A Birthday Party
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The baptism of Virginia Dare on
Roanoke Island in 1587 . . . drawn
by Artist Harry Grissinger.
AMERICANS this summer are
celebrating the birthday of a
baby girl who was born 350
years ago on Roanoke Island,
off the coast of North Carolina. Nine
days after her birth the child, her par
ents, and the other members of the
colony which had settled among these
sand reefs and shifting inlets were lost
to history. .
The fate of Virginia Dare, sealed in
1587, has been made the subject of ex
haustive study from which have grown
many and varied theories. With the
sole distinction that she was the first
child born of English parents in Amer
ica, Virginia has been immortalized in
legend and song.
Her name identifies a modern high
way; it is the trademark for many a
commercial product. Special coins have
recently been struck by the U. S. mint
to commemorate her advent into this
world. Probably no other girl baby
has been so signally honored in this
land and yet next to nothing is actually
known about her!
Preparations for the event by which
a nation pays homage to a courageous
band have been under way for many
months The federal government has
lent a hand by assisting in the repro
duction of the log fort, dwellings, and
chapel erected by the first English
settlers on this continent.
This fort, resting on the original
foundations, is a typical blockhouse of
heavy pine with projecting upper story.
Its sides are pierced as if for gun-fire.
A palisade fence surrounds the struc
ture.
The log houses such as the colonists
built for themselves stand about under
the oak and‘holly trees, the pines and
the dogwood. These dwellings are
chinked with Spanish moss. Their fire
places and foundations are constructed
of ancient ballast rock, recovered from
the waters around the island. Some
of it may have been dumped by the
very ships that brought the colonists
over from England.
Around the whole of the Fort Raleigh
Reservation is a palisade whose en
trance is flanked by two blockhouses.
From it a path leads down to Colony
Landing where tradition says that the
settlers came on shore.
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The entrance to the Fort Raleigh reservation, where the anniversary of
Virginia Dare and the Roanoke Island settlement is being celebrated.
'T'HE restoration of this fortress, how
ever, was based on something more
substantial than tradition. The gov
ernor of the colony, John White, took
home to England descriptions and
drawings from which engravings, now
extant, were made in London.
Two small ships, designed after the
type in use during the sixteenth cen
tury, were built. Croatan Indians who,
many contend, are descended from
members of that Lost Colony, are tak
ing part in a pageant that portrays its
tragic story.
Paul Green, North Carolina play
wright, author of “In Abraham’s
Bosom,” and Pulitzer prize winner for
1927, arranged this pageant. The birth
day celebrations will be held on Aug.
18, marking the culmination of his
torical re-enactments that began on
July 23. That was the date on which
John White’s little vessels dropped an
chor off Roanoke.
This island, about 10 miles long and
two or three miles wide, lies off the
Carolina coast between Albemarle
Sound and Pamlico Sound. It is sepa
rated from the Atlantic Ocean by “the
banks,” long, narrow, sandy reefs which
extend almost the entire length of this
coast.
Until a few years ago Roanoke Island
was isolated from the rest of the world,
save for the few boats which touched
there to serve the fisher folk who com
prise its inhabitants. Now a modern
paved highway, the Virginia Dare
Trail, and bridges give access to the
island from Elizabeth City, N. C., and
Norfolk, Va.
Virginia Dare, the lost heroine of this
story, entered life in a colony that was
planted 33 years before the Pilgrims
landed at Plymouth, Mass., and 20
years before the Jamestown Settlement.
Her grandfather, John White, was
governor of the colony which Sir Walter
Raleigh had sent out in 1587 to build
the “Citid* of Ralegh” in Virginia. By
Virginia was meant at that time all the
territory on the American continent
claimed by the British.
Records painstakingly kept by Gov
ernor White show that this band of 121
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The English found Indian villages
protected by stockades like this one,
which furnished the plans for their
own forts and palisaded villages.
colonists which landed in July of 1537
was the first to include women, and
the first to contemplate a permanent
settlement.
VET Sir Walter had sent his earliest
expedition to Virginia in 1584. These
men later returned to England, taking
with them two Indian war-iors, Manteo
and Wanchese. Then followed two ex
peditions outfitted by Sir Richard Gren
ville. They took home with them In
dian corn, sassafras, Irish potatoes, and
tobacco, also wild turkeys, thus intro
ducing American products to the civ
ilized world.
John White remained in the colony
only one month and five days, but he
had two events of importance to record
before he sailed for England.
“On the 13th of August.” he wrote,
“our savage Manteo, by commandment
of Sir Walter Raleigh, was christened
in Roanoke and called Lord thereof,
and of Dasamonguepeuc, in reward of
faithful service.” This is the only in
stance of a peerage being conferred on
the soil of the United States
Manteo remained faithful to the col
onists, but Wai.chese becan ea bitter
enemy. The names of the e two In
dians, however, have been perpetuated
in the names of two villages on Roa
noke Island, Manteo and Wanchese,
where many of the visitors who come
for the August celebration will stay.
These communities have m large ho
tels, but people there are always will
ing to take in “comers and goers.”
John White’s other important entry
reads: <‘On the 18th Eleanor, daughter
of the Governor and wife of Ananias
Dare, one of the assistants,’ was deliv
ered of a daughter and the same was
christened there the Sunday following,
and because the child was the first
Christian born in Virginia, she was
named ‘Virginia’.”
John White set sail from Roanoke
on Aug. 27, taking with him reports
and drawings which have kept this
story alive through the centuries. He
was returning to act as a factor for the
colony and to obtain provisions.
But war between England and Spain
interfered with’ Governor White’s plans.
Not until April, 1588, was he able to
embark for America, and then, meeting
a Spanish fleet, he was forced to re
turn to England. Finally, in March,
1591, he sailed again, this time arriving
at Roanoke in August.
Not a soul was to be found upon the
island. The walls of the stout palisade
were intact, but all the houses had been
tom down. Chests that had been buried
in the sandy beach had been dug up
and plundered. Only one clew was
found. Graven upon a post at the gate
to the fort was the word CROATOAN.