Missing Roanoke Island Colonists
Landing at Roanoke on August 18, 1590, White found the settlement deserted. The houses and fortifications had been dismantled in an orderly manner. The only clue was the word "Croatoan" carved into a post of the fort and "Cro" carved into a nearby tree. As there was no cross, White assumed they’d moved to Croatoan Island, but violent weather forced him to abort a search and the privateers refused to stay any longer – it was hurricane season. White was forced to return to Plymouth without a chance to so much as question the neighboring Croatoans.
In 1607, the Jamestown Colony sought information about the fate of the Roanoke Island colonists. One report indicated they took refuge with friendly Chesapeake Indians, but Chief Powhatan (a powerful Virginian tribal chief), claimed his warriors had attacked and killed most of the Roanoke colonists. Powhatan showed artifacts he claimed belonged to the colonists, including a musket barrel and a brass mortar.
In 1609, the Jamestown Colony received reports of English captives and sent search parties to no avail. Then in 1612, William Strachey, a secretary of the colony, wrote of Indian settlements at Peccarecanick and Ochanahoen having two-story houses with stone walls, a housing he was sure the lost Roanoke colonists had shown them.
Roanoke Colony Theories
Historian Lee Miller believes the Roanoke colonists were sold by a Wainoke tribe into slavery. Others believe the survivors were absorbed into the Croatoan tribe. Sadly, the most obvious fates cannot be ruled out - massacre or starvation though no bodies have been found.
In the late 1990s a group of climate researchers concluded the Roanoke colony had been established during the worst drought in more than 300 years.
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