Roanoke Colonists Attacked by the Powhatan Tribe
There is one
account that suggests the colonists may have been killed or abducted by hostile
tribes.
According to one of John Smith’s accounts, the Powhatan Indians killed the colonists in 1607. However, this account is not reliable since Smith did not divulge this information until a year after he was told by the tribe ruler himself in 1608. In 1625, Samuel Purchas had written in Virginia’s Verger, “Powhatan confessed to Captain Smith that he had been at their slaughter and had divers utensils to show” (Quinn, 1984, p. 40). Quinn (1984) also states that Purchas added a note in Pilgrimes that Powhatan "showed to Captain Smith with a musket barrel and a bronze mortar and certain pieces of iron which had been theirs" (p.40). |
This type of weaponry could not have been made by Indians during this time, and you can only assume that the owners of such weaponry were the Roanoke colonists. The Indians that Powhatan attacked and killed were from the Chesapeake Village, with whom some of the colonists may have integrated with.