Wanchese (fl. 1584 – 1587^[2]) was the last known ruler of the Roanoke Native American tribe encountered by English colonists of the Roanoke Colony in the late sixteenth century. Along with Chief Manteo, he travelled to London in 1584, where the two men created a sensation in the royal 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 native ally.

The Roanoac people 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 their first encounter with the English.^[3] The smaller Croatan people may have been a branch of the Roanoke or a separate tribe allied with them.^[3]

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.^[3]

Wanchese was among the first Native Americans to travel to England. In 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh had dispatched the first of a number of expeditions to Roanoke island to explore and eventually colonize 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^[4] to help describe the conditions in the New World.^[5][6]

Once safely delivered to England in September 1584,^[7] the two native americans quickly caused a sensation at court. Raleigh's priority, however, was not publicity but intelligence about his new land of Virginia, and he restricted access to the exotic newcomers, assigning the scientist Thomas Harriot the job of deciphering and learning the Carolina Algonquian language^[8] using a phonetic alphabet of his own invention.

Both Wanchese and Manteo were hosted at Raleigh's London residence, Durham House. Unlike Manteo, Wanchese evinced little interest in learning English, and did not befriend his hosts, remaining suspicious of English motives in the New World. He soon came to view himself as a captive of the English rather than as their guest.^[7] By Christmas of 1584, Harriot was able to converse successfully in the Algonquin language with the two Native Americans, although Manteo was far more communicative than Wanchese.^[9]

Harriot recorded the sense of awe with which the Native Americans viewed European technology:

Many things they sawe with us...as mathematical instruments, sea compasses...[and] spring clocks that seemed to goe of themselves - and many other things we had - were so strange unto them, and so farre exceeded their capacities to comprehend the reason and meanes how they should be made and done, that they thought they were rather the works of gods than men.^[9]

Wanchese and Manteo also performed a commercial function for Raleigh, attracting wealthy Britons to invest in Raleigh's schemes. One investor later complained that the 1585 expedition (which was a failure) might have succeeded:

The Report had been true which was given out by two strangers, Inhabitants of the same foreign nation.^[10]

Raleigh was, however, successful in raising funds, and a new expedition was raised to depart in 1585.

The town of Wanchese, North Carolina is named after him.^[16] A character based on Wanchese is featured in the Lost Colony theater production and in the 1999 film The Legend of Two Path by Native Canadian actor Nathaniel Arcand.

• The Lost Colony
• Raleigh, a Native American