Thomas Harriot (1560 - 1621) was an English astronomer, mathematician, ethnographer, and translator. Some sources give his surname as Harriott or Hariot or Heriot. After graduating from Oxford University, Harriot travelled to the Americas, accompanying the 1585 expedition to Roanoke island funded by Sir Walter Raleigh and led by Sir Ralph Lane. Harriot was a vital member of the venture, having translated and learned the Carolina Algonquian language. When he returned to England he wrote a "A briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia". pulished in 1588. The Report contains an early account of the Native American population encountered by the expedition; it proved very influential upon later English explorers and colonists.