| Title | Skiko |
| Origtitle | Their seetheynge of their meate in earthen pottes |
| Caption | Young Skiko of the Choanoke tribe. |
| Source | virtualjamestown.org |
| Date | 1590 |
| URL | http://www.virtualjamestown.org/images/white_debry_html/debry43.html |
| Creator | Theodor DeBry |
| Type | Engraving |
| Copyright | British Museum |
| Origin | Internet |
Skiko (fl. 1584-1585):; Skiko was a king of Weopomiok, son of Menatonon, the king of the Choanokes, who was taken hostage by Lane from his village to the English settlement on Roanoke Island, evidently in order to guarantee the security and cooperation of Menatonon’s people during the explorations of the mainland and the Chesapeake Bay area. Menatonon sent pearls to Lane as a ransom, but Lane refused to accept them and kept Skiko imprisoned for the duration of the expedition’s time in the New World. Menatonon subsequently ordered Skiko to declare his allegiance to the Queen of England and Sir Walter Raleigh in order to gain their favor. Skiko afterwards cooperated with and helped the English colonists. At one point Skiko attempted to run away, but was caught and put in leg irons by the colonists, who also threatened to cut off his head. Interestingly, after this incident Skiko was allowed to travel to different Algonquian villages on sort of parole, employed as a spy for the English against Pemisapan, who, naturally assuming that Skiko’s imprisonment would have caused him to hate the colonists, took Skiko into his confidence and revealed to him the plot of uprising against the English. However, according to Lane, Skiko was grateful to him for being treated so well at their hands and thus immediately revealed Pemisapan’s plot to Lane, whereupon Lane and his men set out and killed Pemisapan in a rather unsporting ambuscade. Skiko was finally returned to Chowanoac around the 1st of June when Drake’s ships suddenly appeared and took the colonists home, all the colonists, that is, except those who had been sent to take Skiko home and were promptly deserted.;
Works Cited:; The Roanoke Voyages, 1584-1590: Volumes I-II, ed. David Beers Quinn (London: Hakluyt Society, 1955), 247-8, 262, 270, 278-9, 285, 287-8, 293, 896.;