<P> Hernando de Soto first explored west - central North Carolina during his 1539 - 1540 expedition . His first encounter with a native settlement in North Carolina may have been at Guaquilli near modern Hickory . In 1567, Captain Juan Pardo led an expedition from Santa Elena at Parris Island, South Carolina, then the capital of the Spanish colony in the Southeast, into the interior of North Carolina, largely following De Soto's earlier route . His journey was ordered to claim the area as a Spanish colony, pacify and convert the natives, as well as establish another route to protect silver mines in Mexico (the Spanish did not realize the distances involved). Pardo went toward the northwest to be able to get food supplies from natives . </P> <P> Pardo and his team made a winter base at Joara (near Morganton, in Burke County), which he renamed Cuenca . They built Fort San Juan and left 30 men, while Pardo traveled further, establishing five other forts . In 1567, Pardo's expedition established a mission called Salamanca in what is now Rowan County . Pardo returned by a different route to Santa Elena . After 18 months, in the spring of 1568, natives killed all the soldiers and burned the six forts, including the one at Fort San Juan . The Spanish never returned to the interior to press their colonial claim, but this marked the first European attempt at colonization of the interior . Translation in the 1980s of a journal by Pardo's scribe Bandera have confirmed the expedition and settlement . Archaeological finds at Joara indicate that it was a Mississippian culture settlement and also indicate Spanish settlement at Fort San Juan in 1567 - 1568 . Joara was the largest mound builder settlement in the region . Records of Hernando de Soto's expedition attested to his meeting with them in 1540 . </P> <P> The earliest English attempt at colonization in North America was Roanoke Colony of 1585--1587, the famed "Lost Colony" of Sir Walter Raleigh . The colony was established at Roanoke Island in the Croatan Sound on the leeward side of the Outer Banks . The first attempt at a settlement consisted of 100 or so men led by Ralph Lane . They built a fort, and waited for supplies from a second voyage . While waiting for supplies to return, Lane and his men antagonized the local Croatan peoples, killing several of them in armed skirmishes . The interactions were not all negative, as the local people did teach the colonists some survival skills, such as the construction of dugout canoes . </P> <P> When the relief was long in coming, the colonists began to give up hope; after a chance encounter with Sir Francis Drake, the colonists elected to accept transport back to England with him . When the supply ships did arrive, only a few days later, they found the colony abandoned . The ship's captain, Richard Grenville, left a small force of 15 men to hold the fort and supplies and wait for a new stock of colonists . </P>

Where was the first post explorer settlement located in north carolina