Wanchese (chief)

Wanchese (Wan-Keece)
Born	Unknown Probably Roanoke, North Carolina
Died	Unknown Probably Roanoke, North Carolina
Known for	The Lost Colony, travels to England, resistance to English settlement

Wanchese was the last known ruler of the Roanoke Native American tribe encountered by English colonists in the late sixteenth century. Along with Chief Manteo he travelled to London in 1584, where the two men created a sensation at court. Hosted at Durham House by the explorer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh, he and Manteo assisted the scientist Thomas Harriot with the job of deciphering and learning the Carolina Algonquian language. Unlike Manteo, Wanchese evinced little interest in learning English, and did not befriend his hosts, remaining suspicious of English motives in the New World. In April 1586, having returned to Roanoke, he finally ended his good relations with the English, leaving Manteo as the colonists' sole Indian ally.

The Roanoke, also spelled Roanoac, were a Carolina Algonquian-speaking people whose territory comprised present-day Dare County, Roanoke Island and part of the mainland at the time of English exploration and colonization. They were one of the numerous Carolina Algonquian tribes, which may have numbered 5,000-10,000 people in total in eastern North Carolina at the time of English encounter. The smaller Croatan people may have been a branch of the Roanoke or a separate tribe allied with it.

The Roanoke may have had their capital on the western shore of Croatan Sound, at Dasamonguepeuk. This was one of the significant towns noted by the English colonists in the sixteenth century.

Wanchese was among the first Native Americans to travel to England. In 1584 Sir Walter Raleigh had despatched the first of a number of expeditions to Roanoke island to explore and eventually settle the New World. Early encounters with the natives were friendly, and, despite the difficulties in communication, the explorers were able to persuade "two of the savages, being lustie men, whose names were Wanchese and Manteo" to accompany them on the return voyage to London, in order for the English people to report both the conditions of the New World that they had explored and what the usefulness of the territory might be to the English

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