Big Chief Elizabeth

“Brings readers right into the midst of these colonists and their daunting American adventure . . . An entertaining, richly informative look at the past.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times In April 1586, Queen Elizabeth I acquired a new and exotic title. A tribe of Native Americans had made her their weroanza—a word that meant “big chief.” Sir Walter Raleigh’s first American expedition had brought back a captive, Manteo, who caused a sensation in Elizabethan London. In 1587, Manteo was returned