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Let's Talk History
Rain
Posts: 8,958 ✭✭✭
Being from the East Coast, I've always been interested in Roanoke and "The Lost Colony". I was reading up today on John White, and I'm convinced that he was an unlucky man. Per Wikipedia..
Misfortune struck White's return to England from the beginning. The anchor of the flyboat on which White was quartered could not be raised, and many crew members were severely injured during the attempt. Worse, their journey home was delayed by "scarce and variable winds" followed by "a storme at the north-east", and many sailors starved or died of scurvy
Further bad news awaited White on his return to England. Just two weeks previously Queen Elizabeth I had issued a general "stay of shipping", preventing any ships from leaving English shores. The reason was the "invincible fleetes made by the King of Spain, joyned with the power of the Pope, for the invading of England" - the Spanish Armada. White's patron Sir Walter Raleigh attempted to provide ships to rescue the colony but he was overruled by the Queen.
In early 1588 White was able to scrape together a pair of small pinnaces, the Brave and The Roe, which were unsuitable for military service and so could be spared for the expedition to Roanoke. Unluckily for White they were barely suited for the Atlantic crossing and the governor endured further bad luck as the ships were intercepted by French pirates who "playd extreemely upon us with their shot", hitting White (to his great embarrassment) "in the side of the buttoke". White and his crew escaped to England with their lives but "they robbed us of all our victuals, powder, weapons and provision", and the journey to Virginia had to be abandoned. By this stage White appears to have formed the view that he was born under "an unlucky star".
Finally, in March 1590, with the immediate threat of a Spanish invasion by now abated, Raleigh was able to equip White's rescue expedition. Two ships, the Hopewell and the Moonlight set sail for Roanoke. The return journey was prolonged by extensive privateering and a number of sea battles, and White's eventual landing at the Outer Banks was further imperilled by poor weather. The landing was hazardous and was beset by bad conditions and adverse currents. During the landing on Roanoke, of the mariners who accompanied White, "seven of the chiefest were drowned".
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I also remember reading a tidbit from Washington's farm journal where he said something to the effect "Crap. The bees got to the hemp plants last week. Now the crop is ruined. We'll have to sell if off for rope." That seemed at the time I read it the best clue to whether GW rode the choom waggon. Wish I could grow hemp. I'd only make rope. Promise.
Whether it be written in stone, scrolls or what ever.
There are many cultures who's passed down history is totally ignored.
Native americans (American Indians), Hawaiian or Polynesian and a lot of tribal histories are ignored by them as untrue or mythology.
Theses stories have been handed down through their generations and they take great pride to painstakingly pass them down with accuracy.
Some scholars pass them off as just story telling stuff.
The problem is that there is a ton of history that is failing to be told and is being lost to the new generations.
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.
I like Oliva and Quesada (including Regius) a lot. I will smoke anything, though.
To add more "truth" to some of these facts (this taken after reading several excellent recent Washingon biographies)
1. Wooden teeth: Washington had many pairs of dentures throughout his life. Several did include wood in them.
2. The Cherry Tree Story: A complete fabrication, started in Weems fictional biography which attempted to create a mythical picture of Washington. Weems also created the myth of Washington throwing the dollar across the Delaware and the myth that at Valley Forge Washington bent down on his knees in public and prayed for salvation. Myths every one of them.
3. The richest president: Washington's wealth came almost exclusively through his farms (nearly all of which he inherited) and a huge amount of land speculation in what was then the western regions of the country. Yet, his farms never produced enough income to support his extravagant lifestyle (or the enormous costs of feeding hundreds of slaves, many of whom were to ill and old to work) and he was constantly in debt throughout his life, as was Jefferson. Several times he had to sell land to pay his debts. It's inaccurate to use current land values to estimate his net worth.
5. Washington's early death: It was probably inevitable that he would die when he did. Most male Washingtons, including George's father and brother, didn't live past their mid 60s (one reason he became so wealthy was because he inherited farms from all the Washingtons who died young). He was very sick quite often during his presidency and came close to death on several occasions. He was well aware of this family's short-lived lifespans.
6. Washington haters: Thomas Jefferson was the true originator of the party system, creating with the help of James Madison what eventually became the Democratic Party in the early 1990s are a truly libertarian alternative to Washington's Federalists, who believed in a strong central government. Through his fronts in the press, he spreadheaded a merciless smear campaign using newspapers as his proxy. Initially most of his attacks were aimed at Hamilton, but during Washington's second term many of the attacks were aimed at Washington himself. The worst offender was Benjamin Franklin Bache, grandson of ol' Ben, whose paper, The Aurora, was the mouthpiece of the Jeffersonian party. His attacks on Washington make the press's attacks on Obama seem like cupcakes.
I really enjoy finding out what really happened, and not the history that I was taught growing up. Hell, I learned more history from George Carlin than I did in high school (kidding).
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
But, when you think about it, it makes sense that the event happened early in the solar system's history. Essentially, the planets that formed were kind of cosmic "vacuum cleaners" that smashed into and sucked in the cosmic debris that most of the solar system was originally. As the planets went through their oribts, absorbing meteors, asteroids, dust and other stuff, they grew larger--a rocky planet is really little more than a whole bunch of rocks held together by gravity. As billions of years passed, the "orbitital path" the planets went through around the sun became much 'cleaner'--kind of like a vacuumed rug. Other planets ate up other debris. It is possible that the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter is the remains of a planet once existed that somehow blew up or never reached a point where it could fully accrete into something solid.
Tha'ts crazy! Good ol' George was the best we had to turn to, but he really wasn't a great general. Most of the battles we won in the war versus England had nothing to do with his decisions. I definitely would not have voted him above Napoleon.
Very cool article though Rain. Had fun reading that one.