Lost Colony Of Roanoke Essay

Alejandra

The story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke is one of the oldest American mysteries. This mystery can be traced back to August 1587. On this very day 115 settlers came to the new world from England. They were running out of supplies,so it was decided that a man named John White, who was their governor would return to England for more supplies. Three years later he came back, but to his surprise the colony along with all its people, had mysteriously and weirdly vanished. The only thing that was left was, was the word “CROATOAN” engraved in a fence post, which was the name of a tribe of Native Americans in that area. There are many theories as to what happened to this colony during that very terrible time Governor John

White left, but no solid conclusion has yet to be found.
The word “CROATOAN” was one of the only clues left behind by the colonists, this word is peculiar, because it was linked to many other mysterious things. This word is linked to the disappearances and deaths of Edgar Allen Poe, Amelia Earhart, stagecoach robber Black Bart, Ambrose Bierce, and the ship Carroll A. Deering. A few days before he died Poe, disappeared for a long time and when he came back he went crazy, his last word he ever spoke again was “CROATOAN”. This word was found in Amelia's journal after she mysteriously disappeared. Bart carved this word on the wall of his jail cell before he was released and was never heard of or seen of again. Bierce disappeared too and the last bed he ever slept in again, was located in Mexico,it had the word “CROATOAN” engraved on one of the bed posts. This word was found in 1921 on the last page of the logbook of the ship by the name of Carroll A. Deering When it crashed in Cape Hatteras, near Croatoan island, it was later discovered that the whole entire crew was missing.
One of the many theories of this Colony is that they were captured by the near by Native Americans which, would explain the word, “CROATOAN”.

The evidence supporting this theory is found in many documentations of future settlers. In the early 1600s, many European colonists claim that they met Native Americans with gray eyes that said, they were descended from white Englishmen, but of course these men and women could have been lying or maybe they weren't. In 1696 a French Huguenot documented that he saw blue-eyed, blond-haired Native Americans that claimed that they descended from a white Englishmen. This was also documented by John Lawson in 1709, in his book A New Voyage to Carolina, and William Strachey also claimed this. DNA testing has been conducted but no DNA connection has been found.
A second theory is that, these colonists turned to cannibalism in a desperate attempt to live. The other theory to this theory is that people that were cannibals came to this colony and took them and, well, ate them. None of the Native Americans in that area were known as cannibals so the second theory doesn't really make any sense. The only theory that makes sense is the first one, since the colonists were probably really hungry since Governor John White left to retrieve more supplies and food so they resorted to cannibalism. As far fetched as this may seem it's actually a

possibility.
The third theory is that the whole colony dies of some sort of disease. Since the colonists brought over some diseases, maybe these diseases got out of hand. Also this was a long time ago so these people didn't have anything to be able to cure these diseases. But, this theory wouldn't really make any sense considering the fact that absolutely nothing was left behind Some remains would have been left behind even if they all had died of some kind of disease, but no houses or people were left behind.
A fifth theory is that they were all murdered by the Native Americans in the area close by. This theory is a pretty believable considering the fact that the colonists had tried to settle here once but failed because the Native Americans had killed on their men, which showed what they were capable of. This would also support the fact as to why the word “CROATOAN” was engraved into a fence post in the colony. Also, the fact that Governor John White left for three years, this gave them enough time to kill all of the colonists and destroy every single one of the buildings until nothing was left. There is not enough evidence to know that this is true.
The sixth theory states that the Spanish had something to do with the disappearances of the colony of Roanoke and the English men, women, and children. The Englishmen were battling with the Spanish at the time of the disappearance which is why Governor John White went to England to retrieve more supplies for the battle. The theory states that maybe the Spanish disliked the English people so much, that when Governor John White left they took them captive and destroyed the whole colony. Of course this theory also does not have enough evidence to back it up, just like every single one of the theories in this paper.
There was a hoax involved with this mystery, it is the hoax of the Dare Stones. What really are these “Dare Stones”. In 1937 a tourist was just minding their business until they found a stone, but not a normal everyday stone. This tourist gave this stone to some experts so they could figure out what it was. This stone was inscripted with the words “Ananias Dare & Virginia Went Hence Unto Heaven 1591 Anye Englishman Shew John White Govr Via”, which means that whoever found this stone was to tell her father Eleanor's husband and daughter were dead. On the other side there were more words saying that only seven of the 115 settlers were alive and that the Native Americans had killed the rest, this was signed by Eleanor White Dare. After that 47 more Stones were found. Claiming that at first they were safe and were living with a local Native American tribe, and that Eleanor had married the chief and then gave birth to a girl named Agnes and that the colonists were mad, and then saying that Eleanor has died. These rocks were thoroughly examined and it was found out that the first one was real but the rest were fakes and made with a drill.
There are a lot of more crazy and far fetched theories as to what happened to the small colony of Roanoke. There are theories of witchcraft, supernatural beings or maybe the colonists just simply left, or maybe there was some kind of zombie apocalypse that occurred but we will never be truly sure. Until more research has been conducted. Maybe this will forever remain as an unsolved mystery forever. People have gotten pretty close to finding out what happened, but just when they think they found something they find themselves at a dead end and just give up. Finding out what happened to the colony would be a great and wonderful discovery.