Text Box: There are actually many contemporary records available that provide ample reason to suspect that the 1587 colonists (or at least some of them) may have survived. For some reason, however, the information is not widely known and has not made it into the public domain. Most books on the subject do not delve into the particulars at all. Some of the books that are available on the subject of Roanoke are: “Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony,” Lee Miller, Arcade, 2001. “Lost Colonists,” David Beers Quinn, North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1991. “Lost Colony of Roanoke: Opposing Viewpoints,” Tom Schouweiler, Gale Group, 1991. “Ralegh’s Lost Colony,” David N. Durant, Simon and Schuster, 1981. “Roanoke: The Story of the Lost Colony,” Peter I. Bosco, Millbrook Press, 1992. “Set Fair for Roanoke: Voyages and Colonies, 1584-1606, The University of North Carolina Press, 1985. “Roanoke Island, The Beginnings of English America,” David Stick, The University of North Carolina Press, 1983. The following pages provide some of the accounts available: “Observations,” George Percy, p. 17: In 1607, Captain Christopher Newport and over 100 colonists were in the Chesapeake Bay. During a reconnaissance voyage up one of the rivers, that they called “Poor Cottage,” George Percy records that “we saw a savage boy, about the age of ten years, which had a head of hair of a perfect yellow and a reasonable white skin, which is a miracle amoungst the savages.” Lee Miller, an Anthropologist from Johns Hopkins University, in her book, “Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony,” reports on page 213 that Sir Walter Ralegh, while being held prisoner in the Tower of London, “kept abreast of the discoveries” and continues that this news “may have prompted him to urge more aggressive action,” and that Christopher Newport, who had by then returned to England, “is again dispatched to Virginia- with specific instructions to search for White’s company.” Newport arrived in Jamestown on the 23rd of January, 1608. However, what he found when he arrived was that most of the Jamestown colonists were dead. He recorded “the pitiful Murmurings and Outcries” of the colonists, some dying “three or four in a night; in the morning, their bodies trailed out of their cabins like dogs to be buried.” [Percy, pp. 20, 22; John Smith, “General Historie,” p. 163]. We might well imagine how the search for White’s Lost Colonists might have taken a back seat to the more immediate needs in Jamestown. John Smith, in his “True Relation,” B4v, tells of his meeting with Opechancanough, the King of the Pamunkey tribe and brother of Wahunsonacock, King of the Powhatans. Smith claimed that the King told him “what he knew of the dominions he spared not to acquaint me with, as of certain men clothed at a place called Ocanahonan, clothed like me.” Shortly after Smith’s meeting with the Pamunkey King, he met with the King’s brother, “Emperor” of the Powhatan, at Werowocomoco. Here, Smith says “the people at Ocanahowan he also confirmed, and the southerly countries also, as the rest… he described a country called Anone, where they have abundance of brass and houses walled as ours.” [Smith, “True Relations,” C4r]. After all of this information, Smith records that the Paspahegh King, Wominchopuck, agreed “to conduct two of our men to a place called Panawicke, beyond Roanoke, where he reported many men to be appareled.” Unfortunately, contact with White’s Colonists was derailed as the Paspahegh “played the villain and deluding us for rewards, he returned within three or four days after, without going any further.” Dr. Miller contends that as early as this date in 1608, London and Jamestown were well aware that Ralegh’s colonists, at least some of them, were alive, and that efforts were being mounted to locate and retrieve them. She also suggests that at least some of the early Jamestown colonists were likely kinsmen of the Roanoke colonists and they had come to Virginia [and I would like to add Maryland], either in whole or in part, to search for their relatives. As I have pointed out in my research, nearly 50% of the surnames associated with my Payne research were also names found at Roanoke [which included a Payne]. This is not to simply say that the same surnames were present. They were actively involved with one another through marriage, friendship and business. I have also found similar associations between the same surnames in English records. © 2002 Patrick A. Payne