The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-02-20
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ietrh.s Feet neanehe Cetsay.

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Frou te PAEadeipAta Record.
ST. LOUIS, Feb. 13.-Former United State
Senator Hiram r. Roveis Of Mississippi has al
ways been ciassed as q negro. lie was q tall
well-built man, with the chocolate skin and curb
hair Of an African and the devout bearing Of hi
professionally ministerial. He served during
the reconstruction period. never beng known
as \ prominent. but always as a representative
colorcd man. Revels was not q negro. DIR. c
A. Peterson OF 81. Louis. who has made a study
OF the lost Roanoke wal colony. says tina,
Revels Is a descendant Of that mystery. shrouded
band that Sir Walter Raleigh sent to Roanoke
Island In 1887.
The historian has usually contented himself
with dropping his Investigations when he
reached the point where Gov. John White re.
turned from England and found his colony had
disappeared from Roanoke Island" said DIR.
Peterson. land you will find In about every his.
tory you pick mp the statement that the colo
nists were probably killed by the Indians. The
Roanoke colony consisted Of us unmarried
men and twenty who had families. They were
sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh In 1887, in charge
Of John White, who was an appointed Governor.
Ananias Dare. his son.in-law, was Vicc-Gov-
erpor. and during 1887 his wife gave birth TO a
daughter. the first white child born In America,
and she was called Virginia Dare.
During the summer u tribe OF Croatan In
dians. who lived some nfty miles away on the
cas; shore OF what is now North CHroiina-thc
whole country was then called Nirginia-vis-
tied the Colony on Roanoke Island. and proposed
TO the settlers that they remove 10 the home OF
OF their tribe. The lis Unmarried men were very
willing 70 accept the proposition, and IL, was
oaly with difficulty that Gov. White induced
them 10 remain. When everything was com
pleted White returned TO England ard got pro-
visions and achievements. Before going he in.
structcd the colonists 10 leave some testimony
IL for any reason they should conclude TO move
durins his absence.
The next year. 1888. was the year OF the
other seagoing vessel was impressed into ser
vice, SO 1t was impossible for Gov. White to
set sail for America again until 1884. When he
arrived at Roanoke he found tho stockade and
the houses there, but everybody had gone. On
on one stockadc post merely the beginning
'Cruat.' lie was about to proceed in search Of
the Croatans. when a Hattcras storm came NJ,
and, after beating about for some time. the
crew mutinied and insisted on going down to
the Spanish Main and engaging in privateering.
so they captured a couple OF richly laden Span.
ish vessels and returned to England compare
tivciy wealthy.
The next wear Gov. White took another
crew and landed at Roanoke Island. This time
he found the fresh track OF u boats keel on the
island, and found thar a chest he had buried
tents ranSackcd. Again be started, down the
coast, and again his crew mutinied and went
In 1907 Capt. John smith, who had been
saved. by Pocahontas. started an expedition
from jamestown to see IL he couldn't discover
the whereabouts of the missing colonists. In
stead OF going by boat thev started overland.
They proceeded about 100 miles. got tired;
went back, and this was the last effort to find
them, and here history. as it ia generally re-
Nov for the facts which the historians have
generally so singularly overlooked. In 1910.
when the Huguenots and cavaliers started to
penetrate the interior OF North Carolina, they
In what is now Robeson county, y. c.. a colony
o! Engltsh'spcaSinE people, manS5oSwhom had
where they came from, and they replied. From
Croa;an.' How. does it come that you speak
English Our fathers were English
They wrote one letter back about their dis
archives of he Board OF Trade of London. 1t
is evident that a number of the Huguenots re.
manned in the colony and intermarried, as
there are a great, many names Of ,undoubted
French origin TO be found among the Croatan
These people have always been called Croa.
tans. There are some 1000 OF them living in
they have scattered al over the South and West
l have found Croatan names among all the five
CIVILIZED !iTke tribe, Living In the Indian Territory:
istics. They are as dark as Portuguese. and
are different in appearance from either Indians.
negroes, or Caucasians. In some instances there
has evidently been q mixture with negro blood,
and on this account when. in 1888. North Caro-
lima and Tennessee disfranchiSed the negroes,
they included the Croatans.
When the war broke out the Croatans were
be- two fires; Those who diG not enlist in
s-N fAAf. W. AseNAN ~ &c
as negroes for work on fortihcations &c. From
this custom came the cause of the dcprcdations
of the Lowry gang. which for years spread ter.
ror in North Carolina. Old man Lowry re.
sisted impressment; declaring that there was
nothing hut English and Indian blood in his
veins and that he was ms much of an American
freeman aud had as good blood in him as the
Ilarrisons, the Randolphs or any OF the de.
this stubborn stand he was shot dead.
Nv hen his son. Henry Berry Lowry. reached
manhood. he took his gun. organized n band Of
sympathizers and started out on a mission Of
ing had any connection with his fathers death
was waylaid and killed. The gang was finally
broken up. brt not until II had collected bloody
interest on old Lowry's death.
The most eminent of the Croatans was
I niled States Senator Reyels. WHO was elected
from Mississippi during the reconstruction
days He was classed as a negro, but he was
in reality n CrOatan. one OF those with a Hugue.
not name and ancestry.
The family names OF the C-oatans are the
same as those of the settlers on Roanoke Island.
They were men from Deyonshire. England. and.
furthermore, even the broad Deyonshire pro-
nunciation is found in certain words as used
by the Croatans to-day.
a hundred years ago a colony of Croatans
settled in eastern Tennessee. m Newmen's
Ridge, Hancock county. They can't tell to-
day where they came from. for tradition over
NIFTY years old isn't worth anything. These are
the people called Melungeons. They are SINH.
lar in racial characteristics to the Croatans.
and DIR. Swan NJ. Burnett. a distinguishes
scholar and scientist, has traced, by family
names, the connection between the Melunseons
and the Croatans.
The name Melungeons is accounted for in
this wise. When the new settlers appeared
among the mountaineerS their unusual looks
i%nqui:ies as TO what they were. The
answer was Nlelangc'-or n miNture-and the
mountaineers dubbed them Melungeons."