John White's Sketches of the New World by Norma Stanford
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John White' s detailed , varied and live ly sketches of life in the Carolinas in 1585 give us a close- in look at the Al gonquin culture nearl y a century after Columbus's first voyage of di scovery . For generations, Europeans had recorded American Indi ans as oddities, or gave them European attributes quite alien to the ir existing cultures . Jo hn White's wo rk comes c lose to a direct, unbi ased view of what he saw. Whi te was born in England probabl y betwee n 1540 and 155 0 and was a member of the Painters and Staine rs Company. In May 1577, he sa iled in Martin Frobi sher's ex pedition to America in search of a northwest passage to Asia and brought back sketches of the lands they explored and the life they found there. In 1585 , he accompanied S ir Richard G renvi lle on hi s voyage to establi sh a colony in what is now North Carolina. W hi te 's assignment was to visually record every aspect of life the voyagers encountered. He was accompanied in thi s tas k by Thomas Harriot, a scienti st and mathematic ian , whose jo b it was to bring bac k a written record of what they observed. The ir findin gs were publi shed in 1590 in Harriot's A Brief and True Report of the Ne w Found Land ofVirginia, with John White's draw ings converted into engravings by Theodor de Bry. White returned to thi s area in 1587 as governor of the ill -fated colony establi shed on Roanoke Island. Hi s daughter, Eleanor White Dare, was the mother of Virg ini a Dare, the first child of Eng li sh settl ers to be born in the New World. Both daughter and granddaughter va nished a long with the rest of the co loni sts at Roanoke.
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Unfo rtunately, few of White ' s draw ings survive. Some were cast overboard by sailors during rough weather as White was embarking on a return trip to England in 1587 to seek relief fo r the Roanoke settl ement. O thers, which he left behind (Cont inued on p. 27.)
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This map of 1585 is remarkably accurate when compared to a modern map of !he Nor!h Caro/ina coasl. Th omas Harriol was a !rained surveyor as well as ma1hema1ician , and John While was a carlographer. Th eir join! efforl lefl us a reliable record of !he lands !hey explored and !he life !hey encoun/erecl. This map shows Roanoke Island (in red) and !he surrounding Algonquin villages in !he Pamlico Sound/Cape Hatteras area
SEA HI STO RY 55 , AUTUMN 1990