st. Sailing by Croatan they went
to Hatorask, where they descried a smoke in the place they had left the
colony in 1587. Going ashore next day, they found no man, nor sign that
any had been there lately. Preparing to go to Roanoke next day, a boat
was upset and Captain Spicer and six of the crew were drowned. This
accident so discouraged the sailors that they could hardly be persuaded
to enter on the search for the colony. At last two boats, with nineteen
men, set out for Hatorask, and landed at that part of Roanoke where the
colony had been left. When White left the colony three years before, the
men had talked of going fifty miles into the mainland, and had agreed to
leave some sign of their departure. The searchers found not a man of
the colony; their houses were taken down, and a strong palisade had been
built. All about were relics of goods that had been buried and dug up
again and scattered, and on a post was carved the name "CROATAN." This
signal, which was accompanied by no sign of distress, gave White hope
that he should find his comrades at Croatan. But one mischance or
another happening, his provisions being short, the expedition decided to
run down to the West Indies and "refresh" (chiefly with a little Spanish
plunder), and return in the spring and seek their countrymen; but
instead they sailed for England and never went to Croatan. The men of
the abandoned colonies were never again heard of. Years after, in 1602,
Raleigh bought a bark and sent it, under the charge of Samuel Mace, a
mariner who had been twice to Virginia, to go in search of the survivors
of White's colony. Mace spent a month lounging about the Hatorask coast
and trading with the natives, but did not land on Croatan, or at any
place where the lost colony might be expected to be found; but having
taken on board some sassafras, which at that time brought a good price
in England, and some other barks which were supposed to be valuable, he
basely shirked the errand on which he was hired to go, and took himself
and his spicy woods home.

The "Lost Colony" of White is one of the romances of the New World.
Governor White no doubt had the feelings of a parent, but he did not
allow them to interfere with his more public duties to go in search of
Spanish prizes. If the lost colony had gone to Croatan, it was probable
that Ananias Dare and his wife, the Governor's daughter, and the little
Virginia Dare, were with them. But White, as we have seen, had su