PEOPLE & 



PLACES 



suitable to the mid- Atlantic climate, the 

 settlers no longer could rely on the Indians 

 for their food supply. 



In spite of failed missions, Sir Walter 

 Raleigh kept the venture alive, and mounted 

 the ill-fated 1587 voyage under Gov. John 

 White. 



Ironically, Raleigh, a champion of 

 England's colonial expansion, never set foot 

 on North American shores. 



ART REFLECTS LIFE 



In 1587, against all odds, the settlers 

 unwittingly boarded a ship — this time 

 destined for Chesapeake Bay to establish a 

 new settlement in the queen's name. 



Among them were Gov. White; his 

 pregnant daughter, Eleanor Dare; her 

 husband, Ananias Dare; John Borden; Tom 

 Harris; and chief pilot Simon Fernandez. 



When they reached the Outer Banks 

 three months later, stormy seas swamped the 

 provisions and nearly wrecked their ship. 



"White and Fernandez had been at odds 

 nearly from the start of the voyage, but it was 

 the last straw when White accused Fernandez 

 of incompetence," houston says. 



White and the settlers were forced to 

 disembark at Roanoke Island — without a 

 full store of provisions and at the mercy of 

 hostile Indians. 



The weary voyagers aquiesed, heartened 

 by the promise of protection from their 

 friend, the Indian Manteo. They hailed the 

 birth of Virginia Dare on Aug. 18 as a 

 renewed commitment to English colonization 

 in the New World. 



At the settlers' urging, Gov. White set 

 sail for England to solicit needed provisions 

 for the colony. But history dealt another 

 blow. No ship could be spared. Elizabeth 

 summoned all resources to defend England 

 against the Spanish Armada. 



It's here that the historical record is 

 sketchy and playwright Green invokes 

 creative license to play out the colonists' 

 tragedy. 



Hunger, hardship, illness and death 

 beset the struggling settlers. With the death of 

 Ananias Dare, Borden assumes leadership 



and faces the reality that no help is coming 

 from England probably because of a 

 prolonged war with Spain. 



Winter approaches, the food supply is 

 dwindling, and their protector, Manteo, has 

 died. Now, a Spanish war ship has anchored 

 in the inlet. 



Borden must lay out the hard choices to 

 the colony: Would surrender to the Spanish 

 mean survival or death? Should they stay and 

 defend the fort? Or, should they follow 

 Manteo' s people farther south to the tribal 

 home in Croatoan (an island extending north 

 of modem Cape Hatteras), where wild game 

 might be more plentiful? 



They choose Croatoan. And one last 

 time, Borden must rally the courage of the 

 rag-tag group as they prepare to leave the 

 fort. 



Gesturing toward the flag, he says, 

 "Here in this new world we have planted the 

 emblem of our race — of people who are 

 free. . . . And down the centuries that wait 

 ahead, there'll be some whisper of our name 

 — some mention and devotion to the dream 

 that brought us here." 



With that, they disappear into history, 

 which has recorded their names and their 

 story, but not their fate. 



When Gov. White returns to Roanoke 

 Island in 1590 he finds only an abandoned 

 fort and the words "CROATOAN" and 

 "CRO" carved on a tree and a post. 



Historians and archeologists persevere 

 in the hunt for clues that will solve the 

 mystery. "We haven't given up on the 

 search," houston insists. 



A LOCAL TRADITION 



When the production opened in 1937, 

 some assumed it would run for a single 

 season to commemorate the 350th anniver- 

 sary of the birth of Virginia Dare. But from 

 the start, members of the local historical 

 organization were determined to have 

 Roanoke Island recognized as America's 

 birthplace — an ambition matched by 

 playwright Green's long-time dream to tell 

 the colonists' story. 



Rhett White attributes its longevity to 



the community's continuous involvement with 

 every aspect of what is now a local tradition. 



"The Lost Colony was a child of its era," 

 writes Laurence G. Avery in the introduction to 

 the newest edition of The Lost Colony (UNC 

 Press, 2001). "At no other time could it have 

 been gotten together in just the way it was in 

 1937. With its grassroots origin, community 

 spirit and celebratory aim, the production was 

 precisely the sort of effort to attract national 

 attention during the New Deal phase of the 

 Great Depression." 



At the time, the Civilian Conservation 

 Corps (CCC) was building dunes on the Outer 

 Banks' barrier islands. A CCC crew was 

 recruited to work on the outdoor theatre; 

 equipment came from the Rockefeller 

 Foundation and the University of North 

 Carolina at Chapel Hill. Leading actors were 

 professionals from the Federal Theatre Project. 



A rave review from a New York Times 

 drama critic attracted the desired national 

 attention. It also helped when President 

 Franklin D. Roosevelt attended a performance 

 on Aug. 18, the birthday of Virginia Dare. 

 And, Avery notes, "The play became a cause 

 for Eleanor Roosevelt in her efforts to enrich 

 the lives of depression-era Americans through 

 the arts." 



It's estimated that 50,000 people saw the 

 production during that first season — 

 remarkable considering there were no four-lane 

 highways or modem causeways to the island. 

 One route involved traversing several miles of 

 swamp on "the floating road," which Avery 

 describes as " a sixteen-foot-wide strip of 

 asphalt suspended on steel cables hitched to 

 pilings." 



After all these years, the play continues to 

 inspire audiences with Green's core message: 

 equality is fundamental to a democratic way of 

 life. 



In the play, Tom's character illustrates 

 Avery's point that frontier life broke down 

 European class boundaries. Tom rises from a 

 place of ridicule in English society to a 

 leadership role in the colony. 



He says, "But I who was lately nothing 

 am become somebody. . . . Roanoke, thou hast 

 made a man of me." El 



COASTWATCH 29 



