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' PROGRAM OF EXERCISES FOR NORTH CAROLINA DAY RALEIGH, N. C. Kdwards & Broughton, and E. M. Uzzrxl,, State Printers Prkssks of Edwards & Broughtok I 901 State of North Carolina Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction • Raleigh «. «. ^7"* II IS pamphlet is sent out to the public schools with the hope that Vi^ it will inspire and assist in a fitting celebration of North Carolina Day in the public schools of the State I desire to thank the North Carolina Historical and Literary Society. the North Carolina Society of the Daughters of the Revolution, and Col. Fred. 'A Olds, for valuable aid and material in the preparation of the program. • T. F." TOON, Supt. Public Instruction. Raleigh, N. C, Sept. 23, 1901.- UM? North Carolina Day SUBJECT: FIRST ANQLO-SAXON SETTLEMENT IN AMERICA. PROGRAM OF EXERCISES 1. SONG—Our Fathers' God, bo Thee. 2. Reading—Sketch of Sir Walter Raleigh, the Father of Anglo-Saxon Colonization in America. 3. Declamation—Sir Walter Raleigh and Virginia Dare- By Jos. W. Holden. 4. Reading—Sketch of the Landing. From Hawks' History. 5., SONG—" Ho! for Carolina."—W. B. Harrell. 6.. Sketch of the Settlement op Roanoke Island— By Graham Dave?. From N. C. Booklet. 7. Recitation or (Reading). (a) The Mystery of Croatan — By Margaret J. Preston. (b) Roanoke Island — ByFred.A.Olds. 8. Address by Local Orator. 9. Recitation—Poem, " My Native State"—By H. J. Stockard. 10. General Discussion. Topics—(a) Are the Croatan Indians the Lost Colony? (b) Why Did the Attempt to Colonize North Carolina Fail? 11. Song—In Conclusion—" The Old North State"—By Gaston. Sir Walter Raleigh—By Henry Jerome Stockard. OUR FATHERS' GOD, TO THEE. M.aj. Graham Davos suggests as opening hymn the follow-ing, in place of "My Country, 'Tis of Thee": J Our fathers' God, to Thee, Author of Liberty, To Thee we sing: Long may our land be bright With freedom's holy light, Protect us by Thy might, Great God our King. (2) Bless Thou our native land, Firm may she ever stand, Through storm and nighI ; When the wild tempests rave; Ruler of wind and wave, Do Thou our country save, Great God our King. (3) For her our prayer shall -rise To God, above the skies ; On Him we wait ; Thou who art ever nigh, Guarding with watchful eye, To Thee aloud we cry, God save the State. SKETCH OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. A great English "poet (the contemporary and friend of Ra leigh) has said that " 'tis not in mortals to command success, but they do more who deserve it." Sir Walter Raleigh de-served success, and therefore all North Carolinians should know the story of his life. He was born in the year 1552, and came of a good family. There were as many as thirteen different ways of spelling his surname. The form most commonly used is "Raleigh," but Sir Walter himself wrote it "Ralegh." The place of hib birth was the parish of Budleigh, in the county of Devon. This county is famous as the home of many other great ex-plorers who lived in the days of Queen Elizabeth, among whom were Sir Francis Drake, Sir Humphrey Gilbert (Ra-leigh's half-brother) and Sir John Hawkins. Another great navigator, Sir Richard Grenville, was born in the adjoining county of Cornwall. It was the last-mentioned who gave the name of "the Cape of Eeare" to a dangerous point on our coast, now called Cape Fear, where he came near being ship-wrecked in 1585. Sir Walter Raleigh received his education both at home and abroad. In 1568 he was a student at the English Uni-versity of Oxford; and in the year following attended the University of France. Before completing his studies in the last-named institution, he left it and began his military life as a volunteer in aid of the French Protestants (called Hugue-nots), who were then engaged in a religious war with the Roman Catholics. He later served under the Prince of Orange against the Spaniards. On his return to England he found that the Queen had given leave to Sir Humphrey Gilbert to establish a settlement in America. Raleigh be came a promoter of this plan, and the little fleet set sail in 1579, but met with ill-fortune. One of the ships was wrecked, and the others were crippled in a fight with the Spaniards, so they had to return without having found land. A little later, Raleigh aided in quelling an insurrection in Ireland, and won great fame by his bravery. There is a very pretty story (whether true or not we do not know) about an adventure of Sir Walter after his return from Ireland. It is said that one day he saw Queen Eliza beth coming for a walk with some of the lords and ladies of her court, when a small puddle of water lay directly in front of her. Seeing this, Raleigh immediately took off a hand some cloak which he wore and lay it over the puddle ; or, as an old rhyme says — '* Threw his cloak before the Queen To keep her dainty slippers clean." Whether this piece of gallantry was the secret of his suc-cess we can not tell, but he soon rose to high favor with Eliza beth, who employed him in many matters of importance. He soon used his influence to start another expedition to America, in 1583, and intended going with it, but sickness prevented, so it Avas intrusted to Sir Humphrey Gilbert. Though Gilbert's fleet reached what is now a part of Canada (which he took forcible possession of by expelling other Europeans), he never lived to enjoy his triumph, for his ship, the Squirrel, foundered on the return trip and he was drowned. Though greatly attached to his brother, Raleigh was not discouraged by Gilbert's death. In 1584 he fitted up two vessels for further discovery. These were commanded by Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlow, and were the first to explore the coast of ]STorth Carolina, which they reached in July. They carried back to England such glowing accounts of the 4 new country that the "Virgin Queen," as Elizabeth was styled, -called it Virginia, after herself, and made Raleigh 8 a knight. He was also made "Governor of Virginia." In later years, when America was divided into colonies, "Vir-ginia" was the name given to the colony just north of the place of the first settlement. In 1585 another fleet went forth on an errand of discovery. In this expedition were Sir Richard Grenville and Sir Ralph Lane. These captains having quarreled, Grenville returned after landing the colo-nists, and Lane remained to form a settlement. Grenville promised to return with supplies, but was prevented from so doing, and the colonists abandoned America and returned to England in 1586, in one of Sir Francis Drake's ships. Scarcely had the colonists left Roanoke when Grenville and his supply ships landed at the abandoned settlement. Leav-ing fifteen men on the island, Grenville went back to Eng-land. Still another expedition was sent out by Raleigh, in 1587, commanded by John White. The settlers having se-lected their place of abode on the Island of Roanoke, White went back to England for supplies, but could not at once bring them as all English ships were needed to fight the Spanish Armada. In 1590, however, White got back to Roanoke, only to find that the colony had disappeared. Among the persons thus lost was Eleanor Dare (wife of a colonist and a daughter of White) and her little daughter Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the new world. With the disastrous end of his colonies on Roanoke Island, Raleigh's ventures in JSTorth America ended. Upon the Spanish possessions in South America, however, he made sev-eral descents, and on one occasion sailed up the Orinoco and laid the town of St. Thomas in ashes. On this occasion Ra-leigh accompanied the expedition, and his son was killed. As St. Thomas was destroyed in time of peace, Raleigh was committed to the Tower on his return to England. Having been convicted, he was beheaded on the 29th of October, 1618. As a poet and historian, Raleigh takes high rank, and he held mauy important civil posts. He was also Captain of one of the vessels which fought the Spanish Armada in 1588. Two articles, before unknown in Europe, were introduced into Great Britain by Raleigh, viz., tobacco and potatoes. The first potatoes planted wTere set out on his estate in Ire-land, and the climate was so favorable that they are called Irish potatoes. More than once they have saved that country from famine, and this alone should place the name of Sir Walter Raleigh high on the roll of the benefactors of man-kind. SIR WALTER RALEIGH AND VIRGINIA DARE. The name of the city of Raleigh awakens a long train of far-reaching associations. It summons from the placid deeps of the past the memory of a grand and gallant hero, the towering shade and central figure of England's golden Eliza-bethan age ; it evokes, in quiet majesty, the form of Sir Walter Raleigh, the statesman and soldier, the sailor and courtier, the poet and philosopher, the chemist and historian, and the martyr in the cause of human freedom. On him, it was once said, the Old World gazed as a star ; while from the New, where crystal cliffs of Mt. Raleigh, amid the solitudes of arctic seas, shimmer beneath the aurora's rays, the reflection of his fame flashed back! flashed over old ocean's wrinkled wastes three centuries ago, when the keels of his intrepid fleet first cleft the inland waters of the hemisphere which we now inhabit. Here, too, on the soil of North Carolina, he built a monu-ment of enduring fame, for here he planted the new home ~-£ the Anglo-Saxon race ; and here, among the vines and flowers of our Eastern shore, where the breath of spring is filled as of old with the perfume of blossoms, and the cool forests are still made harmonious with the carols of innumerable birds, in a land whose loveliness fires the imagination and enchants the heart, he laid the foundation of a colony destined by lofty fate to imperishable renown, and gave to it, the island city of his hopes in those distant years, the glorious name which has been so often uttered here, the name of the City of Raleigh. Let us, then, for a moment, roll back the chilling tide of the fast-flowing decades, and listen, amid the rising notes of triumph over toils forgotten and sufferings ended, to the 11 weird story of the fate of our scarce-remembered mother city. Et was a lonely settlement on a wild and stormy coast, the sole habitation of civilized man from the circle of the Hesperidcs to the Pole. One hundred and fifty persons made up its de-voted band of pioneers, who had faced the terrors of ocean, the invisible fevers of the land, the starvation of the wilderness and the implacable malice of treacherous foes ; and who, finally, faced an unknown and mysterious doom, whence no record has been rescued from the tombs of eternity. By the spell of this story the words of the historian have ever thrilled into tender and mournful harmony, for into the midst of that unhappy city there came one whose name has grown into a household word—a babe, the first sweet lily infant of our English mother born on American soil, a heavenly gift, a merciful memory from the skies ! Virginia Dare, the first-born citizen of the first city of Raleigh, the first free-born citizen of a land consecrated to freedom forevermore ! Joseph W. Holden. VIRGINIA DARE. On the eastern shore of North Carolina, in the shallow sounds enclosed by long sand-hanks which bound the coast, lies a little island twelve miles long and three miles broad. This is Roanoke—the scene of the first English settlement in this country, and the birth-place of Virginia Dare, the first English child born in America. How much of romance, and yet more of history—"a ro-mance of the real"—clusters around the sad story of this young girl ! Out of the unfortunate expeditions, of which she, in some sense, may be said to have been the first fruits, grew the schemes of colonization at Jamestown and at Ply-mouth a score of years later. The seed were sown at Roan-oke, were fertilized by the sacrifice of the settlers there, but took enduring root first at Jamestown. Associated with the humble and almost unknown colonists of Roanoke are the names : Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen ; Raleigh, the preux chevalier, soldier, statesman, poet, histo-rian ; Sir Richard Grenville, sailor, soldier and martyr; Sir Francis Drake, Admiral and circumnavigator of the globe. Truly our little Virginia Dare was in goodly company. Of chroniclers, too, she, her companions and their acts had no lack. There were Arthur Barlowe, who commanded a ship in the first expedition ; Lane, the governor of the first colonists John White, governor of the second colonists, the grandfather of Virginia Dare, whom she was destined to seek in sorrow and never find. Their accounts, and those of others also, are full and their stories well told. They are still on record, and have been published by the Hakluyt Society. It is a noteworthy fact that the history of these colonies which came 13 to naught, and of a locality now so little known, should be so fully recorded and preserved in every detail-1-much more so khan that of other localities of far greater importance, now of much prominence, whose origin and early history arc often obscure and uncertain—sometimes almost unknown. It was in a stirring era, too, in the history of the world, and one of romantic incident and adventure, that the little waif, Virginia Dare, first saw its light. The dreaded Span-ish Armada—foiled in part by Drake and Raleigh, so in-timately connected with the colonists of Roanoke—was pre-paring for its descent upon the coasts of Britain ; the ap-peals and groans of the Christian martyrs wl\o twenty years before perished for their faith at the stake at Smithfield, Oxford and elsewhere, still echoed through the land ; Bacon and Shakespeare, all unconscious of their future fame, were in their lusty youth ; aThe Faery Queen" was taking shape in the prolific brain of Spencer ; Sir Philip Sidney was soon to die at Zutphen; Frobisher had returned from his Arctic discoveries, and Drake from his voyage around the world ; the horrible butcheries of the Duke of Alva in the Low Countries, and the massacres of St. Bartholomew at Paris, had heightened religious enmity to the fiercest inten-sity, to which the good Prince of Orange was soon to for-feit his life, a murdered victim ; and the lovely Queen of Scots was ere long to lay her beautiful head upon the block in expiation of the plottings and sins of others, of whom she was the tool—perhaps the willing tool. The Anglo-Saxon and the Spaniard were entering upon the long struggle for supremacy at sea and upon the conti-nent, which may be said to have been ended by ourselves but a short time ago, after more than three hundred years, by the expulsion of the latter from Cuba and other West Indies. Surely little Virginia was born in troublous times, and her sad fate was not the least pathetic incident of th^fe stormy period. There were two expeditions to Roanoke before the birth 14 there in 1587 of Virginia Dare, some account of which may be of interest. The first was one of discovery and explora-tion only. It consisted of two small ships, the "Tyger" and the "Admiral!/' commanded by Captains Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe, to the latter of whom we owe the ac-count of the voyage and of its results. He says to Sir Wal-ter Raleigh : *'The 27th of April, in the yere of our redemption 1584, we departed the West of England with two barkes well fur-nished with men and victuals. * * * The 10th of June we were fallen with the Islands of the West Indies. * * * The 2d of July we found shole water, wher we smelt so sweet and so strong a smel, as if we had been in the midst of some delicate garden abounding with odoriferous flowers, by which we were assured that the land could not be fane distant." •x- * * /'The 4th of July we arrived upon the coast, which we supposed to be a continent, and we sayled along the same 120 miles before we could find any entrance, or river issuing into the sea. The first that appeared unto us we en-tered, and cast anker about three harquebuz-shot within the haven's mouth: and after thanks given to God for our safe arrivall thither, we manned our boats, and went to view the land next adjoining and to take possession of the same in right of the Queen's most excellent Majestie. * * * Wee came to an island which they call Roanoke, distant seven leagues from the harbor by which we entered: and at the north end thereof was a village of nine houses, built of Cedar and fortified round about with sharp trees. * * * We were entertained with all love and kindness, and with as much bounty as they could possibly devise. We found the people most gentle, loving and faithful, voide of all guile and trea-son, and such as live after the manner of the golden age." A handsome tribute to our Hatteras Indians, who after-wards, probably, had not much cause to return the compli-ment. 15 These Indians differed in no way from the other natives of America, except tjiat they had a few iron implements, and that among them were noticed children with auburn and chestnut-colored hair. It was learned later that twenty-six years before this time, a ship manned by white men had been cast away at Secotan, and that some of the crew had been saved. After a time these men attempted to escape in a small boat, and were drowned. These were the only whites ever seen before the arrival of the English—but some six years after this time another vessel had been wrecked on this coast, and sill the crew perished. From parts of this wreck driven ashore the natives had obtained nails, spikes and edged tools. But for this explanation, this presence of iron would have per-plexed the archaeologist. The account of the natives, their kindness and hospitality, of their easy life, and of the abun-dance of fruit and grain, fish and game in these inland waters is familiar to us all. Like all natives, they longed to purchase the swords and knives of the white men, but above all, thev desired to obtain the kettles and pans to use as shields in battle. The King's brother was most kind, repaying the English liberally in melons and fruit, and each day he sent to the new-comers presents of "fat-backs," conies, hares and fish. They visited the Indian village on Hoanoke. aWhen we came towards it/' the record runs, "standing near unto the water's side the wife of Granganimeo, the King's brother, came running out to meet us very cheerfully and friendly — her husband was not then in the village. Some of her peo-ple she commanded to draw our boat on shore for the beating of the billow: others she commanded to carry us on their hacks to dry ground ; and others to bring our oars to the house for fear of stealing. When we were come to the outer room, having five rooms to her house, she caused us to sit down by a great fire, and after took our clothes and washed them, and dried them again, some of the women washed our 16 feet in warm water, and she herself took great pains to see all things ordered in the best manner she could." The adventurers remained in that region about two months and made many explorations. In September they returned to England, taking with them two of the Indian Chiefs, Manteo, who ever remained the faithful friend of the English, and Wanchese. Their names are retained as the names of two villages on Roanoke Island to-day. Their arrival home, and the glowing account the adventurers gave of their dis-coveries aroused the utmost interest. The new-found coun-try was called Virginia, in honor of the "Virgin Queen," and the Atlantic Coast of North America was divided into three regions, with boundaries very ill-defined, claimed by France, England and Spain, and called Canada, Virginia and Flor-ida. A large part of Virginia, which included Roanoke Island, was afterwards, by the patent of Charles I. to Sir Robert Heath in 1629, and by the charters of Charles II. in 1663 and 1665 to the "Lords Proprietors," set of! as Caro-lina, so named from the Latin name, Carolus, of the two Kings. The name, therefore, Virgina, first applied to Roau-oke Island and the parts adjacent, originated in what is now North Carolina, and if Virginia be, as she is often called, the "Mother of States," North Carolina may be said to be her own grandmother ! The next year (1585). a large expedition, under command of Sir Richard Grenville, a cousin of Raleigh's, was fitted out. There were seven "ships" in the fleet—if the small crafts composing it can be so called, the largest of them be-ing of "seven score tunnes" burden—which carried 108 men who were to be settled in a permanent colony on Roanoke Island. The fleet sailed from Plymouth on the 9th of April, 1585, and on July 3d Wingina, the Indian Chief, was noti-fied of its arrival at Roanoke. Manteo and Wanchese re-turned with this fleet. On August 25th Sir Richard Grenville, "Our Generall, weyed anker, and set sails for England." On his return the IT colony was left in charge of "Master Ralph Lane/' and with him was "Master Philip Amadas, Admiral of the Country," who had commanded one of the ships in the first expedition. The Dames of the colonists are all known, a list of which may be seen in Vol. I of llawkes' History of North Carolina. These colonists founded a village near the north end of the island, and constructed a fort, principally an earthwork, called by Lane "The new fort in Virginia." The outlines, ditch and parapet of this fort are still perfectly distinct, and its angles and sally-port are now marked with granite blocks. It is now, and has been for a long time, appropriately called "Fort Raleigh." Lane has left a most interesting account of the doings of his colonists during their stay on Roanoke Island, and of his own explorations. They remained there but one year, hav-ing become home-sick, discouraged and disheartened, and sailed in June, 1586, on the fleet of Sir Francis Drake for England, where they arrived on the 27th of July. They had scarcely gotten out of sight of the island when a ship dis-patched by Raleigh, freighted with provisions and supplies of all kinds, arrived there, and, finding no one, wTent back to England. About a fortnight later Sir Richard Grenville ar-rived with three ships similarly equipped. Finding the Island abandoned, "yet unwilling to lose the possession of the countrey," he "determined to leave some men behind to reteine it : whereupon he landed fifteen men in the Isle of Roanoke, furnished plentifully with all manner of provisions for two years, and so departed for England." Nothing daunted by the failure—a very costly one—of this first attempt at colonization, Sir Walter equipped an-other expedition in the year following, which, however, he in tended to settle on the waters of the Chesapeake instead of at Roanoke. This expedition was intrusted to the guidance of John White, the grand f (her of Virginia Dare, who we will let tell his own story: North Carolina State Library Raleigh 18 "In the yeere of our Lord 1587, Sir Walter Raleigh in-tended to persevere in the planting of this Countrey of Vir-ginia, prepared a newe Colonie of 150 men to be sent thither, under the charge of John White, whom he appointed Gov ernour, and also appointed unto him twelve Assistants, unto whom he gave a Charter, and incorporated them by the name of Governour and Assistants of the Citie of Raleigh in Vir-ginia. Our Fleete being in number three saile, the Admirall a shippe of 120 Tunnes, a Flieboat and a Pinnesse, departed the 26th of April from Portsmouth. * * * About the 16 of July we fel with the maine of Virginia, and bare along the coast, where in the night, had not Captaine Stafford bene carefull, we had all bene castaway upon the beach called the Caps of Fere. The 22 of July we arrived at Hatorask: the Governour went aboard the pinesse with forty of his best men, intending to pass up to Roanok forthwith, hoping there to finde those fifteene men which Sir Richard Grenville had left there the yeere before. * * * The same night at sunne-sei he went aland, and the next day walked to the north ends of the island, where Master Ralfe Lane had his forte, with sundry dwellings made by his men about it the yeere before, where we hoped to find some signes of our fifteene men. We found the forte rased downe, but all the houses standing unhurt, saving that the nether roomes of them, and also of the forte, were overgrown with melons, and Deere within them feeding : so wee returned to our company, without hope of ever seeing any of the fifteene men living." The fifteene men, as was afterwards learned, had been massacred by the Indians. The colonists having landed upon the island went actively to work to rebuild Fort Raleigh and to make homes for them-selves. They consisted of ninety-one men, seventeen women and nine children, the names of all of whom are preserved. In the former colony there had been neither women nor chil-dren, and they gave to this one a character of stability and l lJ permanence that had been Jacking in the first. From a simi larity of their names with those of the men, it would appear that at least ten of the women were married, and for a like reason that six of the children were with their parents. Shortly after the arrival of the settlers there occurred two events, or perhaps more properly three, of interest and im-portance not merely to the little community, but in their rela-tion to the history of this country. These events are thus related in Hakluyt's Voyages, Vol. Ill : "The 13 of August our Savage Manteo was christened in Roanoke, and called Lord thereof and -of Dasamonguepeuk, in reward of his faithfnll service. The 18, Eleanor, daugh-ter to the Governour, and wife to Ananias Dare, one of the Assistants, was delivered of a daughter in Roanoke, and the same was christened there the Sunday following, and because this child was the first Christian born in Virginia, she was named Virginia." These baptisms were, so far as is known to this writer, the first celebrations of record of a Christian Sacrament within the territory of the thirteen original United States. The baptism of Manteo, and his being made Lord of Roanoke, were by order of Sir Walter Raleigh, and the latter, it is believed, is the only instance of the conferring of a title of nobility upon a native American. By the Indians "Elenor Dare/' the first mother of the white race known to them, is said to have been called, in their figurative and descriptive way, "The White Doe," and her baby, the little Virginia, the first white infant they had ever seen, "The White Fawn" ; and there is a pretty tradition that "after her death her spirit assumed that form—an elfin Fawn—which, clad in immortal beauty, would at times be seen haunting like a tender mem-ory the place of her birth, or gazing wistfully over the sea, as with pathetic yearning for the far-away mother-land." Another tradition is that in that sweet form she was slain by her lover, a young Indian Chief, who had been told that if 2< he shot her from ambush with a certain enchanted arrow it would restore her to him in human form. Soon after the birth of Virginia, her grandfather Gov-ernor White, returned to England to obtain supplies for the colonists : "The 22 of August the whole colony came to the Gov-ernour, and with one voice requested him to return himselfe into England, for the obtaining of supplies and other neces-saries for them ; but he refused it, and allged many sufficient causes why he would not. * * * At the last, through their ex-treame intreating constrayned to return, he departed from Roanoke the 27 of August.'7 On the 16th of October he arrived on the Irish coast, and coining to England straightway made efforts to carry succor to his people, but never again did he look upon the faces of his daughter, or his granddaughter, or of any of their com-panions. England was in the midst of her bitter contest with Spain and the Invincible Armada, and had sore need at home for every man and ship. There was neither time nor means to be devoted to an obscure little company thousands of leagues away in an unknown land beyond the stormy Atlantic. Three years elapsed before White returned to Roanoke, and when he came he found it deserted, and the set-tlers gone—whither ? No one was left to tell, and their fate was enshrouded, and will ever remain, in mystery pathetic. The dead past will not give up its dead. Let White himself tell the sad story: "The 20 of March the three shippes, the Hopewell, the John Evangelist, and the Little John, put to sea from Ply-mouth. * * * The 15 of August we came to an anker at Hatorask, and saw a great smoke rise in the He Roanoke neere the place where I left our Colony in the yeere 1587. * * * The next morning our two boats went ashore and we saw another great smoke ; but when we came to it we found no man nor signe that any had been there lately." 21 When White left Roanoke to return to England for sup-plies, it had been agreed that in case the colonists left the island in his absence, they should leave some sign to indicate whither they had gone, and if their leaving was under duress, or in distress, the sign of the cross should also be affixed, thus X. White continues : "'The 17 of August our boats were pre-pared againe to go up to Roanoke. * * * Toward the north ende of the island we espied the light of a great fire thorovv the woods : When we came right over against it we sounded with a trumpet a Call, and afterwards many familiar Eng-lish tunes and Songs, and called to them friendly ; but we had no answer ; we therefore landed and coming to the fire we found the grasse and sundrv rotten trees burning about the place. * * * As we entered up the sandy banke, upon a tree in the very browe thereof were curiously carved these faire Roman letters, C. R. O., which letters we knew to sig-nifie the place where I should find the planters seated, ac-cording to a secret token agreed upon betweene them and me, at my last departure from them, which was that they should not faile to write or carve on the trees, or postes of the dores, the name of the place where they should be seated ; and if they should be distressed, that then they should carve over the letters a Cross in this form X, but we found no such sign of distresse. We found the houses taken downe and the place strongly enclosed with a high palisado of great trees, with cortynes and flankers very Fortlike, and one of the chief trees at the right side of the entrance had the barke taken off, and. five foot from the ground, in fayre Capitall letters, was graven CROATOAN, without any crosse or sign of distress." The colonists had evidently gone to Croatan, as we now have the word, the home of Manteo, the friendly Chief, the banks and islands of our coast, extending from Hatteras to Beaufort harbor; but none of them was ever seen of white men again. They "died and made no sign ;" though it Is 22 believed by many, and with considerable reason, that their descendants may still be found among the Croatan, or, more properly, Hatteras, Indians of Robeson County. White does not explain satisfactorily why he did not seek his daughter at Croatan, which was not very far away. He says : "The season was so unfit, and weather so foule, that we were constrayned of ^force to forsake that coast, having not seene any of our planters, with losse of one of our ship-boats, and seven of our chiefest men. * * * The 24 of October we came in safetie, God be thanked, to an anker at Plymouth. * * * Thus committing the reliefe of my discomfortable company, the planters in Virginia, to the merciful help of the Almighty, whom I most humbly beseech to helpe and comfort them, according to His most holy will and their good desire, I take my leave." Raleigh himself had never visited our shores, where in failure and disaster had ended all his efforts at settlement in this land, and where his unfortunate colonists passed from the domain of history into the .domain of the unknown. And little Virginia Dare, what of her ? Did she die -n infancy, and does her dust, mingled with the soil of her birth-place, blossom there into flowers that blush unseen ? Did her little feet join in the wandering of the settlers from Roan-oke to Croatan ? Did she grow to womanhood in their sec-ond home, and did her life end in tragedy amid the darkness which enshrouds the fate of the colony ? From the deep abysm of the past comes no answer. Yet a faint echo, a possible trace of the lost White Fawn, comes to us which may have reference to her, and with it the record closes forever. In his first volume of "The History of Travaile," William Strachey, Secretary of the Jamestown Colony, writing in 1612 of the events that occurred in Virginia in 1608-'10, says: "At Peccarecemmek and Ochanahoen, by the relation of Machamps, the people have howses built with stone walles, '23 and one story above another, so taught them by those Eng-lish who escaped the slaughter at Roanoke, at what tyme this our Colony under the conduct of Captain Newport landed within the Chesapeake Bay, where the people breed up tame turkies about their howses and take apes in the mountains, and where, at Bitanoe, the Weroance Eyanoco preserved seven of the English alive, fower men, two boys and one young mayde, who escaped the massacre, and fled up the river Chanoke." (Chowan.) This "young mayde" may well have been Virginia Dare, who, at the time mentioned, would have been about twenty-one years of age. The extract is of interest, also, as show-ing that the existence, and even the location, of certain of Raleigh's colonists were well known to the Jamestown set-tlers. Indeed, both John Smith and Strachey make men-tion of scattered parties of those colonists several times, and the Virginia Company writes of some of them as "yet alive, within fifty miles of our fort, * * * as is testified by two of our colony sent out to searche them, who, (though denied by the savages speech with them) found crosses * * * and assured Testimonies of Christians newly cut in the barks of trees." Here the veil of mystery falls around the White Fawn and her companions, probably never to be raised. JL THE LANDING. (From W. F. Payson's ,; John Vytal.") "The landing and unlading the fly-boat was a task requir-ing much exertion. But now that the dangers of the ocean were past, every man, woman and child of the little colony lent aid with a hearty will. They were in high spirits. The mid-day sun shone down in summer warmth, the skies were blue and cloudless. The island of Roanoke, emerald green in all its summer verdure, seemed a veritable land of promise. A number of the most youthful colonists ran along the shore to prove their freedom from the confines of the deck—ran calling to one another, and sang for sheer hap-piness. Others, more devout, gathered about the preacher, who offered a prayer of thanksgiving. Some, with whom labor was at all times paramount, went busily to and fro in the small boats and the pinnace, which had again been manned, conveying the cargo from ship to shore. The main body of colonists, who had arrived earlier on the Admiral, came down with tears of joy in welcome, and a babble of questions concerning the fly-boat's voyage. The scene was varied. Here stood Hugh Rouse, with a great bag of salt on his broad shoulders ; here Roger Pratt, arm in arm with his newly-regained friend, the bear, and pointing at Rousq with some remark to King Lud of raillery ; here Marlowe, the poet, surveying with eager eyes the luxuriant foliage farther inland and listening with enthrallment to the songs of forest birds ; there Gyll Croyden running towads him joy-ously, with a fresh-plucked nosegay of unknown, fragrant flowers in her hand ; here Ananias Dare, overlooking a couple of sailors who rolled a cask of wine across the beach; there 25 Simon Ferdinahdo, important with a hundred directions, and furtive as he glanced towards Vytal ; here Governor Wlii to, for a moment leaving the management to his Assist-ants, and here, too, beside him his daughter Eleanor, her face pale as if with illness. She was clasping his arm with both hands, as though to make sure of no renewed separation. 'Father, I thank God we are once more together. The days were very long and almost unendurable. 7 " HO! FOR CAROLINA! Let no heart in sorrow weep for other days ; Let no idle dreamer tell in melting lays Of the merry meetings in the rosy bowers ; For there is no land on earth like this fair land of ours. Ho! for Carolina, that's the land for me; In her happy borders roam the brave and free ; And her bright-eyed daughters, none can fairer be ; Oh, it is the land of love and sweet liberty. Down in Carolina grows the lofty pine, And her groves and forests bear the scented vine ; Here are peaceful homes, too, nestling 'mid the flowers ; Oh, there is no land on earth like this fair land of ours. Come to Carolina in the summer time, When the luscious fruits are hanging in their prime, And the maidens singing in their leafy bowers ; Ob, there is no land on earth like this fair land of ours. And her sons, so true in warp and woof and grain, First to shed their blood on Freedom's battle-plain, And the first to hail, from sea to mountain bowers, Strangers from all other lands to this fair land of ours. Then for Carolina, brave and free and strong, Sound the meed of praises in story and in song, From her fertile vales and lofty granite towers : ()!i. there is no land on earth like this fair land of ours. WlT/LTAM B. HATCRET.L it THE MYSTERY OF CROATAN. (The little colony sent to Roanoke Island by Sir Walter Raleigh being in great need of supplies, sent the Governor, John White, to England for them. Before he sailed it was agreed that if the colony found it necessarjr to seek another location, the name of the place to which they had gone should be carved on a tree at the fort ; and, if they had left in distress, a cross should be cut above the word. Governor White's daughter, Eleanor Dare, and her little babe, Virginia Dare, recently born to her in that wild American home, were left with the colonists to await the return of the Governor from England. He was absent three years. His vessel came to anchor off Roanoke Island in March, 1590, and the Governor hastened to find his child and her companions ; but the fort was deserted, and not a trace of the colonists has ever been discovered to this day save the single word Croatan carved on a pine post near the fort.) The breath of spring was on the sea : Anon the governor stepped His good ship's deck right merrily ; His promise had been kept. "See, see ! the coast-line comes in view !" He heard the mariners shout, — "'We'll drop our anchors in the sound Before a star is out !" "Xow, God be praised," he inly breathed, aWho saves from all that harms : To-morrow morn my pretty ones Will rest within my arms !" At dawn of day they moored their ships, And dared the breaker's roar. What meant it? Not a man was there To welcome them ashore ! 0.7 28 They sprang to find the cabins rude ; The quick green sedge had thrown Its knotted web o'er every door And climbed each chimney-stone. The spring was choked with winter's leaves, And feebly gurgled on ; And from the pathway strewn with wrack All trace of feet was gone. Their fingers thrid the matted grass, If there perchance a mound Unseen might heave the broken turf ; But not a grave was found. They beat the tangled cypress swamp, If haply in despair They might have strayed into its glade, But found no vestige there. "The pine ! the pine !" the governor groaned ; And there each staring man Read, in a maze, one single word Deep carven—CRO - A - TAN ! But cut above, no cross, no sign, No symbol of distress ; Naught else beside that mystic line, Within the wilderness ! And where and what was "Cro-a-tan" ? But not an answer came, And none of all who read it there Had ever heard the name ! "Oh, daughter! daughter! with the thought My harrowed brain is wild ! — Up with the anchors ! I must find The mother and the child !" They scoured the mainland near and far ; The search no tidings brought, Till, 'mid a forest's dusky tribe, They heard the name they sought. The kindly natives came with gifts Of corn and slaughtered deer ; What room for savage treachery Or foul suspicion here ? They searched the wigwams through, But neither lance, nor helm, nor spear. Nor shred of child's nor woman's gear, Could furnish forth a clew. How could a hundred souls be caught Straight out of life, nor find Device through which to mark their fate, Or leave some hint behind ? Had winter's ocean inland rolled An eagre's deadly spray That overwhelmed the island's breadth And swept them all away ? In vain, in vain, their heart-sick search : No tidings reached them more, ^No record save that silent word Upon that silent shore. The mvstery rests a mystery still, Unsolved of mortal man : Sphinx-like, untold, the ages hold The tale of ORO - A - TAN. Margaret J. Preston. ROANOKE ISLAND. No spot in all this country is so full of the romance of his-tory as Roanoke Island, on the east coast of North Carolina, where the first English settlement within what is now the United Stats j was made, under the auspices of knightly Sir Walter Raleigh, and around which cluster some of the sad-dest memories of the "Lost. Colony of Roanoke." The centre of attraction is Fort Raleigh. Along roads of white sand, beneath pines with which the bright green of the holly is mingled, the way lies to the fort. To the right, after going a little distance, rise in Ions: lines the sand dunes, vast mounds, the creation and sport of the winds. Looking from the top of these, one sees to the eastward the sea, green and heaving, and the curl of its breakers, and borne by the soft wind comes the thunder of the surf, almost like an echo. At one's feet lies the sound, yellow as gold, three miles in width, and so shallow that nearly the entire distance can be waded. Looking westward, the island seems at one's feet. Descending from the height, the ride is resumed. Past houses, some modern, others gray with age, the road winds. Presently there appears a guiding hand, bearing the words "Port Raleigh." It points eastward, and there, 100 yards away, is the fort. Surrounded by a fence of pine rails, with a rustic gate-way of little, upright poles, is the ruin. In its centre stands a severely simple marble monument, and low posts of granite, a foot high, mark the venerable earthwork. The outlines are perfectly plain. The greatest height of the parapet above the ditch is some two feet. Almost an acre is enclosed by 31 the fence, and the fort covers little more than a fourth of this area. The colonists' log lints surrounded the fort, which was their refuge. Within the limits of the enclosure are live-oak, pine, holly, dogwood, sassafras, water-oak and cherry trees. Up one live-oak clambers a grape vine, and at its foot is an English ivy. The monument, or memorial stone, faces westward and bears this insccription : uOn this site in July-August, 1585, colonists sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh built a fort called by them 'The new fort of Virginia.' These colonists were the first settlers of the English race in America. They returned to England in July, 1586, with Sir Francis Drake. "Near this place was born, on the 18th day of August, 1587, Virginia, the first child of English parents born in America, daughter of Ananias Dare and Eleanor White, his wife, members of another band of colonists sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1587. On Sunday, August 20, 1587, Virginia Dare was baptized. Manteo, the friendly chief of the Hatteras Indians, had been baptized on the Sunday previous. These baptisms were the first known celebrations of the sacrament in the territories of the thirteen original States." The land has never been in cultivation, and to this fact is due the marvellous preservation of the ancient earthwork. In America 316 years seem a very great lapse of time, yet so old is this little earthwork, which, thanks to the care of the "'Roanoke Colony Memorial Association," is at last marked. It is evident that the fort was made of two rows <>f upright palisades, or logs, between which there was earth. The palisades soon decayed, but the earth retains its outline perfectly. It is well to turn back the hand of time's dial-plate and see the first impressions of this island. Amadas and Bar-lowe were the pioneers, and Barlowe tells the story in his quaint old English: 32 "Ye 27th day of Aprile, in ye yere of our Redemption^ 1584, departed ye west of England with two barks well fur-nished with men and victuals. Ye 10th of June we were fallen with ye islands of ye West Indies. On ye 12th day of July wee found shole water, where we smelt so sweet and strong a smel as if we had been in ye midst of some delicate garden abounding with oderiferous flowers, by which we were assured ye land could not be farre distant. Keeping good watch, and bearing but slacke sail, ye 4th of July we arrived upon ye coast which wee supposed to be a continent, and we sailed along ye same 120 miles before we could find any en-trance or river issuing into ye sea. Ye first that appeared unto us wee entered and cast anchor about three harquebus shots within ye haven's mouth, and, after thanks given to God for onr safe arrival thither, wee manned our boats and went to view ye land next adjoining, and take possession of ye same in right of ye Queen's most excellent majestic Wee viewed the land about us, being whereas we first landed very sandie and low toward ye water side, but so full of grapes as ye very beating and surge of ye sea overflowed them, we found such plenty, both on ye sand and on ye green soil of ye hills, as well as on every shrubbe and ye tops of ye high cedars, that I think in all ye world ye like abundance is not to bee found." The colony, planted in 1585, was not revisited until 1590. Governor White tells the pitiful story of the "Lost Colony of Roanoke." His expedition, when it came near the island, "sounded with a trumpet a call, and, afterward, many famil-iar English tunes and songs, and called to them friendly, but we had no answer." On a tree on the very brow of the sandy bank were the letters, "CRO." "At the fort," says White, "we found the houses were taken down, and the place strongly inclosed with a high palisade of great trees, with cortynes and flankers, very fort-like, and one of the chief trees at the richt side of the entrance had the bark taken off and five 33 foote from the ground in fayre capital letters was graven 'CROATAN,' without any cross or sign of distress." White returned to England, leaving the great mystery unsolved. Time seems to have solved it. Croatan was on the main-land, in what is now Tyrrell County. There the colonists seem to have gone with, or to have been taken by, the Indians. Thence, after the lapse of many years, they appear to have gone to what is now Robeson County. There are many names among the Croatan Indians of Robeson which are on the roll of White's colonists, and the Croatans use daily many old English words, long obsolete in the mother country. Fred. A. Olds. SIR WALTER RALEIGH. (Read by the author before the State Literary and Historical Associa-tion. October 22. 1901.) He is not the greatest who with pick and spade Makes excavations for some splendid fane, Nor he who lays with trowel, plumb, and line Upon the eternal rock its base of stone: Nor is he greatest who lifts slow its walls, Flutes its white pillars, runs its architrave And frieze and cornice, sets its pictured panes, And points its airy minarets with gold: Nor he who peoples angle, niche, and aisle With sculptured angels, and with symbol graves Column and arch and nave and gallery: — These are but delvers, masons, artisans, Each working out his part of that vast plan Projected in the master-builder's brain. And he who wakes the organ's soulful tones, Faint, far away, like those that haply steal — The first notes of the song of the redeemed — From out the spirit world to dying ears; Or rouses it in lamentations wild Of Calvary, or moves its inmost deeps With sobs and cryings unassuaged that touch The heart to tears for unforgiven sin, — He voices but the echo of that hymn Whose surges shook the great composer's souL Bold admirals of the vast high-seas of dream With neither chart nor azimuth nor star, That push your prows into the mighty trades 35 And ocean-streams toward continents unknown ; Brave pioneers that slowly blaze your way And set your cairns, for peoples yet unborn, Upon imagination's dim frontiers, — Ye are the makers, rulers of the world ! And so this splendid land to sunward laid, With opulent fields and many a winding stream And virgin wood ; with stores of gems and veins Of richest ore ; with mills and thronging marts, The domain of the freest of the free, — 'Tis but the substance of his dream,—the pure The true, the generous knight who marked its bounds With liberal hand by interfusing seas. What though no sage may read the riddle dark Of Croatan, diffused through marsh and waste And solitude ? Their valor did not die, But is incorporate in our civic life. They were of those who fought at Bannockburn ; Their vital spirits spake at Mecklenburg ; They rose at Alamance, at Bethel led, And at Cardenas steered through blinding shells. They live to-day and shall forever live, Lifting mankind toward freedom and toward God ! And he still lives, the courteous and the brave, Whose life went out in seeming dark defeat. The Tower held not his princely spirit immured : Within those narrow dungeon walls he trod Kingdoms unlimited by earthly zones. Nor does the dismal grave hold him in thrall, But through its portals passed he unafraid To an inheritance beyond decay Stored in the love and gratitude of man. He lives in our fair city, noble state, 3tf Puissant land,—in all each hopes to be. He was the impulse to these later deeds. He lives in fateful words and splendid dreams, In strenuous actions and in high careers. An inspiration unto loftier things. Upon the scheme of ages man shall find Success oft failure, failure oft success, When he shall read the record of the years ! Henry Jerome Stockard. Raleioh, K 0., October 11, 1901. MY NATIVE STATE. I love thee, fairest of all lands, my home, From lonely Hatteras where the breakers comb To where in heaven stands thy sombre Dome, North Carolina! The world is loath to give thee what is just ; Upon thy bosom sleeps, nnmourned, the dust That should be held a nation's sacred trust, North Carolina! When others faltered, yearning to be free, Who then first dared to strike, for liberty, A foe whose empire stretched o'er every sea V North Carolina ! Were I as loud-voiced as Euroclydon, I'd tell to earth's far ends in thunder tone That others wear the laurels thou hast won. North Carolina For men to mock thee sets my soul on fire ! Who would deride thee would deride the sire That gives him food and shelter and attire, North Carolina! Till wizened Time shall pen his latest dates, Long as the sea chafes at thy morning gates, Thy valiant deeds shall live, thou State of States, North Carolina ! Henry Jerome Stockard. THE OLD NORTH STATE FOREVER. Carolina! Carolina! Heaven's blessings attend her! While we live we will cherish, protect and defend her, Though the scorner may sneer at and witlings defame her, Onr hearts swell with gladness whenever we name her. Hurrah ! Hurrah ! the Old North State forever! Hurrah! Hurrah! the good Old North State! Though she envies not others their merited glory, Yet her name stands the foremost in liberty's story ! Though too true to herself e'er to crouch to oppression, None e'er yields to just rule more loyal submission. Hurrah ! Hurrah ! the Old North State forever ! Hurrah ! Hurrah ! the good Old North State ! Plain and artless her sons, but whose doors open faster To the knock of the stranger or the tale of disaster? How like to the rudeness of their dear native mountains, With rich ore in their bosoms and life in their fountains. Hurrah! Hurrah! the Old North State forever! Hurrah ! Hurrah ! the good Old North State ! And her daughters, the queen of our forest resembling, So graceful, so constant, to gentlest breath trembling, So true at their hearts when the test is applied them, How blessed each day as we spend it beside them ! : Hurrah! Hurrah ! the Old North State forever! Hurrah! Hurrah! the good Old North State! 39 Then let all who love us love the land that we live in, (As happy a region as this side of heaven), Where Plenty and Freedom,Love and Peace smile before us- Raise aloud, raise together, the heart-thrilling chorus ! Hurrah ! Hurrah ! the Old North State forever ! Hurrah! Hurrah! the good Old North State! William Gaston.
Object Description
Description
Title | Program of exercises for "North Carolina Day" |
Date | 1901 |
Rights | State Document see http://digital.ncdcr.gov/u?/p249901coll22,63754 |
Collection | North Carolina State Documents Collection. State Library of North Carolina |
Type | text |
Language | English |
Digital Collection | North Carolina Digital State Documents Collection |
Digital Format | application/pdf |
Audience | All |
Pres File Name-M | pubs_education_serial_programexercises19011921.pdf |
Pres Local File Path-M | Preservation_content\StatePubs\pubs_education\images_master |
Full Text | ' PROGRAM OF EXERCISES FOR NORTH CAROLINA DAY RALEIGH, N. C. Kdwards & Broughton, and E. M. Uzzrxl,, State Printers Prkssks of Edwards & Broughtok I 901 State of North Carolina Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction • Raleigh «. «. ^7"* II IS pamphlet is sent out to the public schools with the hope that Vi^ it will inspire and assist in a fitting celebration of North Carolina Day in the public schools of the State I desire to thank the North Carolina Historical and Literary Society. the North Carolina Society of the Daughters of the Revolution, and Col. Fred. 'A Olds, for valuable aid and material in the preparation of the program. • T. F." TOON, Supt. Public Instruction. Raleigh, N. C, Sept. 23, 1901.- UM? North Carolina Day SUBJECT: FIRST ANQLO-SAXON SETTLEMENT IN AMERICA. PROGRAM OF EXERCISES 1. SONG—Our Fathers' God, bo Thee. 2. Reading—Sketch of Sir Walter Raleigh, the Father of Anglo-Saxon Colonization in America. 3. Declamation—Sir Walter Raleigh and Virginia Dare- By Jos. W. Holden. 4. Reading—Sketch of the Landing. From Hawks' History. 5., SONG—" Ho! for Carolina."—W. B. Harrell. 6.. Sketch of the Settlement op Roanoke Island— By Graham Dave?. From N. C. Booklet. 7. Recitation or (Reading). (a) The Mystery of Croatan — By Margaret J. Preston. (b) Roanoke Island — ByFred.A.Olds. 8. Address by Local Orator. 9. Recitation—Poem, " My Native State"—By H. J. Stockard. 10. General Discussion. Topics—(a) Are the Croatan Indians the Lost Colony? (b) Why Did the Attempt to Colonize North Carolina Fail? 11. Song—In Conclusion—" The Old North State"—By Gaston. Sir Walter Raleigh—By Henry Jerome Stockard. OUR FATHERS' GOD, TO THEE. M.aj. Graham Davos suggests as opening hymn the follow-ing, in place of "My Country, 'Tis of Thee": J Our fathers' God, to Thee, Author of Liberty, To Thee we sing: Long may our land be bright With freedom's holy light, Protect us by Thy might, Great God our King. (2) Bless Thou our native land, Firm may she ever stand, Through storm and nighI ; When the wild tempests rave; Ruler of wind and wave, Do Thou our country save, Great God our King. (3) For her our prayer shall -rise To God, above the skies ; On Him we wait ; Thou who art ever nigh, Guarding with watchful eye, To Thee aloud we cry, God save the State. SKETCH OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. A great English "poet (the contemporary and friend of Ra leigh) has said that " 'tis not in mortals to command success, but they do more who deserve it." Sir Walter Raleigh de-served success, and therefore all North Carolinians should know the story of his life. He was born in the year 1552, and came of a good family. There were as many as thirteen different ways of spelling his surname. The form most commonly used is "Raleigh," but Sir Walter himself wrote it "Ralegh." The place of hib birth was the parish of Budleigh, in the county of Devon. This county is famous as the home of many other great ex-plorers who lived in the days of Queen Elizabeth, among whom were Sir Francis Drake, Sir Humphrey Gilbert (Ra-leigh's half-brother) and Sir John Hawkins. Another great navigator, Sir Richard Grenville, was born in the adjoining county of Cornwall. It was the last-mentioned who gave the name of "the Cape of Eeare" to a dangerous point on our coast, now called Cape Fear, where he came near being ship-wrecked in 1585. Sir Walter Raleigh received his education both at home and abroad. In 1568 he was a student at the English Uni-versity of Oxford; and in the year following attended the University of France. Before completing his studies in the last-named institution, he left it and began his military life as a volunteer in aid of the French Protestants (called Hugue-nots), who were then engaged in a religious war with the Roman Catholics. He later served under the Prince of Orange against the Spaniards. On his return to England he found that the Queen had given leave to Sir Humphrey Gilbert to establish a settlement in America. Raleigh be came a promoter of this plan, and the little fleet set sail in 1579, but met with ill-fortune. One of the ships was wrecked, and the others were crippled in a fight with the Spaniards, so they had to return without having found land. A little later, Raleigh aided in quelling an insurrection in Ireland, and won great fame by his bravery. There is a very pretty story (whether true or not we do not know) about an adventure of Sir Walter after his return from Ireland. It is said that one day he saw Queen Eliza beth coming for a walk with some of the lords and ladies of her court, when a small puddle of water lay directly in front of her. Seeing this, Raleigh immediately took off a hand some cloak which he wore and lay it over the puddle ; or, as an old rhyme says — '* Threw his cloak before the Queen To keep her dainty slippers clean." Whether this piece of gallantry was the secret of his suc-cess we can not tell, but he soon rose to high favor with Eliza beth, who employed him in many matters of importance. He soon used his influence to start another expedition to America, in 1583, and intended going with it, but sickness prevented, so it Avas intrusted to Sir Humphrey Gilbert. Though Gilbert's fleet reached what is now a part of Canada (which he took forcible possession of by expelling other Europeans), he never lived to enjoy his triumph, for his ship, the Squirrel, foundered on the return trip and he was drowned. Though greatly attached to his brother, Raleigh was not discouraged by Gilbert's death. In 1584 he fitted up two vessels for further discovery. These were commanded by Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlow, and were the first to explore the coast of ]STorth Carolina, which they reached in July. They carried back to England such glowing accounts of the 4 new country that the "Virgin Queen," as Elizabeth was styled, -called it Virginia, after herself, and made Raleigh 8 a knight. He was also made "Governor of Virginia." In later years, when America was divided into colonies, "Vir-ginia" was the name given to the colony just north of the place of the first settlement. In 1585 another fleet went forth on an errand of discovery. In this expedition were Sir Richard Grenville and Sir Ralph Lane. These captains having quarreled, Grenville returned after landing the colo-nists, and Lane remained to form a settlement. Grenville promised to return with supplies, but was prevented from so doing, and the colonists abandoned America and returned to England in 1586, in one of Sir Francis Drake's ships. Scarcely had the colonists left Roanoke when Grenville and his supply ships landed at the abandoned settlement. Leav-ing fifteen men on the island, Grenville went back to Eng-land. Still another expedition was sent out by Raleigh, in 1587, commanded by John White. The settlers having se-lected their place of abode on the Island of Roanoke, White went back to England for supplies, but could not at once bring them as all English ships were needed to fight the Spanish Armada. In 1590, however, White got back to Roanoke, only to find that the colony had disappeared. Among the persons thus lost was Eleanor Dare (wife of a colonist and a daughter of White) and her little daughter Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the new world. With the disastrous end of his colonies on Roanoke Island, Raleigh's ventures in JSTorth America ended. Upon the Spanish possessions in South America, however, he made sev-eral descents, and on one occasion sailed up the Orinoco and laid the town of St. Thomas in ashes. On this occasion Ra-leigh accompanied the expedition, and his son was killed. As St. Thomas was destroyed in time of peace, Raleigh was committed to the Tower on his return to England. Having been convicted, he was beheaded on the 29th of October, 1618. As a poet and historian, Raleigh takes high rank, and he held mauy important civil posts. He was also Captain of one of the vessels which fought the Spanish Armada in 1588. Two articles, before unknown in Europe, were introduced into Great Britain by Raleigh, viz., tobacco and potatoes. The first potatoes planted wTere set out on his estate in Ire-land, and the climate was so favorable that they are called Irish potatoes. More than once they have saved that country from famine, and this alone should place the name of Sir Walter Raleigh high on the roll of the benefactors of man-kind. SIR WALTER RALEIGH AND VIRGINIA DARE. The name of the city of Raleigh awakens a long train of far-reaching associations. It summons from the placid deeps of the past the memory of a grand and gallant hero, the towering shade and central figure of England's golden Eliza-bethan age ; it evokes, in quiet majesty, the form of Sir Walter Raleigh, the statesman and soldier, the sailor and courtier, the poet and philosopher, the chemist and historian, and the martyr in the cause of human freedom. On him, it was once said, the Old World gazed as a star ; while from the New, where crystal cliffs of Mt. Raleigh, amid the solitudes of arctic seas, shimmer beneath the aurora's rays, the reflection of his fame flashed back! flashed over old ocean's wrinkled wastes three centuries ago, when the keels of his intrepid fleet first cleft the inland waters of the hemisphere which we now inhabit. Here, too, on the soil of North Carolina, he built a monu-ment of enduring fame, for here he planted the new home ~-£ the Anglo-Saxon race ; and here, among the vines and flowers of our Eastern shore, where the breath of spring is filled as of old with the perfume of blossoms, and the cool forests are still made harmonious with the carols of innumerable birds, in a land whose loveliness fires the imagination and enchants the heart, he laid the foundation of a colony destined by lofty fate to imperishable renown, and gave to it, the island city of his hopes in those distant years, the glorious name which has been so often uttered here, the name of the City of Raleigh. Let us, then, for a moment, roll back the chilling tide of the fast-flowing decades, and listen, amid the rising notes of triumph over toils forgotten and sufferings ended, to the 11 weird story of the fate of our scarce-remembered mother city. Et was a lonely settlement on a wild and stormy coast, the sole habitation of civilized man from the circle of the Hesperidcs to the Pole. One hundred and fifty persons made up its de-voted band of pioneers, who had faced the terrors of ocean, the invisible fevers of the land, the starvation of the wilderness and the implacable malice of treacherous foes ; and who, finally, faced an unknown and mysterious doom, whence no record has been rescued from the tombs of eternity. By the spell of this story the words of the historian have ever thrilled into tender and mournful harmony, for into the midst of that unhappy city there came one whose name has grown into a household word—a babe, the first sweet lily infant of our English mother born on American soil, a heavenly gift, a merciful memory from the skies ! Virginia Dare, the first-born citizen of the first city of Raleigh, the first free-born citizen of a land consecrated to freedom forevermore ! Joseph W. Holden. VIRGINIA DARE. On the eastern shore of North Carolina, in the shallow sounds enclosed by long sand-hanks which bound the coast, lies a little island twelve miles long and three miles broad. This is Roanoke—the scene of the first English settlement in this country, and the birth-place of Virginia Dare, the first English child born in America. How much of romance, and yet more of history—"a ro-mance of the real"—clusters around the sad story of this young girl ! Out of the unfortunate expeditions, of which she, in some sense, may be said to have been the first fruits, grew the schemes of colonization at Jamestown and at Ply-mouth a score of years later. The seed were sown at Roan-oke, were fertilized by the sacrifice of the settlers there, but took enduring root first at Jamestown. Associated with the humble and almost unknown colonists of Roanoke are the names : Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen ; Raleigh, the preux chevalier, soldier, statesman, poet, histo-rian ; Sir Richard Grenville, sailor, soldier and martyr; Sir Francis Drake, Admiral and circumnavigator of the globe. Truly our little Virginia Dare was in goodly company. Of chroniclers, too, she, her companions and their acts had no lack. There were Arthur Barlowe, who commanded a ship in the first expedition ; Lane, the governor of the first colonists John White, governor of the second colonists, the grandfather of Virginia Dare, whom she was destined to seek in sorrow and never find. Their accounts, and those of others also, are full and their stories well told. They are still on record, and have been published by the Hakluyt Society. It is a noteworthy fact that the history of these colonies which came 13 to naught, and of a locality now so little known, should be so fully recorded and preserved in every detail-1-much more so khan that of other localities of far greater importance, now of much prominence, whose origin and early history arc often obscure and uncertain—sometimes almost unknown. It was in a stirring era, too, in the history of the world, and one of romantic incident and adventure, that the little waif, Virginia Dare, first saw its light. The dreaded Span-ish Armada—foiled in part by Drake and Raleigh, so in-timately connected with the colonists of Roanoke—was pre-paring for its descent upon the coasts of Britain ; the ap-peals and groans of the Christian martyrs wl\o twenty years before perished for their faith at the stake at Smithfield, Oxford and elsewhere, still echoed through the land ; Bacon and Shakespeare, all unconscious of their future fame, were in their lusty youth ; aThe Faery Queen" was taking shape in the prolific brain of Spencer ; Sir Philip Sidney was soon to die at Zutphen; Frobisher had returned from his Arctic discoveries, and Drake from his voyage around the world ; the horrible butcheries of the Duke of Alva in the Low Countries, and the massacres of St. Bartholomew at Paris, had heightened religious enmity to the fiercest inten-sity, to which the good Prince of Orange was soon to for-feit his life, a murdered victim ; and the lovely Queen of Scots was ere long to lay her beautiful head upon the block in expiation of the plottings and sins of others, of whom she was the tool—perhaps the willing tool. The Anglo-Saxon and the Spaniard were entering upon the long struggle for supremacy at sea and upon the conti-nent, which may be said to have been ended by ourselves but a short time ago, after more than three hundred years, by the expulsion of the latter from Cuba and other West Indies. Surely little Virginia was born in troublous times, and her sad fate was not the least pathetic incident of th^fe stormy period. There were two expeditions to Roanoke before the birth 14 there in 1587 of Virginia Dare, some account of which may be of interest. The first was one of discovery and explora-tion only. It consisted of two small ships, the "Tyger" and the "Admiral!/' commanded by Captains Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe, to the latter of whom we owe the ac-count of the voyage and of its results. He says to Sir Wal-ter Raleigh : *'The 27th of April, in the yere of our redemption 1584, we departed the West of England with two barkes well fur-nished with men and victuals. * * * The 10th of June we were fallen with the Islands of the West Indies. * * * The 2d of July we found shole water, wher we smelt so sweet and so strong a smel, as if we had been in the midst of some delicate garden abounding with odoriferous flowers, by which we were assured that the land could not be fane distant." •x- * * /'The 4th of July we arrived upon the coast, which we supposed to be a continent, and we sayled along the same 120 miles before we could find any entrance, or river issuing into the sea. The first that appeared unto us we en-tered, and cast anker about three harquebuz-shot within the haven's mouth: and after thanks given to God for our safe arrivall thither, we manned our boats, and went to view the land next adjoining and to take possession of the same in right of the Queen's most excellent Majestie. * * * Wee came to an island which they call Roanoke, distant seven leagues from the harbor by which we entered: and at the north end thereof was a village of nine houses, built of Cedar and fortified round about with sharp trees. * * * We were entertained with all love and kindness, and with as much bounty as they could possibly devise. We found the people most gentle, loving and faithful, voide of all guile and trea-son, and such as live after the manner of the golden age." A handsome tribute to our Hatteras Indians, who after-wards, probably, had not much cause to return the compli-ment. 15 These Indians differed in no way from the other natives of America, except tjiat they had a few iron implements, and that among them were noticed children with auburn and chestnut-colored hair. It was learned later that twenty-six years before this time, a ship manned by white men had been cast away at Secotan, and that some of the crew had been saved. After a time these men attempted to escape in a small boat, and were drowned. These were the only whites ever seen before the arrival of the English—but some six years after this time another vessel had been wrecked on this coast, and sill the crew perished. From parts of this wreck driven ashore the natives had obtained nails, spikes and edged tools. But for this explanation, this presence of iron would have per-plexed the archaeologist. The account of the natives, their kindness and hospitality, of their easy life, and of the abun-dance of fruit and grain, fish and game in these inland waters is familiar to us all. Like all natives, they longed to purchase the swords and knives of the white men, but above all, thev desired to obtain the kettles and pans to use as shields in battle. The King's brother was most kind, repaying the English liberally in melons and fruit, and each day he sent to the new-comers presents of "fat-backs," conies, hares and fish. They visited the Indian village on Hoanoke. aWhen we came towards it/' the record runs, "standing near unto the water's side the wife of Granganimeo, the King's brother, came running out to meet us very cheerfully and friendly — her husband was not then in the village. Some of her peo-ple she commanded to draw our boat on shore for the beating of the billow: others she commanded to carry us on their hacks to dry ground ; and others to bring our oars to the house for fear of stealing. When we were come to the outer room, having five rooms to her house, she caused us to sit down by a great fire, and after took our clothes and washed them, and dried them again, some of the women washed our 16 feet in warm water, and she herself took great pains to see all things ordered in the best manner she could." The adventurers remained in that region about two months and made many explorations. In September they returned to England, taking with them two of the Indian Chiefs, Manteo, who ever remained the faithful friend of the English, and Wanchese. Their names are retained as the names of two villages on Roanoke Island to-day. Their arrival home, and the glowing account the adventurers gave of their dis-coveries aroused the utmost interest. The new-found coun-try was called Virginia, in honor of the "Virgin Queen," and the Atlantic Coast of North America was divided into three regions, with boundaries very ill-defined, claimed by France, England and Spain, and called Canada, Virginia and Flor-ida. A large part of Virginia, which included Roanoke Island, was afterwards, by the patent of Charles I. to Sir Robert Heath in 1629, and by the charters of Charles II. in 1663 and 1665 to the "Lords Proprietors," set of! as Caro-lina, so named from the Latin name, Carolus, of the two Kings. The name, therefore, Virgina, first applied to Roau-oke Island and the parts adjacent, originated in what is now North Carolina, and if Virginia be, as she is often called, the "Mother of States," North Carolina may be said to be her own grandmother ! The next year (1585). a large expedition, under command of Sir Richard Grenville, a cousin of Raleigh's, was fitted out. There were seven "ships" in the fleet—if the small crafts composing it can be so called, the largest of them be-ing of "seven score tunnes" burden—which carried 108 men who were to be settled in a permanent colony on Roanoke Island. The fleet sailed from Plymouth on the 9th of April, 1585, and on July 3d Wingina, the Indian Chief, was noti-fied of its arrival at Roanoke. Manteo and Wanchese re-turned with this fleet. On August 25th Sir Richard Grenville, "Our Generall, weyed anker, and set sails for England." On his return the IT colony was left in charge of "Master Ralph Lane/' and with him was "Master Philip Amadas, Admiral of the Country," who had commanded one of the ships in the first expedition. The Dames of the colonists are all known, a list of which may be seen in Vol. I of llawkes' History of North Carolina. These colonists founded a village near the north end of the island, and constructed a fort, principally an earthwork, called by Lane "The new fort in Virginia." The outlines, ditch and parapet of this fort are still perfectly distinct, and its angles and sally-port are now marked with granite blocks. It is now, and has been for a long time, appropriately called "Fort Raleigh." Lane has left a most interesting account of the doings of his colonists during their stay on Roanoke Island, and of his own explorations. They remained there but one year, hav-ing become home-sick, discouraged and disheartened, and sailed in June, 1586, on the fleet of Sir Francis Drake for England, where they arrived on the 27th of July. They had scarcely gotten out of sight of the island when a ship dis-patched by Raleigh, freighted with provisions and supplies of all kinds, arrived there, and, finding no one, wTent back to England. About a fortnight later Sir Richard Grenville ar-rived with three ships similarly equipped. Finding the Island abandoned, "yet unwilling to lose the possession of the countrey," he "determined to leave some men behind to reteine it : whereupon he landed fifteen men in the Isle of Roanoke, furnished plentifully with all manner of provisions for two years, and so departed for England." Nothing daunted by the failure—a very costly one—of this first attempt at colonization, Sir Walter equipped an-other expedition in the year following, which, however, he in tended to settle on the waters of the Chesapeake instead of at Roanoke. This expedition was intrusted to the guidance of John White, the grand f (her of Virginia Dare, who we will let tell his own story: North Carolina State Library Raleigh 18 "In the yeere of our Lord 1587, Sir Walter Raleigh in-tended to persevere in the planting of this Countrey of Vir-ginia, prepared a newe Colonie of 150 men to be sent thither, under the charge of John White, whom he appointed Gov ernour, and also appointed unto him twelve Assistants, unto whom he gave a Charter, and incorporated them by the name of Governour and Assistants of the Citie of Raleigh in Vir-ginia. Our Fleete being in number three saile, the Admirall a shippe of 120 Tunnes, a Flieboat and a Pinnesse, departed the 26th of April from Portsmouth. * * * About the 16 of July we fel with the maine of Virginia, and bare along the coast, where in the night, had not Captaine Stafford bene carefull, we had all bene castaway upon the beach called the Caps of Fere. The 22 of July we arrived at Hatorask: the Governour went aboard the pinesse with forty of his best men, intending to pass up to Roanok forthwith, hoping there to finde those fifteene men which Sir Richard Grenville had left there the yeere before. * * * The same night at sunne-sei he went aland, and the next day walked to the north ends of the island, where Master Ralfe Lane had his forte, with sundry dwellings made by his men about it the yeere before, where we hoped to find some signes of our fifteene men. We found the forte rased downe, but all the houses standing unhurt, saving that the nether roomes of them, and also of the forte, were overgrown with melons, and Deere within them feeding : so wee returned to our company, without hope of ever seeing any of the fifteene men living." The fifteene men, as was afterwards learned, had been massacred by the Indians. The colonists having landed upon the island went actively to work to rebuild Fort Raleigh and to make homes for them-selves. They consisted of ninety-one men, seventeen women and nine children, the names of all of whom are preserved. In the former colony there had been neither women nor chil-dren, and they gave to this one a character of stability and l lJ permanence that had been Jacking in the first. From a simi larity of their names with those of the men, it would appear that at least ten of the women were married, and for a like reason that six of the children were with their parents. Shortly after the arrival of the settlers there occurred two events, or perhaps more properly three, of interest and im-portance not merely to the little community, but in their rela-tion to the history of this country. These events are thus related in Hakluyt's Voyages, Vol. Ill : "The 13 of August our Savage Manteo was christened in Roanoke, and called Lord thereof and -of Dasamonguepeuk, in reward of his faithfnll service. The 18, Eleanor, daugh-ter to the Governour, and wife to Ananias Dare, one of the Assistants, was delivered of a daughter in Roanoke, and the same was christened there the Sunday following, and because this child was the first Christian born in Virginia, she was named Virginia." These baptisms were, so far as is known to this writer, the first celebrations of record of a Christian Sacrament within the territory of the thirteen original United States. The baptism of Manteo, and his being made Lord of Roanoke, were by order of Sir Walter Raleigh, and the latter, it is believed, is the only instance of the conferring of a title of nobility upon a native American. By the Indians "Elenor Dare/' the first mother of the white race known to them, is said to have been called, in their figurative and descriptive way, "The White Doe," and her baby, the little Virginia, the first white infant they had ever seen, "The White Fawn" ; and there is a pretty tradition that "after her death her spirit assumed that form—an elfin Fawn—which, clad in immortal beauty, would at times be seen haunting like a tender mem-ory the place of her birth, or gazing wistfully over the sea, as with pathetic yearning for the far-away mother-land." Another tradition is that in that sweet form she was slain by her lover, a young Indian Chief, who had been told that if 2< he shot her from ambush with a certain enchanted arrow it would restore her to him in human form. Soon after the birth of Virginia, her grandfather Gov-ernor White, returned to England to obtain supplies for the colonists : "The 22 of August the whole colony came to the Gov-ernour, and with one voice requested him to return himselfe into England, for the obtaining of supplies and other neces-saries for them ; but he refused it, and allged many sufficient causes why he would not. * * * At the last, through their ex-treame intreating constrayned to return, he departed from Roanoke the 27 of August.'7 On the 16th of October he arrived on the Irish coast, and coining to England straightway made efforts to carry succor to his people, but never again did he look upon the faces of his daughter, or his granddaughter, or of any of their com-panions. England was in the midst of her bitter contest with Spain and the Invincible Armada, and had sore need at home for every man and ship. There was neither time nor means to be devoted to an obscure little company thousands of leagues away in an unknown land beyond the stormy Atlantic. Three years elapsed before White returned to Roanoke, and when he came he found it deserted, and the set-tlers gone—whither ? No one was left to tell, and their fate was enshrouded, and will ever remain, in mystery pathetic. The dead past will not give up its dead. Let White himself tell the sad story: "The 20 of March the three shippes, the Hopewell, the John Evangelist, and the Little John, put to sea from Ply-mouth. * * * The 15 of August we came to an anker at Hatorask, and saw a great smoke rise in the He Roanoke neere the place where I left our Colony in the yeere 1587. * * * The next morning our two boats went ashore and we saw another great smoke ; but when we came to it we found no man nor signe that any had been there lately." 21 When White left Roanoke to return to England for sup-plies, it had been agreed that in case the colonists left the island in his absence, they should leave some sign to indicate whither they had gone, and if their leaving was under duress, or in distress, the sign of the cross should also be affixed, thus X. White continues : "'The 17 of August our boats were pre-pared againe to go up to Roanoke. * * * Toward the north ende of the island we espied the light of a great fire thorovv the woods : When we came right over against it we sounded with a trumpet a Call, and afterwards many familiar Eng-lish tunes and Songs, and called to them friendly ; but we had no answer ; we therefore landed and coming to the fire we found the grasse and sundrv rotten trees burning about the place. * * * As we entered up the sandy banke, upon a tree in the very browe thereof were curiously carved these faire Roman letters, C. R. O., which letters we knew to sig-nifie the place where I should find the planters seated, ac-cording to a secret token agreed upon betweene them and me, at my last departure from them, which was that they should not faile to write or carve on the trees, or postes of the dores, the name of the place where they should be seated ; and if they should be distressed, that then they should carve over the letters a Cross in this form X, but we found no such sign of distresse. We found the houses taken downe and the place strongly enclosed with a high palisado of great trees, with cortynes and flankers very Fortlike, and one of the chief trees at the right side of the entrance had the barke taken off, and. five foot from the ground, in fayre Capitall letters, was graven CROATOAN, without any crosse or sign of distress." The colonists had evidently gone to Croatan, as we now have the word, the home of Manteo, the friendly Chief, the banks and islands of our coast, extending from Hatteras to Beaufort harbor; but none of them was ever seen of white men again. They "died and made no sign ;" though it Is 22 believed by many, and with considerable reason, that their descendants may still be found among the Croatan, or, more properly, Hatteras, Indians of Robeson County. White does not explain satisfactorily why he did not seek his daughter at Croatan, which was not very far away. He says : "The season was so unfit, and weather so foule, that we were constrayned of ^force to forsake that coast, having not seene any of our planters, with losse of one of our ship-boats, and seven of our chiefest men. * * * The 24 of October we came in safetie, God be thanked, to an anker at Plymouth. * * * Thus committing the reliefe of my discomfortable company, the planters in Virginia, to the merciful help of the Almighty, whom I most humbly beseech to helpe and comfort them, according to His most holy will and their good desire, I take my leave." Raleigh himself had never visited our shores, where in failure and disaster had ended all his efforts at settlement in this land, and where his unfortunate colonists passed from the domain of history into the .domain of the unknown. And little Virginia Dare, what of her ? Did she die -n infancy, and does her dust, mingled with the soil of her birth-place, blossom there into flowers that blush unseen ? Did her little feet join in the wandering of the settlers from Roan-oke to Croatan ? Did she grow to womanhood in their sec-ond home, and did her life end in tragedy amid the darkness which enshrouds the fate of the colony ? From the deep abysm of the past comes no answer. Yet a faint echo, a possible trace of the lost White Fawn, comes to us which may have reference to her, and with it the record closes forever. In his first volume of "The History of Travaile," William Strachey, Secretary of the Jamestown Colony, writing in 1612 of the events that occurred in Virginia in 1608-'10, says: "At Peccarecemmek and Ochanahoen, by the relation of Machamps, the people have howses built with stone walles, '23 and one story above another, so taught them by those Eng-lish who escaped the slaughter at Roanoke, at what tyme this our Colony under the conduct of Captain Newport landed within the Chesapeake Bay, where the people breed up tame turkies about their howses and take apes in the mountains, and where, at Bitanoe, the Weroance Eyanoco preserved seven of the English alive, fower men, two boys and one young mayde, who escaped the massacre, and fled up the river Chanoke." (Chowan.) This "young mayde" may well have been Virginia Dare, who, at the time mentioned, would have been about twenty-one years of age. The extract is of interest, also, as show-ing that the existence, and even the location, of certain of Raleigh's colonists were well known to the Jamestown set-tlers. Indeed, both John Smith and Strachey make men-tion of scattered parties of those colonists several times, and the Virginia Company writes of some of them as "yet alive, within fifty miles of our fort, * * * as is testified by two of our colony sent out to searche them, who, (though denied by the savages speech with them) found crosses * * * and assured Testimonies of Christians newly cut in the barks of trees." Here the veil of mystery falls around the White Fawn and her companions, probably never to be raised. JL THE LANDING. (From W. F. Payson's ,; John Vytal.") "The landing and unlading the fly-boat was a task requir-ing much exertion. But now that the dangers of the ocean were past, every man, woman and child of the little colony lent aid with a hearty will. They were in high spirits. The mid-day sun shone down in summer warmth, the skies were blue and cloudless. The island of Roanoke, emerald green in all its summer verdure, seemed a veritable land of promise. A number of the most youthful colonists ran along the shore to prove their freedom from the confines of the deck—ran calling to one another, and sang for sheer hap-piness. Others, more devout, gathered about the preacher, who offered a prayer of thanksgiving. Some, with whom labor was at all times paramount, went busily to and fro in the small boats and the pinnace, which had again been manned, conveying the cargo from ship to shore. The main body of colonists, who had arrived earlier on the Admiral, came down with tears of joy in welcome, and a babble of questions concerning the fly-boat's voyage. The scene was varied. Here stood Hugh Rouse, with a great bag of salt on his broad shoulders ; here Roger Pratt, arm in arm with his newly-regained friend, the bear, and pointing at Rousq with some remark to King Lud of raillery ; here Marlowe, the poet, surveying with eager eyes the luxuriant foliage farther inland and listening with enthrallment to the songs of forest birds ; there Gyll Croyden running towads him joy-ously, with a fresh-plucked nosegay of unknown, fragrant flowers in her hand ; here Ananias Dare, overlooking a couple of sailors who rolled a cask of wine across the beach; there 25 Simon Ferdinahdo, important with a hundred directions, and furtive as he glanced towards Vytal ; here Governor Wlii to, for a moment leaving the management to his Assist-ants, and here, too, beside him his daughter Eleanor, her face pale as if with illness. She was clasping his arm with both hands, as though to make sure of no renewed separation. 'Father, I thank God we are once more together. The days were very long and almost unendurable. 7 " HO! FOR CAROLINA! Let no heart in sorrow weep for other days ; Let no idle dreamer tell in melting lays Of the merry meetings in the rosy bowers ; For there is no land on earth like this fair land of ours. Ho! for Carolina, that's the land for me; In her happy borders roam the brave and free ; And her bright-eyed daughters, none can fairer be ; Oh, it is the land of love and sweet liberty. Down in Carolina grows the lofty pine, And her groves and forests bear the scented vine ; Here are peaceful homes, too, nestling 'mid the flowers ; Oh, there is no land on earth like this fair land of ours. Come to Carolina in the summer time, When the luscious fruits are hanging in their prime, And the maidens singing in their leafy bowers ; Ob, there is no land on earth like this fair land of ours. And her sons, so true in warp and woof and grain, First to shed their blood on Freedom's battle-plain, And the first to hail, from sea to mountain bowers, Strangers from all other lands to this fair land of ours. Then for Carolina, brave and free and strong, Sound the meed of praises in story and in song, From her fertile vales and lofty granite towers : ()!i. there is no land on earth like this fair land of ours. WlT/LTAM B. HATCRET.L it THE MYSTERY OF CROATAN. (The little colony sent to Roanoke Island by Sir Walter Raleigh being in great need of supplies, sent the Governor, John White, to England for them. Before he sailed it was agreed that if the colony found it necessarjr to seek another location, the name of the place to which they had gone should be carved on a tree at the fort ; and, if they had left in distress, a cross should be cut above the word. Governor White's daughter, Eleanor Dare, and her little babe, Virginia Dare, recently born to her in that wild American home, were left with the colonists to await the return of the Governor from England. He was absent three years. His vessel came to anchor off Roanoke Island in March, 1590, and the Governor hastened to find his child and her companions ; but the fort was deserted, and not a trace of the colonists has ever been discovered to this day save the single word Croatan carved on a pine post near the fort.) The breath of spring was on the sea : Anon the governor stepped His good ship's deck right merrily ; His promise had been kept. "See, see ! the coast-line comes in view !" He heard the mariners shout, — "'We'll drop our anchors in the sound Before a star is out !" "Xow, God be praised," he inly breathed, aWho saves from all that harms : To-morrow morn my pretty ones Will rest within my arms !" At dawn of day they moored their ships, And dared the breaker's roar. What meant it? Not a man was there To welcome them ashore ! 0.7 28 They sprang to find the cabins rude ; The quick green sedge had thrown Its knotted web o'er every door And climbed each chimney-stone. The spring was choked with winter's leaves, And feebly gurgled on ; And from the pathway strewn with wrack All trace of feet was gone. Their fingers thrid the matted grass, If there perchance a mound Unseen might heave the broken turf ; But not a grave was found. They beat the tangled cypress swamp, If haply in despair They might have strayed into its glade, But found no vestige there. "The pine ! the pine !" the governor groaned ; And there each staring man Read, in a maze, one single word Deep carven—CRO - A - TAN ! But cut above, no cross, no sign, No symbol of distress ; Naught else beside that mystic line, Within the wilderness ! And where and what was "Cro-a-tan" ? But not an answer came, And none of all who read it there Had ever heard the name ! "Oh, daughter! daughter! with the thought My harrowed brain is wild ! — Up with the anchors ! I must find The mother and the child !" They scoured the mainland near and far ; The search no tidings brought, Till, 'mid a forest's dusky tribe, They heard the name they sought. The kindly natives came with gifts Of corn and slaughtered deer ; What room for savage treachery Or foul suspicion here ? They searched the wigwams through, But neither lance, nor helm, nor spear. Nor shred of child's nor woman's gear, Could furnish forth a clew. How could a hundred souls be caught Straight out of life, nor find Device through which to mark their fate, Or leave some hint behind ? Had winter's ocean inland rolled An eagre's deadly spray That overwhelmed the island's breadth And swept them all away ? In vain, in vain, their heart-sick search : No tidings reached them more, ^No record save that silent word Upon that silent shore. The mvstery rests a mystery still, Unsolved of mortal man : Sphinx-like, untold, the ages hold The tale of ORO - A - TAN. Margaret J. Preston. ROANOKE ISLAND. No spot in all this country is so full of the romance of his-tory as Roanoke Island, on the east coast of North Carolina, where the first English settlement within what is now the United Stats j was made, under the auspices of knightly Sir Walter Raleigh, and around which cluster some of the sad-dest memories of the "Lost. Colony of Roanoke." The centre of attraction is Fort Raleigh. Along roads of white sand, beneath pines with which the bright green of the holly is mingled, the way lies to the fort. To the right, after going a little distance, rise in Ions: lines the sand dunes, vast mounds, the creation and sport of the winds. Looking from the top of these, one sees to the eastward the sea, green and heaving, and the curl of its breakers, and borne by the soft wind comes the thunder of the surf, almost like an echo. At one's feet lies the sound, yellow as gold, three miles in width, and so shallow that nearly the entire distance can be waded. Looking westward, the island seems at one's feet. Descending from the height, the ride is resumed. Past houses, some modern, others gray with age, the road winds. Presently there appears a guiding hand, bearing the words "Port Raleigh." It points eastward, and there, 100 yards away, is the fort. Surrounded by a fence of pine rails, with a rustic gate-way of little, upright poles, is the ruin. In its centre stands a severely simple marble monument, and low posts of granite, a foot high, mark the venerable earthwork. The outlines are perfectly plain. The greatest height of the parapet above the ditch is some two feet. Almost an acre is enclosed by 31 the fence, and the fort covers little more than a fourth of this area. The colonists' log lints surrounded the fort, which was their refuge. Within the limits of the enclosure are live-oak, pine, holly, dogwood, sassafras, water-oak and cherry trees. Up one live-oak clambers a grape vine, and at its foot is an English ivy. The monument, or memorial stone, faces westward and bears this insccription : uOn this site in July-August, 1585, colonists sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh built a fort called by them 'The new fort of Virginia.' These colonists were the first settlers of the English race in America. They returned to England in July, 1586, with Sir Francis Drake. "Near this place was born, on the 18th day of August, 1587, Virginia, the first child of English parents born in America, daughter of Ananias Dare and Eleanor White, his wife, members of another band of colonists sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1587. On Sunday, August 20, 1587, Virginia Dare was baptized. Manteo, the friendly chief of the Hatteras Indians, had been baptized on the Sunday previous. These baptisms were the first known celebrations of the sacrament in the territories of the thirteen original States." The land has never been in cultivation, and to this fact is due the marvellous preservation of the ancient earthwork. In America 316 years seem a very great lapse of time, yet so old is this little earthwork, which, thanks to the care of the "'Roanoke Colony Memorial Association," is at last marked. It is evident that the fort was made of two rows <>f upright palisades, or logs, between which there was earth. The palisades soon decayed, but the earth retains its outline perfectly. It is well to turn back the hand of time's dial-plate and see the first impressions of this island. Amadas and Bar-lowe were the pioneers, and Barlowe tells the story in his quaint old English: 32 "Ye 27th day of Aprile, in ye yere of our Redemption^ 1584, departed ye west of England with two barks well fur-nished with men and victuals. Ye 10th of June we were fallen with ye islands of ye West Indies. On ye 12th day of July wee found shole water, where we smelt so sweet and strong a smel as if we had been in ye midst of some delicate garden abounding with oderiferous flowers, by which we were assured ye land could not be farre distant. Keeping good watch, and bearing but slacke sail, ye 4th of July we arrived upon ye coast which wee supposed to be a continent, and we sailed along ye same 120 miles before we could find any en-trance or river issuing into ye sea. Ye first that appeared unto us wee entered and cast anchor about three harquebus shots within ye haven's mouth, and, after thanks given to God for onr safe arrival thither, wee manned our boats and went to view ye land next adjoining, and take possession of ye same in right of ye Queen's most excellent majestic Wee viewed the land about us, being whereas we first landed very sandie and low toward ye water side, but so full of grapes as ye very beating and surge of ye sea overflowed them, we found such plenty, both on ye sand and on ye green soil of ye hills, as well as on every shrubbe and ye tops of ye high cedars, that I think in all ye world ye like abundance is not to bee found." The colony, planted in 1585, was not revisited until 1590. Governor White tells the pitiful story of the "Lost Colony of Roanoke." His expedition, when it came near the island, "sounded with a trumpet a call, and, afterward, many famil-iar English tunes and songs, and called to them friendly, but we had no answer." On a tree on the very brow of the sandy bank were the letters, "CRO." "At the fort," says White, "we found the houses were taken down, and the place strongly inclosed with a high palisade of great trees, with cortynes and flankers, very fort-like, and one of the chief trees at the richt side of the entrance had the bark taken off and five 33 foote from the ground in fayre capital letters was graven 'CROATAN,' without any cross or sign of distress." White returned to England, leaving the great mystery unsolved. Time seems to have solved it. Croatan was on the main-land, in what is now Tyrrell County. There the colonists seem to have gone with, or to have been taken by, the Indians. Thence, after the lapse of many years, they appear to have gone to what is now Robeson County. There are many names among the Croatan Indians of Robeson which are on the roll of White's colonists, and the Croatans use daily many old English words, long obsolete in the mother country. Fred. A. Olds. SIR WALTER RALEIGH. (Read by the author before the State Literary and Historical Associa-tion. October 22. 1901.) He is not the greatest who with pick and spade Makes excavations for some splendid fane, Nor he who lays with trowel, plumb, and line Upon the eternal rock its base of stone: Nor is he greatest who lifts slow its walls, Flutes its white pillars, runs its architrave And frieze and cornice, sets its pictured panes, And points its airy minarets with gold: Nor he who peoples angle, niche, and aisle With sculptured angels, and with symbol graves Column and arch and nave and gallery: — These are but delvers, masons, artisans, Each working out his part of that vast plan Projected in the master-builder's brain. And he who wakes the organ's soulful tones, Faint, far away, like those that haply steal — The first notes of the song of the redeemed — From out the spirit world to dying ears; Or rouses it in lamentations wild Of Calvary, or moves its inmost deeps With sobs and cryings unassuaged that touch The heart to tears for unforgiven sin, — He voices but the echo of that hymn Whose surges shook the great composer's souL Bold admirals of the vast high-seas of dream With neither chart nor azimuth nor star, That push your prows into the mighty trades 35 And ocean-streams toward continents unknown ; Brave pioneers that slowly blaze your way And set your cairns, for peoples yet unborn, Upon imagination's dim frontiers, — Ye are the makers, rulers of the world ! And so this splendid land to sunward laid, With opulent fields and many a winding stream And virgin wood ; with stores of gems and veins Of richest ore ; with mills and thronging marts, The domain of the freest of the free, — 'Tis but the substance of his dream,—the pure The true, the generous knight who marked its bounds With liberal hand by interfusing seas. What though no sage may read the riddle dark Of Croatan, diffused through marsh and waste And solitude ? Their valor did not die, But is incorporate in our civic life. They were of those who fought at Bannockburn ; Their vital spirits spake at Mecklenburg ; They rose at Alamance, at Bethel led, And at Cardenas steered through blinding shells. They live to-day and shall forever live, Lifting mankind toward freedom and toward God ! And he still lives, the courteous and the brave, Whose life went out in seeming dark defeat. The Tower held not his princely spirit immured : Within those narrow dungeon walls he trod Kingdoms unlimited by earthly zones. Nor does the dismal grave hold him in thrall, But through its portals passed he unafraid To an inheritance beyond decay Stored in the love and gratitude of man. He lives in our fair city, noble state, 3tf Puissant land,—in all each hopes to be. He was the impulse to these later deeds. He lives in fateful words and splendid dreams, In strenuous actions and in high careers. An inspiration unto loftier things. Upon the scheme of ages man shall find Success oft failure, failure oft success, When he shall read the record of the years ! Henry Jerome Stockard. Raleioh, K 0., October 11, 1901. MY NATIVE STATE. I love thee, fairest of all lands, my home, From lonely Hatteras where the breakers comb To where in heaven stands thy sombre Dome, North Carolina! The world is loath to give thee what is just ; Upon thy bosom sleeps, nnmourned, the dust That should be held a nation's sacred trust, North Carolina! When others faltered, yearning to be free, Who then first dared to strike, for liberty, A foe whose empire stretched o'er every sea V North Carolina ! Were I as loud-voiced as Euroclydon, I'd tell to earth's far ends in thunder tone That others wear the laurels thou hast won. North Carolina For men to mock thee sets my soul on fire ! Who would deride thee would deride the sire That gives him food and shelter and attire, North Carolina! Till wizened Time shall pen his latest dates, Long as the sea chafes at thy morning gates, Thy valiant deeds shall live, thou State of States, North Carolina ! Henry Jerome Stockard. THE OLD NORTH STATE FOREVER. Carolina! Carolina! Heaven's blessings attend her! While we live we will cherish, protect and defend her, Though the scorner may sneer at and witlings defame her, Onr hearts swell with gladness whenever we name her. Hurrah ! Hurrah ! the Old North State forever! Hurrah! Hurrah! the good Old North State! Though she envies not others their merited glory, Yet her name stands the foremost in liberty's story ! Though too true to herself e'er to crouch to oppression, None e'er yields to just rule more loyal submission. Hurrah ! Hurrah ! the Old North State forever ! Hurrah ! Hurrah ! the good Old North State ! Plain and artless her sons, but whose doors open faster To the knock of the stranger or the tale of disaster? How like to the rudeness of their dear native mountains, With rich ore in their bosoms and life in their fountains. Hurrah! Hurrah! the Old North State forever! Hurrah ! Hurrah ! the good Old North State ! And her daughters, the queen of our forest resembling, So graceful, so constant, to gentlest breath trembling, So true at their hearts when the test is applied them, How blessed each day as we spend it beside them ! : Hurrah! Hurrah ! the Old North State forever! Hurrah! Hurrah! the good Old North State! 39 Then let all who love us love the land that we live in, (As happy a region as this side of heaven), Where Plenty and Freedom,Love and Peace smile before us- Raise aloud, raise together, the heart-thrilling chorus ! Hurrah ! Hurrah ! the Old North State forever ! Hurrah! Hurrah! the good Old North State! William Gaston. |
OCLC number | 19677127 |