Some Early Expeditions

In the mid 16th century the Spanish recorded visiting as far north as what is now the Carolinas. On one occasion they took a Powhatan boy hostage and named him Don Luis. He lived in Spain, Havana, and Mexico City, sometimes with Dominican priests, sometimes with military men. After ten years, he led Jesuit missionaries back to his home near what would later be Jamestown. The Jesuits moved into Chiskiack territory and Don Luis rejoined his family. The Jesuits finally ran out of food and called on Don Luis to help them. When he did not respond they resorted to demanding that he help them; finally, Don Luis and his family killed all of them.

The only survivor was a teenage boy who, against Don Luis’ protests, was adopted by Don Luis’ people. That was possibly the first early unsuccessful missionary attempt in the area. In 1572 a Spanish military expedition looking for the missionaries rescued the Spanish boy and was told of the incident. In the fighting that followed several Indians were killed and five Indian men were hanged for killing the missionaries. This only served to encourage more hostile feelings of the native peoples in the area. ^{1Karen Ordahl Kupperman, Indians and English (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000), 203. Helen Rountree and E. Randolph Turner III, Before and After Jamestown: Virginia’s Powhatans and Their Predecessors (University Press of Florida, 2002) 51-52.}

Sir Francis Drake made two scouting sorties into the Caribbean in 1570 and 1571 to seek out the vulnerability of the Spanish, and in 1583 Sir Humphrey Gilbert and 260 passengers set out for the northern part of the New World; but the attempt to colonize Newfoundland failed and “[i]n the space of seventeen days England’s first American colony came and went...” ^{2Ivor Noel Hume, Virginia Adventure (New York: A.A. Knopf, 1994), 23-27.}

On April 27, 1584, under the command of Captain Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe and sponsored by Sir Francis Drake, two ships left England to cross the Atlantic. They took the southern route and got as far north as Roanoke Island. When they left to return to England they took two of the Algonquian Indians named Manteo and Wanchese back with them. The next journey to Roanoke was in the spring of 1685 with Sir Richard Grenville at the helm and Wanchese and Manteo on board. About twenty men were left at Roanoke on that trip, a not too wise decision. On April 26, 1587, three ships commanded by artist John White set out for Roanoke with men, women and children aboard. This was to become known as the “lost colony of Roanoke.” ^{3Ivor Noel Hume, Virginia Adventure (New York: A.A. Knopf, 1994), 23-66.}

---

Last updated 05/08/2008