Part 3

Governor White could not finance another expedition to America himself, and Raleigh, although enjoying a large income at times, spent lavishly. Some of the money and energy that might have gone into the Virginian enterprise, Raleigh expended, during 1587-1602, in colonizing estates which he had received in Ireland. The Virginian enterprise would have required a prince's purse, but Raleigh was not a prince. Walsingham died in 1590, a blow to Raleigh. In July 1592, Raleigh was disgraced and imprisoned for marrying Elizabeth Throckmorton without the Queen's knowledge or consent. White, therefore, accepted the facts with resignation. His last recorded words, dated February 4, 1593, are: "And wanting my wishes, I leave off from prosecuting that whereunto I would to God my wealth were answerable to my will."

As late as 1602, Raleigh was still seeking in vain for his lost colony. In that year he sent out an expedition under Samuel Mace, who reached land some "40 leagues to the so-westward of Hatarask," presumably at or near Croatoan Island. Here they engaged in trading with the Indians along the coast. They probably did not look as diligently as they should have for the lost colonists, because they alleged that the weather made their intended search unsafe. On August 21, 1602, in a letter to Sir Robert Cecil, Raleigh expressed his undying faith in the overseas English Empire which he had attempted to establish, saying, "... I shall yet live to see it an English Nation." The memory of the Lost Roanoke Colony by that time had become an imperishable English tradition. After the establishment of the Jamestown settlement in Virginia in 1607, the Virginia colonists evidenced an almost constant interest in trying to learn from the Indians the whereabouts of the Roanoke settlers. However, the hearsay data they collected were never sufficiently concrete to be of any real assistance in locating Raleigh's men, and the answer remains a mystery to this day.

_Connecting Links with Jamestown and New England_

Following his marriage to Elizabeth Throckmorton, which displeased the Queen, Raleigh remained out of favor until after the capture of Cadiz, in 1596, in which he had participated. Upon the accession of King James I, in 1603, he again lost favor at Court and on July 16, 1603, was imprisoned in the Tower of London on the charge of having conspired to place Arabella Stuart on the throne instead of James. At the trial in November, Raleigh, along with Lords Cobham and Grey, was convicted and condemned to death. The lives of all three were dramatically spared at the last minute, but the conviction and sentence of death against Raleigh were allowed to stand and he remained in prison in the Tower until 1616.

One consequence of the conviction of Raleigh was the loss of any rights that he might still have had under the patent of 1584 giving him the sole right to colonize the vast territory called Virginia. The patent had obligated him to settle Virginia within 6 years but so long as the mystery of the Lost Colonists remained unsolved, Raleigh could allege that his colonists might be living somewhere in Virginia and that in consequence his rights under the Charter of Queen Elizabeth were still in force. These claims he asserted as late as 1603. In fact, the abolition of Raleigh's claims appears to have been one of the outstanding consequences of the Cobham plot trails. Because his patent was now clearly lost and because of his imprisonment, Raleigh was unable to participate in the movement that culminated in the settlement of Virginia in 1607. Yet this movement, and the movement to settle New England, had close ties with him. Among the leading spirits behind the later successful Virginian enterprise were Richard Hakluyt and Sir Thomas Smythe, two of those to whom Raleigh had deeded his interest in the Lost Colony undertaking on March 7, 1589. Likewise, among the early leaders of the North Virginia, or Plymouth, group were Raleigh Gilbert and Sir John Gilbert, sons of Raleigh's half-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert. Raleigh Gilbert participated in the effort to plant a settlement on the Kennebec River in Maine in 1607 and was a member of the Plymouth Company as late as 1620.

_Later Historical Information on Fort Raleigh_

According to a letter, dated May 8, 1654, from Francis Yeardley, of Virginia, to John Farrar, a young trader and three companions went to Roanoke Island in September 1653. An Indian Chieftain "received them civilly and showed them the ruins of Sir Walter Raleigh's fort." They brought back a sure token of their having been there, which they gave to Yeardley.

John Lawson wrote that the ruins of the fort could be seen in 1709 and that old English coins, a brass gun, a powder horn and a small quarter-deck gun made of iron staves and hooped with iron had been found on the site.

An act of 1723 regarding a proposed town on Roanoke Island speaks of "300 Acres of Land lying on the No. E't side of the said Island, commonly called Roanoke old plantation," thus suggesting that at that date the northeastern part of the island was regarded as the scene of Raleigh's settlements.

The earliest known map to show Fort Raleigh is the Collet map of 1770, which indicates a fort on the northeast side of the island near the shore line at what appears to be the present Fort Raleigh site. It is marked simply "Fort," without name. A later copyist calls it "Pain Fort," probably because he confused the notation of Paine's residence on the Collet map (in different type from "Fort") as part of the fort name. Benson J. Lossing, the historian, wrote in 1850 that "slight traces of Lane's fort" could then be seen "near the north end" of Roanoke Island. Edward C. Bruce reported in _Harper's New Monthly Magazine_, May 1860, that the trench of the fort was clearly traceable as a square of about 40 yards each way, with one corner thrown out in the form of a small bastion. He also mentions fragments of stone and brick. Partial archeological excavation of the fort was undertaken by Talcott Williams in 1895. Additional archeological excavations by the National Park Service were undertaken in 1947, 1948, and 1950.

ROANOKE SOUND WATERSIDE THEATER OF 'THE LOST COLONY' PRODUCTION SOUVENIR SHOP VISITOR CENTER THOMAS HARIOT TRAIL RESTORED FORT STOCKADE ENTRANCE PARKING 345 TO MANTEO. 3 MILES JULY 1960 NHS-RAL-7003

_Recent History of Fort Raleigh_

On April 30, 1894, the Roanoke Colony Memorial Association purchased the fort and 10 acres of surrounding land for memorial purposes. In 1896, the memorial area was extended to 16.45 acres, and the Virginia Dare monument was erected. In order to promote a more active program of interpretation at Fort Raleigh, the Roanoke Island Historical Association was organized in 1932. With Federal aid a series of buildings, constituting a symbolical restoration and an open-air theater, were constructed. In 1935, the area became a State historical park under the administration of the North Carolina Historical Commission. Two years later, the production of Paul Green's _Lost Colony_ pageant-drama attracted Nation-wide attention to Fort Raleigh. The immediate success of the play caused it to be repeated each season, and the performance is now recognized as America's outstanding folk play.

_Guide to the Area_

THE BOUNDARY STOCKADE.

You enter Fort Raleigh National Historic Site between two small block houses built of logs, constituting a part of the boundary stockade. This stockade is of modern construction, and originally it marked the boundary of the 16.45 acre tract of the Roanoke Island Historical Association which was administered as a North Carolina State historical park between 1935-41. In 1951, one side of the stockade was relocated and the area of the national historic site was increased to 18.50 acres. Although quite modern and located along a modern boundary, it recalls that Governor White on returning to the site of the colony in 1590 found it fortified by a palisade of tree trunks (location still unknown) and hence creates a sense of stepping upon hallowed ground upon entering the gateway. The feeling is certainly justified, because the 18.50 acres lie on the entrance side of the fort and even if the fort had held only Grenville's 15 men they would have trod this ground many times. As there were 108 persons in the first colony under Lane, who built the fort, and 150 in the "Lost Colony," the use of the area near the entrance to this fort must have been considerable.

SYMBOLIC LOG HOUSES.

Inside the boundary stockade you will pass a number of log houses, all of modern construction, serving various utilitarian purposes. As the true location and physical appearances of the settlers' houses of 1585-87 are unknown, the National Park Service plans to remove these log structures when their present uses have been served.

RESTORED FORT.

The historic object of chief interest at Fort Raleigh is the fort built by Ralph Lane during 1585-86 and called by him "the new Fort in Virginia." As the settlers of the Lost Colony of 1587 are known to have rebuilt for their own use the houses which Lane's men constructed about the fort, it may be safely assumed that this same fort served them also for a time, at least until they found it necessary to erect the great stockade made of tree trunks that Governor White found enclosing their settlement area in 1590.

In an earlier part of this book, the history of the fort between 1586 and 1896 has been traced. During 1935-46, National Park Service historians made intensive historical studies of all available documentary and map data relating to the fort. They concluded that the fort surveyed for the Roanoke Colony Historical Association, in 1896, was Lane's fort and surmised that its shape was similar to that of the fort built by Lane in Puerto Rico in 1585. They could only surmise this because, unlike Lane's fort in Puerto Rico which is shown in a drawing by John White now in the British Museum, no picture or plan of Lane's fort on Roanoke Island has survived. National Park Service archeological work carried on under the direction of Archeologist J. C. Harrington during the summers of 1947, 1948, and 1950 established the truth of the conjectures of the historians. The true shape of the fort was made known. Enough of the fort moat, or ditch, was found intact to justify the restoration of the fort, and valuable artifact materials were recovered at the fort site and west of the fort entrance.

As the fort stands today, the greater part of the ditch is the original moat of 1585-86, but the parapet has been restored. In the interval between 1586 and 1947, wind, rain, and snow had washed the parapet of the fort into the fort ditch. Leaf mold had also accumulated there. Archeological studies of these materials indicated that the fort was of great age. After careful archeological work at the fort and its environs in 1947 and 1948, it was decided in 1950 to restore the fort which had been shown to be the remains of an Elizabethan work. The earthen fill was removed from the ditch, or moat, of the fort and was placed where the parapet had been and the parapet built up once more. Except for the fact that the archeologists worked slowly with painstaking care to follow the lines of the original ditch, and Lane's soldiers must have worked rapidly with shovels, the new and the old process of building the parapet of the fort must have been much the same. The amount of earth in the original ditch, as disclosed through archeological methods, determined the height of the parapet, which was shaped in accordance with normal angles of repose and data from contemporary manuals on fortification such as Paul Ive's, _The Practice of Fortification_, (London, 1589).

Lane's fort, as revealed and restored by the archeologist, is basically a square, with pointed bastions built on two sides of the square and an octagonal bastion built on the third side of the square. This last-mentioned bastion is suggestive of the arrowhead bastion of Lane's Puerto Rican fort as pictured by John White. It is also suggestive of the octagonal bastion shown on the plan of St. George's fort built in Maine by Popham in 1607. As the fort carries the distinctive features of Lane's Puerto Rican fort, the pointed bastions built on the sides of the square instead of at the corners as in later fortification technique (a system either peculiar to Lane or at least quite rare), the conclusion is irresistible that Lane was the original builder.

The parapet of the fort encloses an area approximately 50 feet square. The interior had been dug into so many times and in so many places by Indians, later settlers, soldiers of the Civil War period, and by Talcort Williams that the National Park Service archeologist was unable to say for sure what structures had been inside of the fort. Traces of what may have been one long structure or two short ones were found near the center of the fort at right angles to the main entrance. Presumably, there were a well and a powder magazine. The few brickbats found may relate to the footings or chimneys of the structure, or structures, in the fort or to the magazine. The one measurable side of one of the brick fragments found was of the proper gauge to have been of the Elizabethan period, when the sizes of bricks were regulated by law.

The location of the fort, not far from the water's edge, commanding a channel of Roanoke Sound in use for small boats even in later colonial times, bespeaks its purpose of defending the colonists not only against the Indians but also against an always probable attack from Spain. An enemy ship approaching from Port Ferdinando (Hatoraske) or Trinety Harbor, north of Hatoraske, would have come under the guns of the fort, consisting of some brass cannon and at least "four iron fowlers" (light cannon). Some of the cannon fired "iron saker shot," which would be iron balls weighing about 6 pounds. Today, large dunes lie between the fort and the sound and obstruct the view. However, as archeological tests show that the dunes are later than the period of settlement, it is clear that the fort originally commanded a view of Roanoke Sound.

PRESUMED LOCATION OF THE SETTLEMENT.

As has been indicated, the house sites of the colonists have never been found. They are described as having been decent dwelling houses near the fort and "about" the fort. They were probably built on the ground without basements or firm footings. This would explain the difficulty of finding traces of them. The location of the fort entrance on the west side would suggest that the main settlement lay west of that point, toward the upper end of the island. A more precise statement than this cannot be made at the present time.

GUN EMBRASURE RAMP DITCH FIRING STEP GUN PLATFORM STOCKADE TOP OF EMBANKMENT APRIL 1952 NMS-RAL-7003

THE TEMPORARY MUSEUM.

Not far from the fort is a modern log structure used as a temporary museum. Besides housing such objects of historical interest as documents relating to Raleigh's family, pieces of armor, and the rare facsimile reproductions in color of the remarkable water-color drawings made in America by John White during 1585-86, the museum contains objects which were recovered at the fort site and elsewhere on the grounds of the national historic site during the archeological excavations of 1947, 1948, and 1950.

Among the many objects brought to light is a wrought-iron sickle found in the very bottom of the fort ditch. Undoubtedly, it was one of the tools used at the time of the building of the fort, because archeological evidence shows that the loose dirt of the parapet of the fort began to wash back into the ditch almost as soon as the fort was completed. Even more interesting, perhaps, are three copper, or brass, counters, popular in Europe for keeping arithmetical accounts during the sixteenth century, which were found inside the fort. They carry the symbols of Tudor England and on one the name _Hans Schultes Zu Nuremberg_ is readable. Schultes is known to have manufactured such counters in Nuremberg between 1550 and 1574, at which time Nuremberg was a center for the making of counters. He undoubtedly made this one for the English trade, as the Tudor symbols indicate. Likewise, of great interest are the fragments of large Spanish olive jars found in the excavations. As the colonists of 1585-86 traded in Puerto Rico and Haiti, in the Spanish West Indies, for goods and supplies on their way to Roanoke Island, it was to be expected that objects of this type would be found.

Fragments of _maiolica_ were also found, which appear to be either Spanish or Hispano-American. In addition, large iron spikes, buckles, a casement bar and other materials of interest came to light. Indian pottery and traces of Indian campfires found at various soil levels show that the Indians returned to Roanoke Island and inhabited the fort area after the last colonists had left.

THE WATERSIDE THEATER.

At the water's edge is the theater of the Roanoke Island Historical Association, in which Paul Green's _Lost Colony_ symphonic drama is given annually during the summer season through the cooperation of the State of North Carolina and the National Park Service.

_The National Historic Site_

Fort Raleigh was transferred to the National Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior in 1940. On April 5, 1941, it was designated Fort Raleigh National Historic Site under provision of the act of Congress commonly referred to as the Historic Sites Act, approved August 21, 1935 (49 Stat. 666), to commemorate Sir Walter Raleigh's colonies and the birthplace of Virginia Dare, first child of English parentage to be born in the New World. The area of the site in Federal ownership is 18.50 acres and embraces part of the settlement sites of 1585 and 1587 and the fort site. By a cooperative agreement between the Roanoke Island Historical Association and the United States, the play, the _Lost Colony_, continues to be given each season in the Waterside Theater at Fort Raleigh. This arrangement provides for the unhampered production of the play with all of its creative folk qualities. The income from the play is dedicated to the maintenance of the theater, the next season's production, and the expansion and development of the historic Site.

_How to Reach the Site_

Fort Raleigh National Historic Site is 3 miles north of Manteo, N. C. on State Route 345. It is 92 miles southeast of Norfolk, Va., and 67 miles southeast of Elizabeth City, N. C. From Norfolk, Va., take Virginia and North Carolina Routes 170 and 34 to junction of U. S. 158, then over U. S. 158 to Manteo. Manteo may be reached also from Elizabeth City, N. C., over U. S. 158.

Traffic from the south and west can reach the site by the route from Elizabeth City, or from Washington, N. C., over U. S. 264, or from Williamston, N. C., over U. S. 64.

_Administration_

Fort Raleigh National Historic Site is administered by the National Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior. Communications and inquiries should be addressed to the Superintendent, Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, Manteo, N. C.

_Related Areas_

Other historical areas in the East associated with early colonization of America, which are administered by the National Park Service, are Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, Fla.; De Soto National Memorial, Fla.; Fort Matanzas National Monument, Fla.; San Juan National Historic Site, Puerto Rico; Ackia Battleground National Monument, Miss.; Colonial National Historical Park (Jamestown, Yorktown, and Cape Henry Memorial), Va.; Fort Frederica National Monument, Ga.; and Fort Caroline National Memorial, Fla.

_About Your Visit_

Fort Raleigh National Historic Site is open the entire year. Information and literature may be obtained in the museum. Organizations and groups are given special service if arrangements are made in advance with the superintendent. The _Lost Colony_, pageant-drama, is produced in the Waterside Theater between June and September at night according to hours and dates fixed by the sponsoring Roanoke Island Historical Association.

_Suggested Readings_

Hakluyt, Richard. _The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation._ Vol. VIII. Glasgow, Scotland. 1904.

Hariot, Thomas. _A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia._ (A reproduction of the edition printed at Frankfort, in 1590, by Theodore de Bry, edited by W. H. Rylands for the Holbein Society) Manchester, England. 1888.

Harrington, J. C. Archeological Explorations at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, in _North Carolina Historical Review_, Vol. XXVI, No. 2, April 1949.

Ive, Paul. _The Practise of Fortification._ London, 1589.

Oré, Luis Geronimo de. _The Martyrs of Florida, 1513-1616._ Translated by Maynard Geiger Franciscan Studios No. 18. New York. 1936.

Porter, Charles W. III. Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, North Carolina, in _North Carolina Historical Review_. Vol. XX, No. 1. 1943.

Quinn, David B. _Raleigh and the British Empire._ New York. 1949.

.... _The Roanoke Voyages 1584-1590._ (Documents to illustrate the Voyages to North America under the Patent Granted to Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584.) 2 vols. The Hakluyt Society. London, England. 1955.

Reding, Katherine. Letter of Gonzalo Mendez de Canzo to Philip II, in _Georgia Historical Quarterly_. Vol. VIII. 1924.

Rowse, A. L. _Sir Richard Granville of the Revenge._ Boston and New York. 1937.

Williams, Talcott. The Surroundings and Site of Raleigh's Colony, in _Annual Report of the American Historical Association for 1895_. Washington, D. C. 1896.

U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1965 OF-775-458

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE HISTORICAL HANDBOOK SERIES

(Price lists of National Park Service publications may be obtained from the Superintendent of Documents, Washington 25, D.C.)