All language subtitles for Historys.Greatest.Mysteries.S04E04.The.Lost.Colony.of.Roanoke.1080p.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H264-WhiteHat_track3_[eng].1

♪

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
killed 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,

attacks 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 war with Spain.

That means that
Queen Elizabeth's hands

are tied and her money is
more focused on war 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 war 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
attacked 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 attack,
and secondly,

White and the colonists have
a plan for what to do

if they are under attack.

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 captive,

might've been
in the midst of a war,

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 gun,

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 kill 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 slavery,
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 threat

to his people
and their way of life.

[gunshot]

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 killed

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 killing 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 killed.

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 attacks,

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 murdered
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 attacks

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 shot.

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
killing 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 kill them.

Is this what those other

historical
references mean?

Is there some vengeful spirit

called Croatoan
that has been out there

transforming
and killing 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."

♪♪

White's first mission is