, which have recently been printed, there are
references to persons said to have been recovered from Raleigh's colony
on Roanoke, but they are indirect, and only show that tradition was busy
with their fate. There can be no doubt every soul perished on this
isolated coast.

The ancient history of Roanoke closed with the departure of Raleigh's
last ship, and the natives resumed possession of their favorite spots.

The Chesapeake was entered, and Jamestown settled, in 1607; and although
the bold explorer of the bay and rivers, Captain John Smith, was
desirous of sending a party to look after the lost colony, it was never
done. Years passed away, and the grant of Carolina embraced all the
country once claimed and occupied by Raleigh and his colonists.

In 1653, an adventurer from Virginia, with a small craft, entered
Currituck Inlet and visited Roanoke. Here he found residing a great
Indian chief, with whom he made a treaty of peace and alliance, which
led to a purchase of land and to a long intimacy. A house for the chief
was built like the English dwellings, and his son was confided to the
English to be educated. The young chief embraced Christianity, and was
baptized.

At this time the ruins of Lane's fort were plainly visible, and the
natives were familiar with its history.

The first permanent settlement in what is now North-Carolina, can not be
traced to an earlier date than 1656. It was on the shores of Albermarle
Sound, some forty miles from Roanoke.

Almost coeval with this came small vessels from New-England, to trade,
first for furs and peltry, and soon after to exchange their own
productions and those of the West-Indies for the tobacco, corn, naval
stores, and lumber of the country; and for the succeeding century our
people were almost entirely the merchants and carriers of all this
region. As a consequence some of them permanently settled here, and many
of the merchants of Boston held extensive tracts of land obtained by
grants or purchase.

Our public records contain many references to these, and among others we
find a grant of the Island of Roanoke, as early as 1676, to Joshua Lamb,
of New-England. It would seem that it was then settled, and had houses
and buildings,[P] and probably had been occupied for many years, and
perhaps antedated the settlements before referred to, thus making it the
first place permanently settled in North-Carolina.

In 1785, more than a century after, the following appears