Roanoke: Solving the Riddle of England's Lost Colony Book

Lee Miller's fascinating historical detective story, Roanoke, deals with one of the greatest mysteries of England's early colonisation of North America. In 1587 Sir Walter Raleigh ordered John White to settle an American colony of 116 English men, women and children. White landed in Roanoke that year, but inexplicably abandoned the colony (including his heavily pregnant daughter) and returned to England, promising to return with supplies within six months. In fact it took White three years before he returned to Roanoke, only to discover "nothing at all: as though the colonists had never been". All signs of life and settlement had completely disappeared. Vainly searching for the lost colonists, White finally returned home a broken man, never to be heard of again. Officially the colonists are said to have been murdered by Powhatan Indians. Lee Miller thinks differently. This account "is a myth created to explain glaring inconsistencies, to smooth out the rough edges of unanswered questions", of which there are many, carefully explored by Miller. Why did White settle in Roanoke rather than Chesapeake Bay as he was ordered? Why did he abruptly abandon the colony? What are we to make of the subsequent stories of grey-eyed Indians with an ability to work copper? Through the mass of evidence Miller weaves an extraordinary but highly readable conspiracy theory: "John White;s colonists were deliberately sabotaged and left for dead on Roanoke Island". This remarkable claim leads Miller to the heart of government in London, and the political machinations of Elizabeth I, the Earl of Essex, Sir Francis Walsingham and Sir Walter Raleigh. Miller's evidence to support such a conspiracy theory is far from conclusive, and at times the breathless detective style is a little laboured, but this is a fascinating story, worth reading alongside Giles Milton's broader book Big Chief Elizabeth. --Jerry BrottonRead More