Lost Colony Of Roanoke Essay

The Lost Colony of Roanoke is one of the most abiding mysteries in history of New England colonies. The colony consisted of one hundred and seventeen people, including: ninety men, seventeen women, and ten children, one being born after their arrival in the New World in 1587. The entire colony had disappeared by the time English ships returned three years later in 1590, leaving behind only two clues: the words “Croatoan” carved into a fort’s gatepost and “Cro” etched into a tree. Theories about the disappearance have ranged from an annihilating disease to a violent frenzy with local Native American tribes. One theory of what happened to the colony was that they were driven out by local tribes angry that the colonists were taking up good land

and resources; another says they most likely encountered disease, caused by New World microbes their bodies had never encountered before. While another research team thinks some crisis occurred and the colonists split up into smaller groups and dispersed. Many theories continue to be proposed; to this day people continue to search for evidence of the lost colony, but there are no clear answers to what really happened to the first settlers in The Lost Colony of Roanoke.
More than four hundred years ago, Europeans wanted to set up colonies in the New World.

For the Europeans, the New World meant the present-day continents of North and South America. An adventurous english gentleman, Sir Walter Raleigh, sent a group of men to explore the New World. A later expedition established a settlement on Roanoke Island, on the North Carolina coast. In 1596, after abiding winter hardships, lack of food, and disagreements with the Indians. Survivors of this colony returned home to England with Sir Francis Drake. The Raleigh decided to send a second group of colonists. On April 26, 1587, a small fleet set sail from England, hoping to establish the first permanent English settlement in the New

World.
The voyage took longer than the usual six weeks, and the ships finally anchored off Roanoke Island on July 22nd. Once the colonists landed, they began repairing the houses already there and started building new homes. One of the women, Eleanor Dare gave birth to a little baby girl on August 18th and named her Virginia. Virginia Dare became the first English child born in the New World.
The colonists were ill-prepared and not very clever, because, although they depended upon the local Indians for food, the colonists antagonized the Indians by kidnapping them and holding them hostage in exchange for information.

Unfortunately for the colonists, who were desperately in need for supplies, could no longer go to the Indians. The colonists begged Governor White to return to England for supplies.

White was reluctant to leave the colony behind, but he finally agreed. On August 27th, just nine days after his granddaughter’s birth, he set sail to get the supplies and more colonists from England and then return to Roanoke Island. However, White’s plans did not work out that way.

Henceforth, White returned to England. When he returned, King Philip II of Spain and his fleet of warships attacked the British. In result, White could not return to Roanoke until three years later in 1590.

The colony was abandoned. The only clues left behind were the letters “CRO” carved on a tree near the water’s edge and the word “CROATOAN” carved on a post. White and his men continued to search but never found a trace of the colony.

The mystery of the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island had intrigued Americans for centuries. What happened to the lost colonists of Roanoke

Island?
Theories about the disappearance have ranged from an annihilating diseases to a violent frenzy with local Native American tribes. One theory of what happened to the colony was that they were driven out by local tribes angry that the colonists were taking up good land and resources; another says they most likely encountered disease, caused by New World microbes their bodies had never encountered before. While another research team thinks some crisis occurred and the colonists split up into smaller groups and dispersed. Many theories continue to be proposed; to this day people continue to search for evidence of the lost colony, but there are no clear answers to what really happened to the first settlers in The Lost Colony of Roanoke.
Thanks to technological advancements, researchers are getting closer to finding out what happened to the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island. The process began with a satellite survey of the site.
Researchers do this by retrieving the oldest maps they can get their hands on so they can get a historic sense of what’s there now and conform them. The point of it all is to compare what may have been there in the past to what is there now.
Researchers look for similarities between the old maps and the current geography of the site. Once researchers identify where the spots on the map correspond with today’s landscape, a painstaking process of laying out a grid and systematically searching it with their ground-penetrating radar.
The technology emits radio waves into the ground and measures the echo as the signal bounces off of various things buried underground. Essentially, it measures the depth that signals travel before hitting something that causes a measurable bounce back. In other words, signals potentially indicate a hidden object underground.
Metal objects, like iron cannons that have been found at the site, act like giant antennas. Graves and coffins are also detectable, because they contain voids with different densities and poorer conductive properties than the surrounding soil.
The Museum of the Albemarle’s Swindell suggested the use of the proton magnetometer to enable the researchers to double-check their ground-penetrating radar findings. Much more sensitive than a metal detector, the proton magnetometer can spot objects buried about thirteen feet underground. The device measures distortions of the Earth’s magnetic field due to the presence of various objects buried underground.
Unfortunately, neither piece of technology has shed light on the role of Native American populations in the area. That is a puzzle that remains to be solved.
There are theories for other locations to where the colonists might have scattered to, including the one farther south, on Hatteras Island. That site has been known since the 1930s and in the past has yielded intriguing metal items such as a signet ring, part of a horse bridle, two 17th-century coins, and part of the firing mechanism for a gun.
Researchers are now thinking that the colonists made their way south to Hatteras around 1590 and assimilated with the tribe there and after years of cohabitation, European items could have been gradually discarded long after they were brought to the site. This would account for their being mixed in with later detritus.