’A settlement had been begun on that part of Roanoke Island, where the ruins of a fort are to be seen this day, as well as some old English coins, which have been lately found, and a brass gun, and a powder-horn, and one small quarter-deck gun, made of iron staves, hooped with the same material, which method of making guns might probably be used in those days for infant colonies.’

In time, the settlers extended over the Island, and slowly and quietly partially cultivated it.  They were from the humblest class.  Slavery, with its consequences, never came here, and the small farms were ‘worked’ by their owners and their sons.

Many years ago the writer visited Roanoke.  It was then, to a great extent, covered with its original growth of pines and oaks; the whole population, being only three or four hundred, a simple, industrious community, who alternated their agricultural labors with fishing in the adjacent waters, and sometimes navigating their small vessels to neighboring ports.  He then visited the site of Lane’s fort, the present remains of which are very slight, being merely the wreck of an embankment.  This has at times been excavated by parties who hoped to find some deposit which would repay the trouble, but with little success, a vial of quicksilver being the only relic said to have been found.  This article was doubtless to be used in discovering deposits of the precious metals by the old adventurers.  While walking through the lonely forests the mind of the visitor is involuntarily carried back to the scenes that took place there, as well as to the actors who centuries ago passed away.  Now silence broods over the place once so active with life, and nothing but nature remains, while the distant surf is ever sounding an everlasting requiem to the memory of the brave colonists.

If this brief history had been penned a year ago, the task would have ended here; but Roanoke has now another chapter to add to the annals of our country.  The great rebellion of 1861 had overshadowed the land, and its instigators were endeavoring to overthrow a Government whose power had only been felt by them as the dew of heaven, and with as beneficent results.  The authority of Government was called into action, and Roanoke Island once more felt the tread of armed men.  Hatteras Inlet, now the principal entrance to these sounds, and well fortified by the insurgents, was in August of 1861, captured by the Federal forces.  The rebels then concentrated at Roanoke, which is the key to Albemarle Sound, and an important military position.  Here they assembled a large body of troops and erected strong fortifications, deeming themselves secure against any force that could be sent against them.  General Burnside left the Chesapeake with a large fleet, and having succeeded in passing Hatteras Inlet and the bars which encircle it, sailed up the sound and came to anchor off the lower end of the Island on the sixth of February, 1862.