A comparison of the writings of Thomas Hariot, leader of the ill-fated Roanoke colony, and John Smith, founder of the first successful British settlement in North America, reveals that the Roanoke colonists were the vectors of epidemic disease. The disease was probably influenza, and it was especially lethal to the American Indians whom the Roanoke colonists contacted. Thomas Hariot recorded direct observations of the progress of the epidemic, including symptoms, mode of transmission, and virulence. John Smith, upon his arrival in the Chesapeake Bay region, heard stories of a devastating epidemic that had ravaged the Accomac, one of the groups visited by the Roanoke colonists during the winter of 1585/86. This article critically assesses the historical evidence surrounding this epidemic and proposes influenza as the probable pathogen. Depopulation of American Indians in the vicinity of the Roanoke colony, specifically the Accomac, is placed within the wider context of European epidemic disease in the New World. One implication of this historical record is the identification of Virginia’s Eastern Shore as an area likely to contain archaeological resources relevant to the research problem of American Indian demographic change during the Contact period.

The disappearance of the Lost Colony of Roanoke is an American mystery which has baffled historians for centuries. This paper takes a historiographical view of the works of academics Lee Miller and James Horn, comparing their research and conclusions on the topic. Miller’s belief that the colony was sabotaged by English secretary of state Sir. Francis Walsingham and Horn’s theory that an English desire for mineral wealth and poor preparation for survival in the New World brought about their demise are each analyzed for their legitimacy, research gaps, and possible biases. Through this analysis, it is concluded that the field of study on the attempted colonization of Roanoke and the settlers who disappeared there could benefit from a broader consideration for factors, outside of English politics and Native American relations, which may have contributed to the Lost Colonists' disappearance.

The Roanoke Colony (, ROH-ə-nohk) was the site of two attempts by Sir Walter Raleigh to found the first permanent English settlement in North America. The first colony was established at Roanoke Island in 1585 as a military outpost, and was evacuated in 1586. The more famous second colony, known as the Lost Colony, began when a new group of settlers under John White arrived on the island in 1587; Archaeological research on Roanoke Island only began when Talcott Williams discovered a Native American burial site in 1887. He returned in 1895 to excavate the fort but found nothing of significance. Ivor Noël Hume would later make several compelling finds in the 1990s, but none that could be positively linked to the 1587 colony, as opposed to the 1585 outpost. After Hurricane Emily uncovered a number of Native American artifacts along Cape Creek in Buxton, North Carolina, anthropologist David Sutton Phelps Jr. organized an excavation in 1995. Phelps and his team discovered a ring in 1998, which initially appeared to be a gold signet ring bearing the heraldry of a Kendall family in the 16th century. The find was celebrated as a landmark discovery, but Phelps never published a paper on his findings, and neglected to have the ring properly tested. X-ray analysis in 2017 proved the ring was brass, not gold, and experts could not confirm the alleged connection to Kendall heraldry. The low value and relative anonymity of the ring make it more difficult to conclusively associate with any particular person from the Roanoke voyages, which in turn increases the likelihood that it could have been brought to the New World at a later time. A significant challenge for archaeologists seeking information about the 1587 colonists is that many common artifacts could plausibly originate from the 1585 colony, or from Native Americans who traded with other European settlements in the same era. Andrew Lawler suggests that an example of a conclusive find would be female remains (since the 1585 colony was exclusively male) buried according to Christian tradition (supine, in an east–west orientation) which can be dated to before 1650 (by which point Europeans would have spread throughout the region). However, few human remains of any kind have been discovered at sites related to the Lost Colony. One possible explanation for the extreme deficiency in archaeological evidence is shoreline erosion. The northern shore of Roanoke Island, where the Lane and White colonies were located, lost 928 feet (283 m) between 1851 and 1970. Extrapolating from this trend back to the 1580s, it is likely…

Robesonl Drama I By WILLAKO G COLE LUMBERTON The possi bility of an historical drama such as Horn in the West with Robeson County as the setting was offered last week by English Jones president of Pembroke State College at Pembroke The suggestion grew out of a review of the Lake Wacca maw legend which features a beautiful Indian princess and her legendary identification with the origin of the Colum bus County lake about 50 miles east of Lumberton The college president him self an Indian theorized that Robeson Indians could have a link with the Lost Colony His idea came to life after Arlita Lowry a Pembroke In dian beauty who was Nation al 4H Health Queen of 1961 9 had posed as the beautiful princess of the Lake Wacca maw legend Said President Jones It seems logical to me that the descendants of Virginia Dare and her associate colonists could have found their way into the protective marshes and swamplands of Robeson where they both survived and prevailed as Indians without a tribe without a dialect of their own and without the normal Indian customs and traditions to pass from one generation to another This is supported to