Two Connected Events

On July 29th in 1588 and 1603, two connected events took place that affected English and American history. In 1588, the Spanish Armada was sighted off the coast of England. This didn't come as a huge surprise, because it had been rumored and feared for years. In fact, when John White arrived back in England to get supplies and return to the Roanoke colonists in Virginia (or what is now North Carolina), Queen Elizabeth wouldn't let him leave. She needed every available ship to protect the English coast against the Spanish threat.

After the larger Spanish ships were defeated by the lighter British ships in a storm, White managed to return to Roanoke in 1590 to find the colonists missing, including his daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter. His granddaughter, Virginia Dare, was the first English child born in the New World. The word "Croatoan" had been carved on a post. This was the name of a nearby island (likely Hatteras) and an Indian group in the area. No sign was found of them on the island.

Three years later, in 1603, another expedition tried to find information about this lost colony. They landed in the Chesapeake Bay but ran into trouble with the Indians there. Bartholomew Gilbert, a relative of the ship's captain, was killed on July 29th. Four years later, the first permanent English colony would be established here at Jamestown. However, people have been looking for clues to what happened to the Lost Colony ever since.

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