Big Chief Elizabeth: The Adventures And Fate Of The First English Colonists In America (2000) - Plot & Excerpts
High 5. Milton has produced a more entertaining follow-up to his previous outing in charting the history of Elizabethan voyages of discovery to America. Cabot's discoveries in 1497 had sparked intense interest in the possible riches to be made across the Atlantic, and even during the reign of Henry VIII this vision had drawn ambitious adventurers to it. In 1536 a wealthy London merchant, Richard Hore, inspired by the appearance at court of a captured South American native from William Hawkins' expedition of the previous year, set out on an expedition to Newfoundland. However, this expedition suffered from lacking in sufficient supplies and its members, wracked by starvation, succumbed to cannibalism. The next tragic episode in this history concerns the ill-fated expeditions of 1578 and 1583 of Sir Humfrey Gilbert. The former was complete farce as only one ship of his flotilla was actually able to brave the harsh weather conditions and depart English waters, only to return similarly battered to the disgrace of it's young captain, Gilbert's half-brother, Walter Ralegh. Though bankrupt, Gilbert was able through his friends at court, principally Sir Francis Walsingham, to launch a second expedition on the ingenious premise that investors would accrue semi-feudal rights to vast acres of discovered land -in eight months of such sales Gilbert sold estates of some 8.5 million acres. The second expedition reached St John's Newfoundland, where, despite the presence of Spanish and Portuguese ships, Gilbert proudly claimed the territory for Queen Elizabeth. Yet, tragedy awaited when the expedition set sail south to explore the American coastline, with many being disheartened by the barren Newfoundland landscape. Not only did the lack of a clear vision of where to plant the English colony sow the seeds for diaster, but also so did Gilbert's own arrogance and weak leadership. with the loss of the flagship, wrecked on the shallows, Gilbert was swayed by the discontent among his fleet to abandon the voyage and set sail for home. Moreover, having been taunted as lacking resolve, he deliberately set sail aboard the smallest, most vulnerable ship of the fleet, and was lost to the first storm encountered. The mantle of spearheading the voyages and establishing an English colony now passed to Ralegh, who had been forced to abandon the 1583 voyage when his crew were laid low by dysentery. In the meantime, he had quickly established himself as the Queen's favourite, with his dashing charm and flirtatious pursuit of Elizabeth - his rise coincided with the decline in favour of Robert Dudley. Ralegh regarded the colonisation across the Atlantic as his destiny, and therefore, offered his household at Durham House on the banks of the Thames as a meeting point for experts of all kinds. Chief among these was his mathematician Thomas Harriot whose command of this discipline Ralegh regarded as essential to accurate navigation. Ralegh lost little time, sending an expedition in 1584 to return with a native who could be taught English and thus acquaint the English with greater knowledge of the American lands. The expedition not only achieved this but also discovered the island of Roanoke as an ideal site for the future colony, being hidden by the outer banks of North Carolina from Spanish fleets. Thus, when Elizabeth agreed to provide a flagship and a name for the new colony in her honour, Virginia, but failed to finance the expedition, Ralegh used the concealed nature of an English presence in America as an opportunity for investors to reap dividends from plundering Spanish shipping. Knighted to undertake the mission of planting the colony, Ralegh entrusted command of the expedition to Sir Richard Grenville, a hot-headed firebrand and adventurer, whose father had perished in the 'Mary Rose' disaster. His task was to ferry the colonists across the Atlantic before returning to England, although he had never set sail previously. The settlement itself was left to the control of Sir Ralph Lane, the governor of the first colony, a battle-hardened soldier and expert on fortification who had been entrusted with defending Ireland's coastline against Spanish invasion. However, the true linchpin of the expedition would be Thomas Harriot who had mastered some command of the indigenous languages from contact with the natives captured by the 1584 expedition. Setting sail in April 1585, Grenville succeeded in landing the colonists at Roanoke, but with his flagship grounded and battered on the sand bars of the Outer Banks, many of their supplies and seeds were spoiled by salt-water, thereby making the colonists totally reliant on the natives for food until the first harvests could be gathered in around a year's time. The increasing tension between Elizabeth and Philip II fed by the former's belligerent involvement in the Spanish Netherlands and support for piratical raids on Spanish shipping, and the latter's attempt to seize English merchant ships and enforce an embargo on English goods, made a fertile environment for Grenville's return to England in October 1585 laden with the Spanish prize he had captured en route. The investors in the Roanoke enterprise regarded the settlement as an opportunity to reap rewards from seizing Spanish ships, while the Spanish shared this vision of an English outpost from which to launch piratical raids on their New`World interests, so became determined to locate and destroy the settlement. Grenville also arrived with the news of the colonists' plight with regards to lack of supplies and though Ralegh had his supply ship ready to sail under the command of Drake's brother, Bernard, he had to relinquish the ship to national interests as Elizabeth commanded that the ship sail to protect English fishing fleets off Newfoundland. Thus, when a fleet commanded by Sir Francis Drake arrived off the Outer Banks in June 1586 he came to the aid of the half-starved settlement at Roanoke. The settlers had just carried out an attack on the neighbouring tribes who had attempted to wipe out the settlement, tired of being asked to contribute food to the newcomers. Drake had long taken an interest in this colony, having served on the parliamentary committee which had scrutinised Ralegh's plans, and, despite being commissioned to free captured English grain ships and raid Spanish coastal towns, had a more ambitious plan to plunder the Caribbean islands and the treasure fleet. Having overrun the Spanish seat of government in the New World at Santa Domingo on the island of Hispaniola as the New Year dawned, Drake had learned of Spanish designs to obliterate English presence on the American mainland. This had been the impetus for his arrival at Roanoke, but in attempting to resupply the settlement a great storm scattered the fleet and Drake and Lane agreed that with war on the horizon making further supplies uncertain it would be best to abandon the settlement. On returning to England, gentlemen survivors spread disastrous reports as to the hardships endured and a subsistence diet of acorns, while Lane had lost his previous enthusiasm and dismissed the area around Roanoke as being far from conducive to colonise. By contrast, Harriot returned eager to advance the benefits of a healthier diet and a local population responsive to trade and settlement. Not only did his reports blindly ignore the Indians' obvious hostility to keep the vision of an Anglicised America alive, but Harriot quickly realised that his claims of the medicinal benefits of tobacco would maintain the colony's future should smoking be popularised as a pastime. Lane and the surviving settlers already were 'hooked', and Ralegh added his enthusiasm to spread the habit within the Court. While the Roanoke survivors recounted the failure of their settlement at home, Grenville arrived with a second contingent of settlers at the Outer Banks expecting to discover a thriving colony. Ralegh had dispatched this expedition, together with a supply ship, months before the vanquished settlers returned home, and Grenville witness to the ruins of the abandoned site determined that a small garrison should be left to retain possession of this stretch of land. Therefore, fifteen soldiers under the command of Master Coffin remained with provisions to last two years and four pieces of heavy artillery. When news of these events reached Ralegh, already uncertain as to the validity of the project, he became torn between his responsibility to these men and his own colonial projects in Ireland. The American project could have ended here but for the failure of the Babington plot to assassinate Elizabeth in 1587. The Queen determined that the vast estates of the fabulously wealthy Catholic traitor, Anthony Babington, should be presented to Ralegh, thereby providing him with the funds to finance another expedition to Virginia. Ralegh had paid attention to Lane and Harriot's accounts of the fertile landscape they had explored around Chesapeake Bay to the north of the original settlement and set his sights on planting a new settlement there. The only leading settler willing or able to return was the appointed artist and mapmaker of the Roanoke expedition, John White, who Ralegh appointed as governor to the new colony. White experienced great difficulty in recruiting settlers for this 1587 expedition, but managed to attract many from the London slums, including whole families attracted to Ralegh's promise to provide each settler with 500 acres of prime farmland. The expedition would prove the biggest fiasco yet, due to White's own lack of leadership. This led to the colonists being forced ashore at Roanoke, where they had arranged to recover Coffin's party, as the fleet navigator regarded the plantation as secondary to the rewards for capturing Spanish shipping in the Caribbean. Having discovered that Coffin and his men had been killed by hostile tribes and in desperate straits themselves, especially given the fact that any further supplies would be sent to Chesapeake, the colonists became so disillusioned with their governor that they nominated him to return to England to report their fate. Reaching England after a desperate voyage in October 1587, White discovered a country in preparation for invasion. Not only had the Queen ordered a ban on any shipping leave English shores without permission to ensure all available resources were in a state of readiness to face the reported Armada, but also 1587 marked the rise in Elizabeth's favour of the Earl of Essex displacing Ralegh as her favourite at court. Ralegh was embroiled in the defence of the realm even in securing Ireland from attack by the remnants of the scattered Armada so could not consider his American venture until March 1589. White in the meantime had secured two ill-equipped ships which ignominiously fell prey to French pirates forcing him to limp once again home. The tragedy was that White had left behind his own daughter and grand-daughter with the colonists and when the rescue mission finally set sail in March 1590 he would search in vain for signs of his lost colony, before returning to England a broken man. Many of those who had played their part in the American venture now left centre-stage, with Lane returning to ireland where he served with honour in defeating the rebels in 1593. The most illustrious ending was that of Grenville whose 'Revenge' formed part of a 1591 fleet commanded by Lord Howard in search of the treasure fleet. Encountering stronger odds Howard and the fleet retreated while Grenville's misplaced but heroic arrogance led him to pitch battle against 53 adversaries and the rest is history. Ralegh had fallen in love with one of the Queen's maids-of-honour, Bess Throckmorton, and secretly married her which led to his and his bride's imprisonment in the Tower. Fortune smiled upon Ralegh as his release was provoked by the Queen's need for her admiral to persuade unruly mariners from stripping clean the biggest prize ever captured - the Madre de Dios. Although he and Bess only spent four months in the Tower towards the end of 1592, Ralegh would remain in disgrace for a further five years. His interest in his colonists only resurfaced when the legal proclamation of the death of White's son-in-law and placement of his estates in trust brought home to Sir Walter the frailty of his own title as Governor of Virginia as it was dependent upon his having secured a permanent colony there within seven years. However, he was by now enthused by the discovery of El Dorado in Guiana, and only as a stop en route did he finally set sail for Roanoke himself to fail not only in discovering the fabled city but also in discovering the colonists' fate. Between 1599 and 1602 he sent a further four expeditions to attempt to discover the whereabouts of his lost colony, but with the death of`Elizabeth in 1603 Ralegh's fortunes dipped never to truly recover. The dour James I did not care for Ralegh's flamboyance and laid the blame for the wasteful habit of smoking at Ralegh's door, and deprived him of his titles and monopolies. Worse he was quizzed on trumped-up charges of treason in July 1603 and confined to the Tower. For his own part the King had no interest in colonising the Americas, believing contact with savages would turn any colonist barbarian, and wished to destroy Ralegh. Popular sympathy lay with Ralegh leading to James reluctantly issuing a reprieve on the day of Ralegh's execution, and during his imprisonment he kept alive his dreams of Guiana and Virginia. Ironically, the next figure to promote the opportunities in America would be the Lord Chief Justice who presided over Ralegh's trial, Popham. Without any royal interest, he established the Virginia Company of merchants who funded a 1606 voyage to Chesapeake Bay. It would be this expedition which would establish Jamestown, though once again the settlers would require the support of neighbouring tribes to survive. The most striking figure of the expedition, who gradually would assume leadership over it was Captain John Smith who claimed to have been a mercenary and pirate who had escaped servitude under the Ottomans. Aside from his hirsute ginger beard, his bravery under attack brought him to the attention of the local chieftain, Powhatan, whose daughter would intercede saving Smith from execution. Meanwhile, Ralegh's incarceration in the Tower did not prevent him from influencing events in Virginia. Firstly, he shared his confinement with the Earl of Northumberland, himself wrongfully accused of involvement in the Gunpowder Plot, and whose private fortune allowed them to make their captivity as comfortable as possible, while establishing a scientific workshop in the Tower's derelict outhouses. Secondly, the Earl's brother was an integral member of the 1606 expedition and the latter's reports kept them updated as to the fate of the settlement. Thus, Ralegh had the means to act as unofficial advider to the Virginia Company without the knowledge of the King. His influence can be gleaned from an essay on colonisation he produced in which he advocated the education of the indigenous natives to transform them into loyal vassals of the monarchy as opposed to their subjugation by force. Such attitudes probably influenced the crowning of Powhatan as subject'king, the only coronation ever staged on American soil. However, this merely added to the chief's arrogance and when tiring of the demands of the settlers, Powhatan withdrew their food supplies. In attempting to parley with Powhatan, Smith also made it clear that the coronation had not enlarged the chief's rule but rather had passed control of Virginia to the King of England. Vowing to slaughter Smith and his men, Powhatan's plans would be undone by his twelve year-old daughter, Pocohantas who fled to warn the English of the imminent attack. Yet, relations soured further, and the extreme hardships deepened so much so that Smith's leadership came under so much criticism that it led to his electing to sail home. His successor, the Earl of Northumberland's brother was unequal to the task and the colony was decimated by starvation and some succumbed to cannibalism, until the decision by the survivors to finally abandon Jamestown in 1610. Nevertheless, their departure was halted by the arrival of a fleet carrying their new governor together with supplies and new recruits. Chastised for their idleness, they were forced to return to the settlement to face the autocratic rule of Lord De La Warr, whose belligerent attitude towards`the Indians ran counter to everything Ralegh had espoused. His bloodthirsty subjugation and massacres of local tribes was only halted by illness which led to him being removed to the Carribbean, only to be replaced by an even more brutal figure. Sir Thomas`Dale issued a new legal code on the colony which virtually made every crime punishable by death and was even more warlike in his dealings with the natives. However, simultaneously, the virginia Company sought to implement Ralegh's continued suggested policy of civilising local tribes to assimilate them more peaceably into the service of the Crown. In line`with this policy, Pocahantas was taken to be anglicised and christianised, though dale sought to use her as a bargaining chip to extract the subjection of her father. Unbeknown to him, one of his negotiators, John Rolfe, had fallen in love with the chieftain's daughter and risked the wrath of Dale in securing her hand in marriage. Their wedding of 1614 would bring about the end of hostilities and secure the future of the Virginia colony, thus proving Ralegh to have been foresighted in his advancement of co-operation with civilised natives. In 1616, Dale travelled to London accompanied by Mr & Mrs Rolfe, in a master-stroke of marketing for the new colony and securing the future financing of the Jamestown project. This year also witnessed the release of Ralegh, as the King's failing finances finally persuaded him to listen to his captive's promises of securing untold fortune in Guinea. Pocahantas took the anglicised name Rebecca, and her husband deserves mention for securing the future of England's possession of America in that Rolfe had been the first to plant tobacco in the Chesapeake settlement, proving the terrain and climate ideal for its cultivation, and thereby providing the financial means to keep the colony viable. Rumours persisted of the survival in the bush of White's lost settlers, and Smith belatedy revealed that he had been promised to keep silent by Powhatan that the crowned vassalof the English crown had had them massacred just before the arrival in 1607 of the expedition which established Jamestown. This is a gem of historical research, wonderful to experience and so full of illustrious figures of the age.
BIG CHIEF ELIZABETH: The Adventures and Fate of the First English Colonists in America. (2000). Giles Milton. ****.tThis is a narrative history in just over three hundred pages of events that are usually covered in ten pages or so in standard history texts – the first attempts at colonization of the American wilderness. The driving force in this history was Sir Walter Ralegh. We learn early on that “Ralegh’s name was spelled by both himself and his contemporaries in dozens of different ways, including Rawleyghe, Ralle, and Raulie. From the age of thirty until his death, Sir Walter consistently signed himself Ralegh, the form adopted throughout (this book). The spelling most commonly used today – Raleigh – ws never once used by Sir Walter.” With that out of the way, we learn how Walter (much later “Sir”) became one of Queen Elizabeth’s favorite men, and was soon catapulted into wealth and fame because of her patronage. He early believed that England should investigate the strange land across the Atlantic and claim it for its own in order to protect it from the Spanish – traditional enemies of England. Before we get to that story, however, the author manages to bring us up to speed on the many previous landfalls by previous explorers on this unknown land and their ultimate fates. It was these early navigators, however, that ultimately provided the information in the form of maps and charts that enabled subsequent sailors to locate areas that seemed promising. Stories of early explorers, like Sir Humfrey Gilbert, Richard Hore and others, provided information on the native Americans they found, though much of it was extrapolation of isolated encounters. Finally, Ralegh entered on the scene with a plan to transport a group of men to America and establish the first true settlement. He was aided in great part by the assistance of Thomas Harriot, the man who would ultimately provide the first English-Algonquin dictionary and the method that enabled sailors to chart their proper position using new mathematical tools that he developed. Other characters appear on the scene, many, like Sir Richard Greenville, seriously on the edge of madness, that would contribute what they thought were advances in settlement procedures, but which would ultimately totally alienate the native population of the targeted region. Many boatloads of settlers later, a firm establishment was made in Plymouth and the character of Captain John Smith comes to the fore. We learn about Smith and his encounter with Powhatan and Powhatan’s daughter, Pocohantas. All of this material comes from contemporary documents that the author uses extensively throughout his story. If you are a history buff and are interested in America’s earliest history with English settlement, then this book is a must. Recommended.
What do You think about Big Chief Elizabeth: The Adventures And Fate Of The First English Colonists In America (2000)?
Giles Milton offers up an account of the early days of English exploration and its halting attempts at colonization in North America, in his third “non-fiction” offering, entitled Big Chief Elizabeth. The book centers largely around the determined efforts of Sir Walter Raleigh to establish an English colony in the New World during the Elizabethan era of the late sixteenth century. but provides plenty of background on the exploits of other famous and not so famous English explorers of the era as well. The book's opening chapter briefly mentions the excitement occasioned by John Cabot's seemingly successful voyages during the reign of King Henry VII, upon which English claims of sovereignty over North America were based. This is followed by a more detailed account of an ill-fated scheme launched, by wealthy London merchant Richard Hore, who attempted to duplicate the accomplishment of fellow Englishman William Hawkins. Sir Hawkins had returned from a voyage to South America, with a Brazilian savage in tow which, “caused a sensation in Tudor London, especially when he was ushered into the commanding presence of King Henry VIII.”1 Hore was convinced that thousands of curious Londoners would eagerly line up and pay handsomely to view such an exotic creature, netting him and his investors a fortune. He had little trouble finding men of means, eager to invest in the venture, but the plan failed miserably. According to the author, this was because in large part of Hore's poor planning, as well as the ill-preparedness of most of his gentlemen companions for the hardships of such an arduous journey. tThe adventurers soon find the harsh environs of the North Atlantic a very difficult place to scrounge up a meal and after they are stranded on Labrador when their ship is damaged, they are reduced to stealing the fish which a mother Osprey was regularly bringing to her nest full of hungry fledglings for a time. The mother soon grew wise of their activities and moved the nest, after which starvation reduced them to utter desperation and some resorted to cannibalism. The groups aim to capture a native were thwarted as well. They did see one native canoe, but its occupants easily out distanced their boats and the natives made landfall and disappeared into the forest. They managed to escape possible starvation, by signaling a passing French fishing vessel, and then quite quickly and ungentlemanly seizing for their own return to England.2 Some of Sir Francis Drake's adventures are also recounted in a thrilling manner as well as are those of other lesser known Englishman who had visited the New World and lived to tell their tales in sixteenth century England, like Sir Humfrey Gilbert and Davy Ingrams. Milton recounts that it was the latter's extraordinary tale which convinced Gilbert his belief in the fabled northwest passage to the East Indies was not unfounded. However the discerning reader will quickly recognize that it is highly reminiscent the of far more famous adventures of Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca. He was one the few survivors of the disastrous 1527 Narváez expedition, commissioned by the Spanish crown to colonize Florida. After being shipwrecked near modern day Galveston, he spent years trekking across America, accompanied by hundreds of Native Americans who had come to revere him as a healer. However while de Vaca's comparatively well documented odyssey lasted over eight years and covered about fifteen hundred miles, Ingrams claimed that he and two others twice that, some three thousand miles, from Mexico to Nova Scotia in just twelve months. Added to that, along the way he claimed to have seen bright red sheep and rabbits, as well as birds of prey with heads the size of a man's fist. This all seems quite far fetched, certainly to a trained historian, like the bad, but popular history spewed out of HollywoodHis professional scrutiny appears little better in the latter pages of the book dealing with the early days of Jamestown, by which time he has apparently gotten far to engrossed in the swashbuckling storyline. His analysis here amounts to what might well have served as the first draft of the script from Disney's animated feature Pocahontas, and likewise Pirates of the Caribbean might well be added as a source for the sections on Sir Francis Drake. He bubbles out the popularized version of the famous tale of how the daughter of the chief Powhatan saved the life of Captain John Smith, which has long since been discounted by modern scholarship. Long before this point however, it becomes clear that Milton relies too heavily on the “Historical Writings from the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries”, listed first in the rather oddly formatted bibliography then he does on “Reference Works” then listed. This section contains a rather exhaustive listing of secondary sources dating back as far as 1847, with many dating from the early twentieth century through the 1960's, and only a handful published since then.3 But conspicuously missing from that list is Roanoke:The Abandoned Colony written by Karen Kupperman in 1984, which is widely considered to be the best work on the topic. While the story of Sir Walter Raleigh's exhaustive efforts to found an English colony across the Atlantic is well presented, his treatment of Raleigh borders closely on hero worship. Most irritating of all though is that in over three hundred pages, Milton offers no new factual information here. Nor does the work inspire an abundance of confidence in the author's critical analysis skills In the epilogue however he toys too loosely with the line between fictional and nonfiction. Claiming that the British government and the Virginia Company had known all along that the settlers from the “lost colony” of Roanoke were slaughtered, save for a few lucky ones, by the direct order of Chief Powhatan. Supposedly this was revealed to Smith by the chief, who also showed Smith relics which had belonged to the colonists, just before he was saved from death by Pocahontas. Smith then secretly forwarded to the news to the court of King James and from there it was leaked to the company. This is but one of the theories presented by Kupperman and others as a plausible, perhaps even likely explanation for the colony's disappearance, however Milton implies it to be proven, documented fact. There is a huge difference though between historical conjecture and verifiable facts and good history should deal with fact, not fiction. Thus while this book is well suited for casual reading, it should not be considered as a viable resource by serious scholars.
—Jim Drewery
I noticed on the back of the book, people refer to it as a "story." When I looked at the bibliography, I think I figured out why: the author used a lot of secondary sources. As a result, this is not a stuffy catalogue of facts collected from ship manifests and court records. It's a pretty juicy little tale full of details like John Smith "wearily nodding his head" and King James "scratching his codpiece." I suspect neither of those actions were documented, but they do flesh out the story nicely.I'm a little bummed because some of the facts contradict what my 4th grader is getting in his social studies class. Like the introduction to Jamestown of the first female settlers differes by a solid decade. I don't believe there is any mention at all of slaves, but I guess they only appeared after the scope of the book (?). I liked how the history of England wove seamlessly into the story of Roanoke and Jamestown without being a distraction. It made sense that the Roanoke colonists were abandoned for a decade and change when the author explains the chronology of the war with Spain. So many of the threads in this story find their parallel in modern history: the conflict of war funding v. money for experimentation, the difference in focus of successive national leaders, the conflict between war and trade, indigenous v. exogenous populations... and piracy! These things stopped being quaint little historical footnotes and seemed more like logical responses to the events of the time. This is an entertaining history that reads more like a novel. It left me somewhat doubtful of how trustworthy it is, but it was interesting to conjecture how colonists approached survival in the first English settlements in North America.New (to me) Fact: During Raleigh's time, he had a group of men who assisted in planning and studying the colonial settlement. Included in this group was a man who studied the Algonquin (?) language, wrote a phonetic alphabet to transcribe and translate it and produced a version of the King James Bible in Algonquin. The effect was astonishing to the Indians. This was the same guy who transcribed Welsh so that even a person completely ignorant of the language could speak it convincingly if read in this phonetic script.)
—Isabel
This is another fantastic work courtesy of Giles Milton. Why couldn't the history books in school be this interesting? It is remarkable how smoothly he transitions between the stories of so many fascinating characters - and there are a lot of them. They are all there - Raleigh, Smith, Grenville, Elizabeth, James, Drake, Pocahontas, etc. but no account I've read blends all their stories as masterfully as this one. It was a hard book to put down, and one that I wished would keep going. Thankfully, I have some more Milton on my shelf.
—Darren Anderson
