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Roanoke's Lost Colony Mystery

The Roanoke colony was England's first permanent colony in North America, established in 1585 on Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina. The colony had about 108 settlers but lacked supplies and had poor relations with local Native Americans. As a result, the governor Ralph Lane decided to return to England, abandoning the colony. When explorer John White returned in 1590, he found the entire colony of around 122 people had vanished without a trace, with only the word "CROATOAN" left carved in a post. Historians believe the colonists may have relocated to Croatoan Island and were later attacked by local tribes, or assimilated into Native American tribes and chose not to return with White.

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161 views2 pages

Roanoke's Lost Colony Mystery

The Roanoke colony was England's first permanent colony in North America, established in 1585 on Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina. The colony had about 108 settlers but lacked supplies and had poor relations with local Native Americans. As a result, the governor Ralph Lane decided to return to England, abandoning the colony. When explorer John White returned in 1590, he found the entire colony of around 122 people had vanished without a trace, with only the word "CROATOAN" left carved in a post. Historians believe the colonists may have relocated to Croatoan Island and were later attacked by local tribes, or assimilated into Native American tribes and chose not to return with White.

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© © All Rights Reserved
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The colony of Roanoke

Roanoke was the first permanent colony England had settled in North America; this
colonization had been authorized by Queen Elisabeth I and actually executed by an explorer
called Walter Raleight. To be fair, the first British colony ever in the States was actually St.
John’s (1583,in Canada today) however, due to the mysterious disappearance of its leader, we
consider this one one of the most famous ancient British cold cases.

The colony was formed where North Carolina is today on an island


called in fact Roanoke Island; the governor (=the head of a public
institution.) of the island was a man called Ralph Lane and as of 1585
(the year of creation of the colony) the estimated population was about
108 people.
The problem with this colony was mostly given by the lack of supplies
and the poor relations with the local Natives; for this reason they had to
wait for a resupply provided by sir Greenville, nevertheless Lane, as the
impatient person he was, decided to go back to England and leave the
colony on its own. Greenville, seeing that the governor himself decided
to depart, chose to quickly deposit the supplies in Roanoke and follow him to Great Britain.

A few years after the unsuccessful settlement, a new explorer called John White decided to
build a new colony over the remains of the old one: it was 1587 and the new Roanoke colony
was formed. However, the Anglo-Spanish war started and White, who came back just to refill
the supplies, found difficulty returning to his colony.
He had to wait until 1590 and, when he landed with his
men, he found out that something unnatural happened
to Roanoke: The settlement was still fortified but was
now abandoned and there was a strange sign with
“CROATOAN” written on it.
Beside that, almost 122 people disappeared out of thin
air.

Through the year there had been multiple hypothesis regarding the mysterious vanishment of
the whole colony, and here are the main ones:
- David Quinn, an Irish historian, thought that the colonists decided to
relocate to the place named Croatoan and during this small
expedition they had been attacked by a local population, the
Powhatans. They would have had moved in small groups using
pinnaces and small boats and they would have waited for John
White’s return in Croatoan.
- The most likely considered fate of the survivors is probably that they
assimilated with the local tribes and did not wish to return home
when White came back; If the Natives didn’t kill them on sight it is probable that the
colonist decided to adopt a similar lifestyle, abandoning the European clothing a
language to assume their tribe culture.
This scenario wouldn’t have been an unthinkable one either: most colonists observed
that those Europeans who were removed by their typical society and put in a Native’s
one were ultimately reluctant to return to Europe. Therefore, it is reasonable to claim
that those colonists and their descendants didn’t even seek the integration John White
offered.

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