The expedition of Captain Amadas and Captain Barlow is described by Captain Smith in his compilation called the “General Historie,” and by Mr. Strachey.  They set sail April 27, 1584, from the Thames.  On the 2d of July they fell with the coast of Florida in shoal water, “where they felt a most delicate sweet smell,” but saw no land.  Presently land appeared, which they took to be the continent, and coasted along to the northward a hundred and thirty miles before finding a harbor.  Entering the first opening, they landed on what proved to be the Island of Roanoke.  The landing-place was sandy and low, but so productive of grapes or vines overrunning everything, that the very surge of the sea sometimes overflowed them.  The tallest and reddest cedars in the world grew there, with pines, cypresses, and other trees, and in the woods plenty of deer, conies, and fowls in incredible abundance.

After a few days the natives came off in boats to visit them, proper people and civil in their behavior, bringing with them the King’s brother, Granganameo (Quangimino, says Strachey).  The name of the King was Winginia, and of the country Wingandacoa.  The name of this King might have suggested that of Virginia as the title of the new possession, but for the superior claim of the Virgin Queen.  Granganameo was a friendly savage who liked to trade.  The first thing he took a fancy was a pewter dish, and he made a hole through it and hung it about his neck for a breastplate.  The liberal Christians sold it to him for the low price of twenty deer-skins, worth twenty crowns, and they also let him have a copper kettle for fifty skins.  They drove a lively traffic with the savages for much of such “truck,” and the chief came on board and ate and drank merrily with the strangers.  His wife and children, short of stature but well-formed and bashful, also paid them a visit.  She wore a long coat of leather, with a piece of leather about her loins, around her forehead a band of white coral, and from her ears bracelets of pearls of the bigness of great peas hung down to her middle.  The other women wore pendants of copper, as did the children, five or six in an ear.  The boats of these savages were hollowed trunks of trees.  Nothing could exceed the kindness and trustfulness the Indians exhibited towards their visitors.  They kept them supplied with game and fruits, and when a party made an expedition inland to the residence of Granganameo, his wife (her husband being absent) came running to the river to welcome them; took them to her house and set them before a great fire; took off their clothes and washed them; removed the stockings of some and washed their feet in warm water; set plenty of victual, venison and fish and fruits, before them, and took pains to see all things well ordered for their comfort.  “More love they could not express to entertain us.”  It is noted that these savages drank wine while the grape lasted.  The visitors returned all this kindness with suspicion.