At first, relations with the Indians continued friendly, though the
Englishmen had their detractors in the Council of the Indian Chief. The
aborigines planted crops and made fish traps for the Englishmen. With
rare foresight, the colonists also induced Chief Wingina (who had
changed his name to Pemisapan) to put into simultaneous cultivation his
lands both on Roanoke Island and on the mainland at Dasamonquepeuc in
order that the Indians might have no excuse for not being able to supply
the colony if need arose. The coast was explored by the English as far
south as Secotan (about 80 miles) and as far north as the Chesapeake
(about 130 miles). Thomas Hariot collected data on plants, animals, and
minerals for his _New Found Land of Virginia_. John White made the
inimitable water-color drawings of the Indians, the animal and plant
life of Roanoke Island, and the coast, which have been engraved many
times. The much rarer facsimile reproductions of these drawings in color
may be seen in the Fort Raleigh museum. These paintings are the first
artistic productions of Englishmen in America. The colonists also
learned to smoke tobacco, using for this purpose Indian pipes or other
pipes of their own modeled on the Indian pipes.
[Illustration: _Drawing of an Indian made by John White, 1585-86._]
How closely the personnel of the first colony conformed to the standard
suggested by Hakluyt in 1584 is not known; but historical documents
indicate that there were men expert in fortification and that there were
brickmakers, carpenters, and thatchers. Also the names of all of the
colonists are known, if not their trades. Some were gentlemen, cousins
of Raleigh and Grenville, as the names indicate. Hariot says that some
were city dwellers "of a nice bringing up" who soon became miserable
without their soft beds and dainty food. Others were excellent soldiers,
as Lane testified of Captain Stafford; and there were the humbler folk,
of whom Darby Glande was perhaps representative, though he was Irish and
appears to have been forced to accompany the expedition. On the whole,
they gave the appearance more of a military expedition than a colony.
They were dependent upon the Indians and upon England for both food and
supplies. Many of their basic commodities, such as salt, horses, and
cattle, had been obtained in the first instance by trade, or by force,
from the Spaniards in the West Indies. There appear to have been no
women among them to give permanence to the settlement.
Grenville's deplorable action in burning the village of Aquascogok was
indicative of the fact that the high-spirited Englishmen of that day
could not live on even terms with the natives. In the lean period
between the planting of crops in the spring and the expected summer
harvest, English relations with the Indians grew strained and finally
reached the point at which no further supplies could be had from them.
Once the colonists and Indians were at odds, the fish traps began to be
robbed or destroyed. Food became scarce, and Lane was forced to send
groups of settlers to the barrier islands along the coast to live on
oysters and other shell fish and to look for passing ships. Master
Prideaux and 10 men were sent to Hatoraske Island for this purpose,
while Captain Stafford and 20 men went to Croatoan Island, south of Cape
Hatteras. (Croatoan Island is a sixteenth-century name, not to be
confused with modern Croatan Sound area.) Sixteen or twenty others were
sent at intervals to the mainland to live on oysters and native foods.
By June 1, 1586, the colonists were at open war with the Indians, and
many of the latter were slain in the struggles that ensued both on
Roanoke Island and on the mainland at Dasamonquepeuc. Pemisapan was
among those who were killed in the fighting.