It was 1587 -- in the atmosphere of religious persecution in England,
where the heads of those executed were displayed on stakes on London Bridge
-- when over 100 men and women were left on Roanoke Island,
off the coast of what was then Virginia and is now North Carolina.
The natives had been friendly in initial expeditions,
but they had been unfairly attacked after the small indiscretion of the theft of a silver cup.
The colonists were supposed to be taken to Chesapeake Bay,
but they were left instead in a precarious position on Roanoke.
Exactly three years after the birth of their first child, Virginia Dare,
the entire colony had disappeared.
That this history still has relevance will be seen in the following story.