Continental Monthly, Vol. I, No. V, May, 1862 by Various

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Again, one grand evidence of a nation's or a people's civilization, is
found in the correspondence, written and printed, conducted by the
citizens. Barbarians have and need no correspondence. Civilization needs
it, and can not exist without it. A migratory people like ours have more
correspondence than older and less migratory nations. A citizen
emigrating from Vermont to Illinois must correspond with the friends of
his old home. The old friend in Vermont must know how the absent one
'gets along in the world.' To conduct this correspondence, the postal or
mail service was devised. Before its existence the communication between
separated friends and business people was uncertain, irregular, and mere
matter of chance, to be conveyed by stray travelers, or not interchanged
at all. The _necessities_ of civilization brought the postal or mail
service into action. To conduct this service over a nation, requires the
right of passage through the entire limits of the nation. This right, to
be available, must have power to enforce its own requirements. It must
be _central_, CONTROLLING, SUPREME. Without these, there would be no
safety, no system, no uniformity, no regularity. To insure these to all
the people of the States, the Constitution has wisely placed these
powers in 'THE CONGRESS' of the Union, of the 'NATION.' In accordance
with the powers thus vested in Congress, our present postal or mail
service has been created. No State has a right to set up its own mail or
postal system. No State has a right to interfere with the transportation
of the national mails. 'The UNITED STATES MAIL,' is the term used. If
any State had a right to establish a mail within its own limits, it
would also have the right to prohibit or curtail the transportation of
other States' mails through its limits. This right would destroy the
entire system, and break up the interchange of correspondence so
essential to our civilization. If the States had any such right, they
could affix discriminating tariffs on the correspondence of other States
passing through them. The State of New-York could, if this right
existed, make the letters sent over its roads by the people of
Massachusetts to the people of Ohio, pay just such tariffs for the
'right of passage' as it might choose. The absurdity and utter
unreasonableness of this claimed right is so apparent as to need no
argument against it.

The exercise of this pretended right by the Southern States has caused
the present rebellion. But for this doctrine we should not be expending
a million a day in supporting six hundred thousand men in camp, who
ought to be producers for the support of life instead of missionaries of
death. This war is the legitimate result of this heresy of 'State
rights.' If this doctrine had never been put in practice, we should not
now have slavery to curse us with its degrading, inhumanizing
influences. Slavery exists in _violation_ of the Constitution. Slavery
was never established by that document. The States violated it in their
attempts at legalizing it. All their laws declaring that the _status_ of
the child must be that of the mother, are but so many 'BILLS OF
ATTAINDER,' working 'CORRUPTION OF BLOOD;' and every State, as well as
Congress itself, was and is positively prohibited by the Constitution
from passing any such bill or law; and should we ever succeed in having
any but a pro-slavery, slave-catching Supreme Court, all these laws will
be annulled by their own most positive unconstitutionally. True, there
were slaves at the time the Constitution was adopted, but all then
living are now dead; and but for this doctrine of 'State rights,' there
never would have been any State law making the child of a slave mother
also a slave; but for this doctrine no such bill of attainder would have
been passed, or if passed, it never could have been enforced; and we
should not to-day be listening to the cries of four millions of slaves,
nor have the homes of thousands of honest citizens made desolate by the
absence of loved ones. But for this terrible doctrine, 'the click of
hammers closing rivets up,' would not now be giving 'dreadful note of
preparation.' But for this heresy, subversive of all law, of all order,
of all nationality, we should not to-day be at war for our existence.
But for this doctrine, and the right claimed by some of the States to
extend their 'bills of attainder,' working corruption of blood over the
entire Union, we should not have our homes filled with grief and our
streets covered with the funeral pageants of brave men killed in defense
of the Union. We want no more evidence of the accursed nature of the
doctrine of 'State rights.' We are a UNION--a NATION. We must have
NATIONAL LAWS, NATIONAL INSTITUTIONS, NATIONAL FREEDOM. We have had too
much of State law, too much of State rights, too much of State slavery.
The NATION MUST BE SUPREME. The States must be subordinate. As we uphold
and perpetuate the National authority, so will be our existence as a
people. As we detract from this, so will be our weakness and downfall.

GOD PRESERVE THE NATION!

* * * * *

ROANOKE ISLAND.

THE SITE OF THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONY IN AMERICA.

'I know that historians do borrow of poets, not only much of their
ornament but somewhat of their substance.'--_Raleigh's History of
the World._

The name of Roanoke Island awakens in the mind of every lover of
American history, sentiments of veneration and respect. It carries us
back to the days of England's great Queen, to ruffs and rapiers, and
calls up the memories of the gallant but unfortunate Raleigh, and of the
brave knights, Grenville, Lane, and White, men who made their mark in
history even in that golden era of chivalry and enterprise.

Let us go back through the vista of nearly three centuries, and trace
the history of this spot where our language was first spoken and written
on this continent. When we recall the first occupation of this island by
the English, and picture to ourselves the Indians in their normal state,
with their dress, habitations, and implements, so picturesque and
unique, as well as the gallant gentlemen in the costume of that
picturesque age, it seems almost to border on romance. But there is a
dark side to the picture. The sombre veil of uncertainty hangs over the
fate of two entire colonies, which, if lifted, would consecrate this
spot to the extremes of suffering and bloodshed. It was, no doubt,
better to have these scenes buried in oblivion, and for each succeeding
historian to fill up this chapter with his own fancies, than to be able
to give the minute details of long days and months of probable famine,
pestilence, war, captivity, and torture, which have occurred here or in
the immediate vicinity. The certain knowledge of them would have
awakened in their countrymen sentiments of retaliation and vengeance,
and a fearful retribution would have been meted but to the natives, and
have fallen upon the innocent as well as the guilty.

It was not until about the commencement of the sixteenth century that
England could be considered one of the great maritime powers in Europe.
Although Henry the Seventh had authorized Cabot to prosecute a voyage of
discovery as early as 1497, in which he discovered the continent, thus
actually anticipating Columbus, who did not discover it till the
succeeding year, no real attempts at colonization took place until a
century afterward. In 1578, Sir Humphrey Gilbert obtained a patent from
Queen Elizabeth to colonize such parts of North-America as were not then
occupied by any of her allies. Soon after, he, assisted and accompanied
by his step-brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, fitted out an expedition and
sailed for America; but they were intercepted by a Spanish fleet, and
returned unsuccessful.

In 1583, they equipped a new squadron, in which Raleigh did not embark.
This enterprise failed, and Sir Humphrey perished at sea. Still Raleigh
was not disheartened. He had been a soldier in the religious war then
raging in France, and associated with the Protestant admiral, Coligny,
and many of his officers, whose ill-fated colony met so bloody a fate
near the river St. John. Doubtless, during his intercourse with these
men, their experience in Florida often became the theme of discourse,
and it may be that from it he imbibed that passion for discovery and
colonization in America, which ended only with his life. He doubtless
learned of the voyage of Verranzo, who, in the employ of France, had, in
1524, coasted from Cape Fear to Rhode Island; but still our shores were
hardly more than a myth, and the country north of the peninsula of
Florida a _terra incognita_. Early in 1584, Raleigh, then a gallant
courtier, received a grant from Elizabeth to 'discover and find out such
remote and heathen lands, not actually possessed or inhabited by any
Christian King, or his subjects, and there to have, hold, fortify, and
possess, in fee-simple to him and his associates and their heirs
forever, with privileges of allegiance to the crown of all that might
there reside; they and their descendants.'

This grant would apply to any portion of the globe not claimed or
inhabited by the subjects of a Christian prince. The grant bears date
March 25th, in the twenty-sixth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
1584. Raleigh anticipated its passing the great seal, and probably had
for some months been making preparations for a voyage of discovery under
this patent. So energetic was he, that two barks were prepared and
dispatched from the west of England on the 27th of April. They were
under the commands of Captains Amidas and Barlow, with Simeon Fernando
as pilot, who, it may be presumed from the name, was a Spaniard, and no
doubt had been on this coast before. They took the route by way of the
Canaries and West-India Islands, and by the tenth of May had reached the
former, and by the tenth of June the latter, where they staid twelve
days.

Continuing their voyage, on the second of July they found shoal water,
where they say[K]: 'We smelled so sweet and strange a smell, as if we
had been in the midst of a delicate garden, abounding with all kinds of
odoriferous herbs and flowers, so we were assured that the land could
not be far distant; and keeping good watch, and bearing but slack sail,
the fourth of the same month we arrived upon the coast, which we
supposed to be a continent, and firm land; and we sailed along the same
a hundred and twenty miles, before we could find any entrance or river
issuing into the sea.'

They entered the first inlet which appeared, 'but not without
difficulty, and anchored on the left-hand side.' Subsequent historians
have written much to settle the long-disputed question, by what channel
or inlet the earliest English navigators entered. After a careful
examination of the early and of later authorities, and with some
practical acquaintance with the localities, I am of the opinion that
they must have entered by what is now known as Hatteras Inlet. 'The
island twenty miles long and not over six miles broad,' was that part
of the banks or shore between this inlet and that now known as Ocracoke.

So soon as they had given thanks to God for their safe arrival, they
landed, and took possession in 'the right of the Queen's most excellent
majesty,' and afterward delivered it over to the use of the grantee.
They found the land sandy and low, and expressed their admiration of the
abundance of wild grapes, as well as the pines and cedars; but saw no
inhabitants. The third day, they espied a small boat, with three
persons, who came to the shore. There they were met by the two captains
and the pilot, and one of the natives boldly commenced a conversation
entirely unintelligible to the Englishmen, but most friendly in its
tones. Having received a shirt and hat, the Indian, after viewing the
vessels, fell to fishing, and in less than half an hour loaded his boat
as deep as she could swim with fishes, which he soon landed on the shore
and divided between the ship and pinnace. The next day, there came
divers boats, containing forty or fifty natives, 'a very handsome and
goodly people, and in their behavior and manners as civil as any in
Europe.' Among them was the king's brother, 'Grangamimeo,' who said the
king was called Winginia. They commenced trading with the Indians, no
doubt greatly to their own advantage. The natives were, of course, much
astonished at the splendor and profusion of the articles offered; but of
all things which he saw, a bright tin dish most pleased Grangamimeo. He
clapped it on his breast, and after drilling a hole in the brim, hung it
about his neck, making signs that it would defend him from his enemies.
This tin dish was exchanged for twenty deerskins, worth twenty crowns,
and a copper kettle for fifty skins. In a few days, they were visited by
the king and his family. The women had bracelets of pearl and ornaments
of copper; the pearl was probably nothing but pieces of shell, and the
copper must have been obtained from near Lake Superior, where the mines
had been worked ages before the advent of the white man. The Indians
told them of a ship that had been wrecked near there twenty-six years
previously, and that the crew attempted to escape in their boat, but
probably perished, as the boat was afterward found on another island.
This story has usually been looked upon with doubt; but recent
researches in the Spanish archives have shown that they had a fort and
colony at Port Royal in 1557, and about the same period, another in the
Chesapeake. There can be but little doubt that the story was true, and
that the ship contained Spaniards passing between these two places. They
also told curious stories of a great river 'Cipo,' where pearl was
obtained, which has puzzled later historians to locate; but we now know
that _Cipo_ or _Sepo_, in the Algonquin language, which was spoken from
Maine to about this point, means simply a river, and probably referred
to either the Moratio, now called the Roanoke, or to the Chowan.

These narratives give a glowing account of the natives and of their
ability to construct their houses and canoes and weirs for fish. As this
was their first intercourse with Europeans, it undoubtedly shows what
their true condition was and had been for centuries. Situated, as this
territory is, under a mild climate, where corn, beans, and melons can be
so easily raised, and having a great abundance of game and fish, it must
have been a paradise for the Indians. Of the king's brother, it is said:

'He was very just of his promise; for many times we delivered him
merchandise upon his word, but ever he came within the day and
performed his promise. He sent us every day a brace or two of fat
bucks, conies, hares, and fish, the best in the world. He sent us
divers kinds of fruits, melons, walnuts, cucumbers, gourds, peas,
and divers roots and fruits, very excellent and good; and of their
country corn, which is very white, fair, and well-tasted, and
grows three times in five months. In May, they sow; in July, they
reap: in June, they sow; in August, they reap: in July, they sow;
in September, they reap. They cast the corn into the ground,
breaking a little of the soft turf with a wooden mattock.
Ourselves proved the soil, and put some of our peas into the
ground, and in ten days they were fourteen inches high. They have
also beans, very fair, of divers colors, and wonderful plenty;
some growing naturally and some in their gardens.'

Their advent to Roanoke Island is thus described:

'After they had been divers times aboard our vessels, myself with
seven others went twenty miles into the river that runs toward the
city of Skicoak, which river they call Occum, and the evening
following, we came to an island which they call Roanoke, distant
from the harbor by which we entered seven leagues. At the north
end thereof was a village of nine houses, built of cedar and
fortified round about with sharp trees, to keep out their enemies;
and the entrance into it made like a turnpike, very artificially.
When we came toward it, standing near unto the water side, the
wife of Grangamimeo, the king's brother, came running out to meet
us very cheerfully and friendly; her husband was not then in the
village. Some of her people she commanded to draw our boat on
shore; others she appointed to carry us on their backs to the dry
ground, and others to bring our oars into the house, for fear of
stealing. When we were come to the outer room, having five rooms
in her house, she caused us to sit down by a great fire, and
afterward took off our clothes and washed them and dried them
again. Some of the women washed our feet in warm water, and she
took great pains to see all things ordered in the best manner,
making great haste to dress some meat for us to eat. After we had
dried ourselves, she brought us into the inner room, when she sat
on the board standing alongside the house, and placed before us
some wheat fermented, sodden venison, and fish, sodden, boiled,
and roasted, melons, raw and sodden, roots of divers kinds, and
fruits. We were entertained with all love and kindness, and with
as much bounty as we could possibly desire. We found these people
most gentle, loving, and faithful; void of all guile and treason,
and such as live after the manner of the golden age.'

'Beyond this island, called Roanoke, a main stands, very plentiful
in fruits and other natural increase, together with many towns and
villages alongside the continent, some bordering upon the islands,
and some standing further into the land.'

'When we first had sight of this country, some thought the first
land we saw to be a continent; but after we entered into the
haven, we saw before us another mighty long sea, for there lieth
along the coast a tract of island two hundred miles in extent.'

Thus they picture the country with the rosy tint so natural to all
discoverers. They speak of the island as being sixteen miles long, which
recent surveys show nearly correct. Many of the trees, animals, and fish
were new to them, and like all travelers, they did not neglect to give a
fair embellishment in their report to Raleigh. Their stay in the country
was brief, less than sixty days, and on their return, they carried with
them two of the Indians, named Wanchese and Mantco, who were regarded as
a great curiosity by the English. They were exhibited at London to
thousands, and gave Raleigh great satisfaction, as they were the first
natives of America who had visited England.

The return of Amidas and Barlow, with their flattering report of the
discovery and beauty of Virginia, created great excitement throughout
England, and with it a desire to visit the new land. The soldiers of
fortune, of which that reign was fruitful, were ready to embark in any
cause that promised wealth or fame; and the nobility and merchants, with
sanguine views of trade and extensive domains containing the precious
metals, were ready to furnish the means to transport a colony to the new
El Dorado. It was not difficult to procure men, under such dazzling
aspects; a sufficient number was soon enrolled, but the material was not
of a kind to make a successful and permanent settlement. Disbanded
soldiers from foreign service, and London tradesmen out of business, and
enlisting only with the hope of soon obtaining wealth, and returning
home to enjoy it, were not the men to clear away forests, cultivate the
soil, or develop industry, the only true source for success in America.
The fleet consisted of seven vessels, the 'Tiger' and 'Roebuck,' each of
one hundred and forty tons; the 'Lion,' of one hundred; and the
'Elizabeth,' of fifty tons; with a small bark and two pinnaces, which
were without decks.

In this fleet were several, eminent among the gallant men who have
contributed so much to render the reign of the Virgin Queen illustrious
in history. The commander, Sir Richard Grenville, distinguished himself
at the battle of Lepanto, and afterward lost his life in a desperate
encounter with a Spanish fleet off the Azores. He was a cousin of
Raleigh, and always his friend. The next in real rank was Ralph Lane, to
whom was delegated the office of governor, and of whom we shall speak
hereafter. Thomas Cavendish commanded one of the vessels. He was a
wealthy and dashing adventurer, who, after his return, fitted out an
expedition and captured some Spanish ships with great treasure; but
after a reckless life, he found an early grave. Lewis Stukely, another
cousin of Raleigh, had some prominent station. He proved a base
character, and assisted, by his intrigues, in bringing his patron to the
block. Amidas, who was in the first voyage, also found place here, with
the title of 'admiral.' Simeon Fernando, the former pilot, was now in
command of the 'Tiger.'

The fleet sailed from Plymouth on the ninth of April, 1585, and made one
of the West-India Islands, where they had many adventures, on the
fourteenth of May. Thence proceeding on their voyage, they reached the
coast of Florida on the twentieth of June; on the twenty-third, they
barely escaped wreck on Cape Fear shoals; and on the twenty-sixth
anchored at Wocokon, now known as Ocracoke. Three days afterward, in
attempting to cross the bar, the 'Tiger' struck, and remained for some
time; the first of many similar accidents on that wild and dangerous
spot. On the third of July, they sent word of their arrival to Winginia,
the Indian king at Roanoke; and the same day dispatched Captain Arundell
across the sound to the main land, where he found two men who had
arrived twenty days before, in one of the smaller vessels. For the next
ten days, they were engaged in visiting the Indian towns on the main.
Here one of the Indians stole a silver cup. To recover it, a party
visited a town, and not obtaining the cup, burned the houses and spoiled
the corn; 'a mean revenge,' destined to meet a bloody retaliation.

Soon after, the fleet sailed to Hatorask; not the cape or the inlet
which we now call by nearly the same name, but an inlet then nearly
opposite Roanoke, where all those intending to remain were probably
landed. On the twenty-fifth of August, the fleet sailed for England.

The colony, landed on Roanoke, consisted of one hundred and seven
persons, of whom Ralph Lane was the Governor, Amidas, the admiral,
Hariot, the historian and chaplain, and John White the artist. So soon
as they were settled at the island, they began the exploration of the
country. This was done in boats, and entirely toward the south. Visiting
the Neuse and the western shore of Pamlico Sound, they explored
Currituck, on the east; while on the north, they penetrated to the
distance of one hundred and sixty miles, and ascended Moratio, now known
as the Roanoke river, probably more than fifty miles from its mouth.
This was done with extreme labor and peril, as the Indians had deluded
them with a story of mines of gold, and having notice of Lane's coming,
were prepared to attack him. So sanguine were the party of finding
mines, and yet so reduced, that they still pushed on, though they once
found that they had but a half-pint of corn for a man, besides two
mastiffs, upon the pottage of which, with sassafras leaves, they might
subsist for two days. They returned safe, however, without any of the
precious metals which they had made such exertions to find. Lane also
explored the Chowan, or, as he called it, the Chowanook. The king of
this country gave him much information respecting the territory, which
proved to be perfectly truthful.

From the Indians, Lane had received intimations of the existence of
Chesapeake Bay,[L] and was desirous of visiting it.

The story of this 'king' of the Chesapeans was full of interest, he
knowing well the route, which Lane communicates, with the plans he
intended to carry out, but which the sudden departure of the colony left
unfulfilled, so that the great bay remained for a few years longer a
mere myth to the English. Of this native king, Lane says:

'He is called Menatonon, a man impotent in his limbs, but
otherwise, for a savage, a very grave and wise man, and of a very
singular good discourse in matters concerning the state, not only
in his own country, and the disposition of his own men, but also
of his neighbors round about him, as well far as near, and of the
commodities that each country yielded. When I had him prisoner
with me for two days that we were together, he gave me more
understanding and light of the country than I have received by all
the searches and savages that I or any of my company have had
conference with.' 'He told me that by going three days' journey up
the Chowanook, (Chowan,) you are within four days' journey over
land north-east to a certain king's country, which lays upon the
sea; but his greatest place of strength is an island,[M] as he
described to me, in a bay, the water round about it very deep.

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