During
the first few months the garrison explored the region and traveled north
towards the Chesapeake Bay to examine the land and other Indian settlements in
the area. During that time the relationship between the English and the
Secotans began to deteriorate even though they still traded supplies on a
regular basis.
The
English depended primarily on the Indians for food as they had little and did
not cultivate their own. This drained the Secotan storehouses as they did not
have a large surplus and if they traded away too much their own town would
suffer. Another reason for the growing tension was European diseases. The native
population was unable to protect themselves from the diseases the English
brought with them and a slew of the Indians became sick and died, this included
Granganimeo. The Indians blamed the English, claiming they punished those who
disagreed with them.
When Granganimeo
died in 1586 and Wingina decided to take action against the English as
retaliation and renamed himself Pemisapan, one who watches closely, to show his
commitment.[i] He
quickly told Ralph Lane that the Chowanoc and Mangoak Indians that lived up
river were conspiring against the English and they needed to act swiftly to
surprise them. Pemisapan believed that the English would attack the Chowanocs
and become embroiled in a war with them. The English traveled up river and deep
into the mainland in order to surprise the Chowanocs and their weroance Menatonon. They succeeded and captured
him, but did not start a war. Menatonan told them the truth about Pemisapan and
that the Chowanocs had no desire to be against the English.
Ralph
Lane took his men back to the island along with Skiko, Menatonan’s son. He told
them about the landscape, gold and other valuable metals that were further off
from the coast and ignited the plan to take the colony to the Chesapeake Bay because
it offered better access to mainland Virginia. Once Lane returned, Pemisapan
was furious that they survived and began to starve the English by refusing to trade
food. Since the English depended on the Secotans for food they began to try and
find ways to survive, including splitting themselves up into small parties of
twenty to thirty men in attempt to discover more food.
Pemisapan
took this opportunity to kill off the groups of soldiers one-by-one, but Skiko discovered
the plan and told Lane before Pemisapan enacted it. Lane lied to Pemisapan and sent
him word that an English ship was sighted and the garrison of soldiers left for
Croatoan Island to meet it, giving him the illusion the English had left their
fort on Roanoke to return the England. Instead the English sneaked to the
Secotan town Pemisapan lived in and attacked it. The English killed almost
everyone and intentionally spared a few Indians who were friends of Manteo as
he was still accepted by the English. During the conflict a man shot and
injured Pemisapan who then ran into the woods, and was pursued and murdered. [ii]
After
this confrontation any opportunity for peaceful co-existence that may have
still existed vanished and the English left a week later when Sir Francis Drake
arrived. They feared retaliation from the Secotans.[iii]
They left fifteen men on Roanoke for when their supplies came from England, but
those men vanished by the time Sir Richard Greenville arrived with the 118
people who composed the ‘Lost Colony’.
When
the 1587 voyage arrived, John White sailed a pinnacle to Roanoke to meet with
the soldiers left behind by Ralph Lane, but there was no trace of them. The
Secotans presumably killed them in retaliation; the only friendly tribes left
in the area were the Croatoans and Chowanocs. John White then wanted to move
the new settlers to the Chesapeake Bay, but Greenville and Simon Fernandez
refused to let them. They left the settlers on Roanoke so the fleet could spend
what time they had left privateering.
Shortly
after the settlement was constructed, one of the settlers, George Howe, went
fishing for crabs in the water and was spotted by Secotan warriors. They
riddled Howe’s body with sixteen arrows and put fear into the colonists, as
they had no knowledge of the previous conflicts that the garrison had with the
Secotans. This prompted John White to travel with Manteo to the friendly
Croatoan community and try to discover what was happening. He was told of the
enmity between the Secotans and the English and the fate of the fifteen men
left behind by Ralph Lane, the soldiers were surprised and slaughtered by
Secotan warriors shortly after Lane left them.
A
month later the settlement was completed and the remaining colonists demanded that
White return to England and ask for aid and explain the danger they were in. After
much deliberation he agreed to go and worked out a plan that the colonists
would travel to the Croatoan settlement if they were in danger while he was
gone. They would carve the word Croatoan in a tree with a Maltese cross above
it to signal they were in distress.
John White
left in August of 1587, but did not return until August of 1590. During that
time he attempted twice to sail back with supplies and help for his colony, but
was unsuccessful. In 1588 a small expedition agreed to take White to Roanoke,
but decided to privateer and attack Spanish vessels during the voyage. They
ended up being overpowered and ransacked by the Spanish instead, who sent the
ship back to England after they stripped it of valuables and several skilled
sailors.[iv]
The second voyage was blocked from leaving port as the conflict with Spain grew
in intensity and England put a hold on sailing by non-military vessels. This scuttled
White’s return for another year.
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