Show ROANOKE ISLAND lid 10 M g 50 I 1 V 4 4 t 4 modern transportation on roanoke island by b national society washing t on D C wa V service ic odian engineers haie hae thrust M MODERN virginia dire dare trail flown the islands off the north carolina coast and built the tie wright memorial bridge across currituck Curri tuck sound bringing the islands into touch with the modern world yet the vilf visitor tor still finds in roanoke island the speech and cus customs common in the days of sir walter raleigh whose hose followers I 1 established there the first en english settlement in ID america from the skipper of the small mail boat that plies between the islands one may supplement his limited knowledge of this region supplied by obsolete descriptions and by copies of the original letters and maps left by sir walter raleight Ra leighs adventurers lie he learns that roanoke island perfectly exemplifies the adage that byways of isolation pocket the choicest realities of life nera here Is a genuine inbred dignity expressive of a mild mannered hospitable folk the islanders are proud of their physique speech manners and customs historic hl survivals of old english devon the ubiquitous automobile did not re reach a ch roanoke island until less than a decide decade ago for land transports transportation there were nere up to that time only two wheeled carts and sand ponies and occasional oxcarts ox carts even the little sand ponies tradition went back to castaway vessels to the portuguese and to sir walter raleight Ra leighs voyagers on raleight Ra leighs attempts at colonization hinged momentous results in the new world the lost colonies though they began and ended sir walters ventures upon the north carolina sea islands were the first english speaking settlements in america discovered in 1584 in issa the adventurer obtained a patent from queen elizabeth whose favors his genius readily commanded and dispatched to the new world the first of his expeditions the little band under amadas and barlowe sailed through an inlet on july 4 to discover roanoke island a spot so favored in climate and setting and so rich in fruits game and bird life that it seemed to them a veritable paradise back to england they sailed to describe it taking with them two friendly indian chiefs and also tobacco sassafras maize pumpkins squash grapes and other fruits their story created excitement and in the following year raleigh Pa leigh sent out sir richard grenville with a second colony numbering souls determined to make a permanent home on roanoke island and establish plantations they landed on august 17 and built a lo 10 log fortification to which they gave the name the new fort in virginia nin also spoken of as fort raleigh Ilo however wever they could not live at pence peace with the indians and the entire colony sailed back with sir francis drake in MSG just two weeks before the arrival of reinforcements finding the fort deserted the new group also returned to england but left 15 men on the island A third expedition sent ou out t by raleigh to in 1587 found the fort demolished moli shed and no trace of the 15 men ex except capt the bones of one slain by the savages the gruesome discovery was a shock to the home seekers and t they bey willingly followed the advice of their leader john white to forestall future hostility by making friends of the indians the plan succeeded admirably manteo one of the friendly chiefs was even baptized and given a title of nobility as lord of roanoke the first english peerage in america virginia dares birth on august 18 nsf 1 sa five days after the baptism of the indian was born john whites granddaughter virginia dare the first english native of america she was baptized on the following sunday thus was eliza bethan civilization anchored here by 1 a I baby a mother and the american family around little virginia dare remained bained more thin than a hundred men women nod and children they were left alone for three years then john white who had gone back to england after establishing the colony returned to find that they had disappeared the only promising ang clue white white found was the sign CRO blazed on a tree since these letters were part of a code agreed upon by the colonists three years before the rescue party hoped that their friends had bad gone to croatan home of the friendly danteo who ha had promised sanctuary in emer gency but the ca captain pleading plead lne bad weather and lack of auppl forced the party to sal sail I 1 away before ibe the clue could be investigated what had been the colonists fate the blazed sign was all that was ever found of the lost colonies except hasty marks of departure burned chests rusty iron implements household effects and books kven I 1 in n that wilderness colonists of shakespeare Shake s day could not exist without books whatever the fate of the colonists either they or their early successors left their elizabethan english dialect manners customs and features in this american byway As the little mail boat bobs along toward roanoke island the travelers thoughts turn from the story of vir ir aiala dare and the first colonists to another historic drama of the banks T in n 1812 just across the channel from roanoke R oa noke island on the ocean r sand spits of nags head the pilot boat patriot carrying theodosia burr alston daughter of aaron burr and wife or of governor alston of south carolina ended its last voyage after the tragic kragl collapse of her fathers career and the loss of her little son the only hope of the burr family mrs alston was in the depths of despair she set sal sail from georgetown S a to join her lonely father and disappeared forever 1 life on the island A bit of life on roanoke Is revealed by a recent visitor a woman doctor an AD old midwife and nurse the widow of a life service man was to care for her temporarily in her ancient cottage by the sound where she lived alone tier her name was ills misi bashi basal the mis ills an island designation for mistress and bashi she said a bible name after bathsheba the wife of urlah uriah but they call me baebl surnames on the island do not cot denote the individual for the families in a hamlet are usually all members of one or two clans ill wipe the dustless off you your cornbread la Is waltin and your cake all dressed up in coconut mis ills bashi stirred about the spa clous old brick fireplace with it its crane and firedogs fire dogs and brought from the coils coals an old fourte four te ed skillet in ID which she had bad baked a delicious cornbread lying on the hearth was a mammoth bushy tailed long haired cat one of the numerous beautiful descendants ants of an island maltese and a brown bronn bushy tailed norwegian cat that hid had been the sole survivor of a wreck in a worn slab wood rocker in which the old woman had rocked her six children the doctor hesed after dinner and listened to her we tale of a remarkable life history what she learned entitles mis bashi bash to a place in the annals of medical history the old nurse belonged to the islands Island 8 remnant iler her blond her sterling character and her beautiful broad dialect were heritages of the old devonshire castaway she was comely and agile a her visage one of strength and an d thought of only five weeks schoolen school ln she had never learned to read but had been taught to work lindoo indoors and out and to spin at sixteen out old she married and at twenty one out in a far life service station ba hamlet she undertook her first obstetrical case doctor I 1 knew of it but mehaley read me a doctor book and the moon was wag comin to full so the baby would be thrifty on one born in the dark of the moon Is not mis bachis nursing on her little plantation woods by the sound thou though in pine later she cared widowed for a mother raised her own brood broo brostad psychiatric Tad and her rn mothers Others and her brothers cared for cows children pigs then for 15 45 and gardens gar years she all the sick of the ministered to tor for region a dooin local doc coming only laev iler at rare inte avais sand pony napoleon her in a two wheeled carried aried woods and sand and cart through thann ash h water sunshine to her in gale 0 r patients patient afo she ibe swung su ung with her 0 aften en 0 afoot beaches alkine ng st ride down or through the wood was smart sma rt exact and knowin she she signed by mark though tho 1 s and sh she known as a was wai capable camb lp an her won dignity of bear bearing tesy were exquisite and acou cour thus into the role that she pel nature ta months later the a cast cas it for f her doctor how the personality 6 led woman linked with of t this big island land science prevented a result t touch of 0 morbid household conditions results 53 fro atom in she i dished her own est e stati it worked an n 0 if in mican ill Mic ln 4 and |