Commentary: Why you can’t ignore Hatteras Island in the Lost Colony story

By Scott Dawson, founder of the Croatoan Archaeological Society and owner of The Lost Colony Museum in Buxton

The “Lost Colony” was a great mystery that was created in 1937 for an outdoor play that was never meant to be taken as actual history.

Unfortunately, this fictional version of events is now taught in schools as if it is real history, and media outlets like the History Channel and “American Horror Story” are quick to cash in by promoting the mystery and ignoring the actual history and science.

As a result, the Croatoan tribe, whom the colony ultimately assimilated with on Hatteras Island, has been reduced to a cryptic message carved onto a tree by the colony.

The myth pretends to have no idea the meaning of the word, and the History Channel recently suggested that it could be an omen of death. There is no possible way NOT to know the real meaning of Croatoan because the English were in constant contact with this tribe from 1584 through 1587. The English lived on the island of Croatoan on and off for three years before the Lost Colony set sail, and they had Croatoan Indians come back to England with them twice. Croatoan being cut out of the narrative is for one purpose only – marketing.

Needless theories about the fate of the Lost Colony are given far more attention based on absolutely nothing but speculation and the ignoring of the obvious.

So, the first step in understanding the Lost Colony is to tell the parts of the story that are always purposely left out of the narrative in order to create a false mystery.

Here is a synopsis of the real story, and the facts that are often ignored or left behind.

The first thing to understand is that the English were in constant contact with the Croatoan people for years leading up to the voyage of the Lost Colony, and they even had a Croatoan man (Manteo) on the ship with them returning home from his second trip to England.

1. 

   The English’s first landfall in what is now the U.S. was not Roanoke. In 1584, they landed on the Island of Croatoan, which is the lower half of Hatteras Island today. The island is clearly labeled on the maps and even the latitude of the inlets was recorded. They even recorded that after six weeks on this island, seven of them explored the sound in a small boat where they traveled north, finding another island called Roanoke, where this small group stayed for one night. So, 99.9% of the voyage took place on Hatteras/Croatoan Island.

2. The reason the English were so interested in Croatoan was because they were looking to set up a pirate base to raid Spanish ships that were following the Gulf Stream current from Florida and Cuba back to Spain. This current runs dangerously close to Hatteras. The 1584 voyage brought no women and was not a colony; it was a recon mission for setting up a pirate base. This is why the first voyage did not even bother to go to the mainland at all.
3. During the six-week stay on Croatoan in 1584, the tribe traded goods and brought the English six freshly killed deer every morning, as well as pearls, tobacco, and leather. So right from the start, a relationship began with this tribe. It was on Croatoan that they met the famed Manteo and Wanchese – neither of whom was ever a chief nor from Roanoke, but they did travel to England.
4. Manteo and Wanchese traveled back to England with the 1584 group and met Queen Elizabeth I. They stayed with the scientist Thomas Harriot and learned English and even created an Alphabet for Algonquian. Everything we know about the tribe’s language, religion, and customs comes from what Harriot recorded, and it is volumes of information.
5. The second English voyage to the Outer Banks was in the spring of 1585 and was still all men with the main objective of hurting Spain. They stole Spanish ships on the way over and sacked Puerto Rico. Once again, the rendezvous was the Island of Croatoan. Seven ships made the voyage, but did not all arrive together. The first to arrive was the Red Lion, which dropped 32 men off at – you guessed it – Croatoan to await the arrival of the other ships. Twenty days later the last ship arrived.
6. The last ship to arrive was the Tiger and that was the ship the two Croatoans were on. as well as Thomas Harriot. For the first four months of this stay, Roanoke is not even mentioned once.
7. The Croatoan had begged the English in 1584 to attack another tribe on the mainland called Secotan. The English declined that year. The Croatoan said their chief was not on the island because he had been wounded three times fighting against the neighboring chiefdom of Wingina, the Secotan chief. The Croatoan’s chief was recovering in the land of an ally, the Chowan.

8. 

   The English burned the Secotan village of Aguscogoc south of Mattamuskeet Lake and the corn fields over a missing silver cup. The Secotan acquired the assistance of their allies, the Mandoag, from what is now Bertie County, to help fight the English and they showered the English long boats on the Chowan River with arrows. The Mandoag sang a war song before they attacked, and the English thought they were singing to them and wished to trade, but Manteo told them to take cover. The Secotan tore up fishing gear and refused to trade any food to the English. Some of the English lived on Roanoke and some lived on Croatoan. The conflict with the Secotan peaked in April of 1586 when the English and Croatoan together ambushed Wingina and shot him in the back and butt, although he still rose and ran off, until finally an Irishman who was with the English cut off his head.

9. The second voyage of 1585 stayed for 14 months and thus ran into 1586. The English living at Croatoan that year spotted Francis Drake coming up the coast and flagged him down with smoke to rescue them. The 1585 group had spent some time living on Croatoan and on Roanoke. Those on Roanoke had been reduced to eating their own dogs.
10. Manteo sailed with Drake to England for a second time when Drake departed. Less than a week after all the English left with Drake, the very late resupply ship for the second voyage arrived to find no one on Roanoke, but it left behind 15 men to hold the fort, literally. These 15 men were soon attacked by the Secotan. One was shot in the mouth with an arrow, one had his brains beaten out with a war club, and the roofs of some of their houses were burned. Thus, the third voyage was an epic failure.
11. The fourth voyage, or what is now known as the Lost Colony, began in 1587. This Voyage of 117 men, women, and children stopped by Roanoke to pick up the 15 men left there in 1586, whom they did not know, but heavily suspected were dead. The houses were overgrown with melons and deer were inside eating them. They could see the fort had been burned and even found a skeleton. To drive home the danger they faced, one of the colonists was murdered. George Howe was shot 16 times with arrows and had his skull beaten to pieces by the Secotan.
12. Immediately after George Howe is killed, the colony sent Manteo, (who is from Croatoan), and Edward Stafford, (who had lived on Croatoan during the second voyage) back to Croatoan to get help and to find out for sure if any of the 15 men left the year before had survived.
13. The Croatoan hosted the English to a feast and agreed to help negotiate a peace between the English and the Secotan. They also told them that only two of the 15 men they were looking for had been killed and the others were chased off by warriors from Secotan.
14. The Croatoan then traveled to what is now Manns Harbor and the place Wingina was murdered, but rather than negotiate a peace, they sacked the village and stole all of their crops. The English saw the Croatoan doing this and were not too upset about it. They gave the Croatoan chief (Menatonan) a ride on a lighhorse (ship) to Roanoke from Manns Harbor along with many other Croatoan who witnessed the baptism of Manteo and the births of Virginia Dare and baby Harvy. Manteo was even given a Lordship.
15. Before departing, the governor, John White tells the colony to carve on a tree where they relocate to if they should leave, and to put a cross underneath if they leave for reasons of danger.
16. The governor returned three years later and did not see a cross, but did see CROATOAN carved on the palisade, which indicated that the colonists had headed south to Hatteras Island, where they had been welcomed for years. In his own words, “I was greatly joyed to find a certain token of the colony’s safe being at Croatoan, the place where Manteo was born and the people of that island our friends.”
17. An attempt was made immediately to go to Croatoan but was thwarted by a hurricane. Eight of the English had drowned, including the captain, and their ship was damaged, losing the anchor and many supplies. The ship was also pushed far out to sea. Thus, they limped back to England and no other real attempt to reconnect with the colony was made. King James hated the investors of the colony and thus they were abandoned.

18. 

    The next written record we have of anyone going to Croatoan is John Lawson who meets Indians with blue eyes wearing English clothes that tell him some of their ancestors were white people who came on Sir Walter Raleigh’s ships and that they could speak out of a book. To omit Croatoan from the story and pretend it is some mysterious clue is like telling the story of the Titanic and leaving out the iceberg to create a mysterious wreck – a cool story but complete nonsense.

19. Today, a multitude of 16th-century English artifacts have been excavated by renowned archeologists from the Croatoan villages on Hatteras Island, yet the story is still being ignored. Included in the Hatteras Island finds are saker cannon shot, a bronze Tudor Rose, Nuremberg token, a swept hilt rapier sword, and even the daub and window glass from their houses, all found in Croatoan at a pure 16^th-century level mixed with Croatoan tools, pottery, and pipes. The post holes and fire pits of the longhouses are still visible as well as the foundation of English homes.

These finds are featured on HBO Max, the Travel Channel, the Science Channel, and National Geographic Magazine. Even without these findings, the primary sources are crystal clear about where the Croatoan lived and who they were, but that doesn’t fit the “lost” narrative.

This story has been polluted much the way the story of Pocahontas was polluted by Disney. Fiction is fun but it should be contained to the theatre and not taught in schools. For many decades, Native American history was twisted to fit the attitudes on race of the time.  To act like Croatoan is some unknown message carved onto a tree is a lie and an insult to the tribe and colony they adopted.

If you want to know the real story, stop by the Lost Colony Museum in Buxton and see artifacts from the colony and the tribe that adopted them. The Croatoan tribe deserves to be recognized and not reduced to a cryptic message to prop up a silly myth that most people are now realizing has always been a lie.