was made to find the fifteen men
left behind the year before by Grenville to hold possession for the
Queen. Mounds of earth, which may even now be traced, so piously have
their last remains been cared for, marked the site of the fort. From
natives of Croatoan Island the newcomers learned that Grenville's men
had been murdered by hostile Indians.

One native friend was found in Manteo, a chief whom Barlow had taken to
England and Grenville had brought back. Manteo was now living with his
own tribe of sea-coast Indians on Croatoan Island. But the mischief
between red and white had been begun; and though Manteo had been
baptized and was recognized as 'The Lord of Roanoke' the races were
becoming fatally estranged.

After a month Governor White went home for more men and supplies,
leaving most of the colonists at Roanoke. He found Elizabeth, Raleigh,
and the rest all working to meet the Great Armada. Yet, even during the
following year, the momentous year of 1588, Raleigh managed to spare two
pinnaces, with fifteen colonists aboard, well provided with all that was
most needed. A Spanish squadron, however, forced both pinnaces to run
back for their lives. After this frustrated attempt two more years
passed before White could again sail for Virginia. In August, 1590, his
trumpeter sounded all the old familiar English calls as he approached
the little fort. No answer came. The colony was lost for ever. White had
arranged that if the colonists should be obliged to move away they
should carve the name of the new settlement on the fort or surrounding
trees, and that if there was either danger or distress they should cut a
cross above. The one word CROATOAN was all White ever found. There was
no cross. White's beloved colony, White's favorite daughter and her
little girl, were perhaps in hiding. But supplies were running short.
White was a mere passenger on board the ship that brought him; and the
crew were getting impatient, so impatient for refreshment' and a Spanish
prize that they sailed past Croatoan, refusing to stop a single hour.

Perhaps White learnt more than is recorded and was satisfied that all
the colonists were dead. Perhaps not. Nobody knows. Only a wandering
tradition comes out of that impenetrable mystery and circles round the
not impossible romance of young Virginia Dare. Her father was one of
White's twelve 'Assistants.' Her mother, Eleanor, was White's daughter.
Virginia herself, the first of all true 'nativ