Four corner stakes, forked at the top, enclose a wood fire and support four sticks, across which six others are laid from front to back to form a simple grill or barbecue (7 cm. or 2 3/4 in. square). On this are laid to cook, from right to left, two large fish, 1 bluish in color, occupying the full width of the grill. At the right-hand side two fish, each impaled by the gills on a small upright stick, are also being broiled. From the fire reddish tongues of flame arise but little more than the smoke reaches the grid.
Inscribed in dark brown ink, at the bottom, "The broiling of their fish ouer th' flame of fier."
John White (c 1540-1593) was an English artist & early pioneer of English efforts to settle North America. He was among those who sailed with Richard Grenville to the shore of present-day North Carolina in 1585, acting as artist & mapmaker to the expedition. During his time at Roanoke Island he made a number of watercolor sketches of the surrounding landscape & the native Algonkin peoples. White had been commissioned to "draw to life" the inhabitants of the New World & their surroundings. During White's time at Roanoke Island, he completed numerous watercolor drawings of the surrounding landscape & native peoples. These works are significant as they are the most informative illustrations of a Native American society of the Eastern seaboard. They represent the sole-surviving visual record of the native inhabitants of America encountered by England's first settlers.
