Lesson 14: The Roanoke Colony

One by one, as they entered the room, the students looked around and then fell silent. Some wandered out of habit to stand where their seats would normally be – if there had been any furniture in the room at all. A handful of students stood before the chalkboard and quietly debated the meaning of the single word written on it.

CROATOAN

”Well, what’s that supposed to mean?” asked a lean, sandy-haired Gryffindor. “Has class been moved? Has it been cancelled? Where’s Gummy?”

The Ravenclaw standing next to him choked down a laugh, ”I’m sure Professor Vance will be here soon,” he responded, lightly stressing the History of Magic professor’s title. But after several more minutes of just standing in an empty room looking at each other, nearly everyone was shuffling their feet and ready to break out a game of Exploding Snap.

”Right, well, you can all wait here, but I’m—“ the Gryffindor said turning toward the door.

”Have a seat, Connor, class isn’t over yet.” Professor Montgomery Vance’s deep, rich voice filled the classroom. With a sweep of his wand, the desks, bookcases, shelves, and assorted historical knick-knacks reappeared in their usual places. As the students settled noisily into their spots, the Professor strode to the front of the room, making the students wonder where he had been just a moment before.

“Strange, is it not, arriving at a place where you expect to find things as you left them, but instead finding the place utterly vacant? And then, your only clue is a word written on a black board.” He turned to contemplate the word “CROATOAN” and shook his head before turning back to the class. ”Today we’ll be discussing the Lost Colony of Roanoke. It’s one of history’s mysteries for both Muggle and wizards alike. If we don't know what happened, then why do you think we're discussing it in this class?”

Gummy gave the students a moment to consider the question before giving in to the silence and answering it himself. ”We may not know what happened to the Roanoke Colony, but you can bet your last knut that some very bad wizards were in it up to their eyeballs.” Noticing the look of confusion on some of the students' faces, Professor Vance explained, “Up to their eyeballs is just a turn of phrase. It means they were deeply involved. No one, as far as I know, was actually buried up to their eyes. I wasn’t being literal.”

When looks of confusion turned to comprehension, Gummy continued. “On May eighth, 1587, three ships set sail from Plymouth, England carrying 89 men, 17 women, and 10 children. The goal of these people was to found the first English city in the new world. The expedition was led by a man named John White. The mystery begins before the ships even left England.” Gummy sat down on the edge of the his desk and got that look on his face that his students had come to recognize as a non-verbal cue to get settled in, because it was story time.

”As the passengers boarded the ships, their names were recorded in the passenger manifest by John White himself. And what we see is the name Thomas Harris appearing twice. Twice,” he repeated for emphasis. ”Muggle historians note this fact, but spend little time puzzling over it. They prefer to assume it was a mistake or that one of the Thomas Harrises should have been denoted as a child. But to wizarding historians, it is the first piece of evidence of that something was truly amiss.”

The Professor held up one finger, which was soon joined by a second. ”The second piece of evidence occurred off the coast of Portugal. Now remember that England was at war with Spain at this time, so that’s a dangerous place to be for an English ship. Records are a bit confusing, but they indicate that there was a storm which separated the ships. But there is also evidence that one of the ships was abandoned by the other two, despite the fact that they could have helped it. The lack of concern for the third ship was remarked upon as was John White’s inability to do anything about it. Oh, not to worry, that ship catches up with the other two eventually. In fact, they rendezvous near Santa Cruz in the Virgin Islands as if it was the plan all along. But where did the third ship go? And why?”

Gummy my noticed some of students exchanging surprised or knowing glances. ”But wait, there’s more,” he said sounding a bit like a muggle infomercial. "So, two of the ships sat around in Carribbean waters patiently waiting on the third to arrive after its mysterious mission. Where did the ships drop anchor and put their passengers ashore while waiting on the third ship? These were experienced captains. They knew the Carribbean like the back of their hands. So did they find a good area with lots of fresh water and wild fruit? No. The captains set the passengers down in an area where the only available water made their skin and eyes burn – some couldn’t see for up to six days after washing their faces in the water. And the fruit the sailors suggested the colonists eat made their mouths burn so badly that even a nursing mother's breast milk burned her infant’s mouth as well. Accidental?” Gummy asked rhetorically. ”Doubtful. And it gets worse.” Gummy looked down at his fingers as he counted out the evidence so far: one, the double entry in the log; two, the ship feigning problems and being left behind; three, the long wait and the obvious rendezvous; four, the intentional cruelty to the colonists.

”Right, that brings us to number five. After the three ships were reunited, they proceeded north toward Virginia. En route, they were supposed to stop at a pre-determined location to take on salt which the colonists greatly needed for preserving food. They were also supposed to stop at a second location to bring on various plants and seedling trees that were to be the beginning of groves that would feed the colonists in the years to come. But as the ships passed the two locations the captains simply refused to stop. In a clear attempt to pacify the colonists, the captain of the lead ship told their leader, John White, that he planned to stop at a different place where they would meet with a man who would easily get the colonists both the salt and the seedlings they needed. However, as you've probably already guessed, when the ships reached the area the ships didn't stop. When John White tried to get the captain to stop, the captain said they they had already passed by the place he had spoken of, and it didn’t matter anyway because the man he had said would help them was long dead.” Gummy added his thumb to the four fingers he already had raised in his count of evidence.

”Finally the colonists reached Roanoke Island. By the way, Roanoke was not their final destination. The ships had agreed to stop at the Roanoke fort to check on the soldiers who had been left behind to man the little English toe-hold in the wilderness. Roanoke had never even been considered as a potential location for the new colony. It was completely unsuited due to its swampy terrain and poor resources. Moreover, there had been an incident of some kind with the local tribe several years before that made Roanoke particularly dangerous. So, anyway, the ships stopped. The colonists, eager to be off the ships if only for a day, were set down on the shore. Then, as soon as the last colonist was off the ships, the three captains told the shocked and angry colonists that their voyage was over. And the ships sailed away.”

If it wasn’t all so awful, Gummy would have been amused by the number of students so surprised and appalled that their jaws had dropped open. He felt it was only fair to warn them. ”Sorry to say, it gets worse. The colonists came across the bleached and dismembered bones of one of the soldiers on their way up to the fort. When they reached the fort, it was empty and half-razed to the ground from an attack. They had to live somewhere, so they set about rebuilding the fortification and the cottages inside. And, oh, by the way,” Gummy almost hated to add this part, but it was true nonetheless, ”because of all the lengthy delays during the journey and all that time waiting on the third ship to catch up, and then later for the captains to decide to continue the journey, it took the colonists four months to transit the Atlantic and the 1587 planting season was over.”

”What? That’s, that’s just… I mean… what the hell?” Connor sputtered.”No way is all of that just a coincidence. No one has that much bad luck.”

”You’re quite right, but let me quickly finish up the sad story of the Roanoke Colony and then I will fill in what bits and pieces wizarding historians have been able to gather over the years. Let’s see, where was I? Ah, yes. So, at this point the colonists were in the Roanoke fort and they were attempting to survive as best they could. One day, a man named George Howe went out crabbing. He later was found dead with an arrow through his chest. This increased the fear and no one was allowed out of the fort alone. In short, things went from bad to worse. The colonists - well most of them - survived the winter and in 1588 a ship stopped by. The little group insisted their leader go back to England, explain their situation, and finally get some supplies. Dutifully, Governor John White left his fledgling colony in a quest for desperately needed supplies and assistance. When he finally returned a year and a half later, this was all he found.” Professor Vance flicked his wand and a large watercolor painting filled most of one wall of the classroom. It showed a group of men in Elizabethan garb looking at a large stockade fence post with a single word carved in it: CROATOAN.

”There was also a tree with the letters CRO carved into it, but that’s all. No people, not even bodies, and not much of anything else was left in the fort. What happened and where they went is the big historical mystery. ‘Croatoan’ was the name of an island about 50 miles south of Roanoke. It was also the name of the Native American tribe that lived there. John White searched Croatoan for his people – his daughter and granddaughter among them – but never found any sign or word of them. Muggle historians and archaeologists are still searching today.”

”You said wizards were involved in all this, Professor. Were some of the colonists wizards? And if so, why couldn’t they send an owl or help defend the colonists?” one of the students asked.

”Excellent questions, Clarence. There were no wizards in the Roanoke Colony. That was a purely Muggle endeavor, or at least it was supposed to be. Wizarding investigators at the time believed there was enough evidence to indicate that the second Thomas Harris on the passenger manifest was in fact a wizard using Polyjuice Potion. But there had to be at least three wizards working together because of how events played out on the three ships. It’s believed that these wizards each had at minimum the captain of each ship, and possibly others, under an Imperius Curse. It’s likely that they used Confundus or Memory Charms on members of the crew at times to get them to go along with the strange orders and behavior of their captains. Our historians are split on the question of whether wizarding involvement ended when the three ships abandoned the colonists at Roanoke -- the worst possible location. It’s possible one or more of the wizards might have stuck around to ensure the total obliteration of the colony.”

”But why, Professor? What was their motive? What did they have to gain? And who were they?” Clarence asked, still completely bewildered by the entire episode.

”I’ve no idea, Clarence, none whatsoever. If I did, it wouldn’t be one of history’s enduring mysteries. Who sabotaged the Roanoke Colony? Who they were working for? Why? And what happened to all the people? There is an American wizard archaeologist who has been charged with watching over all excavations related to the Roanoke Colony and investigating all new findings. In recent years archaeologists have found some interesting evidence that some of the goods the Roanoke colonists brought with them wound up on Croatoan Island and another location about 50 miles inland. But personal possessions can be separated from their owners, so we still don’t have any answers.

”And look at the time!” Gummy exclaimed in surprise. This lesson went far longer than he had anticipated. With a quick swish and flick, homework scrolls appeared in the air above the students’ heads and fluttered down to land on the desk tops. ”There’s your homework. Oh, and next class will be a quiz, so we’ll get to see how much you’ve learned since winter break.”