The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1897-11-17


DR.. Peterson, of St. Louis: very
learned and cultured gentleman, who
was connected with the chronological
department of the government, and
was engaged in examining Indian
mounds and in writing up the history
of the Indian tribes, especially Of the
five tribes known as civilized, viz, the
Cherokees, Creeks, Chickasaws, Choc-
taws and Seminoles. As these were
our Indians, I became much interest
ed in his discourse, for he had been
careful and diligent in his research,
and what he knew he knew well. We
talked about DeSoto and how, with a
handful of brave soldiers, he overran
this country and took captive as many
Indian girls as his men wanted.
"Why did not these Indians over
whelm DeSoto aud his handful Of fol-
lowers and extinguish them?" Iasked.
Because, said the doctor, they
were paralyzed with fear Of this new
and aggressive race of people-just as
the Peruvians were paralyzed by Pi-
,zarro, who overran and conquered
Peru with less than hundred men.
The doctor has been to eastern
North Carolina investigating the tribe
of 1000 Croatoans over there. They
were originally called Hatteras lndl-
ans, but about three hundred years
ago Sir Walter Raleigh planted colo
ny Of English and Portuguese on
Roanoke Island and put them in
charge of Governor John White, a
very practical and accomplished gen
tleman. A few days after landing,
Governor Whites daughter. Eleanor,
who had married Mr.. Dare, gave
birth to child and she was named
Virginia, and SO Virginia Dare was the
first English child born on American
soil. Let the boys and girls remcm-
ber that. But no man knows any
thing more about her. Governor
White and Sir Walter went back to
England for supplies and. farming
tools for the colony and on their re-
turn trip got into fight with some
Spanish cruisers and lost their cargo
and many of their men and had to go
back to England, and it was several
wears before they made another ven
ture. and when they arrived at the is
land the colony was nowhere to be
found, and little Virginia has never
been heard of. The colony left some
marks on a tree pointing to az Indian
town called Croatoan, but the town
was deserted The doctors investi-
cations have satisfied him that the
colony did not perish nor were they
killed, but that the men wanted wives
and went into the interior and CO.
habited with the Croatoans-fcrltW 1t was
found a hundred years after that these
Indians were of mixed colors and
many of them spoke broken or mixed
English and Portuguese, although
they had no intercourse with white
people until the colony came nor Tor a
hundred years after. He believes
that Virginia Dare probably grew up
with those Indians and her descend
ants are now of mixed blood.
1t seems that these Croatoans were
never Americanized until the last
civil war. when many of them came to
the front with their guns and SAID
they wanted to fight some. They
were accepted and enrolled and did
fight for the Confederacy. During the
war there was an election held IN
County where some of them lived. and
they were persuaded by an ambitious
candidate to go to the polls aud vote
for him. Their votes were challenged
by :E.e other fellow upon the ground
that they had some negro blood IN
their veins. They were very lndlg'
nant and said 'iWhcn you want rs tc
fight for YOU we are same as white
folks: when We want to vote, you say
we are nagurs." And so a committee
Of four doctors vas appointed to eX
anime them and say what they were
The committee took them out to
sandy place in the road and had then
take off their shoes and make track:
barefooted. Five of them made very
fair Auglo-Saxon tracks and were ac
eepted, but of the other two the re
port was that the hollow of their fee
made holes in the ground, and they
were rejected There are some O.
these Croatoans on Newman S Ridge
in Tennessee. | remember that, som'
years ago, party of us were riding IL
the negro car on the State road, ant