04x04 - The Lost Colony of Roanoke

[bunniefuu]

Tonight, one of America's

oldest mysteries.

They're gone.

The entire colony

is just gone.

A group of English settlers

vanish without a trace,

leaving behind

only cryptic clues.

The houses had been

dismantled, taken down

And the letters C-R-O

carved into a tree.

Now, we'll reveal

the top theories

behind their potential fate.

He admits that he had

a group of English colonists

k*lled many years ago.

They could've perished

on the small boat.

The colonists survive

and they're in Georgia,

taken in by natives.

Can advanced technology

finally provide answers?

Something was covered up here.

A small detail that may be

hiding a big secret.

What really happened

to the Lost Colony of Roanoke?

July 25th, 1587

just off the coast

of present-day North Carolina,

three ships

carrying English settlers

land on Roanoke Island.

About 115 men, women,

and children,

along with John White,

the governor,

arrived off the coast

of North Carolina.

Their goal was to create

the first permanent

English settlement

in the New World.

Two years earlier,

the English sent

a group of mostly soldiers

to try and colonize Roanoke.

But it ends in disaster.

With severe food shortages,

att*cks from the hostile

Native American

population there,

many die, and they barely escape

just getting back to England.

Governor White is determined

to do better this time,

and he has more than

just his life on the line.

On this expedition was

John White's

very pregnant daughter Eleanor

and her husband Ananias Dare,

among other colonists

who are there who are

also ready to start

their families and settle

in the New World.

On August 18th, 1587,

Eleanor Dare gives birth

to her daughter, Virginia.

The first English child born

in North America.

Unfortunately,

there's no time to celebrate,

because the colony is

running dangerously low

on supplies.

You'd think they would've

learned from their last

expedition, but as they start

to take inventory,

they realize they're not

gonna have enough provisions

- to last through the winter.

- The plan had been:

start growing their own crops

and farming livestock,

but there's just

not enough time.

So, someone has to go

back to England

and secure more provisions.

On August 27th,

barely a week after

his granddaughter is born,

White volunteers to make

the transatlantic

crossing himself.

It was quite a journey,

took him two and a half months

to get back.

When they finally arrived

back on English soil,

it was November.

Governor White quickly loads

five ships with supplies.

They are pretty much

ready to sail.

But the problem with this is,

there is a stay of all shipping

commanded by Queen Elizabeth I,

because the Spanish Armada

are making

the most untimely arrival.

England is on the brink

of w*r with Spain.

That means that

Queen Elizabeth's hands

are tied and her money is

more focused on w*r efforts

than a failing colony.

White has no choice

but to stay in England

indefinitely.

Meanwhile, at the colony,

they expect White

to return in six months,

and, of course,

they don't know

about the w*r news,

but you can imagine

their sinking feeling

as six months go by

and then a year

and then two years.

Ultimately, it takes White

three full years

to return to the coast

of North Carolina.

When he does,

it's August 18th, 1590,

the third birthday

of his granddaughter,

Virginia Dare.

But Governor White doesn't

return to his family.

He returns to a mystery.

They're gone.

The entire colony

is just gone.

At some point

in the previous three years,

everything and everyone

had just disappeared.

There's no evidence

that there was

any kind of battle,

there's no evidence

of bones or bodies

that might indicate

an altercation

between the colonists

and the indigenous people.

What's weird is that there's

basically nothing left behind,

and the town isn't

so much abandoned,

it's been dismantled.

All of the buildings have

been carefully taken apart.

The tools, the boats,

the provisions,

it's all been taken away.

The big mystery is

where did they all go?

White and a few men spend hours

searching the site.

They turn up only two clues.

Carved into a fencepost,

White and the English see

this word, "Croatoan."

And then carved into a tree,

three letters, C-R-O.

When White sees

the word "Croatoan,"

he was actually quite jubilant.

He knows exactly

where the colonists have gone.

The Croatoans are

a tribe located

just directly south of Roanoke.

John White assumes

this was a full-scale

relocation by the colonists

to live with the tribe.

Now, you might think,

based on those carvings,

that there's another option.

That the colonists were

att*cked by the Croatoans.

But John White doesn't think so.

First of all,

there's the careful

dismantling of the town,

and you don't do that

if you're under att*ck,

and secondly,

White and the colonists have

a plan for what to do

if they are under att*ck.

Prior to leaving,

John White gave

explicit instructions

to the colony.

If they were in distress

or if they were in danger,

to carve a Maltese cross

on a tree.

But there's no Maltese cross.

White returns to his ships,

intending to sail south,

to Croatoan.

White has come with two boats,

the Moonlight and the Hopewell.

But the crews are very antsy,

and they don't wanna spend

any more time in this hostile

territory than they have to.

Imagine it

from their perspective.

These are people who'd signed up

on a resupply ship

to come over to a place

that they thought was

going to be safe.

These people had not been hired

to go in search

of Lost Colonists

who, as far as they knew,

might've been held c*ptive,

might've been

in the midst of a w*r,

so they had much less enthusiasm

than John White.

At first, they're

willing to give White

another day or two.

They plan to head to Croatoan

the next morning, August 19th.

But they run into problems.

The Hopewell's

anchor cable breaks,

and there's no way

that they can risk

going out into

the treacherous waters

of the North Carolina

inner banks.

The waters are very shallow.

The ship could be shipwrecked

and cause an extreme danger

for the crew

and others on board the ship.

A desperate White

appeals to the crew

of the Moonlight.

The crew of the second ship,

the Moonlight,

are not willing

to risk their lives

in order to find

the Lost Colonists.

They don't have as much invested

in this as John White does.

Certainly he's thinking

of his family.

They're just thinking about

making it back to England safely

before the brutal

Atlantic winter sets in.

So the Moonlight goes

back to England,

but White is able to get

a small team to agree

to repair the Hopewell,

sail to the Caribbean

for the winter and then return

to North Carolina in the spring

to resume the search.

But it's as if

this guy was cursed.

After White and the crew

repair the Hopewell,

they set sail for the Caribbean,

but then a freak storm comes up,

they get blown way off course,

and they're forced

to return to England.

White attempts

to raise the funds

for another search

and rescue mission but fails.

One can imagine how devastated

John White must've felt.

He's so close

to finding his family.

He's only 40 miles away,

but he can't make it to them,

and after three years,

he passes away,

never to return,

and never to know the fate

of what happened to the colony.

News of the Lost Colony spreads

throughout Europe,

and while White is never able

to find out what happened,

ships begin to visit

the area again

some seven years

after his death.

Occasionally,

other European ships

visit the outer banks

during the 1600s.

But once we reach the 1700s,

it's a pretty

heavily-traveled area.

And no one ever actually sees

the missing colonists.

But they do find evidence

that perhaps

they have blended in

with the local tribes,

just as White believed.

One expedition reports

Native tribespeople

with European features.

Fair complexions,

light-colored hair and eyes,

and some even claimed

to have European relatives.

Additional proof can be found

in architecture.

One expedition reports

a Native village

with timber houses built

in the English style.

It seems likely

that these tribes had

English settlers living

amongst them,

working together, inter-

marrying, having offspring.

Now, all of this is hearsay,

but it is potential evidence

that the Lost Colony moved in

with the Croatoans.

The Croatoan

Archaeological Society,

led by historian Scott Dawson,

has been excavating the area

since 2009.

So, the archaeologists

who have dug

on what is now

Hatteras Island have found

fascinating artifacts

that definitely are made

in the time

of the Lost Colonists.

They found the hilt

of a rapier that is

a kind of sword that was used

during Elizabethan times.

They found fragments

of pottery and dishes,

a copper ring, a brass g*n,

and European coins.

But can we say

that's absolute proof

that the colonists moved in

with the local

indigenous people?

Genealogist Roberta Estes

thinks it's possible

and is using

cutting-edge technology

to try and prove it.

What she's doing is tracing

Y-chromosome DNA,

analyzing people

in the area of Hatteras Island

who may have mixed

Native / European ancestry.

And who share surnames

with the Roanoke colonists.

Estes has turned up a number

of intriguing candidates.

These people may just have

the right background

to be descended

from the Lost Colony,

living proof that

the colonists survived

and mixed with the Croatoans.

But the problem with this is

that an absolute match would

have to identify

a matching family

back in England.

If Estes can find a match

a confirmed descendant

of a Lost Colonist

and a Croatoan native,

that'll be it.

It won't be

the Lost Colony anymore.

But for now

it remains just a theory.

When 115 colonists go missing

from Roanoke Island in 1590,

the English are eager

to re-establish

a presence in the New World,

but it takes them

nearly 20 years to try again.

In 1607,

England finally manages

to establish a settlement

on the James River

in Virginia.

They call it Jamestown.

Like its predecessor,

Jamestown is also plagued

by misfortune.

The English can't seem

to catch a break.

Once again, they don't have

enough to eat early on.

They arrive too late in the year

to plant crops.

The English are starving.

Food shortages get worse

and worse and worse.

The English resort

to some fairly

terrible behavior.

First they slaughter

and k*ll their own animals.

This is not a very good

strategy for long term,

since they need

those animals to survive.

And when those run out,

they turn to eating

rats, mice, and snakes.

Then they boil and eat

their shoe leather

for sustenance.

There is even some evidence

they may have resorted

to cannibalism to survive.

Within three years,

only 60 of the original

214 Jamestown settlers

are still alive,

including a well-known figure

in American history,

Captain John Smith.

John Smith was

such a fascinating guy.

He served as a mercenary,

he was captured by the Turks,

sold into sl*very,

and then eventually

made his way to England

by way of Russia.

Then he ends up in the New World

and becomes the leader

of the new colony at Jamestown.

He is the first English explorer

to map the Chesapeake Bay.

He then explores

the coast of New England

and gives the region its name.

His books and maps aid

English colonization efforts

for decades to come.

While he's struggling

to keep his colony afloat

in Virginia, he's also got

a burning curiosity

to solve the mystery

of the Roanoke colonists.

And it doesn't hurt

that England's King James has

issued an order to launch

an investigation.

Smith works with the Jamestown

colony's secretary,

William Strachey.

In his journals, we can see

William Strachey's research

into the case.

Operating on the assumption

that Native American tribes

might be the only people left

who know what happened,

Strachey dives deep

into a nearby

local indigenous population

called the Powhatan.

The Powhatan are led by a man

named Wahunsenacawh,

more commonly known

as Chief Powhatan.

Chief Powhatan has

a love-hate relationship

with the English.

On one hand,

he views them as a thr*at

to his people

and their way of life.

But he also thinks

the English would be

useful allies

in the ongoing conflict

between himself

and the other tribes.

Today, Chief Powhatan is

best remembered

as the father of Pocahontas.

As the legend goes,

Powhatan's men

capture John Smith

and order him put to death.

But the quite

extraordinary thing

about Pocahontas was

she does seem to have been

quite smitten with John Smith,

and she actually pleads

with Powhatan

to spare his life.

And so consequently he did.

But Chief Powhatan may not have

always been so lenient.

Because, according to Smith

and Strachey's investigation,

he might be responsible

for the destruction

of the Roanoke colony.

Chief Powhatan speaks

to William Strachey,

and he admits that he had

a group of English

colonists k*lled

many years ago.

According to him,

instead of migrating south

to live with the Croatoan,

the Roanoke colonists

head north,

and they stay

with a different tribe

called the Chesapeake.

The Chesapeake are rivals

with the Powhatan,

because they refuse

to bend the knee

to Chief Powhatan's authority

and join the Confederation.

So, when he gets word

that the colonists

are possibly allying

with the Chesapeake,

he claims that this fulfills

a prophecy he's received.

He's been warned that

a great nation from the East

is coming to overthrow

his empire.

Unless he kills them first.

So that's exactly what he does.

After John Smith hears

Chief Powhatan's confession,

he digs deeper.

Smith asks Chief Powhatan

to prove his bold claim,

to essentially,

"Show me where the bodies are."

But Chief Powhatan can't.

Powhatan couldn't show him

where the bodies were.

But what he did do is

show him items

from previous colonies.

And he showed them

a mortar and pestle,

and a couple of other objects,

but again, these could

not be confirmed

as coming directly

from the Lost Colony.

But when Smith sends back

his report to King James,

the evidence is enough

to convince him

that this is what happened,

and if that's

what the king believes,

then case closed, right?

The Powhatan theory becomes

the official version of events

for the next 200-plus years,

but today's historians

question its accuracy.

Some argue that the settlers

that Chief Powhatan

boasts of k*lling aren't

the Roanoke colonists at all.

Instead, he's referring

to a different set of people,

and the confusion happens

because of the language barrier.

Smith was specifically

talking about the colony

of the 115

the last Roanoke colony

that was established.

But Powhatan could've

easily been talking about

the previous colonies

that had come

a couple of years earlier.

Remember, there was

a 1584 expedition too.

Just male soldiers, 15 of whom

were left behind

when that expedition failed,

and that might be

who Powhatan k*lled.

It's certainly true that

a lot of blood was spilled

in this particular chapter

of history,

both Native American

and English.

But despite

Chief Powhatan's account,

we still can't prove

that any of it belonged

to the Roanoke colonists.

North Carolina's

island-dotted coast

is now an idyllic

and popular tourist destination.

But 400 years ago,

it was largely inhospitable,

as Roanoke's colonists discover.

When John White leaves in 1587,

conditions among

the colony were dire.

Food was limited,

and the farming was

not taking hold

as they had hoped.

There was a famine going on.

There was clearly a great deal

of bad weather, and they're

struggling with skirmishes

with Native American Indians.

We know they're not there

when White returns

three years later.

So pretty much every theory

about what happened to them

starts with a relocation;

they have to go somewhere else.

But Roanoke is an island.

So, if they want to flee,

they'll have to cross

a body of water.

Luckily, while they don't have

enough food to eat,

they do have a boat.

The colonists originally arrive

with three ships.

One returns to England

immediately.

One is taken by John White,

and one still remains.

The boat they have left is

called a pinnace,

which is a small, nimble,

flat-bottomed boat,

mostly used for short trips

and errands.

You use it

when your main vessel is

too cumbersome,

or the water's too shallow.

When White finally

arrives in 1590,

in addition to finding

the community dismantled,

the pinnace is gone.

He presumably would've thought

the colonists had gotten on it

and went somewhere.

Where, he wouldn't've known.

The point of them

having this boat is

for fishing or island-hopping.

Foraging or small-scale

exploration.

It's not meant to be

a long-haul ship.

But in a dire emergency,

with no other options,

this has to be their Plan A.

It's either get on the boat,

or die.

And this is where the theorists

really start speculating,

about where they may have gone

on this small boat,

but this fails

to take into account

one other possibility,

that I think is

definitely an option,

that they could've perished on

this small boat.

This is very noteworthy.

So far, throughout

history, really,

all 400-plus years,

searching for the Lost Colonists

has been largely

limited to land.

But I think it's just as likely

that the answers are

in the water.

Unfortunately, this theory makes

finding evidence

almost impossible.

First of all,

you're not gonna see

any trace of what happened,

unless somebody's

randomly diving

or scanning the bottom

of some body of water,

and lucks into

a one-in-a-billion discovery.

It's complicated

to even know where to begin

to look for wreckage

for the colonists.

We don't know

where they left from.

We don't know

how far they sailed out.

We don't even know

where they're going.

If the colonists had decided

that it was time

to sail somewhere,

the most logical place

to go would be

to sail back to England.

They could've taken a short trip

to some other spot

in the New World,

but the New World isn't

working out for them,

so they valiantly try

to go home.

Think about it.

You are stranded with no food

and no hope in a violent,

strange new land.

What do you do?

You try to make it back home,

to a place you're familiar with.

Even if it means risking death.

They had survived

the crossing one way.

Maybe they had what it took

to make it the other way.

Another European colony also

famously made the voyage home,

against even worse odds.

The Roanoke colonists

might've been aware

of a very well-known story

published in Europe

25 years prior.

There was a group

of marooned French colonists

that shares many similarities

to the Roanoke adventure.

It's the kind of story

that would've gone viral today,

but even back then, it managed

to spread far and wide.

In 1562, the French set out

to establish

the Charlesfort settlement,

in what would become

South Carolina,

but by the following year,

these colonists also

run out of supplies.

Their leader,

Admiral Jean Ribault,

sails home for more provisions,

leaving two dozen people behind.

Unfortunately,

upon returning to Europe,

Ribault is

unexpectedly detained,

leaving the settlers

to fend for themselves

in a strange land.

Just like Roanoke.

But unlike Roanoke,

this colony has

a much bigger obstacle.

These French settlers don't

have access to a boat.

So, in 1563,

the Frenchmen build

their own boat.

And against all odds,

logic, and reason,

they make it back to Europe.

Just barely,

but they do make it.

The colonists are

probably thinking,

"If the French can make it

on a boat they built themselves,

then surely we can make it with

a boat that we have on hand."

But the problem may lie

in their numbers.

The population of the colony

starts off

with just over 100 people.

And because

the pinnace was so small,

it's unlikely

that all the colonists

were onboard that ship.

But depending

on when the colonists flee,

some months have passed

without supplies.

Between starvation, disease,

and native att*cks,

there may be far less

than 100 survivors

to board the boat.

Capacity might not have

been an issue.

But stability is.

For any crew crossing

the Atlantic,

it was challenging at best.

These colonists didn't

have instruments,

they were facing rough waters,

and they also were facing

challenging weather.

In addition to that,

this is not a seafaring boat,

this is a shoreline boat,

and with rough seas

and the complications

of the water surrounding

the outer banks,

it would've proved to be

very difficult and very hard.

If they made it back,

surely they would've

returned to their families.

There would've been

some evidence,

but there's nothing to say

that they made it home.

Could the remains

of the Lost Colony be

buried underwater?

So far, no such shipwreck

has been found.

But some researchers

remain optimistic.

To date, scientists have

only been able

to explore about 35%

of the U.S. coastal sea floor.

So there's a lot to go.

Maybe someday,

with advances in technology,

we'll find the remains

of the Lost Colonists

who make it off the island

but don't survive

the journey home.

For centuries the search for the

lost colony of Roanoke

turns up nothing

but tantalizing clues

and dead ends.

Then, in the late 1930s,

a treasure trove

of new evidence is unearthed,

and, if authentic,

it could rewrite history.

By the 20th century,

the leading theories

as to what happened

to the colonists were that,

number one, they joined

with the Croatoans to the south,

and number two, they had

gone north to the Chesapeake,

where they were m*rder*d

by Powhatan's people.

Another possibility is

quite simple.

That they tried

to sail back to England.

There is just

so little evidence.

There's almost nothing

that has survived,

and we haven't even located

the site of the colony.

Roanoke Island is

about the size of Manhattan,

and we don't even know

where they lived on that island.

The primary surviving

written source

for the bulk of the information

that we have on the colony

is from John White's diary,

and, of course, he wasn't there

for the disappearance.

But in 1937,

a new written account is found,

and it's a bombshell.

November of 1937,

near Edenton, North Carolina,

about 60 miles

west of Roanoke Island,

a man named Louis Hammond

is hunting for hickory nuts

along the Chowan River,

when he finds a large rock

that's covered

in strange inscriptions

that appear to be Old English.

Hammond brings the rock

to Emory University

in Atlanta

to have a history professor

named Haywood J. Pearce

help him decipher what it says.

Pearce takes one look,

and he can't believe his eyes.

The carved stone purports

to be a message

from Eleanor Dare,

John White's daughter.

On one side of the stone,

Dare reports the sad fate

of her husband,

Ananias Dare,

and their four-year-old

daughter, Virginia.

They apparently both die

in the year 1591.

Below that, Dare instructs

whoever finds the stone

to bring it to Governor White.

She wants her father to know

what happened to her family,

and making the stone carving

is the best way she knows

how to do that.

On the reverse side,

there's an even longer message.

Eleanor describes

the initial departure

from Roanoke

and the route

they've taken so far.

They travel west,

about 50 miles,

and end up close to the spot

where the stone is found.

Next, she writes that,

after a miserable period

of illness,

starvation, and violent att*cks

from local tribes,

the population of the colony,

which starts off

with just over 100 people,

dwindles down

to just seven souls.

I've looked at this stone

in great detail.

It makes for a great story,

it makes for

a very plausible story.

The problem is,

is there's no record

of where they went.

But she does provide

a hint of a clue.

After the seven colonists bury

the remains of their peers,

Dare writes that

she's inscribed their names

on a grave marker somewhere,

along with further details

of recent events.

In other words, there may be

a second hand-carved message

with more answers.

After reviewing it,

Haywood J. Pearce,

the history professor,

knows exactly

how important this rock is,

so he buys it from Louis Hammond

and launches

this obsessive search

for the second stone.

Pearce believes finding

the second stone

will authenticate

the first stone,

effectively solving

the Roanoke mystery

and earning himself

a permanent spot

in the history books as well.

Professor Pearce offers

a $500 reward

to anyone who can find

the second Dare stone.

By today's inflation,

that's $10,000.

During that time,

the country was still

in the Great Depression,

so we know the hunt was on.

Soon enough,

Pearce's plan works.

The next stone is found

by Bill Eberhardt,

a backwoodsman

from northern Georgia.

He brings a 21-pound rock

to Emory University

that he claim he found

in South Carolina.

Sure enough, it has

the names of the dead

that Eleanor Dare mentioned

that she carved into it.

But Eberhardt's find

doesn't end there.

In total,

within less than a year,

Eberhardt finds

several dozen more stones.

Taken together, they finally

paint a clear picture

of what happened

to the Roanoke survivors.

It's an incredible tale.

They eventually make it

to safety,

after a 500-mile journey

to Georgia.

Together, this evidence

has become known

as the Dare Stones.

According to the Dare Stones,

the colonists survive

and they're in Georgia,

taken in by natives, and

Eleanor's husband passes away.

Eventually Eleanor Dare

is married

to a Native American man

in 1593.

Together, they have

a daughter named Agnes,

and Eleanor dies in 1599.

After Eleanor's death,

Griffen Jones

and Agnes Dare

leave behind obituaries

for the other survivors

as they die off,

but nobody knows what happens

to Agnes or Griffin.

And it's easy to say

Professor Pearce was

very excited

about these findings.

He hosts a scientific conference

in October of 1940,

inviting 34 academic experts

to examine the stones.

A panel of these experts

issues a press release

supporting

the stone's authenticity.

Pearce submits an article

of his findings

to the Saturday Evening Post.

When the article comes out

on April 26th, 1941,

it's quite shocking,

but not for the reason

Pearce expected, because,

according to the article,

the fact-checkers find all kinds

of problems with the story.

The Dare Stones are a hoax.

After examining the stones,

a linguist finds several flaws.

They used words which were

not in the English language

at the time, like "trail"

and "reconnoiter."

One of these stones even

purports to list

names of people,

but those names don't appear

on the ship's manifest.

They seem to be

just fabrications.

Then there's the handwriting.

The 47 stones found by Eberhardt

don't match the handwriting

on the initial stone

found by Hammond.

And they're carved

into a different kind of rock.

It doesn't make

a whole lot of sense.

The timing of the 1937 find

is also suspicious.

In 1937,

it's the 350-year anniversary

of the Lost Colony.

There's a lot of fanfare

built up around this anniversary

and the celebration.

It's also an interesting time

because the country

is in the middle

of the Great Depression,

so it's a wonderful way

to lift the spirits

- of the population.

- In modern terms,

Roanoke could be described

as having a moment.

So, if somebody were

trying to make money

off some bogus artifacts,

this would be the time.

Is it possible that

Eberhardt faked the Dare Stones?

This never occurs

to Haywood Pearce.

Eberhardt to him is

just some manual laborer

with a third-grade education.

There's no way he could produce

such authentic forgeries.

Come to find out,

Eberhardt has a history

of forging and selling

fake Native American artifacts.

While the 47 Dare Stones

forged by Eberhardt

have been officially

declared fraudulent,

some still believe

the original is genuine.

There's still a chance

that the original stone

brought in by Louis Hammond

could be the 400-year-old work

of Eleanor Dare.

Then again, Hammond may have

just been looking

to make a quick buck

and earn 15 minutes of fame

through a scam of his own,

which Eberhardt then took

to an extreme.

Either way, apart from

the Dare Stones themselves,

there's no evidence

that the Lost Colonists

ever ended up in Georgia.

Across four centuries the

writings

of Governor John White are

the only clue

as to the final destination

of the Lost Colony of Roanoke.

John White leaves behind

a journal that's very extensive,

but just like the rest of us,

he's in the dark

about what happened to

the colonists after they leave.

Although he was governor

of the colony,

he was first and foremost

a painter by trade,

and it's because of his drawings

and his incredible paintings

that he produced

during his time

on Roanoke Island,

that we know a great deal about

what life was like amongst

the Native American

Indian population.

White also leaves behind

one other potential piece

of evidence.

A hand-drawn map.

The Virginea Pars map is

arguably the finest piece

of 16th-century

North American cartography

there is.

There were three expeditions

to Roanoke.

White made this map

during the 1585-6

Sir Walter Raleigh expedition

a few years

before the Lost Colonists.

The map shows Roanoke Island,

the colonists' eventual

landing spot

and its surrounding areas

in great detail.

It's incredibly accurate.

You can still look

at that map today,

over 400 years later,

and define

all of the key estuaries,

the lakes, the islands,

it's a remarkable map.

In 2012, a research group

called the First Colony

Foundation

examines White's map

for new clues.

The First Colony Foundation,

they don't even start

by actually looking

at the original.

They go over a high-quality

reproduction of the map,

and something jumps out at them.

A small detail that

may be hiding a big secret.

They see a faint brown shadow,

which seems to have

been overlooked.

This could just be

a topographical outline,

but the team thinks

it might instead be a patch.

Something was covered up here.

Maybe a spot where John White

accidentally spills

a blob of paint,

makes an error,

and it's just covered up

with a piece of parchment.

Or maybe it's something more.

There's only one way

to find out.

They notify the British Museum,

which takes the original copy

of the Virginea Pars map

and scans it

using advanced

imaging technology.

And sure enough,

under the patch is not

an errant paint blob

but what appears to be

a large X symbol.

On maps of the era,

an X is often used to mark

the location of a fort.

The question is, what does

this image of a fort mean?

Was it, in fact,

something that was built

on a previous expedition?

Or maybe it was an idea

that simply never

came to fruition.

- We don't know.

- But obviously John White

knows about it, and, in theory,

when he comes back

with his Roanoke colony,

as their governor,

he might've told

the colonists about the fort.

Could this be where they head

when things turn ugly

on Roanoke Island?

The X is about 50 miles

west of Roanoke inland,

along the Albemarle Sound.

This goes right along

with the passage

in John White's journal

where he instructs the colonists

to go west,

in case of an emergency.

Did the colonists follow

White's instructions?

A team is quickly sent

to excavate the area.

The dig site gets

one of the coolest names

you'll ever find in archaeology.

They call it Site X.

A reference

to the pop culture idea

of buried pirate treasure.

And it's not long

before Site X unveils

a treasure trove of new clues.

There are pottery shards

and pieces of weapons

dating back to the Tudor era,

the exact period

when this mystery begins.

English artifacts

from the period

of the Roanoke colonists

definitely exist at this site.

The problem is,

which English group

did these artifacts belong to?

They can't be dated

precisely enough to tell.

They could be

from the Lost Colony

or the Walter Raleigh expedition

or various other smaller teams

that have visited

the area before.

Archaeologists expand

their search

to a second location nearby.

They name it Site Y.

At Site Y,

there have also been finds

of European artifacts,

but, again, the trouble is

trying to tell

whether they belong

to the Lost Colonists

or to later English settlers.

They're not yet definitive.

We need more evidence.

The First Colony Foundation

continues their hunt

through annual digs,

led by historians,

scientists, and archaeologists.

And whatever they find is

fully analyzed

in a nearby laboratory.

They're confident they know

where the Lost Colony

of Roanoke ended up,

and it's right here.

Now they just have to prove it

with that one elusive artifact

that can establish the link.

We will know that we have

a location for the Lost Colony

when we find something

that is irrefutably

a personal effect

of one of the Lost Colonists.

It has to be a necklace

or a ring that might have

a name or note or something

that positively identifies it

as a Lost Colonist's.

But until we find more evidence,

more hard evidence,

we're essentially

looking for a needle

in a haystack.

"CROATOAN."

A strange word

found in a strange place,

carved into a tree

near the abandoned

Roanoke colony in 1590.

But it may not be the only time

this word is tied to tragedy.

Believe it or not,

there's a theory out there

that the word

"Croatoan" turns up

in several desperate places

in history.

Not just with the Lost Colony.

Not by a long sh*t.

The theory speculates that,

when the colonists

carve that word,

it's not a simple message

of their whereabouts;

it's a cry of fear.

Because, in this case,

according to the theory,

Croatoan doesn't mean

the friendly native tribe

or the name of an island.

It refers to some kind of

supernatural force

that is out for blood.

John White assumes

that the carvings "Croatoan"

and "C-R-O" means

"we've gone 40 miles south

to live with

our indigenous friends."

He goes home devastated,

unable to find his daughter

or granddaughter,

but we can assume

that he has some degree of hope

that maybe they were

able to survive

and perhaps even thrive

with some help of the locals.

But John White might be

very troubled to learn

what allegedly unfolds

over the years,

because, according

to some reports,

the next time "Croatoan"

shows up in history,

it appears to be a dire warning.

The word seems

to resurface in 1849.

Shortly before his death,

the great author

Edgar Allan Poe goes missing.

He eventually shows up

in a state of total delirium,

and what happened to Poe

remains another great

historical mystery,

but something at that time

causes him incredible distress

that may have even

driven him mad

or may have contributed

to his death.

Allegedly, one of the last

coherent things he says

is the word "Croatoan."

There's another story

about the word

tied to an alleged incident

in 1888.

The old west outlaw Black Bart

is a notorious

stagecoach robber,

and he's eventually

brought to justice

and serves four years.

But before he gets out,

it's rumored that he carves

the word "Croatoan"

into the wall of his cell,

and after his release

in early 1888,

he's never seen

or heard from again.

Is this word somehow

k*lling people?

Making them disappear?

What's going on?

The parallels don't end there.

In 1921, a ship called

the Carroll A. Deering

crashes off the coast

of North Carolina.

The entire crew goes missing.

Not found dead.

Just totally missing.

The ship was found abandoned,

and the word "Croatoan"

was apparently

written in the logbook.

Ambrose Bierce is

a famous horror author

who disappears in 1913 or 1914,

on his way to Mexico.

But one rumor has it

that the last bed

he was known to have slept in

had the word "Croatoan"

carved into one of its posts.

And this is a doozy.

Amelia Earhart

famously disappears during

an ill-fated flight

over the Pacific Ocean

in 1937.

But the Croatoan theorists

believe that she leaves behind

a journal with the word

scribbled in it.

It's unclear how

or when this rumor started,

but it continues to be

widely reported.

could there be an ominous link

between these incidents?

In the mythology

of the colonists'

Native American neighbors,

"Croatoan" is the name

of a vengeful spirit

that inhabits their island

and punishes those

who displease him.

He can transform them

into animals, trees, or rocks,

or just k*ll them.

Is this what those other

historical references mean?

Is there some vengeful spirit

called Croatoan

that has been out there

transforming and k*lling people

over these past 400 years?

Of course, the idea

of an evil spirit

associated with

the word "Croatoan,"

causing all these problems,

is regrettably still a legend.

Besides, if the spirit

did transform

the Lost Colonists,

why did it then bother

to dismantle their houses?

Much more likely the colonists

flee on their own.

But what happens to them next

is still anyone's guess.

It's the oldest

missing persons case in America,

and yet today,

there are more people

dedicated to solving it

than ever before.

They're searching land, sea,

and even DNA

to find the answer.

Perhaps one day soon,

the lost colony of Roanoke

will finally be found.

I'm Laurence Fishburne.

Thank you for watching

"History's Greatest Mysteries."