Inventing Americans in the Age of Discovery by Michael Householder

Author:Michael Householder [Householder, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Americas (North; Central; South; West Indies)
ISBN: 9781317113232
Google: ZVAfDAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-05-06T16:15:09+00:00

Narrating Native Counter-Intelligence: Translation and Dislocution

In his capacity as governor of the first colony, established at Roanoke one year after Barlowe’s expedition, Ralph Lane prepared for Raleigh a thorough chronicle of the major events that transpired from August 1585 to June 1586, when the colony was hastily evacuated amid food shortages and deteriorating relations with the Algonquians. As a veteran of Elizabeth’s army in Ireland, Lane’s practical military experience complemented the theoretical knowledge of the colony’s scientific advisor, Harriot. Lane’s leadership, however, was frequently constrained by the conflicting purposes, impractical planning, and plain bad luck characteristic of the entire Roanoke venture. Much of its food supply was lost in a wreck on one of the many coastal reefs, forcing the English to depend on the local population for food, a situation that ultimately doomed any attempt to establish a permanent base. Nevertheless, the first summer was a busy time: Led by Lane, the colonists offloaded their remaining supplies, built a fort, and explored the mainland and surrounding waterways. With insufficient supplies to sustain the colonists or trade for adequate provisions, the fleet’s admiral, Richard Grenville, was forced to return to England for replenishment. Lane, meanwhile, began looking for a more suitable harbor. To that end, a party of colonists traveled north that winter toward the Chesapeake Bay region. Lane followed in March with an exploratory journey westward up the Albemarle Sound to the inland villages of Chaonoak and Morituc. Upon his return to the fort at Roanoke, hostilities between the English and the Roanokes quickly broke out, culminating in Lane’s brazen attack on their leaders in early June 1586. By coincidence, Francis Drake sailed into the area a week later and found the colonists, fearing Algonquian reprisals and tired of waiting for re-supplies promised by Grenville, ready to abandon the colony and return to England. When White attempted to re-establish the colony the next summer, he did so in the midst of a local population understandably bent on avenging Lane’s violence.

It is unclear at what point Lane composed the report of his activities as governor. It appears in both the 1589 and 1600 editions of Hakluyt’s Principal Navigations as “An account of the particularities of the imployments of the English men left in Virginia by Sir Richard Greenevill under the charge of Master Ralph Lane Generall of the same,” but it is often identified simply as Ralph Lane’s Discourse on the First Colony. Hakluyt compiled it with several other documents related to the Roanoke venture, including the relations of Barlowe and Harriot. Unlike Harriot’s Report, however, Lane’s Discourse was never published separately. It is not propaganda aimed at supporters of colonization. It is not a week-by-week chronicle of the colony’s activities, though it is arranged roughly chronologically, with the first half focusing on Lane’s various expeditions and the second covering his return and the subsequent escalation of conflict. As demonstrated by Michael G. Moran, the Discourse is both an explanation and apologia (likely a clarification of a verbal report given

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