The Robesonian. [volume] (Lumberton, N.C.) 1870-current, 1908-07-06

VI course Inefo are QOuDC6fS,
and among historians, too, as to
he status of these people, and
there are those who believe that
they are a mixture or blend Of
the first white settlers who it is
claimed pushed up into that re
gion from Charleston, S. c., and
the Indians Of the locality. A
comparison of the typical Croa-
tan and one of the Roanoke Is
land Indians, as painted with ex-
IRENE care by John White, r.
Walter Raleigh's great artist,
shows many POINTS of resem-
blance between that race and the
present-day Croatans, among
whom splendid figures are the
rule rather than the exception.
ONE ARGUMENT AS TO RALEIGH'S
COLONISTS.
The argument has been adj
vanced by some that Raj igh's col
onists when they left Roanoke
Island, did not go to the south
ward, but that they went to the
northeast, and that they fixed
themselves about the point where
AvCca now is, in BERTHE county,
and that they there built them
selves substantial houses; that
the Indians fell upon them, un-
der the leadership of Wanchese
or some Of his friends, and mas
sacred almost all, great rivers
being on either side, which the
colonists could not cross, but
that the Indians spared a few,
including "a young mayde;;" that
those captured were taken fur
Their up the country and that the
Englishmen Of their number
were made to build houses, part
ly at least of stone, for their In
dian masters, and that it was
these houses and these captives
of whom Captain John Smith
heard and whom he made note,
the information concerning them
having been brought by Indian
runners to him and his colonists
at jamestown. Those who hole
this view that the colonists after
leaving Roanoke Island went to.
wards the northwest and settled
as above stated, say that Gov
ernor White and other leaders haC
been up in that part of the coun
try and had fixed on this as 9
place better for a settlement
than Roanoke Island, which was
and is extremely isolated and il
Ia section subject to storms
there being entirely open waite
all about. To get to Avoca tn
colonists had a verj good boat
, of sufficient size to carry them
, Those who hold this view believ
further that the Indians wit
, blue eyes and fair hair and rue
! dy compilations who were see
! by later explorers on the Mort
q Carolina coast were not the de
scendants of the Lost Colony a
y all but of Indian women and c
n the first party Of Englishmen pu
n ashore, the latter not being o
=. Roanoke Island, but on one Of tn
+ long sand-banks between thu
j, island and the sea, which forl
" a barrier between the sea an
: the sounds which have alWay
y marked the North Carolina coas
4 These colonists were landed {
a an outpost to give notice to II
" others and also as a guard Of tt
, inlet, through which boats pas
= ed from the sea to the sounC
q and thence to Roanoke Island.
IT EVIDENCE OF RELICS
~ There has recently been four
= in Robson county, in the hea
:, of the Croatan settlement, a
n iron tomahawk, such as were d
~ scribed by Col. William Byrd
- sold along the great Indian ira
# ing path" and along the ''LoV
N cry road' by traders early in tt
o eighteenth century. A gre
X, deal of search has been made f
o. relics Of this class as We
" as of those which distinct
. mark the English settler
Vi Another find is an ancie
ID cross-bow of the English mai
ID and model, of the type viii
10 was still occasionally used
+ Queen Elizabeth's time. TIL
# bow bears the marks Of niue
70 use. A hand-mill of the mo
I'd primite type, but showing We
to clearly it's English origin, h
~ also been found in one of t
~ Croatan houses, with the traC
i; ton that it had been used
to their people before they NOV
~ from the coast country. The
w. are a number of the Croatans
If the county of Cumberland a.
o. there was stone church ne
as the present village of Hope Mil
ot in that county, where traditi
10 says de RlchebOurg, a Huguer
Nv preacher, who had come up fro
i the earliest South Carolina co
al ny, officiated. The church it's,
NJ is gone, but the foundation
hv brown sand stone can yet be Sc
|c, plainly. The reticence Of me
y of the Croatans as regards
history of their people as we'll
of their personal history is expla
ae ed by one of the oldest men
he the tribe, he being 102 years
1S age, by the statement that tn
Of status had been so long me-
an uncertain by the laws that tt
sra had felt themselves to be an (
70 pressed pesple. They are n
gathering strength and with +