Early American Colonization attempts continued...

With Mantao and Wanchese in England, the next stage was to teach them English. The task was given to Thomas Harriott, who took the challenge with relish. He firstly had to come up with an alphabet to capture all of the sounds in the natives' tongue, as the English alphabet couldn't do it. It is thought he eventually came up with a dictionary and phrase book too, but if so these did not survive -only the English-Algonquin alphabet survives today. Before long, Harriott had learned a lot of the Algonquin tongue, and starting quizzing Manteo and Wanchese, in the process learning a lot about the land and peoples over the ocean.

With a wealth of information now available, Raleigh set about planning the colony with gusto. He knew that it had to be meticulously planned, and consulted many of the experts of the time - military men, farmers, doctors, builders etc. He decided upon what supplies and equipment would be needed. Unlike earlier expeditions, this was a meticulously planned operation. Sir Richard Grenville was engaged to command the fleet taking over the colonists, and a soldier named Ralph Lane was employed to command the colony once they had reached the new world. Also accompanying them was Thomas Harriott and John White, a painter who had been commissioned to paint the flora, fauna and people of Virginia.

After landing, Ralph Lane had intended to build stone fortifications around the settlement, but unfortunately there was precious little stone to be found so it was mostly made of wood. They made contact with the Natives (Manteo's tribe among them), White painted many watercolours, and they mapped out a lot of the land and learned many things. Unfortunately, many things went wrong - provisions were destroyed and there were brutal clashes with the Natives. The following year, the colony was in dire straits when a fleet of ships arrived - Sir Francis Drake. He was going to leave men and supplies with the colonists, but then disaster struck, a ship was lost in the storms, with most of the supplies going down with it. Left with little choice, it was decided that all the colonists were to evacuate and head back to England. Unfortunately in the rush to leave, one of the sailors dumped a chest with many of John White's watercolours, the maps and notes etc. into the sea. So much vital information lost!

Some time later, Sir Richard Grenville landed with supplies only to find the colonists gone. Shocked as he was, he decided to leave a band of 15 soldiers to occupy the land for England.

Many of the colonists had had enough of the new world and wanted nothing more than to stay in England for the rest of their days. Sir Walter Raleigh had difficulty getting colonists and also someone to lead them, for another mission to re-establish the colony. John White was one of the few who wanted to go back, and persuaded Raleigh to let him lead the mission and the colony. With him he took his pregnant daughter, and his son in law. Unfortunately however he proved to be a poor governor, and the rest of the colonists eventually persuaded him to go back to England 'to personally organise more supplies'. In reality they wanted rid of him. Once back in England however, due to political difficulties and conflict with Spain (the pesky Spanish Armada) no supply mission happened. Eventually, in 1590, a mission was organised to go to Virginia and supply the colonists on Roanoake Island. Unfortunately, when they got there, there were no colonists to be found. The settlement was abandoned, and the only clue to their wearabouts was 'Croatoan' carved into a tree (this was a prearranged message to say where they had gone in the event they had moved the colony). This was a strange choice to move to as it wasn't very hospitable, there was poor defenses (although home of Manteo's tribe), bad land for planting crops and so White was puzzled. They resolved to head for Croatoan Island, but due to bad weather, being blown off course and low on supplies they never made it and the captain of the ship decided to return to England. It was many years before any more ships went to Virginia, and even longer until anyone went looking for the lost colonists. They were never found, and the English learned from the natives that they had been massacred, the same day that the Jamestown colonists landed, 17 years later in 1607. It was thought some survived and though they were never found, natives on Croatoan Island in future decades were curiously white in colour - presumably the surviving lost colonists had given up on ever returning to England and instead thrown in their lot with the natives, inter-marrying. There are Americans today who claim to be descendants of the lost colonists...