In 1585, the first English settlement was established by Sir Walter Raleigh, it contained a total of 115 colonists. The first settlers struggled with dwindling food supplies, and were constantly attacked by Native Americans. In 1586 they gave up and returned to England aboard a ship led by Sir Francis Drake. Later, in 1587 Raleigh sent out another ship with a total of 100 colonists under John White. When that group started having the same problems as the other group before them did, White returned to England for more supplies. His return was delayed because of a war in Spain. He returned to Roanoke three years later, to find that everybody was gone. There was no evidence of a struggle, or other problems, the only thing they found was the word CROATOAN carved into a tree.
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We believe the tribes to be specifically the Lumbee tribe, because a couple years later there were reports that they had English weapons and clothes, and already spoke and read English. Some evidence to support this claim is from John White's diary, (or the first website in our reference page,)”this could be no other but the deed of the savages our enemies at Dasamongwepeuk, who had watched the departure of our men to Croatoan.” That indicates that they did go to a native American tribe of some kind. The reason we think there was a drought is because in 1998 an “architect at the college of William and Mary named Dennis Blanton published a paper in science reporting the result of a tree ring analysis of some very, very old bald cypress in Virginia. Blanton himself described his finding as incredible.The worst drought in 800 years took place in the three years after the colonists arrived at Roanoke. The absolute worst season occurred in 1587, right after White left for England.” (That quote is from the fifth website in our reference page.
We believe the tribes to be specifically the Lumbee tribe, because a couple years later there were reports that they had English weapons and clothes, and already spoke and read English. Some evidence to support this claim is from John White's diary, (or the first website in our reference page,)”this could be no other but the deed of the savages our enemies at Dasamongwepeuk, who had watched the departure of our men to Croatoan.” That indicates that they did go to a native American tribe of some kind. The reason we think there was a drought is because in 1998 an “architect at the college of William and Mary named Dennis Blanton published a paper in science reporting the result of a tree ring analysis of some very, very old bald cypress in Virginia. Blanton himself described his finding as incredible.The worst drought in 800 years took place in the three years after the colonists arrived at Roanoke. The absolute worst season occurred in 1587, right after White left for England.” (That quote is from the fifth website in our reference page.