A Kingdom Strange: The Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colony of Roanoke by James Horn

Author:James Horn [Horn, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780465021154
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2010-05-11T05:00:00+00:00

BY MID AUGUST, much of the repair and building work at the colonists’ settlement was completed. The men and boys probably moved into Lane’s old houses, and the Archards, Dares, Harveys, Joneses, Paynes, Powells, Tappans, and Viccarses shifted their possessions into a cluster of new-built cottages more suitable for families; priority being given to the Dares and Harveys because both pregnant women had nearly reached the end of their terms.

The next two weeks were the happiest that White spent on Roanoke Island. On August 18 his daughter, Eleanor, gave birth to a girl, “the first Christian born in Virginia,” who was given the name Virginia and christened the Sunday following (August 24). The happy event and accompanying celebrations brought a measure of cheer to the settlers after the difficult three weeks following George Howe’s death. The healthy birth of baby Virginia restored the settlers’ numbers and was perhaps a sign that the English would succeed after all in establishing themselves in America. Further good news came a few days later with the birth of a child to Margery, wife of assistant Dyonis Harvey.

Earlier, on August 13, White had officiated over another important ceremony at the settlement. In recognition of three years of invaluable service to the English, Manteo was christened and given the title of lord of Roanoke and Dasemunkepeuc, by right of Ralegh’s claim to Virginia and Queen Elizabeth’s authority. The granting of the title indicated that after White and the settlers left Roanoke to continue their journey to Chesapeake Bay, Manteo and his people would continue to hold the region for the English. Lord Manteo would be Ralegh’s Indian governor, ruling over both Roanoke Island and the adjacent mainland, which the English deemed they had taken by their victory over the Secotans.

Manteo was the first Indian admitted into the Church of En - gland on American soil. His baptism marked the beginning of the colonists’ godly work to convert Indian peoples to Protestantism, a matter of great significance for White. In the spring of 1585 Okisko, chief of the Weapemeocs, had sworn allegiance to Elizabeth and Ralegh and sent his head men to Lane’s fort to declare their fealty. But neither Okisko nor his people had converted to the Church of England. Manteo, on the other hand, was now a Christian lord who was intended to play an active role in winning over Indian peoples of the region to Protestantism and English-ness. The effort to convert the Secotans had failed amid the havoc caused by European diseases and the outbreak of hostilities that followed. Ralegh, who had ordered White to baptize Manteo, believed that the conversion of one of their own was another means of bringing Protestantism to the Indians. Manteo would first win over the Croatoans and perhaps in time the Indians of the mainland.

Ralegh and White’s assumption that the Indians would convert to Christianity reflected the profound differences in how the English and Indians viewed one another. Whereas White envisioned settlers and Indians living in peace

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