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

friend. Judge Hall, introduced me to
Dr. Peterson, of St. Louis, very
lo,ucd ana cultured gentleman. who
w,. connected with the chronological
,Iepartment Of the government, and
was engaged in examining Indian
,aounds and in writing up the history
of the Indian tribes, especially of the
svc tribes known az civilized, viz, the
rherokecs, Creeks, Chickasaws, Choc-
t..w. and Seminoles. AS these were
o,r Indians, l became much interest
cd in his discourse, for he had been
careful and diligent in his research,
and what he knew he knew we'll 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
whclm DeSoto aud his handful of fol-
lowers and extinguish them?" Iasked.
Because. said the doctor, ''they
we're paralyzed with fear of this new
and aggressive race of peoplc-just as
the Ieruvians 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 Indi-
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
tlcmau. A few days after landing,
Governor White s daughter, Eleanor,
j who had married Mr. Dare, gave.
birth to child and she was named
Virginia, and so Virginia Dare was the
st English child born on American,
Z soil. Let the boys and girls remem-
Der 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 aud 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
years before they made another ven
ture, and when they arrived at the is
land the eolonys %ssss 9loW here TO be
found, and little Virginia has never
been heard Of. The colony left some
marks on tree pointing to an Indian
town called Croatoan, but the town
vas deserted. The Doctors invasti-
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-for it was
found hundred yearsafter 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 camc nor for a
hundred years after. He believes
,hao Virginia Dare probably grew up
i With those Indians and her descend
| ants arc 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 hztheir guns and said
they wanted to fight some. They;
we're accepted and enrolled and did
! tight for the Confederacy. During the
war there was an election held in a
County where some Of them lived, aud
they were persuaded by an ambitious
candidate to- go. so.the polls and vote
3fOr him. Theirsvotes were challenged
! by tie other fellow npon The ground
that they had some negro hlena :a
their veins. Thg rare very ;Aaig-
! nant aud said .'When you want us to
fight for you we are same as white
folks; when we want to vote, you say
we are nagurs. And so 4 committee
Of four doctors was appointed to ex- 4
anime them and say what they were.
The committee took them ont to q
sandy place in the road and had them.
take off sheir shoes and make tracks.
oarefooted, Five of them made very:
fair Anglo.Saxon tracks and were ne
3eepted, but of the other two the ra-s
port was that the hollow Of their feet
rade holes an Che ground, ana they
we're rejected. There are some of
athese Croatsans on Newman Ridge,
9in Tennessee I mshber chat, some
years ag1, party Of us were dalipg in,
l'ae negro car on the State road, and
3Rhen wa II; !, s,c sr.,s z