Legend of The White Doe

Many of the local Indians competed for Winona, but she chose the handsome Okisko. When she rejected Chico, a sly old witch doctor, he resolved that if he could not have her love, no one would. Using his powerful magic, Chico cast a spell on the young woman, transforming her into a snow-white doe.

On August 27, 1587 Governor John White sailed from the newly-founded English colony on Roanoke Island to return across the sea for supplies. He left behind the first settlement in the new English colony of Virginia, consisting of eighty-nine men, seventeen women, and eleven children. One of those children was his own granddaughter, the first English child to be born in the New World — Virginia Dare. None of these colonists were ever seen by English eyes again.

White had intended to return to the Roanoke colony the next year, but the threat of Spanish invasion from the great Armada of 1588 and the constantly-shifting politics of the Elizabethan court delayed White’s return until 1590. When he arrived, he found the colony abandoned, the only clue to the fate of the colonists being the word CROATOAN carved into a tree. This was the name of a nearby island, the home of the english-speaking Croatan Indian Manteo. Manteo and another Croatan, Wanchese, had met the 1584 reconnaissance expedition for the colony. These two men had left their home in the Outer Banks and journeyed with that expedition on its return to England. The men had learned English on their journey. When they returned with a later expedition, they were positioned at the colonists arrival to be key negotiators between the inhabitants of the island and the newcomers.

White was desperate to follow up on the clue carved into the tree. But he was prevented from making a thorough search of the islands. His ship was threatened by a large oncoming storm, and the captain was eager both to escape that danger and to turn south and hunt for Spanish treasure ships. White was forced to sail on, not knowing what had become of his family and the other settlers. By the time of the next attempt at Colonization in 1608 at Jamestown, the fate of the Lost Colonists had already become the stuff of legend.