Roanoke Colony Returns: Settlers Who Will Vanish

Every colonist had vanished. When Governor John White finally returned to Roanoke Island after three years of delays, he found the settlement abandoned, the houses dismantled, and a single word carved into a wooden post: CROATOAN. No bodies, no signs of violence, no graves. More than a hundred English men, women, and children had disappeared into the Carolina wilderness without explanation. White had sailed back to England in August 1587 to resupply the colony, leaving behind 115 settlers including his own daughter, Eleanor Dare, and his infant granddaughter Virginia, the first English child born in the Americas. He expected to return within months, but the Spanish Armada crisis of 1588 commandeered every available English ship, and Queen Elizabeth prohibited any vessel from leaving port. By the time White secured passage back to Roanoke in August 1590, three full years had passed. The word CROATOAN referred to an island about fifty miles south, home to a group of friendly Natives with whom the colonists had maintained good relations. White had instructed the settlers to carve a Maltese cross if they left under duress, and no cross appeared on any tree or post. He desperately wanted to sail south to Croatoan Island, but a hurricane struck the Outer Banks, damaging his ships and forcing the fleet to abandon the search. Theories about the colony's fate have multiplied for four centuries. Archaeological evidence from the Croatoan site, now Hatteras Island, includes European artifacts mixed with Native materials, suggesting at least some colonists integrated into local tribes. Other researchers point to evidence of settlements farther inland along the Chowan River. The Lumbee people of North Carolina have long claimed descent from the colonists. Roanoke remains the oldest unsolved missing-persons case in American history, and every proposed answer creates new questions.