Ralegh's Lost Colony: The Story of the First English Settlement in American

by David N. Durant

RALEGH’S LOST COLONY is a vibrant account of an important historical Sir Walter Ralegh’s heroic but unsuccessful attempt, between 1584 and 1590 to found an English settlement on the shores of North America. Ralegh’s Roanoke project came to fruition in 1585, when an expeditionary party, led by Sir Richard Grenville, landed on Roanoke Island, in what is now North Caroline. The 100 settlers brought with them not only discoveries – iron, the wheel, writing and gunpowder – unknown to the American Indian, but also disease and the threat, if they remained too long, of widespread famine. Small wonder, as David Durant points out, that the English were greeted warily, and a happy chance that they were able to return safely to England. The fat of a second colony, established at Roanoke in 19587 and subsequently lost almost without trace, has long been subject to speculation. Drawing on contemporary accounts by seamen and settlers, on new archaeological evidence uncovered at the excavated Roanoke site, and on extensive research into Indian religion, Durant has drawn his own fascinating conclusions about the fate of the lost colony, giving cogent reasons, both political and sociological, for its having been doomed to failure.

Hardcover

Reviews

[LeAnne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Subject matter is interesting; writing style not engaging.