuals whatsoever”; Hakluyt, Principall Navigations (1589), p. 744.
53 Hariot, Briefe and True Report (1589), pp. 749, 757.
54 Stone, Crisis of the Aristocracy, p. 572.
55 “very miserable …” Thomas Harvey to the Chancery Court, February 4, 1591, Public Record Office, C.2, Elizabeth S. 16/48 (2/13/314); “Some want also …” Hariot, Briefe and True Report (1589), p. 763.
56 “misdemeanour and ill dealing …” Hariot, Briefe and True Report (1589), p. 749. Grenville’s 1586 relief expedition reached Roanoke less than a month after Lane’s men had been evacuated by Drake. Pedro Diaz, present on the expedition, reported that Roanoke Island was deserted except for two bodies found hanged there — one English, one Indian (Quinn, Roanoke Voyages, 11, p. 790); “any woman,” Notes for Master Rauleys Viage, Essex County Record Office, County Hall, Chelmsford, MS D/DRh, M 1, f. 2v; Quinn, Roanoke Voyages, 1, pp. 126-39.
57 De Bry, America, 1, plate viii.
58 Hakluyt, Princip all Navigations (1589), p. 732.
59 Hariot, Briefe and True Report (1589), p. 752.
60 Hakluyt, Princip all Navigations (1589), p. 730.
61 Ibid., p. 793.
62 “plate of copper,” De Bry, America, 1, plate vii; “and other noblemen,” Hakluyt, Principall Navigations (1589), p. 730; “of good parentage,” De Bry, America, 1, plates vi, iv; “esteem more …” ibid., plate xxi.
12 CHAUNIS TEMOATAN AND A MURDER (1586)
1 British Museum, Additional Ms. 6788, f. 490.
2 Lane to Sidney, August 12, 1585, State Papers Colonial, 1/1, 5.
3 Lane to Walsingham, September 8, 1585, State Papers Colonial, 1/1, 6.
4 Hariot, Briefe and True Report (1589), p. 763. The supposition has been made by historians that Lane’s winter camp was located on the Chesapeake Bay. However, Lane’s own statement (n. 19 below) clearly refutes this. He said that he p
lanned to send them to the west, to the country Amadas had visited. It is possible that the party encamped in the region of Mor atoe on the Roanoke River, or within the Chowanoc country, since Lane appeared to have a familiarity with both nations before his trip there in the spring. Where the winter camp went hinges not only on the correct identification of the Chesepiocs, among whom Lane said they resided (see n. 13), but on the three neighboring nations who visited them there: the Mandoag, Tripanick, and Oppossian.
5 Hariot, Briefe and True Report (1589), p. 763. Lane seldom gave dates for his activities on the island, and the return of the winter camp was no exception. Presumably it came back to Roanoke in time to provide Lane with information for his March expedition against the Chowanoc. A second Secotan epidemic probably occurred at about this time — late February — which claimed Granganimeo’s life. At his brother’s death, Wingina changed his name to Pemisapan. We know that both events took place before Lane’s March expedition.
6 Hariot, Briefe and True Report (1589), pp. 751-2.
7 For White’s map, see De Bry, America, 1; also British Museum, P & D, 1906-5-9-1 (3); “Mangoaks …” Hakluyt, Principall Navigations (1589), pp. 740, 743. Mangoak and Mandoag were used interchangeably by Lane.
8 Ibid., p. 740. Such name changing was not uncommon, particularly among the Powhatan; Wahunsonacock’s brother Opitchapam changed his name twice: to Itoyatin and Sasawpen, while another brother, Opechancanough, changed his name to Mangopeesomon (Rountree, Pocahontas’s People, p. 73). It occurred elsewhere too, as when Liliwathika of the Shawnee changed his name to Tenskwatawa. Among the Pokanoket there was Woosamequin (alias Massasoit) and Tatamumaque (alias Cashewashed); and the Narragansett leader Nawnawnoantonnew was also Canonchet. Many more examples are known. Strachey said that the Powhatan were ruled “by a great king, by them called by sundry names … and so commonly they of greatest merit amongst them aspire to many names”; Historie, Book 1, chapter 3.
9 The remainder of the events in this chapter and all quotes contained therein, unless otherwise noted, are from Lane’s account, published in Hakluyt, Principall Navigations (1589), pp. 737-47.
