Human history is filled with Mysteries. It always has been and most likely always will be what happened to the Ark of the Covenant, Was there any truth in the story of Atlantis, What was life really like in ancient times? As intriguing as many of these mysteries are they’re not particularly eerie, we tend to separate ourselves from people living throughout the course of history as it’s harder for us to relate to people who lived hundreds of years ago but there are exceptions. Today we will be taking you back to the late 1500s to the islands off the east coast of what would eventually be the United States of America to meet an unfortunate group of colonists who would meet one of the strangest Fates in history, from their early arrival in the Americas to their eventual mysterious disappearance. Let’s investigate the bizarre tale of the Lost Colony of Roanoke.

How it Started?

In the years after Christopher Columbus first visited the shores of the Americas many European empires would end up following his footsteps. It wasn’t long before England, France and the Netherlands sent explorers west to map. The Uncharted territories of the new world as they called it which as we all know led to the eventual settling of both North and South America. While Columbus reached the America in 1492 at the Outer Banks islands off the coast of what is now North Carolina weren’t visited until 1524. Both French and English explorers would frequent these islands over the course of the next few decades. Where they would chart the area meet the native settling Pamlico and Cree peoples and attempt to figure out where they were in relation to their desired trade partner, China.

Queen Elizabeth the First would eventually set up a commission of Sir Walter Raleigh, one of the most notable explorers in English History to settle in these new lands establishing a base of operations from which he could send forth privateers to harass Spanish trading ships with whom English political relations were tend. Raleigh sent out the settlers into the Atlantic to scout out a good place for a base in America but he did not follow pledging to stay by the Queen’s side. Two ships were launched on April 27th, 1584 commandeered by Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe that after nearly two weeks at Sea dropped anchor on Roanoke Island off the coast of North Carolina.

Initially, things were going well they were quick to establish a positive relationship with native peoples. Two of whom were even invited back to England the queen was happy, Raleigh was happy, the native peoples were happy, what could go wrong? But when the settlers were sent to Roanoke to begin the founding of the first English colonies in the Americas. 600 people climbed aboard seven ships alongside Governor Ralph Lane and departed from Plymouth in April 1585. A storm is known to have sunk one small ship and one vessel. The Elizabeth(ship) landed long before the others whose crew established a temporary fort to defend against any Spanish raids while they waited for the others. Unfortunately due to complications caused by rough waters and a lack of supplies. The Elizabeth was the only ship to make it.

Downfall of 1st Colony

Some of the crews did catch up once the colony was being established but for now, the Elizabeth continued onwards abandoning the fort from here. Things started to go downhill for the colonists. Relations with the native people began to deteriorate after the Secotan Chief died and a new less approving ruler ascended to the point where conflict ensued on multiple occasions. The English colonists ended up taking native people hostage which led to their retaliation in the form of a planned united offensive with multiple allied tribes taking the fight to the Roanoke Colony. Amidst these tribes were the Secotan and Croatan two of the largest and strongest tribes in the region. The English were quick to counter these plans with a horrific slaughter of native peoples the following summer pre-empting their plan and catching them in their Village. Unaware not only was conflict with native people, a problem for the colony but now supplies were beginning to dwindle ships bringing resources to the colony became lost at sea when a hurricane struck the Outer Banks and eventually the colony was forced to evacuate and disband jumping back on their ships and returning to England.

Second Settlement

Just one week after the turning of the year 1587 Walter Raleigh decided that he would have another go at settling in the new world having been persuaded by his men. Chesapeake Bay was recommended as Roanoke Island was evidently not safe after their encounters with the native people. Three ships full of middle-class London settlers men, women and children with no Armed forces departed from England. Several months later on the 8th of May bound for Chesapeake Bay, Croatoan Island was reached on the 22nd of July but there was an unexpected problem. An officer on board the flagship decided that the settlers would be dropped off at Roanoke Island and not Chesapeake Bay. Roanoke was reached on the 25th of July and it wasn’t long before the first settler died. George Howe, a man who left the group to collect crabs for the colonists to eat was killed by a native warrior who witnessing the return of the Europeans to his land decided to take no second chances.

Attempts of Re-establishment

Shortly after this, attempts were made to reconcile with the local people. In an attempt to secure the safety of the new Roanoke settlement, no response was received when the settlers contacted the Croatans for a truce package which was possibly seen as an antagonistic move. In August the new settlers attempted to attack the cow village of Dasamongueponke. But there was nobody there. Following this the natives and the settlers due to the distance between them and the fact they did not encounter one another. For a while were able to rebuild their relations to the point where they could live without conflict out in the Atlantic.

Misfortune

However, trouble was brewing as officers from Roanoke returned to England to request supplies. They received word that the Spanish Armada may be preparing for an attack on English fleets. Elizabeth I placed a ban on ships leaving English waters to ensure the nation’s safety and the supplies were delayed until April of 1588. As a result of poor weather and the ever-presentment Spanish threat that kept them in England over the winter. When the ships did eventually set off from England to Roanoke, French pirates attacked and captured their vessels off the coast of Morocco looting their supplies and sending them back to square one. Meanwhile, the Spanish had caught wind of England’s operations in the new world and were attempting to locate their colony sending Reconnaissance ships around the chartered areas of the Americas in order to find it. Supply runs could not be organized due to the threat from the Spanish Armada until 1590.

When Raleigh was finally able to send colonist John White back to Roanoke with six ships worth of supplies for the Roanoke community. As Croatan Island was reached in August of 1590, White noticed billowing smoke drifting in the air from Roanoke and another on Croatan. The above investigation latter found nothing. Attempting to cross the Pamlico Sound to reach the location of the Roanoke settlement proved difficult and several sailor ERS are known to have died in the process.

Mystery

Roanoke was eventually reached by dusk but the supply ships dropped anchor and spent the night on deck choosing to stay away from an island that could have harboured hostile native forces. The morning after the 18th of August things became very strange. White and his men reached the shore shortly after dawn where they found recent footprints in the Sand of the beach. From here they start to make the track through the woods to reach the Roanoke Colony. Wandering through a forest eely void of life on the way one of the men noticed a strange carving in large letters on the bark of a tree the phrase, “CRO”. Continuing they eventually reached the site of the colony only to see that a newly built palisade wall of wooden stakes had been set up around it. It is a sign of crumbling relations with the Croatan perhaps. Even stranger was that the word Croatan had been carved into one of the wooden Stakes with a knife but White believed that this was a message that the settlers had relocated to Croatan Island, while he was in England. The party continued into the settlement and before them was a shocking sight. Most of the buildings within the Roanoke settlement had been dismantled or moved including White’s own former house and all his possessions. The settlement was entirely void of life with no sign that anybody had been living here recently. Moreover, none of the settler's boats equipment or supplies were anywhere to be found. White made the decision to return to Croatan Island to search for his people but the anchor cable of his ship had snapped rendering it useless. White and all his men returned to England confused at what they had just witnessed.

Search

After White’s discovery on Roanoke Island several English explorers would take to the Seas to attempt to contact the missing settlers. The first expedition was led by Raleigh himself but it quickly became apparent that he wasn’t actually looking for the settlers at all but rather El Dorado the fabled city of gold. Bartholomew Gilbert would lead an expedition in 1603 but ran around the ground on an unknown island off the coast of Chesapeake Bay due to Stormy weather where he and most of his crew were killed by Native American Warriors. John Smith attempted the crossing in 1607 and was captured by the Powhatan people in the process Powhatan leaders informed him of settlements in their own language nearby to theirs where the people wore European-style clothes and lived in Walled houses. Upon his freedom, he enlisted the help of the Powhatan tribe to help him track down these settlements thinking it could be the Lost Roanoke colonists the search parties found nothing.

William Strachey reached the America in 1610 off the back of John Smith’s failure to locate the settlements described to him by the Powhatan. Strachey would also be unable to locate the settlers but would propose a theory that they integrated with an unknown peaceful Native American tribe with whom he suggested they lived alongside for 20 years others were not. So certain suggests that the settlers likely perished following an attack from a hostile tribe instead the finger was pointed at the Powhatan. On account of William Strachey describing their religion as satanic, they were threatened by the English crown if they did not convert to Christianity but there is no evidence to suggest anything actually happened in the short term off the back of this.

By the time Samuel Purchas arrived in America in 1625 other English colonies had been set up there. As a result, tensions with the Powhatan were at an all-time high and they attacked the English settlement of Jamestown just a few years prior to Purchas his arrival. An attack was ordered against the Powhatan peoples and Purchas reinstated the belief that they were the ones responsible for the deaths of the Roanoke settlers. With little evidence to back up his claim modern historians see this as little more than anti-native propaganda at the time.

The final historic explorer to investigate Roanoke was John Lawson in 1701. Speaking with the Hatteras people who lived close to where the colonists had gone missing he noted that there seemed to have been an unusual level of English influence on their culture, with English coins guns and even the remains of an English- built fort on their Island. To his surprise, they told him some of their ancestors had been white European people which led to the theory that the Roanoke settlers had joined this tribe when they realized that returning to England probably wouldn’t be a possibility anymore.

Conclusion

So that’s the bizarre tale of how the would-be first English colonists in America disappeared on Roanoke Island never to be heard from again. As it stands today there are a few modern theories as to what happened to the settlers but none of them have been proven or disproven at the time this article contains most common theories state that perhaps the settlers were attacked by a hostile tribe of Native Americans, perhaps the Croatan or Powhatan but this would rely heavily on the opinions of Samuel Purchas and William Strachey who due to the propaganda like nature of their claims may be unreliable. Another theory states that they integrated with a peaceful tribe such as the Hatteras perhaps staying with them until they all eventually died or moved on to a different location. Tribes in the area of Roanoke claimed to have encountered pale-skinned, light-haired people nearby to their settlements since the turn of the 1600s and there is good evidence to suggest that the missing settlers lived with the Hatteras at least for a while. Other theories cover different suggestions some people believe that the settlers attempted to return to England but were lost at sea or were run the ground and unable to return. Others claim that the settlers may have become separatists intentionally fleeing the English and the strict regulations of the church. It has even been theorized that Walter Raleigh did find the settlers when he arrived in the Americas following the disappearance but sympathized with them and let them go. So what do you think the settlers killed by native people did? They integrate with them or was it something else entirely perhaps only time knows. 

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