(#17) Virginia Dare Survived And Was Turned Into A Beautiful White Doe
Many legends about the Roanoke colony center on little Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the Americas and the granddaughter of the colony's founder, John White. When White finally returned to his colony, it was on Virginia's third birthday.
In 1901, Sallie Southall Cotten wrote the poem The White Doe: The Fate of Virginia Dare, a fictional account of what happened to the little girl. In the poem, Virginia is taken in by a local tribe and renamed Winona-Ska. She's loved and accepted by the tribe and, when she grows up, she gets engaged to a young chieftain. Unfortunately, she also catches the eye of an evil witch doctor who turns her into a white doe out of jealousy when she wouldn't marry him.
While this story is presented as fiction, many people claim to have seen a ghostly white doe in the area.
(#2) The Colonists Fell Victim To Cannibalism Or Practiced It Themselves
Unlike the Croatoans, other Native American tribes may have been more hostile to the Roanoke colonists. There's a theory that a cannibalistic tribe could have attacked and eaten the British colonists.
If true, that would explain why no bodies were ever found.
Many native cultures used bones as ingredients for healing remedies, grinding them into a powder form. Although it's a time-consuming task, they would've had time. White was gone for three years, and there’s no way to know exactly when the settlers started to disappear. There isn't convincing evidence that any tribes in the area practiced cannibalism, but there is proof that the colonists of Jamestown resorted to cannibalism in 1609. It’s quite possible their predecessors in Roanoke succumbed to eating human flesh as well.
(#13) The Reptilian Devil Of The Woods Possessed The Colonists
The Croatoans believed that “greater spirits” manifested themselves in the form of elements, and they reported a strange phenomenon that occurred at the same time as the vanishing of the colonists. Birds fell from the sky and large numbers of wildlife died abruptly in the area where the Native people hunted.
The Croatoans told of an evil spirit that took the form of a reptile. They said it was able to attach itself to humans, causing them to demonstrate the demonic traits like violence, rapaciousness, and greed. The Croatoans warned the colonists that the evil reptilian spirit had infested the entire region and once the infighting began, they knew the settlers were infected with the creature’s evil and that’s why they turned on each other.
(#15) The Dare Stones Tell The Story Of The Missing Colonists
From 1937 to 1941, people began uncovering engraved stones supposedly written by members of the Roanoke colony. A man claimed to have found the first stone, a 21-pound rock, somewhere along the Carolina coast. It's believed that Eleanor Dare used it to write a message to her father, John White.
In the alleged account, Dare says the colonists moved farther away from the ocean a short time after White embarked for England, but they were plagued with illness and violent encounters with native tribes until only seven colonists remained.
Through the 1930s, a North Carolina farmer came up with more than 40 more engraved stones, but those have been proven to be fake. The first stone is different, however, and it could be the real deal.
(#1) Local Native Tribes Absorbed The Colonists As Friends Or Slaves
An island named Croatoan (now Hatteras Island) just south of Roanoke is home to a Native American tribe of the same name. Because the settlers developed a good rapport with the tribe and they carved “Croatoan” on the fort's gatepost, many assumed the settlers moved to the island and were absorbed into the tribe. As Scott Dawson's 2020 book The Lost Colony and Hatteras Island shows, this theory appears solid and solves the mystery.
Previous researchers also considered other possible connections to Native Americans.
Some theorize they moved north to join the Chesapeake tribe, or perhaps the Chowanocs or Weapemeocs. In the years after the colony disappeared, many people reported seeing Europeans and European-made goods in the area, though it was mostly hearsay. The Zuniga Map, a chart of the area drawn aroun 1607 by a settler from the Virginia colony of Jamestown, states "four men clothed that came from roonock" lived among the Iroquois. Another English man claimed to see two-story stone houses at the Indian settlements of Peccarecanick and Ochanahoen. British settlers supposedly taught them how to build such houses. Contemporary archeologists unearthed evidence including a gold signet ring, part of a rapier, and a slate and pencil that likely belonged to the Roanoke colonists while living among Native people.
It's also possible the colonists met with Native people who were less friendly. Jamestown colonist secretary William Strachey reported seeing Native tribes with European slaves who were forced to beat copper. To this day, many Native people in the region claim to have European ancestry, but DNA analysis of present-day local families proved inconclusive.
(#6) An Infectious Disease Drove The Colonists Mad
Because of reports from Native American tribes claiming to witness internal warfare among the Roanoke colonists, archeologists also theorize the Roanoke settlers contracted a plague. The illness could have caused delirium, paranoia, or even complete madness among the infected. Those not infected would've wanted to vanquish those who were out of fear of contracting the virus themselves.
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In 1587, under the leadership of explorer John White, British colonists landed on Roanoke Island near the east coast of North America. However, due to the war between Britain and Spain, Captain White joined the war at the request of the Queen of England. Three years later, he returned from the battlefield and found that the residents of the Roanoke Island colony had disappeared. The only clues were two trees with inscriptions. Archaeologists have been trying to figure out what happened in the Roanoke colony.
Since the Roanoke colony disappeared, the British have never given up looking for them. Till today, archaeologists have many speculations and statements but without accurate archaeological evidence. The random tool introduced 17 fascinating theories about the Roanoke colony.
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