Researchers say they have new clue to Lost Colony
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — A new look at a 425-year-old map has yielded a tantalizing clue about the fate of the Lost Colony, the settlers who disappeared from North Carolina's Roanoke Island in the late 16th century.
Experts from the First Colony Foundation
and the British Museum in London discussed their findings Thursday at a
scholarly meeting on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill. Their focus: the "Virginea Pars" map of Virginia and North Carolina
created by explorer John White in the 1580s and owned by the British Museum
since 1866.
"We believe that this evidence provides
conclusive proof that they moved westward up the Albemarle Sound to the
confluence of the Chowan and Roanoke rivers," said James Horn, vice president of
research and historical interpretation at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
and author of a 2010 book about the Lost Colony.
"Their intention was to create a
settlement. And this is what we believe we are looking at with this symbol —
their clear intention, marked on the map ..."
Attached to the map are two patches. One
patch appears to merely correct a mistake on the map, but the other — in what is
modern-day Bertie County in northeastern North Carolina — hides what appears to
be a fort. Another symbol, appearing to be the very faint image of a different
kind of fort, is drawn on top of the patch.
The American and British scholars believe
the fort symbol could indicate where the settlers went. The British researchers
joined the Thursday meeting via webcast.
In a joint announcement, the museums said,
"First Colony Foundation researchers believe that it could mark, literally and
symbolically, 'the way to Jamestown.' As such, it is a unique discovery of the
first importance."
White made the map and other drawings when
he traveled to Roanoke Island in 1585 on an expedition commanded by Sir Ralph
Lane. In 1587, a second colony of 116 English settlers landed on Roanoke Island,
led by White. He left the island for England for more supplies but couldn't
return again until 1590 because of the war between England and Spain.
When he came back, the colony was gone.
White knew the majority had planned to move "50 miles into the maine," as he
wrote, referring to the mainland. The only clue he found about the fate of the
other two dozen was the word "CROATOAN" carved into a post, leading historians
to believe they moved south to live with American Indians on what's now Hatteras
Island.
But the discovery of the fort symbol offers
the first new clue in centuries about what happened to the 95 or so settlers,
experts said Thursday. And researchers at the British Museum discovered it
because Brent Lane, a member of the board of the First Colony Foundation, asked
a seemingly obvious question: What's under those two patches?
Researchers say the patches attached to
White's excruciatingly accurate map were made with ink and paper contemporaneous
with the rest of the map. One corrected mistakes on the shoreline of the Pamlico
River and the placing of some villages. But the other covered the possible fort
symbol, which is visible only when the map is viewed in a light box.
The map was critical to Sir Walter
Raleigh's quest to attract investors in his second colony, Lane said. It was
critical to his convincing Queen Elizabeth I to let him keep his charter to
establish a colony in the New World. It was critical to the colonists who
navigated small boats in rough waters.
(excerpted)
Archaeologists must first re-examine
ceramics, including some recovered from an area in Bertie County called Salmon
Creek, he said.
"This clue is certainly the most
significant in pointing where a search should continue," Lane said. "The search
for the colonists didn't start this decade; it didn't start this century. It
started as soon as they were found to be absent from Roanoke Island ... I would
say every generation in the last 400 years has taken this search on."
But none have had today's sophisticated technology to help, he
said.
"None of them had this clue on this
map."
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