Peninsula In Passage

Early Visitors and European Encounters The earliest Indian exposure to Europeans on the Nansemond peninsula may have been a mid-16th century glimpse of Spanish ships scouting the waters of the lower James. The Indians must have wondered about the strange craft sailing into their home waters and rumored incidents of Europeans kidnapping natives. Roanoke Explorers In 1585 Ralph Lane led an English scouting expedition from Roanoke Island and spent at least three months visiting the Chesapeake Bay’s southern shore. The group stayed the winter with some of the natives along the Elizabeth and, possibly the Nansemond, Rivers. English artist John White and scientist Thomas Harriot collected information about the area and its tribes during their stay. White’s drawings and paintings of native people and village life made on that trip are iconic. The scouting party found the native people friendly and noted this in their writings. John White’s map of that excursion shows the Nansemond River with two dots that may represent native villages along the river. Skicoac is also shown on the map and might have been a Chesapeake Indian town on the Elizabeth River. Lost Colonists In 1587 John White made a second trip to Roanoke Island with 117 English settlers. Among them were his daughter and son-in-law, who were expecting his granddaughter, Virginia Dare, believed to be the first English child born in America. The colony was a perfect storm of blunders beginning with the site choice. White’s original destination was closer to the Chesapeake where the settlers would be near the Indians he had stayed with on the earlier scouting foray. But the ship’s captain anchored near Roanoke Island and refused to go farther. White was forced to return to England for more supplies. He thought the round trip would take four to six months, but he was delayed. Three years later when he finally returned to Roanoke Island, the island was deserted – the English had disappeared. Over the past 425 years the mystery of the “Lost Colony” sparked many theories about their fate.

John White map

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