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The ¤rst English attempts at settling North America occurred in Carolina Algonquian territory during the 1580s. Neither the 1584 precolony venture nor the three subsequent colonies resulted in permanent English settlement. The local Ossomocomuck Algonquian tribes that the English engaged maintained separate identities and frequently antagonized one another. Unlike European/ Algonquian interaction at Ajacan, Ossomocomuck reactions to gift-exchange violations by the English were more in®uenced by opportunities to gain power within Carolina territory than with the speci¤c transgressions of the colonists. Natives manipulated exchange practices, unsuspecting English settlers, and tribal alliances in their struggles with one another. These actions were consistent with Algonquian notions of justice, equilibrium, and reciprocity, yet also revealed the political factors that could override expected indigenous punishments from various socioeconomic transgressions. The History English/Carolina Algonquian interaction can be divided into the following six periods: (1) Precolony ventures (2) Lane’s First Colony—initial interaction from July 1585 to March 1586 (3) Lane’s First Colony—Chawanoac trip during March and April of 1586 (4) Lane’s First Colony—last months of settlement from April to June 1586 (5) Grenville’s Second Colony—August 1586 (6) White’s Third Colony—1587 to 1590 4 Roanoke Period I: Precolony Ventures More than 100 miles to the south of Ajacan and 50 years before Segura’s demise, Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano visited the Outer Banks, a chain of islands off of present-day North Carolina. His landing and search of the immediate area in 1524 resulted in the ¤rst historically documented European contact with the indigenous population of the Carolinas (Perdue 1985:61). The initial English attempt at permanent settlement in this region did not occur for another 60 years.Sir Walter Raleigh received an of¤cial patent for North American colonization from England’s Queen Elizabeth I on March 25, 1584 (Quinn 1984:9). Raleigh’s franchise on establishing English possessions in the Americas included any territory without Christian inhabitants. As a result of repeated international aggressions, settlements along the southeastern coast of North America transformed from relatively simple colonial ventures into strategic military loci for naval repair and refurbishment. There was substantial booty in almost every vessel leaving the mineral rich lands adjacent to the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico,destined for Europe.To protect this material wealth, Spanish and English governments attempted to keep con-¤dential the location of their American colonies. England’s interests in the Americas coincided with its desire to attack Spain’s seemingly inexhaustible source of material wealth in the West Indies (Kupperman 1984:13). Spanish claims to North America extended along the eastern coast of La Florida to a vague northern border that included the Chesapeake. Missionary attempts at colonizing Ajacan, a village north of the 37th north parallel, in 1566 and 1570–71 demonstrated Spain’s perceived rights to the Middle Atlantic. Although England recognized a signi¤cantly smaller La Florida region, Raleigh avoided an international confrontation by making discreet plans to establish an English colony near the Outer Banks (Kupperman 1984:5). In not announcing their intentions to the Spanish, the English managed to plant a semicovert settlement well south of Segura’s failed mission. Raleigh provided ¤nancial backing for two English ships that set sail for the Americas in April of 1584. The Queen maintained a vested interest in the potential English colony because it affected the European balance of power. Although not of¤cially at war with each other until 1585, Spain and England preyed upon each other’s American ships throughout the early 1580s (Quinn 1984:53). The Queen forbade Raleigh from traveling to America himself on the trip and on many of the journeys that followed. In his place, Raleigh chose Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe to lead a small crew to the Carolinas for Roanoke / 59 the 1584 precolony venture. Raleigh instructed Amadas and Barlowe to search the territory north of Spain’s La Florida and establish amicable relations with the indigenous population. Anchored off of Roanoke Island during the initial Carolina scouting mission by the English, Amadas, Barlowe, and their European crew spied a boat with three natives in it approaching them on July 16, 1584. The Algonquians landed on the shore near the English vessel and one of them paced back and forth along the adjacent beach. Amadas,Barlowe,and the pilot Simao Fernandes decided to attempt communication with the native. They boarded their pinnace and rowed to where the Algonquian stood. The native said many...

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