The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1906-02-18
Are the Lost Colony OF Roanoke
Island. From Whom No
1'idings Came.
HALF WHITE AND HALF INDIAN
Men With Good Old English
Names and All the Habits OF
Original Indians.

F3AYETTENlI.I5Es, n. L. February H.
More than II year ago read a letter
in the Richmond rlmes-Dispatch, de-
scribing a visit to Roanokc Island
Where. said the correspondent, lis
the grave of Virginia Dare the first
white child born on American sol?H
There are good reasons for believing that
the dust of little yirginiu Dare is moul-
herng away hundreds of miles from
Roanoke island. Let me tell to the read
ers of the Times-Dispntch my strange
story. one of the ''romunces of history"
Robson county. one of the largest In
this State. lies along the boundary line
of South Carolina, containing within It's
borders vast swamps aud cypress ponds.
In the gloomiest and most mpenetrabe
section of its territory. in a low, swami
py district about five miles square lives
remnant0or 1t Is but a remnant now
of one of the strangest peoples that ever
challenged the Investigation of the eth
nologist-'' Roheson Croatins."
About 81 or IS years ago driven ny
some deep-seated cause OF enmty to
the whites, these people seemed to obey
the ''call of the Wild" and to throw off
all the restraints of law and order. a
band. led by their chief. Henry Berry
Influential of the Croatans, terrorized
Robeson county, robbing, burning and
Staying. Their crimes being generally cha
racterized by unparalleled audacity, as they
boldly invaded the county seat and other
towns, The history of that scourge
of n community. lasting through years,
has already been given to the world. But
some good came out of even these hor-
rors, for they drew the attention of
thoughtful men to that remarkable race,
and directed their efforts To the sou-
aion of It's origin and history.
Professor S. b. Weeks. one of the most
finished scholars in the country: Pro
fessor Reed Smith, painstaking. cru
dite writer in the Columbia State. and
Professor Hamilton Mcmillan of Red
Springs, n. O., possessed of great fund
of information, and endowed with varied
scholarly attainments have all written
voluminously on the subject OF the Robe
son county Croatans, and they al incline
strongly to the theory that they are
identical with the Roanoke Island Cron-
tans. They are reinforced in their views
by very high authority, the historian
Bancroft-not as to the Robson county
Croatans. of whom he had never heard,
but as to the English colony of Cover
nor White on Roanoke Island amalg;l-
mating with a friendly tribe of Indians
Bancroft says:
y
fore White could return to search for
his lost colony and his daughter, and
then the Island of Roanoke was a desert
An inscription on the bark of q tree
pointed to Croatan. but the season of
the year and the danger from storms
We're pleaded as an excuse for an I'M
mediate return. Had the emigrants al
ready persisted, or had they escaped with
their lives TO Croatan and through the
friendship Of Manteo. become familiar
with the Indians? The conjecture has
been hazarded that the deserted cclony
neglected by their countrymen. We're hos
pitably adopted into the tribe OF Hat
teras Indians, and became amalgamated
with the sons of the forest. This was
The tradiaion of the natives at, later
day. and 1t was thought to be confined
by the physical character of the tribe,
In which the English and the Indian ra-
res seem TO have been blended, Ra-
leigh long cherished the hope of dis
covering some vestiges OF their existence;
and though he had abandoned the hope
of colonizing Virginia. he yet sent at
his own charge, it is said. ana at five
}everal times, to search for his llegemen
But II was all in vain; Imagination re-
reived no help in its attempts to trace
the fate of the colony of Roanoke"
In one of tithe North Carolina Day
Exercises. '..perl-'dicaily prepared and pub
Is a sketch, Virginia Dare" in which
occur the following paragraphs:
By the Indians Eleanor Dare the
first mother of the white race known
tc them. Is said to have been called. in
their fignrative and descriptive way
The White Doe and her baby, the
little Virginia. the first white infant
they had ever seen. The White Fawn'
and there is q pretty tradition that
after her death her shirt assumed that
form'-an elfin fawn--whch, clad nj in,-
mortal beauty. would at times be seen
haunting like n tender memory the place
OF her birth, or gazing wstfully over
the sea, as with pathetic yearning for
the far-away mother land"
The colonists had evidently gone
to Croatan, as we now have the name
the home of Manteo. the friendly chief
but none of them was ever seen Of
white men again. They died and made
nc sign; though 1t is probable that their
descendants may still be found among
the Croatan, or. more probably. Hat
teras. Indians of Robeson county"
William shachey, in his History of
1nSvaile,H SAYS: ''At Ritano the Wero-
Hnce of Eyanoca preserved seven OF the
English alive-fower men. two boys. and
one young maybe. who escaped the mas
sacre, and fled mp the river Chanoke .
The Virginia Dare sketch continues,
Both John Smith and Strachey make
mention of scattered parties of these
colonists several times, and The Viz
Einia Company writes of some of them
as yet alive, within fifty miles OF onr
fort, as is testified by two OF orr colo
ny sent out to search them, who found
crosses, and assured Testimo-
MES of Christians newly cut in the harks
~ trees
Prof S. B. Weeks, in this summing uI