Roanoke Read online

  8 IN CERTAIN DANGER

  I have had good experience of this world; I have known what it is to be a subject, and I now know what it is to be a sovereign. Good neighbours I have had, and I have met with bad; and in trust I have found treason.

  Elizabeth I1

  A Plan Gone Awry

  Where do we stand in this investigation? We have 115 people missing from Roanoke Island. They may have represented a dissident Separatist congregation. Although initially it appeared that White abandoned them, he did not. He returned to England for help at their insistence. He is, therefore, ruled out as a suspect. Neither he nor Raleigh can be blamed for neglect, for sober efforts were made prior to departure to prepare the colonists for what lay ahead.

  White himself had been to Roanoke twice before. As a result, he clearly understood the requirements for survival there. Two other colonists, James Lasie and John Wright, were also veterans of the earlier expeditions.2 Their expertise would guarantee the inclusion of items indispensable for the voyage. White’s twelve Assistants were carefully briefed.

  Yet all the planning came to naught. On Roanoke the colonists exhibited extreme distress. One man lay dead, and evidently they believed others would follow. Nearing panic, the colonists—with one voice — forced the governor home for their better and more assured help. Expressing great fear over certain our known, and apparent, lacks and needs.3 Despite all preparation. Despite all precaution. The question is … what went wrong?

  A Grisly Reception

  August 1587. The colonists reach Roanoke after a dangerous sea voyage occupying nearly four months. Rowing ashore, a shocking discovery is made: strewn about a clearing are the bleaching bones of an Englishman: one of the fifteen soldiers stationed on the island, with whom they were to reconnoiter. Appalled, White’s company pushes through the woods to the fort, only to find it abandoned and partly razed. The remaining portion, along with necessary and decent dwelling houses, is overgrown with melon vines and deer within them, feeding on those melons.4 Something is terribly wrong.

  Unable to account for the missing soldiers, White takes control. He promptly issues orders for the repairing of those houses, which we found standing, and also to make other new cottages, for such as should need. A temporary measure while he considers what to do. In particular, he is anxious to learn the disposition of the people of the country towards us. As though he anticipates ill will. The answer is forthcoming: George Howe, out crabbing, is found slumped facedown in a marsh, his body pierced with Secotan arrows. Leaving a wife and young son desolate in a strange land. We wanted only, White said of the neighboring Secotan, to renew the old love that was between us, and them, at the first, and to live with them as brethren and friends.

  Impossible. White knows this, as do Lasie and Wright. How much of the story have they told the others? The atmosphere on Roanoke crackles with tension. Day-to-day events streaming out of control amid an aura of numbing disbelief. For White never intended to be here. In fact the colonists never meant to settle on Roanoke at all.

  Startling Revelation

  The destination is not, nor ever has been, Roanoke Island! White is emphatic about this. From the beginning, from the very first, the colony was to be established farther north on the Chesapeake Bay. Never on this dark and forbidding shore. Condemned by the past. White’s words ring out almost frantically: they were to call at Roanoke only briefly, to rendezvous with the soldiers and then leave for the Bay of Chesepiok, where we intended to make our seat and fort, according to the charge given us among other directions in writing under the hand of Sir Walter Ralegh.

  And yet they remain on Roanoke. The victims of a deliberate deception. In fact, as we shall see, they have been betrayed. This is the information White must convey to Raleigh. This is why someone must go back. To report that their forsaken condition on Roanoke means only one thing … sabotage.

  PART TWO

  A CASE OF MURDER

  9 SABOTAGE

  To Kingdoms strange, to lands far off addressed;

  Alone, forsaken, friendless on the shore,

  With many wounds, with death’s cold pangs embraced;

  Writes in the dust as one that could no more,

  Whom love, and time, and fortune had defaced.

  Sir Walter Raleigh1

  Lurking in the Shadows

  White’s colonists severed ties to family and business in England and purchased a voyage that was to lead to a new life on the Chesapeake Bay. At the time, they had no way of knowing that someone had a far different agenda for them and had expended considerable effort to achieve it. They could not know that, contrary to carefully laid plans, they would be taken to Roanoke Island instead. And left there. This circumstance was dire enough, but to this was added a crushing blow that made their landing catastrophic. Something had occurred in Roanoke’s past that made any hope of survival there impossible.

  We do not yet know what that was, but there were certainly those present who did. John White knew. So did someone else on the expedition. Someone — other than Lasie and Wright — who had been there before. Who knew the story. Who was aware of the events that had taken place during the fateful winter of 1585—1586.

  The roster of the second Roanoke expedition of 1585 included the names of James Lasie and John Wright, but we cannot accuse either of wrongdoing. Too little is known; they appear nowhere else in any record. In fact, the only possible link is a John Wright who subscribed to the later Jamestown venture.2 This man was listed as a merchant with the East India Company and admitted to the Mercer’s Guild in 1604, which might imply that he was a young man. Could he have been the son of Lost Colonist John Wright, left behind in 1587 with his mother in England? If so, it might explain his interest in the later Virginia colony. At this moment, we simply don’t know. Aside from this curiosity, nothing conspicuous about Lasie or Wright exists.

  The Peculiar Case of Darby Glande

  There was another individual who had been on both voyages. One who departed with John White’s company in 1587 — but never reached Roanoke. And although he was present on Grenville’s 1585 expedition, he insisted that he had gone against his will. His name was Darby Glande. Years later, he would impart his own strange story to Spanish officials in St. Augustine.3 He said he was an Irishman. A soldier and a sailor. And on a ship loaded with wine and merchandise out of Brittany, he was captured by Raleigh’s cousin Sir Richard Grenville and impressed into service on the expedition to Roanoke. He was forced to spend the winter of 1585-1586 with the military command stationed there, despite his protests, because the English refused to give him passage home. He returned to London with the rest of the company in the spring of 1586.

  Rare as this adventure was, Darby Glande made the improbable claim that it had happened to him again. Astonishingly, he maintained that he had never intended to accompany White’s colony to Roanoke in 1587, but had been seized and taken by force. How could this be? Such a bizarre action would not likely come from the hands of the John White we know. The profile simply does not fit. Could there be more to this story?

  Murder

  Our simple case of missing persons has come to an end. The situation has become much more complex. Clearly something was going on behind the scenes which bears investigation. The picture that is emerging is incredible: there are men, women, children, and babies stranded on Roanoke Island, in certain danger, having been placed in harm’s way without adequate provisions. They are aware that their supply ships, which will be sent to the Chesapeake Bay, will never find them. Whoever was responsible for placing them on Roanoke knew this too. This fact dramatically changes our focus. The crime is nothing less than attempted murder.

  Thus we begin anew. Yet what a case this is! There are no bodies, no suspect, and no motive! Darby Glande has yet to be charged.

  Ready the Sails

  1587. Three ships line the wharf in Portsmouth harbor: the Lion and two consorts — a flyboat and a pinnace.4 John White, Governor of the colony, sails as Captai
n. His pilot is Simon Fernandez, who is also one of the twelve Assistants. Edward Spicer commands the flyboat. Three years from now, in a breach off Hatorask, White will watch him die. The pinnace is captained by Edward Stafford. White is acquainted with him from the Roanoke expedition of 1585.

  Supplies are loaded aboard the vessels. Barrels of food, water, wine. Furniture to last a lifetime. Articles comparable to those destined for Jamestown years later: clothing, linen, wooden dishes, cups and saucers, candlesticks, frying pans, beds and bedding, pillows, napkins, buttons and thread, glue, carpentry tools, paper, wax, ink and parchment.5

  The colonists bustle up the gangway, loaded with packages, herding their children before them. Rich with parting gifts of marmalade and butter, they are leaving the known world behind.6 With them is Manteo, native to Croatoan Island, who is returning home from his second visit to England.7 He is the colonists’ link to the future. It is April 26.

  No Turning Back

  May 5. At night the convoy pulls into Plymouth harbor. It is the final stop before the Atlantic crossing. The two days spent in town are poignant. The colonists are the “in between.” Neither here nor there. No longer of England, not yet away from her.

  Plymouth’s streets twist down to the harbor, narrowed by stone shops savoring of fruit pastries, breads, and sausages. Merchants and sailors bustle along the wharf, oblivious to the Roanoke venture, loading and unloading cargo. A colorful commotion. Seagulls wheel above the steps leading to the water, searching for food. And beyond the snug harbor and creosote and brine, the cliffs of Devon and Cornwall reach slender fingers out into the English Channel. Dotted with vessels. This is the last of England the colonists will ever see. The 8. we weighed anchor at Plymouth, and departed thence for Virginia.

  A Harrowing Voyage

  May 16. Only eight days out there is a problem. It unfolds so strangely that at first it is difficult to know what has happened. In the dead of night, off the dangerous Portuguese coast, Captain Spicer’s flyboat is left stranded. An accident — or deliberate? She carries colonists as well as supplies. The other ships do not help; instead, they abandon her. Simon Ferdinando, Master of our Admiral, lewdly forsook our flyboat, leaving her distressed in the Bay of Portingall. There is nothing White can do.

  June 22. The Lion and pinnace reach the Caribbean and anchor off Santa Cruz in the Virgin Islands, where all the planters were set on land. They remain for three days. Was this the rendezvous agreed upon should the vessels become separated? The company still hoping that the flyboat will reappear.

  Poisoned Fruit

  The colonists settle in. Cabins are built along the beach under an awning of dense foliage. After a month at sea, the lush shore with its tropical breezes and exotic fruits must seem like paradise. It isn’t: some of our women and men, by eating a small fruit like green apples, were fearfully troubled with a sudden burning in their mouths, and swelling of their tongues so big, that some of them could not speak. Also a child by sucking one of those women's breasts, had at that instant his mouth set on such a burning, that it was strange to see how the infant was tormented for the time. How on earth did this happen? More to the point, who allowed it to happen?

  The pilot, Simon Fernandez, has had more experience in the Indies than almost anyone in England, having received his training there in the service of Spain. This is no small matter, for before they can sail Spanish navigators must pass a rigorous course in the renowned pilot training school in Seville.8 After months of lectures, examinants are brought to the Contraction House before a panel of twenty-five certified pilots and tested on their knowledge of the Indies. Then the Pilot Major commandeth the examinant to spread a sea-chart upon the table, and in the presence of the other pilots to depart or show the course, from the bar of Saint Lucar to the Canary Islands, and from thence to the Indies, till he come to that place whereof he is to be examined.9

  The test is designed to evaluate a pilot’s knowledge and experience. He is quizzed about the rules of the sun and of the north-star, and how he ought to use the declination of the sun at all times of the year… another asketh him of the signs and marks of those lands which lie in his way to that haven whereof he is examined. And then another demande th, that if his masts should be broken by tempest, what remedy he would use?... Others ask him what remedy if his rudder should chance to fail? Others oppose him about the account of the moon and of the tides? Others ask him if a pirate should take him and leave him destitute of his chart, his astrolabe, and his other instruments serving to take the height of the sun and of the star, what course he would take in that extremity?10

  Only when he has passed all questions to the panel’s satisfaction is the applicant granted a license. In short, the pilot is a professional, an expert; a seaman of the highest rank.

  Fernandez is a pilot. He has successfully guided both the first and second Roanoke expeditions through the Indies. He has earned a reputation for navigating these waters well. He knows which islands to avoid and which are beneficial. He knows where to stop for water and the best ports of call for trade.

  So why, on this island in the West Indies, does Fernandez not warn the colonists of potential danger? And why would they assume that a strange fruit, growing in an unfamiliar land, is fit to eat? In fact, we would expect them to err on the side of caution. We would expect them not to sample anything they did not immediately recognize as absolutely safe. We must therefore conclude that someone told them it was edible. That the fruit would bring relief to the monotonous diet of hard tack and salt beef. That it would be a healthful dietary supplement to prevent illness. Who told them this? For eat it they do: the colonists consume their fill. The result is devastating. It will be a full twenty-four hours before the effects wear away. Faces thick and swollen. The baby howling in pain. A day and night of terror, wondering if they will recover.

  Water, Water, Everywhere, Nor Any Drop to Drink

  But there is more. Other surprises are in store, for the drinking water on Santa Cruz is poisoned. The colonists find nothing but a standing pond, the water whereof was so evil, that many of our company fell sick with drinking thereof. Not a little sick, but life-threateningly so. And as many as did but wash their faces with that water, in the morning before the sun had drawn away the corruption, their faces did so burn, and swell, that their eyes were shut up, and could not see in five or six days longer.

  June 23. Those with strength remaining search the island for fresh water. White and a company of six climb to the top of a hill for a better view. Fernandez had promised abundant food, yet they see neither sign of beasts, nor any goodness. Only a flock of parrots. And then a jarring discovery. Returning to camp, White found, in the descent of a hill, certain potshards of savage making. The place is inhabited, though Fernandez had told us for certain, the contrary. They have unwittingly invaded another people’s land, and have taken no defensive precautions.

  White’s dream for the City of Raleigh is dying. The colony, rapidly deteriorating. An unknown number of planters have been lost with the flyboat. Many of those remaining are blind. Others suffer from the poison they have ingested. And hanging over everyone, a critical shortage of water. The other company had found running out of a high rock, a very fair spring of water, whereof they brought three bottles to the company: for before that time, we drank the stinking water of the pond.

  As complaints mount, Stafford departs in the pinnace for Beak Island, being so directed by Ferdinando, who assured him he should there find great plenty of sheep. Food for the colony, and presumably water too. Yet nothing comes of the search. Stafford rejoins them off Puerto Rico. The next three days pass unprofitably in taking in fresh water, spending in the mean time more beer, than the quantity of the water came unto.

  It is here that two of the company defect. And here that we again pick up the story of Darby Glande.

  Defection

  The incident occurs on July 1 at Mosquitoes Bay, Puerto Rico.11 Glande and another Irishman, Denice Carrell, are left behind.
Of Carrell we know nothing; neither who he was nor why he deserted. Nor do we hear of him again. In view of this, we have no choice but treat his story as a dead end.

  All the more reason to take a closer look at Darby Glande. A man of shifting identity: he is Darby Glande in 1585. White lists him as Darbie Glaven. Later, in a sworn statement, he calls himself both David Glavin and David Glavid.12 Is this significant? Still, orthography was uncertain; it was not uncommon to spell names in a variety of ways. Regardless of what name he went by, we are dealing with the same individual.

  After abandoning the ships in Mosquitoes Bay, Glande’s next move is unclear, but he eventually makes his way across the island to the headquarters of the Puerto Rican Governor, Diego Menendez de Valdés. The same official who, in 1590, will report John White’s presence aboard the Hopewell, bound for America. Destination unknown.

  Warning

  Glande, taken into Spanish custody, tips off Valdés that the English are preparing to settle a colony in North America, at a location called Jacan.13 This is highly significant. Glande is very specific about the destination; he is not talking about the Chesapeake Bay, but the place to which he was brought by Grenville in 1585. The place where Raleigh’s man brought him in 1585 and where Drake later arrived and carried him away. Jacan, for Glande, is Roanoke Island. Yet the colonists aboard ship know nothing of this. They think they are headed for the Chesapeake. How could Glande know of plans afoot to maroon the colonists on Roanoke unless he had been informed of this before his escape? Had he been told what to say?