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

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... He also signified to me that this king had so great a quantity
of pearl as that not only his own skins that he wears and his
gentlemen and followers are full set with the pearl, but also his
beds and houses are garnished with them.' 'He showed me certain
pearl the said king brought him two years before, but of the worst
sort. He gave me a rope of the same pearl,[N] but they were black
and nought;--many of them were very large, etc. It seemed to me
that the said king had traffic with white men that had clothes as
we have.' ... 'The king of Chowanook promised to give me guides to
go into that king's country, but he advised me to take good store
of men and victual with me.' ... 'And I had resolved, had supplies
have come in a reasonable time, to have undertaken it.'

He goes on to state that he would have sent two small pinnaces to the
northward, to have discovered the bay he speaks of, while he, with all
the small boats and two hundred men, would have gone up the Chowanook
with the guides, whom he would have kept in manacles, to the head of the
river, where he would have left his boats, and raised a small trench
with a palisado on it, and left thirty men to guard the boats and
stores. Then he would have marched two days' journey, and raised another
'sconce,' or small fort, and left fifteen or twenty men near a
corn-field, so that they might live on that. Then, in two days more, he
would have reached the bay, where he would have built his main fort, and
removed his colony.

It is interesting, at this time, to see how Lane would, with the caution
and boldness of a good soldier, have passed up the broad estuary of the
Chowan to 'where it groweth to be as narrow as the Thames between
Lambeth and Westminster,' and so on, and turning into the Blackwater,
which he would have navigated probably to where it is now crossed by the
railroad, he would have been within fifty or sixty miles of the bay.
While we write, General Burnside is pursuing the same route, not to
capture from a savage tribe, but from a rebellious and traitorous
people, the same domain.

The same chief or king gave Lane a fanciful account of the Moratio
river, which we now call the Roanoke. He says:

'This river opens into the broad sound of Weapomeiok, (Albemarle,)
and the other rivers and sounds show no current, but in calm
weather are moved by the wind. This river of Moratio has so swift
a current from the West, that I thought it would with oars scarce
be navigable; the current runs as strong as at London bridge. The
savages do report strange things of the head of the river, which
was thirty days' voyage; that it springs out of a great rock, and
makes a most violent stream; and that this rock stands so near
unto the South Sea, that in storms the waves beat into the stream
and make it brackish.'

This river he afterward explored. But ere long, either from oppression
or fear of the English, the Indians assumed a hostile attitude, and laid
plans to surprise them. The English had to be continually on their
guard, and in the mean time famine compelled them to leave Roanoke in
large parties, to obtain subsistence from the corn-fields, or proceed
along the coast for shell-fish.

About the first of June, 1586, Lane, with a party, left the island,
proceeding across the sound, and by a stratagem, hardly authorized in an
honorable soldier, captured and killed the chief of the country and many
of his people.

In the mean time, he was on the look-out for ships from England, with
supplies, and had sent Captain Stafford, with a party, to 'Croatan,'
probably at or near what is now known as Cape Lookout, to discover their
approach. Suddenly, he reported a great fleet of twenty sail in sight,
which proved to be the squadron commanded by the celebrated Sir Francis
Drake, who was returning from one of his expeditions among the Spanish
settlements in the West-Indies. When Drake left England, he was directed
to look after Raleigh's colony, and had accordingly brought a letter to
Lane. He anchored his fleet opposite Roanoke, (probably just off 'Nagg's
Head,' now celebrated as the scene of the temporary sojourn and flight
of Governor Wise,) and supplied them with the needed provisions. He also
made them an offer of one of his small vessels, which they very gladly
accepted.

But a storm, which continued for many days, came upon them; the promised
bark was driven to sea; the open roadstead, where the larger ships were
compelled to anchor, made Roanoke an undesirable location, and as the
time had long expired when the promised reinforcements should have
arrived from England, this disappointment, together with the hostilities
of the Indians, so discouraged the leaders of the colony, that they
solicited and obtained from Drake a passage to England. On the
nineteenth of June, after a little less than a year's residence in the
new land, they all sailed for home, and Roanoke Island was left in
solitude.

It is somewhat singular that with all the wars, famine, and privations
of these adventurers, not a solitary death occurred during the time they
spent here.

It certainly speaks much for the salubrity of the climate, as well as
for the care of the officers who were in command. They all arrived
safely in England, about the last of July.[O]

[Foonote O: After Lane returned home, he obtained some celebrity as a
soldier, in various wars, and was knighted. His narrative, addressed to
Raleigh, as printed in Hakluyt, would prove him possessed of much
energy. As the first Governor of an American colony, his name has been
kept in remembrance. Had the supply-ship arrived but a few weeks sooner,
he might have remained, and his colony have been the progenitors of the
English race on this continent.]

Among the eminent men who accompanied Lane, and passed nearly a year at
Roanoke, was Thomas Hariot, an Oxford scholar and a celebrated
mathematician. He went out in the expedition as historian and
naturalist, to make a topographical and scientific survey and report of
the country and its commodities, duties fulfilled by him in the most
faithful manner. His report was published in London, in 1588, under the
title of _A Brief and True Report of the New-found Land in Virginia, of
the Commodities found there, etc._ It was, in 1590, put into Latin, and
published by Theodore de Bry, at Frankfort, with about thirty curious
engravings, from the designs of John White, the artist who accompanied
the expedition. These pictures are exceedingly well executed, by eminent
Dutch artists, and a number of them give undoubtedly the exact portraits
of many of the principal Indians, with their costumes and habits, as
they were before they were changed by intercourse with the Europeans,
showing us their original condition.

The Aborigines were certainly further advanced in agriculture and
civilization than has been generally supposed, and probably much more
than the tribes who resided further north. To all who are curious in the
history of the early inhabitants of North-America, this work will be
found of extraordinary interest. It may be observed that the maps of the
coast which it contains are remarkably correct, and at the same time
indicate many important changes to have since occurred. But its greatest
value is its description of the 'commodities' or valuable productions,
of daily use and commercial value, which were found here. Thus, under
the Indian name of _Uppowoc_, Hariot gives a description of the
tobacco-plant,[O] which had been previously known to the Spaniards.
This, however, seems to have been its earliest introduction to the
English, and it was carried home by them 'to the nobility.' In the
account of this plant, we are told that it is so esteemed by the Indians
that they even think their gods are delighted with it. Our chronicler
further says: 'We were in the habit of using this plant for our
diseases, as the natives did, and have continued the practice since our
return.' It was only used to smoke; the natives were never guilty of
chewing it.' Among the roots, it mentions _Openauk_, which must have
been what we call the pea-nut, which is now largely cultivated along
that coast, and is quite an article of commerce. They also found here
the sweet potato and various kinds of squashes and melons, as well as
many varieties of beans, some of which are still cultivated extensively
in that region.

It also describes a root which grows sometimes as large as a human head;
this must have been what is now known as the _tanger_. But the greatest
discovery of all was the potato, which has been of such inestimable
benefit to mankind. This, which they carried home, was cultivated by
Raleigh, on his estate in Ireland, and thence disseminated through
Europe. Doubt has been thrown over this statement by the fact that
botanists have been unable to find this plant in North-America in an
indigenous state, and so have concluded that it never grew here at all.
Our volume, however, proves that it was cultivated by the natives, as
were corn, beans, and tobacco. Of it, Hariot speaks as follows:

'_Kaishuopenauk_ is a kind of white root of the size of a hen's
egg, and almost similar in form; it did not seem to be of a very
pleasant taste, and consequently we did not take any particular
pains to learn its history, yet the natives cook and eat them.'

Scarcely any part of our country has a greater variety of plants and
trees than this vicinity. It will be found an interesting field for
botanists.

Only a few days had elapsed after the departure of the colonists, when a
ship, prepared and furnished with supplies from Raleigh, arrived at
Roanoke. After some days spent by her commander in searching for his
countrymen, he set sail for home. Fifteen days after the departure of
this supply-ship, three vessels, under the command of Sir Richard
Grenville, made their appearance before the place, and when he
ascertained the state of affairs, his disappointment was extreme. He,
however, made extensive explorations, and leaving fifteen men to reside
at Roanoke and keep possession of the country, departed for home. One
would suppose that Raleigh, by this time, would have become disheartened
by his disappointments in America; but he was now at the hight of his
prosperity, and seemed never to despair of the final success of this his
favorite project. The following year, 1587, a new expedition was fitted
out under the charge of John White, as Governor, with twelve assistants.
They were to found the city of Raleigh, in Virginia. This fleet of three
ships left Plymouth on the fifth of May, and after making a short stay
at the West-India Islands, sailed for our coast, reaching it on the
sixteenth of July. They a second time barely escaped a wreck on Cape
Fear shoals, but anchored safely at Hatorask, on the twenty-seventh of
the same month. They had been directed by Raleigh to visit Roanoke, and
then proceed to the Chesapeake and there land the colony which they had
transported. The Governor and party landed on Roanoke Island, and
proceeded to the place (probably on the side next the sea) where Sir
Richard Grenville left fifteen men the year previous. They found,
however, only the skeleton of one, who with his companions had probably
been slain by the savages. The next day they repaired to the south end
of the island, where Lane had built his fort and houses. No human being
was to be seen, and thus the fate of the fifteen was confirmed.

The commander of this fleet was Simeon Fernando, a prominent officer in
the two previous expeditions, who no doubt had given satisfaction to
Lane, for his name was given to the fort at Roanoke. But the chronicles,
in this instance, have charged him with treachery, he having refused to
proceed to the Chesapeake. In consequence of this refusal, the colony
remained here, occupying the buildings erected by Lane. The Indians soon
gave proof of hostility by attacking and murdering one of the
assistants. Master Stafford, who had previously been with Lane,
accompanied by the Indian Manteo, (who came with them from England,)
with twenty others, passed over to the mainland, and renewed their
former intercourse with the Indians. The natives claimed to be friendly,
and related how the fifteen were murdered by the tribe that once
inhabited Roanoke. This party again visited the mainland on the ninth of
August, and falling in with a party of natives, whom they supposed to be
hostile, attacked and killed a number, but subsequently learned that
they were of a friendly tribe. On the thirteenth of August Manteo was
christened and announced as Lord of Roanoke, in reward for his faithful
service. How far he understood the meaning or value of the rite, we are
unable to state; but the tendency of the act to influence the natives to
regard the Europeans with more favor, can be readily implied.

The first child of English blood born upon this continent, (August
18th,) was 'Virginia' Dare, a granddaughter of the Governor. At the
expiration of the time when the ships were to return home, it was
thought advisable to send one of the principal men with them to make
sure that supplies should be forwarded by their friends; but so
satisfied were the majority with their present prospects, that it was a
difficult matter to find one willing to go. At the last moment, finding
all else so reluctant to leave, the Governor, John White, decided to
return in person, and sailed, in company with the returning ships, on
the twenty-fifth of August, leaving at Roanoke one hundred and seventeen
persons to an unknown fate. He, with his vessel and her consorts,
arrived safely in England.

The ship in which the Governor embarked, reached England in November,
1587. The succeeding year was, perhaps, as trying for that country as
any it had ever experienced, the fear of the Spanish invasion and its
consequences, being the absorbing theme of public attention. No doubt
White had in view the best interests of his colony; he knew the
condition of the colonists, and that their prosperity and perhaps their
lives depended on his reinforcing them. But the war was imperative, and
demanded the services of all. Raleigh, Lane, and White had important
positions assigned them, and all gained a reputation for valor. It was
not, therefore, till two years later, that White was able to embark for
the colony, and then without either men or provisions; as he expresses
it, 'with only myself and my chest.'

The ships put to sea on the twentieth of March, and lingered among the
West-India Islands till the last of July, when, proceeding on their
voyage, they anchored off old Hatorask Inlet on the fifteenth of August.
Here they descried a great smoke issuing from Roanoke, which gave White
great hopes of meeting the friends he had left three years before. The
party landed with much difficulty, explored the island, and found that
the smoke proceeded from the burning of grass and dead trees. Footprints
of savages were seen in the sand, but to the sound of their voices and
their trumpet-calls there was no response.

Circumnavigating the island, they went to the north end, where a colony
had been left, and where they saw letters cut in the bark of a tree,
indicating that the settlers had gone to Croatan, (Cape Lookout.)

They found the fort deserted and dilapidated, and within it, guns, bars
of iron, and lead, thrown on the ground, with weeds growing over them;
and they afterward discovered buried in a trench, several chests, some
containing property of White, and among it his own armor.

He was now anxious to proceed to Croatan, but a severe storm coming on
compelled the ships, after losing men and anchors, to put to sea. As it
continued, they bore away for home, leaving Roanoke to solitude.

It is probable that the colony found the Indians hostile, and despairing
of relief from home, abandoned the island and proceeded to Croatan,
where they ultimately perished. However, a writer who resided in the
country more than a century after, says there were traditions among a
tribe that inhabited the coast, that their ancestors were white people,
and could talk in a book, and many of the children had gray eyes, which
are never seen among natives of pure blood.

Raleigh is said to have sent three several times to ascertain their
fate, but without any success. In some of the memoirs of the later
Virginia settlements, which have recently been printed, there are
references to persons said to have been recovered from Raleigh's colony
on Roanoke, but they are indirect, and only show that tradition was busy
with their fate. There can be no doubt every soul perished on this
isolated coast.

The ancient history of Roanoke closed with the departure of Raleigh's
last ship, and the natives resumed possession of their favorite spots.

The Chesapeake was entered, and Jamestown settled, in 1607; and although
the bold explorer of the bay and rivers, Captain John Smith, was
desirous of sending a party to look after the lost colony, it was never
done. Years passed away, and the grant of Carolina embraced all the
country once claimed and occupied by Raleigh and his colonists.

In 1653, an adventurer from Virginia, with a small craft, entered
Currituck Inlet and visited Roanoke. Here he found residing a great
Indian chief, with whom he made a treaty of peace and alliance, which
led to a purchase of land and to a long intimacy. A house for the chief
was built like the English dwellings, and his son was confided to the
English to be educated. The young chief embraced Christianity, and was
baptized.

At this time the ruins of Lane's fort were plainly visible, and the
natives were familiar with its history.

The first permanent settlement in what is now North-Carolina, can not be
traced to an earlier date than 1656. It was on the shores of Albermarle
Sound, some forty miles from Roanoke.

Almost coeval with this came small vessels from New-England, to trade,
first for furs and peltry, and soon after to exchange their own
productions and those of the West-Indies for the tobacco, corn, naval
stores, and lumber of the country; and for the succeeding century our
people were almost entirely the merchants and carriers of all this
region. As a consequence some of them permanently settled here, and many
of the merchants of Boston held extensive tracts of land obtained by
grants or purchase.

Our public records contain many references to these, and among others we
find a grant of the Island of Roanoke, as early as 1676, to Joshua Lamb,
of New-England. It would seem that it was then settled, and had houses
and buildings,[P] and probably had been occupied for many years, and
perhaps antedated the settlements before referred to, thus making it the
first place permanently settled in North-Carolina.

In 1785, more than a century after, the following appears in the
inventory of the estate of a resident of Boston:

'In the State of North Carolina--one half of Roanoke Island, valued at
L184 6s. 8d.'

Lawson, the very truthful historian of this country, who wrote about
1700, says:

'A settlement had been begun on that part of Roanoke Island, where
the ruins of a fort are to be seen this day, as well as some old
English coins, which have been lately found, and a brass gun, and
a powder-horn, and one small quarter-deck gun, made of iron
staves, hooped with the same material, which method of making guns
might probably be used in those days for infant colonies.'

In time, the settlers extended over the Island, and slowly and quietly
partially cultivated it. They were from the humblest class. Slavery,
with its consequences, never came here, and the small farms were
'worked' by their owners and their sons.

Many years ago the writer visited Roanoke. It was then, to a great
extent, covered with its original growth of pines and oaks; the whole
population, being only three or four hundred, a simple, industrious
community, who alternated their agricultural labors with fishing in the
adjacent waters, and sometimes navigating their small vessels to
neighboring ports. He then visited the site of Lane's fort, the present
remains of which are very slight, being merely the wreck of an
embankment. This has at times been excavated by parties who hoped to
find some deposit which would repay the trouble, but with little
success, a vial of quicksilver being the only relic said to have been
found. This article was doubtless to be used in discovering deposits of
the precious metals by the old adventurers. While walking through the
lonely forests the mind of the visitor is involuntarily carried back to
the scenes that took place there, as well as to the actors who centuries
ago passed away. Now silence broods over the place once so active with
life, and nothing but nature remains, while the distant surf is ever
sounding an everlasting requiem to the memory of the brave colonists.

If this brief history had been penned a year ago, the task would have
ended here; but Roanoke has now another chapter to add to the annals of
our country. The great rebellion of 1861 had overshadowed the land, and
its instigators were endeavoring to overthrow a Government whose power
had only been felt by them as the dew of heaven, and with as beneficent
results. The authority of Government was called into action, and Roanoke
Island once more felt the tread of armed men. Hatteras Inlet, now the
principal entrance to these sounds, and well fortified by the
insurgents, was in August of 1861, captured by the Federal forces. The
rebels then concentrated at Roanoke, which is the key to Albemarle
Sound, and an important military position. Here they assembled a large
body of troops and erected strong fortifications, deeming themselves
secure against any force that could be sent against them. General
Burnside left the Chesapeake with a large fleet, and having succeeded in
passing Hatteras Inlet and the bars which encircle it, sailed up the
sound and came to anchor off the lower end of the Island on the sixth of
February, 1862.

On the morning of the seventh the fleet under the command of Captain
Goldsborough, attacked that of the enemy, and after a sharp cannonade,
the rebel vessels were, with one exception, captured or destroyed. As
soon as the naval action ceased, General Burnside landed his troops at
the lower part of the island, where they were forced to wade through mud
and water; but nothing could retard the valor of these New-England
soldiers, who, pressing on toward the centre of the Island, carried the
entrenchments and drove the enemy before them. The rebels retreated to
the northern end of the island and surrendered as prisoners of war, in
number about twenty-five hundred men, with all their stores and
implements.

The fleet and army subsequently visited Edenton, Pascotank, the Chowan,
Neuse, and Roanoke rivers, and planted the National flag over
them--visiting nearly the same shores so long ago explored by Lane and
his adventurers, and like him returning victorious to the headquarters
at Roanoke Island.

* * * * *

A STORY OF MEXICAN LIFE.

'You are an unbelieving set of fellows, and though you admire my rings,
my breastpin, and my studs, and though you willingly accept any stray
gems that I occasionally offer you, still you sneer and laugh at my
mine; but it is no laughing matter, and now that we are all here
together, I suppose I may as well gratify you by telling you all about
it. However, as the yarn is a long one, I will first of all put the
cigars and the wine within reach, so that you can help yourselves during
the recital.

'Soon after our forces had evacuated Mexico, on my return from a long,
tedious journey across the Cordilleras, I hired, what for the city of
Mexico, might be deemed sumptuous apartments, overlooking the Cathedral
Square; so luxurious, in fact, that my Mexican friends were lavish in
their praises, though I confess my American visitors said much less. But
my domicil consisted of only two 'pieces,' one answering for both
bedroom and parlor, while in the other I dressed. Never mind the latter,
for it contained little else than one shelf, which was adorned with a
brown earthen pitcher and a gourd cut in two, for all my washing. My
drawing-room, however, deserves a more elaborate description. The walls
were frescoed, in a peculiarly gorgeous style; garlands of flowers were
represented as twining around piles of fruit, and it was hard to say
whether the profusion of the fruit, or the colors of the flowers, were
the severest tax on the imagination, though I always thought myself,
that they were both surpassed by incredible swarms of impossible
humming-birds, with very gold and silver wings. The floor was covered
with bran new matting, and the bedstead of cedar-wood was also new,
though the bullock-skin on which the mattress rested, had rather an
antiquated air. Moreover, I _had_ a pair of sheets which were not of a
bad color, although slightly patched. In addition, there was a Madonna
hanging on one wall, and a Saint looking at her from the other; and
against a door near the foot of my bed, stood a rocking-chair, which on
my conscience I believe must have been worth at least a dollar and a
half. As the door was fastened up, this rocking-chair was the favorite
resort of my first morning visitor, all subsequent callers having to
choose between the window-sill, the matting, and the bedstead.

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