What happened to Roanoke?

[reddragonlord]

The lost colony, Roanoke, is a mystery to historians even now. The fact that a colony just disappeared with all of its inhabitants does not make sense. Roanoke was founded in 1587 by Sir Walter Raleigh, who after its founding left to pursue other things. When he returned three years later, he found the place abandoned. The strange thing was, though the people were missing, the whole site was intact—the buildings still stood untouched. If they were attacked by Native Americans, then certainly Roanoke would have been burned and leveled to the ground. So what did happen?

Destroy the unbelievers!

[BTS]

Originally Posted by reddragonlord

The lost colony, Roanoke, is a mystery to historians even now. The fact that a colony just disappeared with all of its inhabitants does not make sense. Roanoke was founded in 1587 by Sir Walter Raleigh, who after its founding left to pursue other things. When he returned three years later, he found the place abandoned. The strange thing was, though the people were missing, the whole site was intact—the buildings still stood untouched. If they were attacked by Native Americans, then certainly Roanoke would have been burned and leveled to the ground. So what did happen?

Destroy the unbelievers!

Sir Francis Drake, on his way home from the West Indies, arrived at Roanoke Island in the summer of 1586, the discouraged colonists opted to return to England with Drake.

I believe they left in 1586.
What do you think?

[Philadelphia Eagle]

This is indeed one of the great mysteries of our history.

I saw an excellent documentary on the subject some time ago on the 'TRUE' channel.

While the program didn't draw any definitive conclusions they felt it to be a 'strong possibility' that the settlement was abandoned intact by the disillusioned inhabitants who took up Drake's offer to return with him as BTS suggests.

[john8pies]

Not 100% relevant, but did you hear about that ship (the Marie Celeste) that was found floating in the ocean with its tables set for dinner, etc, but NOBODY on board and NO INDICATION as to what had happened? Spooky!

[john8pies]

(What is perhaps even spookier to myself is that the ship left New York on 7 November - my birthday (!) -even if I have to share it with Joni Mitchell! - which was the same date (though obviously in a different year!) that there was a definite sighting of runaway earl Lord Lucan who disappeared after the murder of his children`s nanny (AOL Research & Learning: The Disappearances if you don`t know what I`m talking about - it also mentions Roanoke on the same site)