Chapter 5: Pirates and Virgins. c1575–1605.

Of all the European kingdoms staking claims on the far side of the Atlantic, the English were most loath to send colonists thereover. John Cabot had claimed Newfoundland for England in the late 15th century, but the Tudor dynasty of the early 16th century dared not challenge Habsburg hegemony in the Americas. The marriage of King Henry VIII (1509-47) to Catherine of Aragon – the aunt of Charles V – secured England's respect for Spain's territorial claims. Then in 1525, Giovanni da Verrazzano, just returned from his first voyage to the New World, appeared at the English court. With Francis I of France still a prisoner of Charles V, Verrazzano sought a new patron in Henry VIII. Presenting the English king with an updated map of the world, Verrazzano proposed to lead an expedition to Asia via a northwest passage around America. The prospect excited King Henry's worldly desires but, wary of Verrazzano's loyalties to France, he would sponsor the expedition under the command of an English sailor, John Rut. In the summer of 1527, Rut pushed deep into the North Atlantic, exploring the treacherous waters off Newfoundland and Labrador, and provided the first known description of icebergs. Blocked by ice from pursuing a northwestern course, Rut turned south and cruised through the Spanish Caribbean, before sailing home to England.

Rebuked by Charles V for trespassing on Spanish territory, Henry VIII baulked at backing another Atlantic expedition. Then, in the 1530s, Henry had his marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled, earning the enmity of her imperial nephew Charles. The annulment also signalled Henry's break from the Catholic Church and his foundation of an independent Church of England. Having sundered his ties to Catholic Spain, Henry VIII now feared that Charles V would invade Protestant England. For the duration of his reign Henry endeavoured to build up the Royal Navy, while ensuring that his fleet remained close to English shores.

After King Henry's death in 1547, his three children sat in quick succession on the throne. Henry's Protestant son by Jane Seymour, Edward VI (1547-53), strove to consolidate the Church of England whilst maintaining England's naval defenses against a Catholic invasion. Henry's Catholic daughter by Catherine of Aragon, Mary I (1553-58), instituted a reactionary movement that saw hundreds of Protestants burnt at the stake; by marrying her cousin, King Philip II of Spain, Bloody Mary compelled the navy to accept Spanish sovereignty over the western Atlantic. But the ascension to the throne of Henry's Protestant daughter by Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth I (1558-1603), heralded a new, golden age for England. Refusing all offers of marriage – including one from her recently widowed brother-in-law, Philip II – Elizabeth declared, 'I have already joined myself in marriage to a husband, namely the kingdom of England.' Spurning suitors, Elizabeth was acclaimed as the Virgin Queen.

As war with King Philip of Spain drew nigh, Elizabeth adopted a more aggressive foreign policy. The queen built up a first-rate Royal Navy and sanctioned piracy against Spanish shipping by English privateers. In 1577, Francis Drake pushed off from English shores on an ambitious voyage that led him to circumnavigate the globe in The Golden Hind. After terrorizing Spanish ports across the Caribbean, earning enduring infamy as a murderous pirate, 'El Draco' continued down the east coast of South America, encountered giant Indians in Patagonia, and rounded the southernmost point of the continent. 1 Drake then followed the west coast of the continent north, plundered another Spanish galleon off the coast of Peru, and thence loaded The Golden Hind with gold, silver, and precious jewels. By 1579 he reached California, whose coast he probed in vain for a passage between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. With his small fleet straining under the weight of Spanish loot, Drake entered a crescent bay where he careened and refitted the ships. The white cliffs behind the bay, if not the cold climate, reminded seasick sailors of the white cliffs of Dover. Before venturing out across the Pacific on the long journey home, Drake claimed the land for his queen and country. Leaving a brass plate nailed to a post in the ground, he marked the land with the Latin 'Nova Albion' – New Britain.

In Elizabeth's court, the Spanish ambassador protested Drake's incursions upon Spanish territories. The queen denied the validity of Spain's territorial claims. Spaniards had merely 'touched here and there upon the coasts, built cottages and given names to a river or cape.' True possession of the land, Elizabeth argued, must come through large-scale settlement. Placenames were insufficient.

In the long peace of Elizabethan England, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare flaunted the majesty of English literature. Edmund Spenser, the poet's poet, celebrated Elizabeth in his allegorical 'Faerie Queene.' But at court no figure was more popular than a sometime poet, swain, soldier, and privateer, Walter Raleigh. Ever bold and gallant, the dashing courtier won many favors from the charmed queen. In 1584 she granted him a lapsed patent to colonize 'heathen and barbarous lands, countries and territories not actually possessed of any Christian prince, nor inhabited by Christian people.' In effect, she granted Raleigh an enormous estate on the east coast of North America, bounded only by Spanish Florida.

Raleigh sent Arthur Barlowe and Philip Amadas to survey these heathen and barbarous lands and report on their viability for settlement. The captains found a bountiful land, with forests of cedar and oak; rich soil sprouting fruits and vegetables; deer, rabbit, and small mammals unknown to Englishmen, like raccoons and opossums. Raleigh would embrace American crops, introducing tobacco to Elizabeth's court and planting potatoes on his Irish estate.

Resident Indians showed upright character, honest in trade and eager to assist the English exploration. Barlowe described the country of the 'Neusiok, situate upon a goodly river called Neus'; the people are still called Neusiok, and the river now NEUSE. He wrote of the 'Chawanooc,' living near the CHOWAN River. And he recorded another tribal village called 'Ponouike,' situated near the river and sound named after them, PAMLICO; a variation appears farther south in PAMPLICO.

Barlowe and Amadas also met tribes from barrier island villages. One fortified village they transcribed 'Wokokon,' a name now attached to OCRACOKE. On another island dwelt the 'Croatoan' tribe, whose name still survives on the mainland as CROATOAN; on another island lived the 'Raonoak' or 'Roanoak' tribe – now spelled ROANOKE. From the friendly tribes, Barlow and Amadas took two men on board for the return passage to England: Manteo of the Croatoan, and Wanchese of the Roanoke. They were to be taught the English language and shown the glory of Elizabethan London.

One other name in Barlowe's report left its mark: 'King Wingina,' an Indian chief who reigned over the region. After early reports of Wingina and his country reached England, a voice in Queen Elizabeth's court coined a new name for the American region: VIRGINIA. Perhaps the poet in Raleigh – appealing to the vanity of the Virgin Queen, while echoing the name of King Wingina – suggested a vast province of virgin land. But Barlowe's published report indicated that the queen herself gave it title, 'the king is called Wingina, the country Wingandacoa, and now by her majestie Virginia.' Whether Queen Elizabeth truly lived and died a virgin would be debated for generations to come.

In 1585, Raleigh sent to Virginia seven ships of colonists under the command of Richard Grenville. A cousin of Raleigh, and of Drake, Grenville belonged to England's finest seafaring stock and harboured a burning hatred of Spain. Manteo and Wanchese would accompany him, serving as guides and translators. Also aboard was John White, who drew charts of Virginia and sketched scenes of Indian customs. Another passenger was Thomas Hariot, a brilliant scholar who tutored Raleigh in mathematics; a keen astronomer, Hariot later corresponded with Kepler and probably saw Jupiter through a telescope before Galileo.

Through the warren of capes, sounds, and estuaries of southern Virginia, Grenville steered a course perilously close to disaster. When a violent storm struck in late June, tossing his flagship towards land, his crewmen gave voice to their terror. Though the storm subsided, with all ships intact, Grenville forgot not the emotion of his crew in naming Cape FEAR.

Grenville anchored off the north side of Roanoke Island and with Manteo's assistance, received permission from the Indians to build a fort there. Leaving behind 75 colonists, Grenville then set sail for England, promising to return in spring with more provisions. Ever an opportunistic pirate, he managed to capture a Spanish ship on the return voyage.

Exploring the outer banks and inner waters of Virginia, colonists procured more Indian names to adorn their maps. Encountering the insular Indian village 'Hatorasck,' they fixed this name to another great cape along this coast: Cape HATTERAS.

Working closely together, White and Hariot explored further afield. They met Indians whom Hariot called 'Cwareuuoc,' a tribe more commonly called the Coree, whose name survives on the CORE BANKS.

Moving north, White and Hariot wintered by the shores of a massive bay indented with estuaries. One Indian town, just south of the bay, they recorded as 'Chesepiok.' Gibberish to the English, the Indian term may be loosely translated as on the big water – referring to the big water north of the village: CHESAPEAKE Bay. White and Hariot believed the sheltered bay would make an ideal location for future settlement. 2

Colonists wearied of waiting for Grenville's return. When another fleet under Francis Drake sailed by in 1586 – having just razed the Spanish fort at St Augustine – Hariot, White, and other surviving colonists returned with him to England. Before leaving, however, they struck a violent blow against the Indians. Accusing Wingina of plotting the colonists' destruction, they captured, killed, and beheaded the Indian king, leaving his head impaled on a stake outside their fort. The English would abide no monarch in Virginia save the Virgin Queen.

Grenville arrived forthwith to find the colony abandoned. That Virginia might retain an English presence, he left a token contingent of 15 soldiers before returning once more to England.

In England, Raleigh appointed White governor of the Virginia colony. He was enjoined to lead 120 men, women, and children back to Virginia; collect the 15 soldiers from Roanoke; and thence build the 'City of Raleigh' on Chesapeake Bay. But upon reaching Roanoke in midsummer, 1587, White found its stockade razed and no sign of the soldiers save one set of human bones. Lest the season should pass without their homes already built, White abandoned the Chesapeake plan and settled his colonists on Roanoke. After bringing the old settlement into good repair, he set sail for England, promising relief the following year. In his wake he left his own daughter, son-in-law, and his new granddaughter – the first English child born on American soil – Virginia Dare.

In 1588, King Philip's Spanish Armada reeled north towards a vulnerable, Protestant England. At the behest of Queen Elizabeth, English ships were held at port, and able captains like Drake, Raleigh, and Grenville were detained for England's defence. In the rolling sea battles that followed, the nimble English navy wrecked lumbering Spanish warships from the English Channel to the west coast of Ireland. Despite defeating an English armada under Drake in 1589, Spain never regained the same hegemony in Europe.

At war with Spain, the budding British Empire neglected its only overseas colony. Not until August 18, 1590 – the third birthday of his granddaughter, Virginia Dare – could White return to Roanoke. Desperate to find his kin alive, he found the colony deserted. He uncovered no signs of wanton violence, nor the remains of colonists, nor any explanation for the site's abandonment. 'Croatoan' was carved onto a post at the fort's entrance – and 'Cro' on a nearby tree – a reference to the Indian tribe or its island, now known as Hatteras Island. White wished to explore the island, but storms forbade his approach and arrested the search. The lost colonists were never found.

Haunted by memories of the lost colony, and focused on the ongoing war with Spain, the English baulked at resettling colonists in Virginia. After Queen Elizabeth discovered Raleigh's secret marriage to another maiden at court, Elizabeth Throckmorton, she withdrew her support for his ventures and sent him to the Tower of London. Raleigh would soon regain the queen's favour by organizing the capture of a Portuguese treasure ship bound for Philip II. His fellow privateers were less fortunate in their assaults on Spanish ports and shipping. In 1591 Grenville was mortally wounded off the Azores after refusing to surrender his flagship, the Revenge. Drake died of dysentery off Panama in 1596 and was buried at sea in a full suit of armour. Raleigh's fortunes ever ebbed and flowed. He survived an ill-fated quest to find El Dorado in Venezuela; was wounded storming the Spanish port of Cadiz; and shored up England's defences to resist the second and third Spanish armadas. But as the 16th century closed, and his plans to colonize Virginia stalled, Raleigh's rivals at court proposed new expeditions to North America.

In 1602, the sometime-privateer Bartholomew Gosnold embarked from England hoping to establish a trading base in a region hitherto known as 'Northern Virginia.' Gabriel Archer, who accompanied Gosnold and chronicled the voyage, described their first impressions of the region. Upon reaching the mainland on May 15th, Archer first referred to it as 'the Mayne.' And as Gosnold navigated south, Archer repeatedly distinguished the offshore islands from 'the Mayne' and 'the Maine.' Archer concluded that 'The Maine is the goodliest continent that ever we saw...' From the generic description of the mainland, the English could think of no better placename than MAINE.

Gosnold and Archer were awestruck by American beauty and abundance, flourishing with wild berries, nuts, vines, and sassafras – the last of which was highly prized for its purported power to cure diverse ailments, including syphilis. The coastal waters were stocked with crab and lobster and teeming with schools of fish. Near a great arm of land, bent at the elbow, their ship took in such a hefty catch of codfish that they named it Cape COD.

Proceeding southwest around the outer cape, Gosnold sighted a series of islands amidst sea mist and spindrift. Archer provided few with new names but Indians on the mainland had long-established terms for the islands. For the farthest of these islands, lying on the horizon, the Indians described it as a faraway land, or one in the midst of waters. Early European transcriptions of the Indian name included 'Natuck,' 'Natcocke,' and 'Nantican.' Decades after Gosnold first saw the island, the Indian name appeared on European maps as NANTUCKET.

Not yet knowing the Indian name for the island, Gosnold gave Nantucket an English name of his own coining. Finding the lush island littered with vines, he named it MARTHA'S VINEYARD. Although Gosnold had a daughter named Martha, he perhaps had in mind his wine-bibbing mother-in-law, Martha Golding. The unusual name survived but shifted to another island further east, also strewn with vines.

Beyond Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, Gosnold encountered a long chain of islands stretching back to Cape Cod. In naming the southwesternmost of the islands, he provided a name for the entire chain: the ELIZABETH Islands. Gosnold may have chosen the name in memory of his sister, Elizabeth, while indirectly honoring the Virgin Queen – now in the last year of her long reign. On this island Gosnold filled his hold with furs and sassafras, and presided over the construction of a small fort to house 20 settlers. A skirmish with local Indians soon scared off the prospective settlers. Wanting not to be abandoned, and threatening mutiny, they insisted Gosnold return them to England.