The lost colony

I'm looking forward to seeing the exhibition of watercolours of Algonquin Indians painted by John White in Roanoke in 1585. This was the first attempt by the English to establish a colony in North America.

The exhibition that runs at the British Museum until June 17 is a rare opportunity to see these pictures of a thriving native American community that sustained itself successfully before Europeans introduced new diseases and conflict, disrupting a way of life that had evolved steadily for centuries.

That first colony did not succeed and was evacuated. A second colony had arrive in 1587 but that too was struggling and White returned to England for help. But his return voyage was delayed by war with Spain and when he finally came back in 1590 every member of the 117-strong colony had disappeared with just one or two carved letters left behind as clues to their whereabouts. The fate of what became known as the "lost colony" has never been explained.

I wrote about it in this chapter of my children's book, Prospero's Gold, as I was intrigued by later stories of fair haired Indians in the area. I think it highly likely that at least some of the colony was absorbed in to a local tribe. I chose an Algonquin Indian as the mother of one of the book's central characters. The story of the colony is featured here. A recent archaeological dig has tried to find fresh evidence but I'm not aware that it came up with anything to shed any new light on the mystery.