ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

             Set Fair for Roanoke: Voyages and Colonies, 1584-1606.
             : University of North Carolina Press, 1985.
             The settlement of Roanoke; which numbered about a hundred men, women, and children, was unprepared in that enough provisions, like food, were not brought over. John Smith was selected to return to England to gather supplies and return to the colony. When Smith returned in 1590, he found that the place had been dismantled and "the word CROATOAN carved on a doorpost" (p. 153) without the agreed upon cross that was to follow any message the settlers may need to leave. No colonists were to be found. Quinn's book explains his solution as to what happened to the settlers of the colony of Roanoke. Using evidence from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries; in addition to, some writings of explorers of Virginia, Quinn shows that the majority of the colonists migrated from Roanoke to the mainland. There the colonists lived among the Chesapeake Indians into the first decade of the seventeen century. After that, the author believes the people were massacred by Powhatan, a Native American chieftain.
             The book is divided into four parts. The first describes the many attempts to form colonies. At this time, England was not a major political power. Establishing colonies beyond the British Isles was seen as a way for England to gain power and stop Spain from expanding into the New World. An expedition in1584 returned with favorable reports of North Carolina's Outer Banks. Quinn describes Sir Walter Raleigh's planning of the voyage that would bring the first settlers to Roanoke; "which numbered about five hundred men who were to prepare the area for habitation, managing in the process to antagonize local Indians". .
             John white and Thomas Harriot had brought back much information about the land.
             This is the main focus of the second part of the book. The environment is described and sketches are seen some of which give the reader a look at the region's Indians and their ways.