The National Park System, of which Fort Raleigh National Historic Site is a unit, is dedicated to conserving the scenic, scientific, and historic heritage of the United States for the benefit and inspiration of its people.
Contents
Page [GILBERT AND RALEIGH] 3 [EXPLORATION OF ROANOKE ISLAND, 1584] 4 [RALEIGH’S FIRST COLONY, 1585-86] 6 [The Voyage] 7 [The Establishment of the Colony] 10 [Life in the Colony] 14 [Abandonment of the Colony] 15 [Grenville’s Fifteen Men] 18 [THE LOST COLONY OF 1587] 18 [The Second Colony Established at Roanoke] 21 [Governor White’s Return to England] 22 [Attempts To Find the Lost Colony] 25 [CONNECTING LINKS WITH JAMESTOWN AND NEW ENGLAND] 27 [LATER HISTORICAL INFORMATION ON FORT RALEIGH] 28 [RECENT HISTORY OF FORT RALEIGH] 30 [GUIDE TO THE AREA] 30 [THE NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE] 38 [HOW TO REACH THE SITE] 38 [ADMINISTRATION] 38 [RELATED AREAS] 38 [ABOUT YOUR VISIT] 39 [SUGGESTED READINGS] 40
Sir Walter Raleigh. This portrait was engraved shortly before his last voyage and is the only one published during his lifetime.
The true and lively portraiture
of the honourable and learned Knight
Sr. Walter Raleigh.
Fort Raleigh National Historic Site directly connects the American people with the Court of Queen Elizabeth and the golden age of English art, literature, and adventure. The figures who play the chief roles in the story of the exploration and attempted settlement of the island are the epic figures of English history: Queen Elizabeth, after whom the new land was named “Virginia,” is easily the premier sovereign of England; Sir Walter Raleigh, poet, soldier, and statesman, and the inspiration and financial mainstay of the Roanoke Island project, is the best remembered of gallant English courtiers; Sir Richard Grenville, of the Revenge, who brought the first colony to America in 1585 and left another small group there in 1586, is the Elizabethan hero who in 1592 taught English sailors how to dare and die in the face of overwhelming odds; Sir Frances Drake, who rescued the first colony from starvation, is famous as the first English circumnavigator of the globe and as the preeminent seadog and explorer of English history.
As Plymouth and other early New England sites connect the United States with the great European movement known as the Reformation, so the scene of Raleigh’s settlements connects the American people with the powerful activating force known as the Renaissance. When energized by the Renaissance movement, the human spirit knew no earthly bounds nor recognized any limits to intellectual or physical endeavor. Thus, Raleigh, who was born a gentleman of only moderate estate, willed to be the favorite of a Queen, aspired to found an empire across the seas in the teeth of Imperial Spain and undertook in prison to write the history of the world! For the glory and enrichment of England, Sir Francis Drake pillaged the cities and mighty galleons of Spain and dared to sail around the globe. Sir Richard Grenville, shortly after his memorable voyages to Roanoke Island, gave the British Navy an immortal tradition by duelling for a day and a night with one small ship against a Spanish fleet of 53.