On August 18, 1590, three years after he had last been able to reach the area, John White discovered that the colony he had briefly governed was no more. While he had spent years stuck in England attempting to gather supplies, the people of Roanoke Island of what would eventually be North Carolina had all disappeared, the fort was in ruins, and two separate messages written on trees pointed to the Native American tribe of Croatan as a possible clue of their current whereabouts. Investigating further, White attempted to discover where the people had gone, but when the ship he had chartered suffered damage to one of its anchor cables, the ship’s captain ordered them away, leaving them with far more questions than answers. What had happened to the first English colonists of North America? Had they been invaded by a foreign power? Was there dissension from within that had led to civil war? Or is there a more paranormal explanation for what occurred in Roanoke Island?

Sources:

A Kingdom Strange by James Horn

Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony Roanoke by Lee Miller

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