Incident Report:
What happened to the “Lost Colony” of Roanoke?
The origins of one of the America’s oldest unsolved mysteries can be traced to August 1587, when a group of about 115 English settlers arrived on Roanoke Island, off the coast of what is now North Carolina. Later that year, it was decided that John White, governor of the new colony, would sail back to England in order to gather a fresh load of supplies. But just as he arrived, a major naval war broke out between England and Spain, and Queen Elizabeth I called on every available ship to confront the mighty Spanish Armada. In August 1590, White finally returned to Roanoke, where he had left his wife and daughter, his infant granddaughter (Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the Americas) and the other settlers three long years before. He found no trace of the colony or its inhabitants, and few clues to what might have happened, apart from a single word—“Croatoan”—carved into a wooden post.
Investigations into the fate of the “Lost Colony” of Roanoke have continued over the centuries, but no one has come up with a satisfactory answer. “Croatoan” was the name of an island south of Roanoke that was home to a Native American tribe of the same name. Manteo, a Native American that had accompanied the group at Roanoke was actually from the island of Croatoan. Despite the lingering mystery, it seems there’s one thing to be thankful for: The lessons learned at Roanoke may have helped the next group of English settlers, who would found their own colony 17 years later just a short distance to the north, at Jamestown.
Scientific Evidence- Drought Reconstruction
Some light has been shed on this mystery by a group of scientists who used the rings of bald cypress trees (Taxodium distichum) to reconstruct the history of drought for this region. A drought reconstruction, stretching back to 1185, indicates that the most severe growing season drought and the most severe three year period of drought in 800 years coincided with the disappearance of the Roanoke Island Colonists.
In addition, a reconstruction of the severe seven year drought (1606-1612) in Jamestown, accounted from documented historical records, likely played a part in the high death rate in the colony. Only 38 of the original 104 colonists survived the first year (1607) at Jamestown and of the 6000 people that came to the settlement between the years of 1608-1624, only 3400 survived. Most colonists reportedly died of malnutrition.
Witness Report: John White (Journal Entries)
“From hence we went through the woods to that part of the Island directly over against Dasamongwepeuk, & from thence we returned by the water side, round about the North point of the Island, until we came to the place where I left our Colony in the year 1586. In all this way we saw in the sand the print of the Savages feet of 2 or 3 sorts trodden the night, and as we entered up the sandy bank upon a tree, in the very brow thereof were curiously carved these fair Roman letters C R O: which letters presently we knew to signify the place, where I should find the planters seated, according to a secret token agreed upon between them & me at my last departure from them, which was, that in any ways they should not fail to write or carve on the trees or posts of the doors the name of the place where they should be seated; for at my coming away they were prepared to remove from Roanoke 50 miles into the main .
Therefore at my departure from them in An. 1587 I willed them, that if they should happen to be distressed in any of those places, that then they should carve over the letters or name, a Cross in this form, but we found no such sign of distress. And having well considered of this, we passed toward the place where they were left in sundry houses, but we found the houses taken down , and the place very strongly enclosed with a high pallisade of great trees, with cortynes and flankers very Fort-like, and one of the chief trees or posts at the right side of the entrance had the bark taken off, and 5 feet from the ground in fair Capital letters was graven CROATOAN without any cross or sign of distress;
this done, we entered into the pallisade , where we found many bars of Iron, two pigs of Lead, four iron fowlers, Iron sacker- shot , and such like heavy things, thrown here and there, almost overgrown with grass and weeds . From thence we went along by the water side, towards the point of the Creek to see if we could find any of their boats or Pinnisse, but we could perceive no sign of them, nor any of the last Falcons and small Ordinance which were left with them, at my departure from them. At our return from the Creek , some of our Sailors meeting us, told that they had found where diverse chests had been hidden, and long since digged up again and broken up, and much of the goods in them spoiled and scattered about, but nothing left, of such things as the Savages knew any use of, undefaced.
Presently Captain Cooke and I went to the place, which was in the end of an old trench, made two years past by Captain Amadas : where we found five Chests, that had been carefully hidden of the Planters, and of the same chests three were my own , and about the place many of my things spoiled and broken, and my books torn from the covers, the frames of some of my pictures and Maps rotten and spoiled with rain , and my armor almost eaten through with rust; this could be no other but the deed of the Savages our enemies at Dasamongwepeuk, who had watched the departure of our men to Croatoan; and as soon as they were departed, digged up every place where they suspected anything to be buried: but although it much grieved me to see such spoil of my goods, yet on the other side I greatly joyed that I had safely found a certain token of their safe being at Croatoan, which is the place where Manteo was born , and the Savages of the Island our friends.”
John White upon his return to Roanoke Island
Location of Roanoke Island & Croatoan Island
People of Interest: Spanish & Native Americans
The Spanish / The NativesSpanish records indicate that a ship landed on Roanoke in June of 1588 and found the colony deserted.
In 1564, a group of French Protestants, called Huguenots (HYOO-guh-nahts), founded a colony called Fort Caroline. Before long, Spanish troops under the command of Pedro Menendez de Aviles arrived in that area. "This is the armada of the King of Spain," he announced, "who has sent me [here] to burn and hang the Lutheran [Protestant] French." Menendez built a fort, St. Augustine, a short distance away. Then he brutally massacred the French.
The Spanish had a history of brutality towards competitors in America. Could Spanish sailors have taken out the colony? / When Captain John Smith and the Jamestown colonists settled in Virginia in 1607, one of their assigned tasks was to locate the Roanoke colonists. The native leader Chief Powhatan told Captain Smith about his Virginia Peninsula-based Powhatan Confederacy, and went on to say that he had wiped out the Roanoke colonists just prior to the arrival of the Jamestown settlers because they were living with the Chesepian, a tribe living in the eastern portion of the present-day South Hampton Roads sub-region who, besides having refused to join Chief Powhatan's Powhatan Confederacy, were also prophesied to rise up and destroy his empire.
Chief Powhatan reportedly produced several English-made iron implements to back his claim, but no bodies were found and no archaeological evidence has been found to support this claim.
There was also evidence of unfriendly Native Americans in the area (Secotan and the Mandoag). Could a Native tribe have killed the colonists?
Witness Reports: Explorers on the Atlantic Coast
The Lumbee
It seems likely that some, if not all, of the colonists went to live among the native peoples of the Outer Banks. John White believed that they had gone to live with the Hatteras (Croatan) Indians under Manteo. Many Lumbee now living in Robeson County believe that they are descended in part from the Roanoke colonists and the Hatteras Indians. They cite their light complexions, blue eyes, and names that are the same as the names of the Roanoke colonists. Some historians and anthropologists agree that this is likely true, but there is no hard evidence. Some attempts are now being planned to use DNA testing to determine whether the Lumbee are, in fact, descended from the Lost Colonists.
John Lawson, an English explorer who visited Roanoke and spent time with the Hatteras Indians in 1709 wrote, “Several of their ancestors were white people…the truth of which is confirmed by gray eyes being found infrequently among these Indians and no others.”
Hamilton MacMillan of North Carolina published what could be relevant information about the Pembroke Indians in 1888. He said they claimed their ancestors to be from “Roanoke in Virginia,” Raleigh’s description of the colony. He also noted that they spoke English, had the same last names as many colonists, and that many had European features including fair hair and light eyes.
Evidence Log:The Virginia Dare Stones
In 1937, a twenty-one-pound quartz stone was found in a swamp 60 miles west of Roanoke. On one side was a cross and the instruction “Ananias Dare & Virginia went hence Unto Heaven 1591. Any Englishmen, show John White, Governor of Virginia”On the other were carvings that, when deciphered by faculty at Emory University, were a message from Eleanor Dare to her father, John White, that the colony had fled inland after an Indian attack. During the next three years, nearly forty more stones were found in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Together, they told a story of the colonists’ journey through the southeast, ending in the death of Eleanor Dare in 1599. It is interesting to note that the discover of these stones coincided with the 350 year anniversary of the establishment of the Roanoke Colony.
Experts disagree about the authenticity of the stones. Could these stones tell the story of the Lost Colony or were they an elaborate hoax?
Evidence Log- The Virginia Dare Stones