Part 25
In the meantime some controversies had arisen between the governor and the assistants over the selection of two of their number to return with the ships as factors for the company to their associates in London. For none desired to go. After much persuading by the governor, Christopher Cooper agreed to be one of the two. But the next day, through the persuasions of “divers of his familiar friends,” he changed his mind, and withdrew his acceptance. Thereupon the whole company with “one voice” requested the governor himself to go. He, it was argued, could better and sooner than any other obtain the supplies and necessaries for the comfort and development of the colony. But he refused. He could not so soon return he declared, leaving behind so many whom he “partly had procured through his perswasions to leave their native countrey” and embark in this venture, without discredit. At his return in England some enemies of himself and of the enterprise “would not spare to slander falsely both him and the action, by saying hee went to Virginia but politikely, and to no other end but to leade so many into a countrey in which hee never meant to stay himselfe, and there to leave them behind him.” Besides, it had been agreed that the colony should presently remove fifty miles farther up into the main. If this should be done, and he being absent, his own stuff and goods might be spoiled, or pilfered in transportation, so that at his coming back he would be forced to provide himself of all such things again; and he had already had some proof of the insecurity of his property when once absent from the colony for only three days. Now stronger pressure was brought by his associates, and they agreed to give him their bond, “under all their handes and seales” for the safe preservation of all his things at his return to Virginia, so that if any were lost or spoiled such would be made good to him or his assigns. Under this pressure and with the execution of the bond, he reluctantly reversed his decision, and made ready to go.
Since Captain Ferdinando was now impatient to be off, the governor had only half a day’s time to prepare for sailing. He left Roanoke on the morning of the twenty-seventh and at midnight boarded the fly-boat. The next morning both ships weighed anchor.
Before he left the plantation White had agreed with the assistants that should the colony move from Roanoke before his return they should carve on a tree trunk or other conspicuous post, the name of the place to which they had gone.
Of his parting from his associates, or from his daughter Eleanor and his little grandchild, nothing is said in the record. Nor of the wistful farewells as the ships sailed off for the home that the more than a hundred colonists left behind were never again to see. Here their story abruptly ends. How they lived after the ships had sailed away, and how they perished, or what was their fate, none can tell. With the departure of Governor White history closes the chapter.
* * * * *
The return voyage was one of hardship and adventure. At the very start, at the weighing of their anchors, twelve of the fly-boat’s men were thrown from the capstan and hurt, and for a time only five of her complement of fifteen men were able to do the ship’s work. Nevertheless she kept company with the “Lion” for about twenty days. Then seeing that Ferdinando did not mean to make any haste for home, but was determined to loiter along the way in the hope of taking Spanish prizes, she left the admiral and struck out on her own hook for England. Repeated storms were encountered on the passage; through “foure dayes together” her master could see “neither sunne nor starre”; her fresh water gave out; several of her sailors sickened and two died. At length on the sixteenth of October she made the Irish coast and came to Smerwick. A few days after her arrival the boatswain, the steward, and the boatswain’s mate died. Subsequently White took passage on another ship, sailing from Dingen for England, and landed at Cornwall on the fifth of November. The fly-boat came up three days later to Hampton. Here it was learned that the “Lion” had arrived three weeks before, at Portsmouth. Ferdinando had experienced hard luck. He and his company “were not onely come home without any purchase [seizure] but also in such weaknesse by sicknesse and death of the chiefest men, that they were scarce able to bring their ship into harbour, but were forced to let fall their anker without which they could not wey againe, but might all have perished there if a small barke by great hap had not come to them to help them.”
White at his return found the whole kingdom in a turmoil over the threatened invasion by the “Invincible Armada” of Spain,—that “mightie” navy, “as never the like before that time had sailed the Ocean sea,” comprising nearly one hundred and forty grand ships and thirty thousand fighting men, among them many grandees and gentlemen volunteers,—Philip of Spain’s now open and bold stroke for the conquest of England, and her “reduction to his Catholic religion,” in revenge for the “disgrace, contempt, and dishonour” which he had “endured of the English nation.” Raleigh, Grenville, and Lane, the latter knighted after his return from America, were all members of the council of war that Elizabeth had hurriedly called together; while other friends of American colonization were engrossed in affairs of state. Scant attention, therefore, to the needs of the distant handful of colonists could be expected at this time of peril at home. Yet Raleigh was quick to act, and generously, in their behalf. In the thick of his activities for England’s defence, he found leisure to fit out, again at his own charges, a small fleet to be despatched at the earliest moment with supplies and probably a few new colonists. Grenville was to take charge as commander of this expedition, and White, of course, was to return with him. But before the ships were ready to sail all of them were impressed by the government, and Sir Richard was required to attend Sir Walter in Cornwall and train troops there. Not long after another attempt was made. White, with Raleigh’s aid, succeeded in obtaining two barks, and with these he sailed on the twenty-second of April, 1588, bound for Virginia. But their men were more anxious to fight the Spaniards than to hasten to the colony. In an encounter at sea with Spanish ships they were worsted and were obliged to limp back ingloriously to England. So this intended voyage was abandoned.
Nothing more was done or well could be done under the condition of affairs for nearly two years. In July and August, 1588, the “Invincible Armada” was defeated and dispersed. While with Howard, the lord high admiral, Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher bore off the larger glory for this signal achievement, Raleigh shared in all the dangers of the protracted sea fight. But with the return of comparative tranquility he found himself too much reduced in means to prosecute his colonial projects to the extent of his desires. He had expended in his various ventures upward of forty thousand pounds for which he had received no return. Still he continued undaunted to do what he could to accomplish his ends. With his assistance in March, 1590, an opportunity opening, White made another effort to get to the colony, and this time succeeded in reaching “Virginia.”
The opportunity was furnished by an enterprise of John Watts, a London merchant. Watts had a fleet of three ships at Plymouth in readiness to sail ostensibly for a trading voyage to the West Indies, when they were held up by a general order of government prohibiting any vessel from leaving England. White hearing of this sought Sir Walter and proposed that he should use his influence to obtain a license for these ships to proceed on their intended voyage, upon the condition that they should transport White and a few other passengers with their belongings, together with a quantity of provisions, and land them at Virginia. Thereby, White urged, the “people of Virginia [if it were God’s pleasure] might speedily be comforted and relieved without further charges unto him.” Raleigh readily obtained the desired license, the ships’ owner to be bound to him or his assigns in three thousand pounds, to carry out the agreement. But, as White afterward wrote to Richard Hakluyt, the bond was not taken according to the terms. No passengers were permitted to embark or any goods to be shipped, except White alone with his chest. He was not even allowed “so much as a boy” for his personal service. This “crosse and unkind dealing” much “discontented” him; but the fleet being all ready to sail when he went aboard there was no time to make complaint to Raleigh. It was apparent that the “governours, masters, and sailors” of the enterprise, “regarding very smally the good of their countreymen in Virginia, determined nothing less [no more] than to touch at those places, but wholly disposed themselves to seek after purchase and spoiles.”
The story of this quest, White’s last one, is White’s own “true discourse” written for Hakluyt, and presented with this title: “The fift voyage of M. John White into the West Indies and parts of America called Virginia, in the yeere 1590.”
At the start from Plymouth the fleet comprised the “Hopewell,” the “John Evangelist,” the “Little John,” and two small shallops. They sailed on the twentieth of March, and so much time was lost on the outward voyage, largely in chasing and taking prizes, that the Carolina coast was not reached till the beginning of August. Along the way they were joined by Captain Edward Spicer, with a pinnace, whom they had left in England.
They came first upon this coast in a storm, and on the third of August were off low sandy islands west of Wocokon. But the weather was so foul that they were forced to put to sea again, and there remain for six days, till the storm had abated. Then they came up to these islands and a landing was made on one of them, where they took in fresh water and caught a great quantity of fish. On the morning of the twelfth they sailed for the island of Croatoan, and at night came to anchor at its northeast end. On the fifteenth they were at Hastorask. On their first coming to anchor here they saw a “great smoke” rising from Roanoke Island, which put them, especially White, in “good hope” that the colony were there, still expecting his return from England. Bright and early next morning the impatient and expectant governor set out for Roanoke:
"Our 2 boates went ashore & Captaine Cooke & Cap. Spicer & their company with me, with intent to passe to the place at Roanoak where our countreymen were left.
"At our putting from the ship we commanded our Master gunner to make readie 2 Minions and a Falkon well loden, and to shoot them off with reasonable space betweene every shot, to the ende that their reportes might bee heard to the place where wee hoped to finde some of our people. This was accordingly performed, & our twoe boats put off unto the shore: in the admirals boat we sounded all the way and found from our shippe untill we came within a mile of the shore, nine, eight, and seven fadome: but before we were halfe way betweene our ships and the shore we saw another great smoke to the Southwest of Kindrikers mountes [assumed to be sand hills near the present Nags Head, the highest on this coast]: we therefore thought good to go to that second smoke first: but it was much further from the harbour where we landed than we supposed it to be, so that we were very sore tired before wee came to the smoke.
“But that which grieved us more was that when we came to the smoke we found no man nor signe that any had bene there lately, nor yet any fresh water in all this way to drinke. Being thus wearied with this journey we returned to the harbour where we left our boates, who in our absence had brought their cask a shore for fresh water: so we deferred our going to Roanoak untill the next morning, and caused some of those saylers to digge in those sandie hills for fresh water whereof we found very sufficient. That night wee returned aboord with our boates and our whole company in safety.”
A fresh start was made on the following day as agreed, but under less favourable conditions, and a tragic happening almost at the outset much distressed this expedition:
“The next morning being the 17 of August our boates and company were prepared againe to goe up to Roanoak, but Captaine Spicer had then sent his boat a shore for fresh water by meanes whereof it was ten of the clocke aforenoone before we put from our ships which were then come to an anker within two miles of the shore. The Admirals boat [in which was White] was halfe wey toward the shore when Captaine Spicer put off from his ship. The Admirals boat first passed the breach, but not without some danger of sinking, for we had a sea brake into our boat which filled us halfe full of water, but by the will of God and carefull styrage of Captaine Cooke we came safe ashore, saving only that our furniture, victuals, match and powder were much wet and spoyled. For at this time the winde blew at Northeast and direct into the harbour so great a gale, that the Sea brake extremely on the barre, and the tide went very forcibly at the entrance. By the time that our Admirals boate was hailed ashore, and most of the things taken out to dry, Captaine Spicer came to the entrance of the breach with his mast standing up, and was halfe passed over, but by the rash and indiscreet styrage of Ralph Skinner his Masters mate, a very dangerous sea brake into their boate and overset them quite: the men kept the boat, some in it, and some hanging on it, but the next sea set the boat on ground, where it beat so that some of them were forced to let goe their hold, hoping to wade ashore; but the Sea still beat them downe, so that they could neither stand nor swimme, and the boat twise or thrise was turned the keel upward, whereon Captaine Spicer and Skinner hung untill they sunke & were seene no more. But foure that could swimme a little kept themselves in deeper water and were saved by Captaine Cookes meanes, who so soon as he saw them oversetting stripped himselfe, and foure other that could swimme very well, & with all haste possible rowed unto them & saved foure. They were 11 in all, & 7 of the chiefest men were drowned.”
This mishap so disturbed the sailors in White’s boat that they were “all of one mind not to goe any further to seeke the planters.” But through the persuasions and commands of White and Captain Cooke they recovered courage, and set to work refitting both boats. Then the remaining company, nineteen in all, put off once more. Before Roanoke Island was reached night had fallen, and in the darkness they overshot the place of plantation by a quarter of a mile. Toward the north end of the island they saw the light of a great fire through the woods, and in its direction they presently rowed. When they had come directly over against it they let fall their grapnel near the shore and sounded a trumpet call. This bringing no response they gave some familiar English tunes, then sang some English songs, and “called to them friendly.” Still there came no answer, and the hope that the colonists were here died out within them. At daybreak they landed, and coming to the fire they found grass and rotten trees burning, but no human beings about the place. Then they tramped through the woods to that part of the island over against Dasamonguepeuk, and thence returned by the water side round about the north point till they had reached the place where White had left the colony:
"In all this way we saw in the sand the print of the Salvages feet of 2 or 3 sorts troaden ye night, and as we entred up the sandy banke, upon a tree, in the very brow thereof were curiously carved these faire Roman letters
CRO
which letters presently we knew to signifie the place where I should find the planters seated according to a secret token agreed upon betweene them & me at my last departure from them, which was, that in any ways they should not faile to carve on the trees or posts of the dores [of their houses] the name of the place where they should be seated: for at my coming away they were prepared to remove from Roanoak 50 miles into the main. Therefore at my departure from them in An 1587 I willed them, that if they should happen to be distressed in any of those places, that then they should carve over the letters or name a Crosse in this forme =☩=, but we found no such signe of distresse.
"And having well considered of this, we passed toward the place where they were left in sundry houses, but we found the houses taken downe, and the place very strongly enclosed with a high palisado of great trees, with cortynes and flankers very Fort-like, and one of the chiefe trees or postes on the right side of the entrance had the barke taken off, and 5 foote from the ground in fayre Capitall letters were graven
CROATOAN
without any crosse or signe of distresse: this done we entred into the palisado, where we found many barres of Iron, too pigges of Lead, foure yron fowlers, Iron sacker-shotte, and such like heavie things, throwen here and there, almost overgrowen with grasse and weedes.
"From thence wee went along by the water side towards the pointe or Creeke to see if we could find any of their botes or Pinnisse, but we could perceive no signe of them, nor any of the last Falkons and small Ordinance which were left with them at my departure from them. At our returne from the Creeke, some of our Saylers meeting us, tolde us that they had found where divers chests had bene hidden and long sithence [since] digged up againe and broken up, and much of the goods in them spoyled and scattered about, but nothing left, of such things as the Savages knew any use of, undefaced.
[Illustration: THE LOST COLONY.]
“Presently Captaine Cooke and I went to the place, which was in the ende of an olde trench, made two yeeres past by Captaine Amadas: wheere wee found five Chests, that had bene carefully hidden of the Planters, and of the same chests three were my owne, and about the place many of my things spoyled and broken, and my bookes torne from the covers, the frames of some of my pictures and Mappes rotten and spoyled with rayne, and my armour almost eaten through with rust; this could bee no other than the deede of the Savages our enemies at Dasamonguepeuk, who had watched the departure of our men to Croatoan [the island, not the main land so named, at Dasamonguepeuk, as on early maps]: and assoone as they were departed, digged up every place where they suspected anything to be buried: but although it much grieved me to see such spoyle of my goods, yet on the other side I greatly joyed that I had safely found a certaine token of their safe being at Croatoan, which is the place where Manteo was borne, and the Savages of the Iland our friends.”
With these findings, the day being near spent, the party returned to their boats and made off for the ships as fast as possible for a stormy night threatened. They reached the ships in the evening and got aboard with “much danger and labour,” for the storm had now fallen with high wind and a heavy sea.
The next morning the ships were made ready immediately to sail for the island of Croatoan, the wind being good for that place, all hands fully expecting to come upon the colony there. But in hoisting the admiral’s anchor the cable broke, and the anchor was lost: whereupon the ship was driven so fast shoreward that she was forced to let fall another anchor, and this “came so fast home” that she barely escaped running ashore by “Kendricks mounts.” She fortunately got clear again but not without some injury. She now had but one cable, and but one anchor left of her equipment of four. Meanwhile the weather was becoming “fouler and fouler.” Under these conditions, and in view of their diminishing stock of victuals, together with the loss of a cask of fresh water that they had been obliged to leave on shore, it was decided that the visit of Croatoan must be given up for this time, and that, instead, the ships must at once make for Saint John or some other island to the southward for fresh water and new supplies. It was further proposed that the ships should winter in the West Indies, with the hope of making “two riche voyages of one”: and Captain Cooke of the admiral, at White’s earnest plea, agreed that they should then return to “Virginia” and again seek the colony at Croatoan.
But to this proposal the captain of one of the ships objected on the ground that his vessel was too weak and leaky to attempt to continue so long a voyage. Accordingly that night they parted company, this consort heading direct for England, and the admiral setting her course for Trinidad. So the Carolina coast was forsaken, and no return was made. After various adventures the admiral ultimately reached home with White heartbroken at his failure to reach his people, to whom he believed he had been so near.
The “evils and unfortunate events” attending this expedition, “as well to their owne losse as to the hindrance of the planters of Virginia,” he wrote Richard Hakluyt, “had not chanced if the order set downe by Sir Walter Ralegh had bene observed, or if my dayly & continuall petitions for the performance of the same might have taken any place.” And “thus,” he sorrowfully concludes, “you may plainely perceive the successe of my fift & last voiage to Virginia, which was no lesse unfortunately ended than frowardly begun, and as lucklesse to many as sinister to my self. But I would to God it had bene as prosperous to all, as noysome to the planters, & as joyfull to me as discomfortable to them. Yet seeing it is not my first crossed voyage, I remaine contented. And wanting my wishes, I leave off from prosecuting that whereunto I would to God my wealth were answerable to my will.” With this letter, written “from my house at Newtowne in Kylmore the 4 of February 1593,” White took leave of the matter, committing “the planters in Virginia to the merciful help of the Almighty.” He could do no more. From this time he seems to have remained in retirement in Ireland till the close of his life.