The establishment of the Roanoke Colony ( ) was an attempt by Sir Walter Raleigh to found the first permanent English settlement in North America. The colony was first founded in 1585, but the colonists had disappeared under unknown circumstances when a ship visited the colony five years later in 1590. The colony has since been known as the Lost Colony, and the fate of the 112 to 121 colonists remains unknown to this day.
Roanoke Colony was founded by governor Ralph Lane in 1585 on Roanoke Island in what is now Dare County, North Carolina, United States. Lane's colony was troubled by a lack of supplies and poor relations with some of the local Native American tribes. While awaiting a delayed resupply mission by Sir Richard Grenville, Lane abandoned the colony and returned to England with Sir Francis Drake in 1586. Grenville arrived two weeks later and also returned home, leaving behind a small detachment to protect Raleigh's claim.
Following the failure of the 1585 settlement, a second expedition, led by John White, landed on the same island in 1587, and set up another settlement. Sir Walter Raleigh had sent him to establish the "Cittie of Raleigh" in Chesapeake Bay. That attempt became known as the Lost Colony due to the subsequent unexplained disappearance of its population.
During a stop to check on Grenville's men, flagship pilot Simon Fernandes forced White and his colonists to remain on Roanoke. White returned to England with Fernandes, intending to bring more supplies back for his colony in 1588. The Anglo-Spanish War delayed White's return to Roanoke until 1590, and upon his arrival he found the settlement fortified but abandoned. The cryptic word "CROATOAN" was found carved into the palisade, which White interpreted to mean the colonists had relocated to Croatoan Island. Before White could follow this lead, rough seas and a lost anchor forced the mission to return to England.
The fate of the approximately 112–121 colonists remains unknown. Speculation that they had assimilated with nearby Native American communities appears in writings as early as 1605. Investigations by the Jamestown colonists produced reports that the Roanoke settlers had been massacred and stories of people with European features were seen in Native American villages, but no conclusive evidence was found.
Interest in the matter fell into decline until 1834, when George Bancroft published his account of the events in A History of the United States. Bancroft's description of the colonists, particularly White's infant granddaughter Virginia Dare, cast them as foundational figures in American culture, and captured the public imagination. Despite this renewed interest, modern research has failed to find archaeological evidence to explain the disappearance of the colonists.
Background
The Outer Banks were explored in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, who mistook Pamlico Sound for the Pacific Ocean, and concluded that the barrier islands were an isthmus. Recognizing this as a potential shortcut to China, he presented his findings to King Francis I of France and King Henry VIII of England, neither of whom pursued the matter.
In 1578, Queen Elizabeth I granted a charter to Sir Humphrey Gilbert to explore and colonize territories "unclaimed by Christian kingdoms". Gilbert had helped to crush the first of the Desmond Rebellions in Ireland's Munster province in the early 1570s. The terms of the charter granted by the Queen were vague, though Gilbert understood it to give him rights to all territory in the New World north of Spanish Florida. Led by Gilbert, the English briefly claimed St. John's, Newfoundland, in 1583 as the first English territory in North America at the royal prerogative of Queen Elizabeth I, but Gilbert was lost at sea on his return journey to England.
Following Gilbert's death in 1583, Queen Elizabeth divided the charter between his brother Adrian Gilbert, and his half-brother Sir Walter Raleigh. Adrian's charter gave him the patent on Newfoundland and all points north, where geographers expected to eventually find a long-sought Northwest Passage to Asia. Raleigh was awarded the lands to the south, though much of it was already claimed by Spain. Richard Hakluyt, however, had by this time taken notice of Verazzano's "isthmus" – located within Raleigh's claim – and was campaigning for England to capitalize on the opportunity.