#37 The Lost Colony

I bet most of you have heard of the lost colony of Roanoke but, I can almost guarantee none of you have heard the actual story and i’m here to tell it to you. The real story of how this colony disappeared is an odd yet very entertaining story involving a young lad named Jerrick Patterson. Jerrick was a young boy of about 17 years of age, he and his family were very respected around the colony. His father was the only blacksmith on the whole island, it was a scarce profession but it was one that the colony needed greatly especially in the times they were in. Two years ago the colonists got involved with the Anglo-Spanish war which looking back is the beginning of this prosperous colonies downfall.

With Jerricks 18 birthday coming up he and his whole family knew the only thing he wanted for his birthday was to have permission to join the war efforts. His older brother Daniel is 22 and he has been helping out in the war since day one, and has been put in a pretty high position for his dedication and hard work. Growing up Jerrick was always compared to his brother, his brother Daniel could do no wrong but everything Jerrick did was the wrong thing to do, so he thought he could join the colonies militia and maybe become a war hero and finally stop being compared to his brother. Jerricks mother was reluctant to let her youngest boy join the war and was extremely worried something bad would happen to him. So on the day of Jerricks birthday he left his party early to go signup and get checked out to make sure he was able to join the militia. To no one’s surprise he was signed up within the next hour and was ready to embark on a tough journey trying to save his colony.

It's been a year since Jerrick joined the militia and they are no closer to ending the war then they were a year ago. Over the past year Jerrick became close friends with his bunkmate Phil. They have been on countless missions together and have an almost unbreakable bond or so everyone thought. During one mission Jerrick caught Phil doing something a little suspicious, he saw Phil giving intel to the enemy. Jerrick was in shock and he didn't know what to do, he could either rat out his best friend or he could tell his brother and possibly stop the war.

Jerrick knew no matter what he chose to do he would hurt someone, so he thought about it the whole ride back to the barracks. When they arrived back at the barracks Jerrick asked Phil about what he thought he saw and Phil told him that he was assigned to be a mole for the colonial militia and relay false information to the enemy. Jerrick felt awful that he even thought for a second that his best friend would betray the colony. For the next couple weeks the war got worse and worse every battle the militia would engage in would be a complete slaughter the colony was down to the bare minimum of people, they started letting 14 year olds join the war effort. Jerrick always catches himself thinking about that day even though Phil assured him that he was working for the militia he couldn't help think the worst for his friend. After a few more days Jerrick went to talk to his brother about what he saw that day, “I think he's lying” said Daniel. Jerrick was so confused because normally Daniel sees the good in everyone and never thinks bad of anyone, but this was different Daniel immediately said he was lying it's almost like he knew what was really going on.

Jerrick started to really think that Phil was lying to him so he went and talked to his superiors and told them that he knew why the war has gone completely downhill, they stood in shock and silence and tried to explain that they appointed him as a mole for the colony but Jerrick stood firm in saying that Phil was a mole giving the enemy real secrets. The generals convened and talked it over and decided to make Jerrick leave the militia for treason and turning against not only his best friend but his colony, Jerrick was distraught and confused because he did absolutely nothing wrong. Wondering why this happened to him he talked to his brother and his brother told him something that changed his life, “Jerrick I'm sorry but I couldn't have you around to find out what is really going on,” Jerrick was not only furious but very confused. So with his brother not telling Jerrick what his plans were Jerrick left, he got on a boat going back to England, he didn't tell anyone that he was leaving and it might have been for the better. When Jerrick returned to the colony everyone was gone except his brother Daniel, he found Daniel and tried to make him tell him what happened but Daniel wasn't breaking.

“Whatever you did to them I'm going to do to you ten times worse,” Jerrick said. Daniel looked at him and said these words “I'm sorry little brother,” then pulled out a little glass bottle and drank the contents. Daniel hit the ground in a matter of seconds, but before he was finally gone he handed Jerrick a piece of appear with his plan on it. After reading the plan Jerrick was dumbfounded that his brother would poison the colony's water supply, he had no one to tell this information to so he found a boat and was leaving when he realized that if something were to happen to him there would be no one who knows what really happened to the once great and prosperous colony. So as he was getting ready to leave he carved the name of the poison that killed his colony which was Croatan. He left the colony and on his way to England he was met by some enemy boats and they quickly took care of him without remorse.

When a cargo boat came back to Roanoke to deliver some supplies everyone was in shock when they showed up to an empty island with the word Croatan carved into a tree. No one knew what really happened until now. In honor of Roanoke the King of England made a special day for the lost colony and all the people who lived in it.