OldLady
Diamond Member
- Nov 16, 2015
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A few nights ago on the History Channel, there was a special on the search for the survivors of Roanoke. I've always been fascinated by the mystery, but now there's some new stuff I didn't know before, like the rumors for twenty years after their disappearance that there were Europeans living here and there among the native tribes. There are a lot of reports of Native Americans with blonde hair or grey eyes for a hundred years after. I also didn't know before that there was an earlier settlement at Roanoke; they all but a handful were killed by the Natives and 15 or so survivors were said to have settled in with local tribes. Not a one was ever found by the Europeans who hunted for them, though. Seems to me maybe they didn't want to be found.
Where did the colonists actually go? They left the word Croatan on the palisade where the settlement had been (they actually took the houses and buildings and guns with them, so they planned the move). The Dare stone says that after that move, the remnant of them was massacred by the "salvages" and only seven of them survived, and were going with the "salvages" somewhere, under their protection. It seems Croatan was never searched at the time (glory these sailors had a lot of bad weather it seems). Some people with the Zuniga map say they moved up river; if so, that is where they were massacred.
The History Channel special left a lot of questions about the Dare Stone (the original, the one that hasn't been debunked). They showed the stone itself was most likely from a copper quarry where the survivors were rumored by some to have gone. But how would the chiseled stone have gotten all the way down river to where it was eventually found? It doesn't make sense she carved the message at the copper mine and then had someone take it down river and drop it. And why didn't all the people searching find the stone then?
The massacre on the Dare Stone, though--she said her husband Anais and her child (Virginia, first European child born in America) had both been killed in the massacre. She says they are buried 4 miles to the east on a little hill. Why would they take dead bodies 4 miles to bury? Nope. The important thing is where was "here" when she carved the stone. It was not in the same place where the massacre took place, apparently. But it's essential to finding the gravesite, where she said their names are writ on rock.
I've been reading a bunch of primary sources this afternoon. Good stuff in Wikipedia too. Fascinating.
Return to Roanoke: Search for the Seven | HISTORY
Roanoke Colony - Wikipedia
John White searches for the colonists - North Carolina Digital History
Eleanor Dare - Wikipedia
John Smith Journals - Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail (U.S. National Park Service)
Where did the colonists actually go? They left the word Croatan on the palisade where the settlement had been (they actually took the houses and buildings and guns with them, so they planned the move). The Dare stone says that after that move, the remnant of them was massacred by the "salvages" and only seven of them survived, and were going with the "salvages" somewhere, under their protection. It seems Croatan was never searched at the time (glory these sailors had a lot of bad weather it seems). Some people with the Zuniga map say they moved up river; if so, that is where they were massacred.
The History Channel special left a lot of questions about the Dare Stone (the original, the one that hasn't been debunked). They showed the stone itself was most likely from a copper quarry where the survivors were rumored by some to have gone. But how would the chiseled stone have gotten all the way down river to where it was eventually found? It doesn't make sense she carved the message at the copper mine and then had someone take it down river and drop it. And why didn't all the people searching find the stone then?
The massacre on the Dare Stone, though--she said her husband Anais and her child (Virginia, first European child born in America) had both been killed in the massacre. She says they are buried 4 miles to the east on a little hill. Why would they take dead bodies 4 miles to bury? Nope. The important thing is where was "here" when she carved the stone. It was not in the same place where the massacre took place, apparently. But it's essential to finding the gravesite, where she said their names are writ on rock.
I've been reading a bunch of primary sources this afternoon. Good stuff in Wikipedia too. Fascinating.
Return to Roanoke: Search for the Seven | HISTORY
Roanoke Colony - Wikipedia
John White searches for the colonists - North Carolina Digital History
Eleanor Dare - Wikipedia
John Smith Journals - Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail (U.S. National Park Service)
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