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The Lost Roanoke Colony

The Lost Roanoke Colony

18" x 24"

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The Roanoke Colony on Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina, was a late 16th-century attempt to establish a permanent English settlement in the Virginia Colony.

The final group of colonists disappeared during the Anglo-Spanish War, three years after the last shipment of supplies from England. The settlement is known as "The Lost Colony," and the fate of the colonists is still unknown.

In 1587, 115 colonists were sent to establish a colony somewhere on Chesapeake Bay. They were led by John White, an artist and friend of Sir Walter Raleigh's who had accompanied him on previous expeditions to Roanoke.

White re-established relations with the neighboring Croatan native tribe and tried to re-establish relations with the tribes that other colonists had battled with a year previously. The aggrieved tribes refused to meet the new colonists.

Knowing what had happened during previous colonist’s tenure in the area and fearing for their lives, the colonists persuaded Governor White to return to England to explain the colony's situation and ask for help.

There were approximately 115 colonists—the 114 remaining men and women who had made the trans-Atlantic passage and White's new infant granddaughter Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the Americas—when White returned to England.                                  

Because of the continuing war with Spain, White was not able to mount another resupply attempt for three more years. He finally gained passage on a privateering expedition that agreed to stop off at Roanoke on the way back from the Caribbean. White landed on August 18, 1590, on his granddaughter's third birthday, but found the settlement deserted. His men could not find any trace of any of the colonists nor was there any sign of a struggle or battle.

The only clue was the word "Croatoan" carved into a nearby tree. All the houses had been dismantled, which meant their departure had not been hurried, and all that remained was a tall wooden fence surrounding what had been the colony. 

 Before he had left the colony, White had instructed them that if anything happened, they should carve a Maltese cross on a tree nearby, indicating that their disappearance had been forced. As there was no cross, White took this to mean they had moved to nearby Croatoan Island, but he was unable to conduct a search.

It is still unknown what happened to this "Lost Colony". Theories include defeat by unfriendly native people, intermarrying with the native people, starvation and defeat by hostile Spaniards.