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Roanoke, river, United States

(Encyclopedia)Roanoke, river, c.410 mi (660 km) long, rising in SW Va. and flowing generally southeast across the Blue Ridge Mts. and into Albemarle Sound, NE N.C. The lower river is navigable for small craft. A co...

Croatoan

(Encyclopedia)Croatoan, unexplained letters found (1590) carved on a tree on Roanoke Island off North Carolina by Gov. John White when he returned to the colony from England and discovered the colonists gone. White...

island

(Encyclopedia)island, relatively small body of land surrounded entirely by water. (As the oceans form a continuous mass of water on the earth's surface, all continents are islands in the strict sense of the word.) ...

Amadas, Philip

(Encyclopedia)Amadas or Amidas, Philip both: ămˈədăs [key], 1550–1618, English navigator. With Arthur Barlowe he was sent by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584 to explore the North American coast. Their favorable rep...

Long Island, island, Bahamas

(Encyclopedia)Long Island: see Bahamas.

Elizabeth City

(Encyclopedia)Elizabeth City, city (2020 pop. 18,631), seat of Pasquotank co., NE N.C., a port of entry on the Pasquotank River (which, with the Dismal Swamp Canal, f...

Grenville, Sir Richard

(Encyclopedia)Grenville, Sir Richard, 1542?–1591, English naval hero. His cousin, Sir Walter Raleigh, gave him command of the fleet of seven vessels carrying the first colonists to Roanoke Island in 1585. In 1591...

Easter Island

(Encyclopedia)Easter Island, Span. Isla de Pascua, Polynesian Rapa Nui, remote island (2020 est. pop. 5,000), 66 sq mi (171 sq km), in the South Pacific, c.2,200 ...

Edge Island

(Encyclopedia)Edge Island: see Edgeøya.

Devils Island

(Encyclopedia)Devils Island, Fr. Île du Diable, the smallest and southernmost of the Îles du Salut, in the Caribbean Sea off French Guiana. A penal colony founded in 1852, it was used largely for political prison...