Roanoke Island by David Stick

Author:David Stick [Stick, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, United States, Colonial Period (1600-1775)
ISBN: 9781469624167
Google: pn45DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Published: 2015-01-01T16:08:33+00:00

CHAPTER 11

Sir Francis Drake to the Rescue

Ralph Lane had no way of knowing it, of course, but at the very moment that his personal servant, Edward Nugent, was emerging from the woods at Dasamonquepeuc carrying the head of King Wingina in his hand, more than thirty English vessels were en route to Roanoke Island with supplies and reinforcements.

Raleigh and Grenville had encountered difficulty in putting together the relief effort, partly because the queen’s enthusiasm for the venture had seemed to cool. It was therefore necessary for them to raise more funds from private sources. By Easter—the time Lane understood they were to have reached Roanoke Island—no vessels had left England, and it was obvious that Grenville would not be ready to depart for at least several more weeks. Accordingly, Raleigh hurriedly arranged to send a single ship with adequate supplies to tide Lane’s colonists over until the main relief force could reach the Outer Banks.

Much closer at hand, however, was a truly massive English fleet. Having completed a series of successful raids against Spanish bases in the West Indies and Florida, Sir Francis Drake was about ready to head back to England, and he had planned a stopover at Roanoke Island to find out how Raleigh’s colonists were faring. In January, Drake had sacked the Spanish stronghold of Santo Domingo in the first of his series of bold attacks on Spain’s New World outposts. On June I, the date of Lane’s Dasamonquepeuc massacre, he was conducting mopping-up operations at Saint Augustine after capturing both the fort and the town and routing the inhabitants.

Just one week later, Captain Stafford, foraging for survival at Cape Hatteras, where he had been sent by Lane to be on the lookout for relief vessels, sighted a number of ships offshore. He must have had some serious doubts as to whether this was in fact an English fleet, for he counted no less than twenty-seven craft, and it was unlikely that Raleigh could have put together such a flotilla. But Stafford and his men were hungry—nearly starved in fact—and prospects for survival in Virginia, especially after the affair at Dasamonquepeuc, must have seemed bleak indeed. Capture by Spaniards, if this proved to be a Spanish fleet, could be no worse a fate than being abandoned in this alien land. So Stafford sent his men down toward the beach to light signal fires.

Hallelujah! As small boats pulled away from the ships and approached the shore, it was obvious to the lookouts that the occupants were Englishmen, not Spaniards. They held a brief conference there on the beach at Hatteras, and it was decided that the fleet would move up the coast, cautiously, and anchor offshore opposite Port Ferdinando. Stafford would hurry back to Roanoke Island with the glorious news that help had arrived at last.

Stafford reported to the governor the following day, June 9. On June 10 the lookouts on the banks opposite Roanoke Island sent word that the fleet had arrived and anchored offshore. On the

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