The return of Governor White to the "Lost Colony"
English: The Lost Colony, design by William Ludwell Sheppard, engraving by William James Linton. This image depicts John White returning to the Roanoke Colony in 1590 to discover the settlement abandoned. A pallisade had been constructed since White's departure in 1587, and the word "CROATOAN" was found carved near the entrance. White explained to his men that this was a prearranged signal to indicate that the colony had relocated, but was unable to search Croatoan Island for further information. Identifier: popularhistoryof00brya (find matches) Title: A popular history of the United States : from the first discovery of the western hemisphere by the Northmen, to the end of the first century of the union of the states ; preceded by a sketch of the prehistoric period and the age of the mound builders Year: 1876 (1870s) Authors: Bryant, William Cullen, 1794-1878 Gay, Sydney Howard, 1814-1888 Subjects: Publisher: New York : Scribner, Armstrong, and Company Contributing Library: Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection Digitizing Sponsor: The Institute of Museum and Library Services through an Indiana State Library LSTA Grant View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: the letters C R O, carved upon the trunk of a tree, upon thebrow of a hill. Pausing to consider what this might mean. Whiteremembered that when he left the colony it was proposed that thepeople should remove to the main land, and that wherever they wentthe name of the place should be left behind thena here upon trees ordoor-posts. It was further understood that should any misfortune haveovertaken them, they should carve beneath the name a cross. Herethen was the guide, if CRO meant Croatoan, to the place whither thecolony had removed, though it was to an outer island rather than tothe main. But to the anxious father and governor there was this en-couragement, — the sign of the cross was wanting. Again they pushed on after a brief consultation upon the faireRomane letters curiously carved, which White had thus explained. Itwas not far to the deserted post, still surrounded with its palisades. !illi!!;;;;;;;;;iiflil:ilii:lirl;;;ll! Illlllllillllllll ;;!;(;ll 11,11 illllHIIIIIIIIIIIII Text Appearing After Image: 1590.) THE LOST COLONY. 255 Here all doubts were removed : at the entrance, upon one of the largestof the trees from which the bark had been stripped, was The desertedcarved in capital letters, the word CROATOAN in full, and ^°^*-still without the cross. Within the palisades the houses were gone,but scattered about were bars of iron and pigs of lead, some large gunswith their balls — fowlers and sacker shot, they were called, —and other things too heavy for a hasty removal, all overgrown withgrass and weeds. In a trench not far off were found some chestswhere they had been buried by the colonists and dug up afterwardby the Indians ; among these were three belonging to White, but allhad been rifled ; books were torn out of their covers, the frames of pic-tures and of maps were rotten with dampness, and a suit of armor wasalmost eaten up with rust. Although it much grieved me, saysWhite, to see such spoyle of my goods, yet on the other side I greatlyjoyed that I had safely found a Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.