There are secrets that are destined to remain unsolved for a long time. One of them is the fate of the disappeared English colony of Roanoke. It was founded in 1587 on the land of what is now North Carolina and consisted of over a hundred men, women and children.
All the colonists mysteriously disappeared - and for several centuries no one can understand what fate befell people. This story has become one of the legends of America, and the key to its solution has not been found to this day.
Self-styled governor
Roanoke is considered the second British colony in America. True, the first of them existed for only a few weeks.
In 1578, the first colonial expedition headed by the famous navigator Humphrey Gilbert went to the shores of the New World. However, due to storms, the ships had to return to England. The new expedition reached the cherished goal only in 1583. Arriving on the island of Newfoundland, Gilbert founded a small colony of St. John's there and declared himself its governor.
Later, the British tried to survey the area south of St. John's. During the trip, one ship was lost, and with the rest, Gilbert decided to return to England. Unfortunately, they could not cross the ocean, near the Azores, Gilbert's ship began to leak and sank along with the crew.
Promotional video:
First disappearance
The next expedition was led by Humphrey Gilbert's brother, Walter Raleigh. In 1584, the British landed on the American island of Roanoke and surveyed the area for several weeks, visiting the neighboring islands and the mainland. They returned to Britain with samples of flora and fauna, and also brought two Aborigines with them. Both Indians volunteered to sail with the white men and were introduced to Queen Elizabeth.
In honor of Her Majesty, Raleigh named this part of North America Virginia (from the Latin virgo - "maiden"). The knowledge of the wealth of the New World made an impression on the courtiers and trading companies. For his outstanding service to the crown, Walter Raleigh was awarded the title of knight and permission to establish a colony in the New World for 10 years.
On April 9, 1585, an expedition of all men sailed to America and reached its shores in July. About 80 people were left on Roanoke Island to create a British colony and began to settle down in a new place. The colonists had a very hard time: unfamiliar territory, harsh winter, meager food supplies. In the end, having survived the winter and spring, the people decided to return to England - and in June 1586 they left the colony, leaving 15 soldiers on the island.
In 1587, a large group of new settlers arrived at the colony, led by John White, the Queen's appointed new governor. Among the English were White's pregnant daughter Elinor and her husband.
The Roanoke Colony met the new arrivals with silence. 15 soldiers left a year ago have disappeared. The fortifications were destroyed, the houses were overgrown with vines and ivy. No traces of the inhabitants, except for the remains of one person, were found. Everything indicated that the former residents had left the place many months ago. Nevertheless, the arriving colonists landed on the island, which was to become their new homeland.
And less than a month after this event, Elinor had a daughter, who was named Virginia. This was the first British child born on American soil.
The hardships of the colonists
Living in a new place, the settlers realized that they lacked a lot: tools, seeds for crops, weapons, but most importantly - gunpowder and supplies. Relations with the Indians were ruined by the behavior of the English who lived here earlier. White realized that an urgent need to sail to England for provisions and necessary property. He simply had no other choice. He left one of three ships to the settlers and left the colony, promising to return in seven to eight months.
Before sailing, John White agreed with the colonists that if they had to leave the island, they would carve the name of the place where they would go on a tree - and in case of any danger, a cross would be carved out under the name of the new colony's place. The leadership of the people in the absence of the governor was entrusted to his son-in-law.
In addition, the governor secretly took out of the house several chests with expensive personal belongings and buried them in a trench near the fort, hoping to get them after his return.
On August 28, 1587, the day John White sailed, 90 men, 17 women and 11 children remained on the island, among whom was the newborn Virginia. Since then, no one has seen them.
Without a trace
John White's attempts to return to the colonists as soon as possible were thwarted by the war with Spain. His ships came to the shores of the Roanoke colony only three years later - on August 18, 1590.
However, there were no colonists on the island. The fort turned out to be empty, its fortifications were carefully dismantled (most likely for further transportation). Not a single thing was found that, in the event of a sudden flight, could be forgotten or lost.
Everything indicated that the inhabitants of the colony had carefully prepared for their departure. No signs of fighting or fighting were found. The ship and boats were gone. The chests, which White had buried before sailing, survived, but rotted from the weather.
The only clue that could shed light on the fate of the colonists was a message carved into the tree White indicated. It consisted of one word "Cro". There was no cross under the inscription. Two buried skeletons were also found. White suggested that the settlers had moved to Croatoan Island, 45 miles south, but they weren't there either.
What happened to the people?
Until recently, historians were at a loss: what happened to people? Were they killed? But who: Spaniards or Indians? Or, perhaps, in order to survive, they voluntarily left for the tribes on the mainland?
Searches in the area surrounding the colony led nowhere. None of the Indians knew (or wanted to talk) about the missing white people.
Together with the settlers, pets also disappeared - White's people could not find a single dog or chicken. As a result, a dispatch was sent to the queen with the conclusion:
“They couldn't just disappear without even a trace. The devil took them. The disappearance of the settlers of Roanoke Island without a trace is considered one of the main mysteries in human history.
Historians' versions
Scientists have expressed many guesses about the fate of the colonists, but none of the theories have been proven.
The version that the Indians sacrificed white people to their gods did not stand up to criticism - the local tribes did not have a custom to make human sacrifices. And most importantly: if the Indians took the British prisoners, why then, having cut out the word, the colonists did not carve the cross - as a sign of the danger threatening them?
The assumption that the settlers went on a ship to another place and drowned was doubtful due to the fact that completely inexperienced sailors remained on the island who would hardly have dared to cross the ocean. Perhaps the colonists could have been killed by the Spaniards fighting the British. A few decades later, it turned out that the Spaniards actually swam to the shores of the colony in 1588 - but there was no one there.
The lives of the colonists were killed by the epidemic? But where did the bodies of the dead go then? The settlers were captured by a foreign Indian tribe and taken with them inland? Historian John Lawson studied the life of the Hatteras Indians in 1709, and they said that some of their ancestors were white people.
Some representatives of this tribe had gray eyes, which are not found in other Indians. In addition, their names resembled European ones, and words from the English language were present in their speech. Thanks to Lawson's research, it was this version that seemed to be the most plausible until recently.
But it also raised questions: why did the colonists leave instructions on the island to move to one place, and they themselves sailed in a completely different direction? And why in the Hatteras tribe were not found at least some material traces of white settlers: tools, weapons, books, household items?
Wanderers in the ocean
More recently, while studying the circumstances of the death of the inhabitants of another English colony, Jamestown, scientists have put forward another version about the fate of the disappeared inhabitants of Roanoke. By analyzing the width of tree growth rings, biologists from the University of Arkansas have recreated a picture of the climate in Virginia at that time. It turned out that in 1587-1589 there was a severe drought.
As a result, famine would inevitably begin in the colony - and people, seeing no other way out, could risk going back to England on the small ships they had. It is possible that the exhausted crew simply died on the way, and the ships sank during a storm or turned into "Flying Dutchmen", wandering around the ocean with the dead on board.
Now the former Roanoke colony is one of the most popular places to visit. Tourists come to look at the ruins of the fort and the preserved tree with a carved inscription in order to try to independently answer the main question: where did the people go?
Nikolay MIKHAILOV