Queen Elizabeth had selected a husband for Eleanor White, an unknown youth—a defective, in fact, and one without moral or mental responsibility. She had forced a marriage, or in any event had recorded it as such. The youth was known as Ananias Dare. Even in the naming of this individual, who had never dared anything, the name "Ananias" carried with it a subtle sting.
John White and his daughter Eleanor, and Ananias Dare, were taken forcibly and put on the ship, which was duly provisioned, and the order given to found the city of Raleigh on the Island of Roanoke in the country called Virginia. A suitable sailor was selected as navigator, and orders were given him to land the colonists, and come back.
And so the expedition sailed away for the New World; and Sir Walter Raleigh in the secret of his room beat his head in anguish 'gainst the wall and called aloud for death to come and relieve him of his pain. And thus did Queen Elizabeth dispose of her rival, and punish with fantastic hate and jealousy the man she loved.
John White, Eleanor and Ananias Dare, with the motley group of unskilled men and women, were duly landed in the forest on Roanoke Island. Battle with the elements requires judgment, skill, experience, and these were things that our poor colonists did not possess.
Two weeks after landing on Roanoke Island a daughter was born to Eleanor. The captain of the ship had given orders that if the babe was a boy it was to be named Walter Raleigh Dare; if a girl the name was to be Virginia.
And they called the child Virginia Dare, and her name was so recorded in the history of the colony. She was duly baptized a week later, and the record of her birth and baptism still exists in the Colonial Archives in London.
This was the first white child born in America.
Very shortly after the baptism of the babe, the captain of the ship sailed away for England, leaving the colonists in their ignorance and helplessness to battle with the elements, wild beasts, and Indians as best they could.
We can imagine with what cruel delight Queen Elizabeth called Sir Walter Raleigh into her presence and had him read aloud to her and the assembled court the record of the birth of Virginia Dare.