Roanoke Island Mystery

They had a strange relationship, since many of the colonists respected the Indian’s way of life and were amazed by how they lived. Many attributed their strength to the tobacco that they consumed. Others saw them as savages and wanted to convert them to the European way of life. The colonists ended up waging war with them and killed some Croatoans. White went back to England to request supplies, and when he came back, the colony was abandoned, with evidence that they joined the Croatoans. “CRO” was written on a tree, a sign that the colonists left to tell him where they had gone. However, they were to carve a cross over the name if they were forced to vacate, but there was no such mark. An entrance post also had the word “Croatoan” carved into it, also without any crosses. Big items like weapons were left behind, but all smaller supplies were gone. The book uses Professor David Quinn’s theory to explain what happened. The bulk of the colony moved to the Chesapeake Bay and lived in peace while the rest stayed behind to guard the heavier equipment. However, the Spanish threat and Indian hostility forced them to leave. They were the ones who left the notes. Rumors continued to spin when Indians told stories to the people of Jamestown in the Chesapeake Bay about whites living with the Indians. Unfortunately, White, Ralegh, and everyone else searching for the colony never found them. Even after hearing of why Roanoke failed,

Our groups theory on what happened to the Lost Colony is, either the Croatans took them away, or they came and killed them. We believe that they might have made some of the Indians angry and they had war between the Lost Colony. We also think that some died from lack of resources and the others died when the Croatoans came and invaded.

In 1587 a group of men, women, and children led by Sir John White set sail for America and landed on a North Carolina island called Roanoke (Shirley

On July 22, 1587, long before the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock, 117 hopeful colonists from England landed ashore onto a tiny island along the coast of what is today North Carolina. The group unpacked and founded a settlement, Roanoke Island. Then they vanished without a trace.

The Roanoke was an important part in Virginia history, it was the first attempt for a permanent English settlement in the new world. It was founded by Sir Walter Raleigh in the 1585 and he brought 100 colonists with him to Virginia and left them behind. Walter also had brought his daughter which soon gave birth to the first English child born in America. Her name was Virginia Dare. He had to go back to England because he had to fight in the Spanish war. He sent a fleet of ships in between the 3 years he was fighting but they did not make it to the settlement, instead they landed on a different island and the captain of the ship refused to go any farther than that island. When Raleigh returned 3 years later the only clues that him and the colonists that came with him found were the words CROA and CROATON carved into 2 trees. Before Raliegh had left them 3 years earlier he told them if there was was any trouble then to carve a cross in a tree. They searched all the trees around but did not find any crosses carved. But recently they have done a tree test on the wood that the word CROATON was carved into and they figured out that when he was gone there was extreme drought conditions that were going on while Raleigh was gone. Nobody really knows what happened to the settlement but there has been very educated guesses from historians. One guess came from a historian studying this subject ”That the croaton indian tribe 50 miles away might have something to do with it.” But the

In 1587, A group of colonists were sent by Sir Walter Raleigh to Roanoke Island in hopes of permanently settling. John White, the governor of this new colony, traveled back to England to gather resources. The Anglo-Spanish war delayed White’s return to Roanoke Island until 1590. Upon his arrival to the Island, White had discovered that everything had disappeared except for the bones of one unidentified man and the word “CROATOAN” carved into a tree. This colony is now known as the Lost Colony of Roanoke and there have been many theories as to what happened to the colonists.

On July 22, 1587 John White landed on Roanoke with 120 men, women, and children. He wanted to create a colony that was founded on agriculture and have a stable economy. On August 18, 1587 the first English baby was born, her name was Virginia Dare who was the daughter of White’s daughter and her husband. White believed in peace so the colony was very peaceful and White was able to form a friendship with the Indians. They even came in contact with an Indian who they met on their first exploration, named Manteo. He worked alongside the English, even when his people would not. Everything was going smoothly for the English colony until John White decides to return to England.

A beginning of A lost colony was In Fifteen Eightyseven. One Hundred and fifteen English settlers sailed from England and arrived to The Roanoke Island off of the coast of North Carolina. One important person on the ship was John White he was the governor

The two previous expeditions that had been sent to this region by Sir Walter Raleigh had been unsuccessful in establishing a settlement. The first group had simply returned to England. The second group had left fifteen men to stay on the island to start a colony. The third group had expected to find these men when they arrived, but the logs of Fort Raleigh had been pulled down. One corpse was found and it became clear that the destiny of the others was not good, and none had survived (“The Lost Colony of Roanoke” 2).

In the second attempt they were hoping to find the fifteen english men the left the year before. To their surprise they came to find the “fort razed down, but all the houses standing unhurt,”. The mystery of the lost colonist proves that Roanoke is an unsafe place since their colonist mysteriously disappeared. During their search they ended up in conflict with the indians, where the indians tricked them into an unarmed meeting to have a civil conversation, but ended up killing one of them. This showed that the Native Americans were not trustworthy,and which also contradicts Barlowe’s statement about them being gentle, loving, and faithful. In John White return he starts off with how dangerous it is to get there, and even when they got there the weather was still threatening that they couldn’t even anchor the boat. Unlike Barlowe and Lanes statements about Roanoke’s environment being so peaceful and calm this showed the true climate of Roanoke. White also tried looking for the groups of colonist he left the last time he went to Roanoke and couldn’t find any sign of them either. Both documents were showed similar experiences of the reality of

Colonists arrived on Roanoke Island in 1587, with the hopes of becoming the first English colony in America (Bernstein 2:55). The colony was to be governed by John White and was composed of English families who wished to make a new home for themselves, among the colonists was John White 's daughter, Virginia Dare. Several months later the colony 's governor sailed back to England for supplies. The shortage of supplies was due to skirmishes with the Natives, loss of supplies due to storms, and with the time for planting over the colonists had no way to find enough food. John White promised to return as quickly as possible, but due to unforeseen circumstances was unable to return as soon as was expected. Three years later, John White returned only to find

In August 1587, The english tried a second time to create a settlement in america. When they arrived they only found charred ruins of the old settlement. They decided to stay despite the discouraging welcome. Governor John White was in charge of this

There was one piece of evidence that the settlers left, the words "Croatoan" were carved into a tree not far from the colony. White had left the settlers with a plan if they should come under attack while he was gone. He

In this writing assignment I am using primary sources to support the hypotheses that the lost colony of Roanoke disappeared due to a massacre by a nearby Native American tribe that had issues with the colonists. I will also find evidence that discredits this hypotheses.

The attempt to establish a settlement in 1585 failed and the colony was abandoned in 1586, making John White return to England.