Between the mainland of North Carolina and a string of shifting sandbanks that make one of the most treacherous regions of the Atlantic coast lies the verdant ten-mile strip of Roanoke Island. There Sir Walter Raleigh made his early and unsuccessful attempts to colonize the land which he, ever the courtier, tactfully called Virginia in honor of his virgin Queen Elizabeth. A previous settlement had already failed when in the summer of 1587 some 120 settlers under Governor John White landed at stout little Fort Raleigh, on the northern tip of the island. On Aug. 18 Governor White's daughter, Eleanor Dare,...
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