LANE EXPLORES ROANOKE RIVER

people being under apprehension that the English were enemies to them. Although Lane as a precautionary measure seized the person of the king and his young son, Skyco, he, nevertheless, was able to disarm their fears, and during a sojourn of two days with them obtained considerable information concerning the Mongoaks and their country, and also learned that by ascending the Chowan two days in a boat he would be within a four days' journey, by land, of a king's country that lay upon the sea. Obtaining some corn from Menatonon, and keeping Skyco as a hostage for further kindness, he sent the young Indian prince in the pinnace to the fort, and with the remaining boats and forty men pushed on up the Moratoc. His progress was slow, and he observed the difference between the strong current of that river and the sluggish waters of the great estuaries of the broad sound of Weapomeiok, as the country north of Albemarle Sound was then called.

and

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The Mongoaks proved hostile, and when he had ascended the river two days, having progressed about thirty miles, they made an attack that was, however, easily repulsed. Then penetrating into the country, Lane found that the Exploration savages withdrew before him, removing all their corn and starvation leaving nothing on which his men could subsist. His provisions being nearly out, he left it to the men to determine whether they should return or proceed; but they had two large mastiffs with them, and the men, declaring that the dogs prepared with sassafras would be good for two days' food, would not then abandon the expedition; and so they pushed on farther, but without any favorable result. length, in danger of starvation, and their strength failing, they turned down stream, and in one day reached an island at the mouth of the river.

Their provisions now were entirely exhausted; but here, because of a heavy wind raising great billows in the sound, they were constrained to remain the whole of the next day. It was Easter eve; and Lane says they truly kept the fast. But Easter morn brought them new hope, and the storm ceasing, they entered the sound, and by four o'clock reached the Indian town of Chepanum (apparently on Durant's Neck, between Little and Perquimans rivers), which they

1586

Pemisapan plots

found deserted; but fortunately there were fish in the weirs that furnished timely food; "for some of our company of the light-horsemen were far spent," those sailors who managed the canoes or light boats since called gigs being facetiously designated as "light-horsemen."

The next morning, refreshed and strengthened, they resumed their journey and returned to Roanoke in safety.

The Indians become hostile

In their absence, Pemisapan had stirred up the neighboring Indians to enmity against the remaining colonists, and hoping that his devices for the destruction of Lane's party had succeeded, he sought to strengthen the resolution of his followers by declaring that Lane and his party had either died of starvation or had been cut off by the Mongoaks. Ensinore, who had urged more friendly counsels, had unfortunately died toward the end of March, and there was now no influence to counteract Pemisapan's hostility; and urged by him, the Indians would no longer render any assistance in the way of obtaining either fish or other food, and the situation of the colony was becoming extremely critical. The protracted absence of Lane's party added to their despondency, while it gave color to the report of their destruction. Such was the deplorable condition on the island when Lane's reappearance, contrary to the prophecies of his enemies, together with the accounts given by the Indians who had accompanied him of the ease with which he had overcome those Mongoaks who had fought him, caused a reaction in favor of the whites, and the Indians once more began to set weirs for them and aided them in planting corn, the planting season having now arrived. Still, until relief should come from England, or the crops just planted should mature, the colonists had to rely on such supplies as they could gather for themselves. In this extremity resort was had to the oyster beds found in the sound; and the better to subsist, the men were divided into small companies, and located at different points. Captain Stafford and twenty others were sent to Croatoan, where, while getting oysters, they could watch for the approach of the expected vessels

THE CONSPIRACY OF PEMISAPAN

bearing relief; at Hattorask a dozen more were stationed for the same purpose, while every week companies of fifteen or twenty were sent to the mainland to hunt for food. Thus they managed to exist through the month of May, waiting and watching in vain for the promised supplies from home.

In the meantime, Pemisapan, while preserving a friendly guise, began to plot anew against them, and instigated the hostile Indians to take the whites at a disadvantage, falling upon them while scattered and cutting them off in detail. To carry out this scheme he proposed to hold a great assembly of Indians, to last a month, by way of solemnizing the death of his father, Ensinore. This meeting was to be held on the mainland, at Desamonquepeuc, opposite Roanoke Island; and besides seven hundred neighboring warriors, it was to be attended by an equal number of the Mangoaks and Chesipeans, who were to come and lie secretly in the woods until the signal fires should give them the order to rise. As a part of the same plan, it was arranged that Terraquine, one of Pemisapan's chieftains, with twenty men, should set fire to the thatched roof of Lane's house, and when he should come out, they were to murder him. Another leader and squad were to deal with Hariot the same way; and, similarly, all of the principal men of the colony were to be surprised and overcome. Toward the end of May the neighboring Indians began to assemble on Roanoke Island, the night of June 10th being the time appointed for the others to meet and carry into effect the murderous plot.

Skyco

the plot

Skyco, being the son of a king, on reaching the island had been taken by Pemisapan to reside with his own family, and as the young prince was held a prisoner and was deemed hostile to the English, the plot became known to him; but reveals Lane had treated him with kindness and consideration, and the young boy in gratitude revealed to him all the details of the conspiracy. Confronted with such an emergency, Lane's strength of character and resolution promptly displayed itself. Had he been a weaker man, not so resourceful, the colonists would probably have fallen victims to Indian strategy.

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