16
Inlet, the location of which is now occupied by dry land, a strip mall, miniature golf
courses, a highway, and many homes and rental properties. One of the passengers of
this first expedition was Sir Thomas Harriot, an English naturalist who documented
the plants and animals, and the natives of this new land, and the namesake of the
Harriot College of Arts and Sciences at East Carolina University where I work.
Another passenger was John White who produced the first map of the coast showing
the rivers, estuaries, islands and inlets from Cape Fear NC to the Chesapeake Bay
of Virginia (Fig. 2.1). He also produced wonderfully accurate watercolor paintings
of native peoples, which now reside in the British Museum in London. This first
expedition returned to England after only a year, leaving 15 men behind, but the die
had been cast, and England was set on placing a claim in the New World.
In 1587, John White, who was now appointed by Sir Walter Raleigh as Governor
and Assistants of the Cities of Raleigh Virginia, returned with a contingent of 115
colonists including women and children, who found no trace of the 15 men left
behind, except for the bones of one. The colonists built a fort, Fort Raleigh, on the
northern point of Roanoke Island, behind the barrier islands. The location of that
original fort and settlement is underwater now, destroyed, scattered and buried
under estuary sands and muds, by erosion of the island shoreline; a result of the
nearly 2 feet (~60 cm) of sea-level rise since 1587. The island now has two
communities, Manteo and Wanchese, named after the first Native Americans to
have returned to England following the first contact. A reconstruction of the fort can
Fig. 2.1 A comparison of the White-DeBry map of 1590 (left) and the modern coastal system of
eastern North Carolina, USA (right; Landsat imagery – Google Earth). Arrows show the location of
inlets. Eleven inlets were mapped in 1585–1590, as compared to four that are active today. CH is
Cape Hatteras. CL is Cape Lookout. RI is Roanoke Island. The Outer Banks barrier islands are the
long thin islands that extend from near the Virginia border in the north to Cape Lookout in the south
D. J. Mallinson
Inlet, the location of which is now occupied by dry land, a strip mall, miniature golf
courses, a highway, and many homes and rental properties. One of the passengers of
this first expedition was Sir Thomas Harriot, an English naturalist who documented
the plants and animals, and the natives of this new land, and the namesake of the
Harriot College of Arts and Sciences at East Carolina University where I work.
Another passenger was John White who produced the first map of the coast showing
the rivers, estuaries, islands and inlets from Cape Fear NC to the Chesapeake Bay
of Virginia (Fig. 2.1). He also produced wonderfully accurate watercolor paintings
of native peoples, which now reside in the British Museum in London. This first
expedition returned to England after only a year, leaving 15 men behind, but the die
had been cast, and England was set on placing a claim in the New World.
In 1587, John White, who was now appointed by Sir Walter Raleigh as Governor
and Assistants of the Cities of Raleigh Virginia, returned with a contingent of 115
colonists including women and children, who found no trace of the 15 men left
behind, except for the bones of one. The colonists built a fort, Fort Raleigh, on the
northern point of Roanoke Island, behind the barrier islands. The location of that
original fort and settlement is underwater now, destroyed, scattered and buried
under estuary sands and muds, by erosion of the island shoreline; a result of the
nearly 2 feet (~60 cm) of sea-level rise since 1587. The island now has two
communities, Manteo and Wanchese, named after the first Native Americans to
have returned to England following the first contact. A reconstruction of the fort can
Fig. 2.1 A comparison of the White-DeBry map of 1590 (left) and the modern coastal system of
eastern North Carolina, USA (right; Landsat imagery – Google Earth). Arrows show the location of
inlets. Eleven inlets were mapped in 1585–1590, as compared to four that are active today. CH is
Cape Hatteras. CL is Cape Lookout. RI is Roanoke Island. The Outer Banks barrier islands are the
long thin islands that extend from near the Virginia border in the north to Cape Lookout in the south
D. J. Mallinson