Tea at Trianon: Study Suggests the Mystery of The Lost Colony of Roanoke Solved

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, July 19, 2020

Study Suggests the Mystery of The Lost Colony of Roanoke Solved

From Heritage Daily:

The first colony was founded on Roanoke Island in North Carolina. Following the failure of the settlement, a second colony was established in 1587 on the island after Raleigh approved a corporate charter to found “the Cittie of Raleigh.” Approximately 115 people agreed to join the colony, made up of middle-class Londoners comprised of men, women, and children.

After a difficult founding year, the mayor, John White returned to England to request resources and aid. Upon his return three years later, White found that the settlement was abandoned and that his wife, children, and all the colonists had mysteriously vanished.

The word CROATOAN and the letters CRO were carved into trees within the colony’s borders and were the only signs pointing to an explanation. The Croatoans were a tribe that resided on Hatteras Island along with a Native American called Manteo who had learned English to act as an interpreter. Some historians argue that the colonists may have travelled inland and died in the endeavor, another theory proposes that the colonists resettled on Hatteras Island.

Scott Dawson, an amateur archaeologist on Hatteras Island created the Croatoan Archaeological Society and started a project to look for the lost colonists on Hatteras. Dawson sought assistance from experts and reached out to UK archaeologist Professor Mark Horton. (Read more.)