White Doe

The White Doe, or the ghost of Virginia Dare, is a maritime folklore legend from the Outer Banks/Graveyard of the Atlantic of North Carolina. "White Doe: The Fate of Virginia Dare, an Indian Legend" was first published in 1901 by Sallie Southall Cotten, although the tale of Dare as the White Doe had survived for some three centuries as part of colonial folklore.

Virginia Dare and the historical "Lost Colony"
On August 27, 1587 Governor John White sailed from the newly-founded English colony on Roanoke Island to return across the sea for supplies. He left behind the first settlement in the new English colony of Virginia, consisting of eighty-nine men, seventeen women, and eleven children. One of those children was his own granddaughter, the first English child to be born in the New World — Virginia Dare. None of these colonists were ever seen by English eyes again.

White had intended to return to the Roanoke colony the next year, but the threat of Spanish invasion from the great Armada of 1588 and the constantly-shifting politics of the Elizabethan court delayed White's return until 1590. When he arrived, he found the colony abandoned, the only clue to the fate of the colonists being the word CROATOAN carved into a tree. This was the name of a nearby island, the home of the english-speaking Croatan Indian Manteo.

The Legend
A good number of the colonists escaped an Indian massacre, and they lived peacefully with the Croatan Indians on Hatteras island. Young Virginia Dare grew to be a beautiful maiden, whose natural grace and virtue made her an example to all who knew her, colonists and Indians alike. As she became a young woman, she naturally attracted the attentions of suitors. Among these young men were the hunter Okisko, and a jealous sorcerer named Chico. Virginia loved Okisko, much to Chico's anger. Chico tricked Virginia into drinking a potion that turned her into a white deer. Then the hunter Okisko unknowingly killed the deer with an arrow. She transformed back into a human and died in her lover's arms.