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Roanoke Colony

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Roanoke Colony

The Roanoke Colony which is better known as the “Lost Colony” was an attempt to establish an English charter by Queen Elizabeth I on Roanoke Island in today’s Dare County, North Carolina, USA. When the settlement’s original organizer and financier died Sir Walter Raleigh took charge and began the expeditions. There were several attempts to establish the colony all of which failed for various reasons. The final attempt at a colony on Roanoke Island was ultimately a failure because the resupply ships containing more food and men were extremely late and when they showed up the colonists had completely vanished without any real clues. It still remains a mystery to this day as to what happened to the settlers on Roanoke Island. On April 27, 1584 Raleigh dispatched his first expedition with Philip Armadas and Arthur Barlowe as commanders while he remained behind (Horn, p40). The trip was largely uneventful. Barlowe, who was in charge of reporting back to Raleigh, brought two Croatans named Manteo (the son of the chief of the Croatans) and Wanchese who described the area and local politics for Raleigh. Based off of this he organized another expedition and made Sir Richard Grenville, his cousin, in charge because Queen Elizabeth would not let him lead it for political reasons that stemmed from bad relations with Spain (Horn, p65). On April 9, 1585 Grenville’s fleet departed with five main ships. When they arrived in the Americas they traveled much in search of precious metals that were rumored to be farther inland and passed through many neighboring villages. At one such village, the village of Aquascogoc, the natives were blamed for stealing goods that had come up missing including a small silver cup. When the cup was not returned Captain Amadas, who was present on this trip as well, burned the town and nearby crop fields (Horn, p74). After this the

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