In the spring of 1587, 120 Londoners loaded onto three ships to set sail to the New World. Sir Walter Raleigh had offered them 500 acres each to start a colony in what he had named Virginia. John White was the leader of this group. His daughter Eleanor and son-in-law Ananias were among them. Eleanor was pregnant with what she calculated would be the first English baby born across the ocean.
After a harrowing voyage, their Portuguese ship captain dumped them all off several miles south of their intended landing site on the Chesapeake Bay. Trying to make do on Roanoke Island, one of the colonists was murdered by one of the local Native American tribes, making their situation fraught with fear. John White set off back to England to try to get help for the colonists. They needed food, soldiers, cows, chickens, and more colonists.
