In 1587, English colonists in Roanoke mysteriously disappeared, leaving only a few cryptic clues behind. For centuries since, researchers have wondered what became of the lost colonists. Check out this HowStuffWorks podcast to learn more.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
Loser episode is brought to you by Maloney cookies work. Sometimes that longs in yoga classes just now in the cards, so maybe a cookie is peppered farm. Olano believes you should make some time for yourself once in a while. I know I have a particular space in my sewing room that I like to just take a few minutes. Every day I sit there. I think about things, it's kind of like meditation and munching at the same time being it that yummy beautiful cookie flavour, it makes it luxurious and delightful and I always feel recharge. Mulatto cookies are truly a treat worthy of your me time, their delicate and crispy, with luxuriously rich chocolate in the middle. You really want to keep these just for you so
number two save something for yourself with peppered farm Olano, you guys the impeachment is happening. The president will be on trial, presided over by the chief justice of Supreme Court and that's workin, while keep up with all the impeachment today, a daily pocket,
drawing me haste brown world, these reporter and editor at full speed news. Each morning we'll talk to,
Britain other quarters, to recap the most important news from trumps impeachment. In a way, they won't leave you dead inside, find impeachment
day. On the I heard, radio apple podcast or wherever you get your pockets
welcome to stuff, you missed in history class from house to house works, dot com
ass time, editor gains enjoying vice downright or to ask me God, I throw bags hurriedly Godiva Podcast, but it is true that you know it's almost his quaint eyes.
Cute little eleven century, Anglo Saxon Village worth colonial villages. Just as I think it is
though the buckle than a little thatched roof and the tea, and you know like that. The high spirits of networking
We or you know the whole puritanical outwork be encouraging citizens.
On all their neighbours and tat all and all that kind of thing.
I mean either overhanging running round at the stake. That kind of a valid point I can view colonial life is fairly grim, but I'm pretty glad they stuck it out cause I'm
I recognise and that's funny
has colonial life you're right. It was really grand took a really strong person to volunteer to come over on a boat to
they haven't seen before and
got a life here. It's about survive,
and about finding out
Power Hierarchy and Cream
new life and traditions, and so you look at a place like cloning, a Williamsburg for instance, which is pretty
Yeah. Have you been? I have to get this super cool
Museum tour in every once in a while ago, wax figure in their especially the insane asylum is particularly disturbing.
And there they show they have like a wax figurine. I think a strait jacket with a metal cage over his head.
And it really can drives home. You know you was a good thing,
the insane and colonial and ok
side, Courier Williamsburg is a pretty claim plays bites
sort of ever shattered by the mystery of I guess colonial rule
first, is a very recent compared Roanoke Right, which is a first first settled in fifteen eighty five there's there was egg
but like a hundred people, a hundred men- actually, I should say mainly millet.
Guys, there was a scientist came along and an artist
John. Why who later became governor of of the next Roanoke Colony and it didn't stick now
We got all that while they they lasted ten months, I think- and people had come before. Even this group cannot accept
and they scattered the area. You know, did some surveillance found where the birthplace of B for the settlement, things like those normal things to do on and off the reconnaissance mission. Came these sattler
and they couldn't get along with a native Americans. Arab women. Energetic, wasn't really the natives fall. No. Now there is a policy of kidnapping any time they wanted information food, anything right there
the earlier than ever ran and then let him go what maybe not
There was another incident right after that, fifteen eighty five colony was established. They found a silver cup was
so they burn down in the village.
Need. I waited for tuna in the worst part. This is especially with the patents that they were pretty friend
with the english settlers. From the moment they arrived
and the first wave of settlers the first hundred men, that came really did a lot too
chip away at those in a warm feelings, pretty quick, they dared, and you know it I run because they were depending on as they call them the savage area for food
and resources, and no thanks forgiven. Essentially, like Eve explained and
Finally, they were under
such a heavy threat of attack from the native Americans at the men had to pick up and leave and didn't have any more supplies, and so
cut it out alone oak, and I ran away, I think about two weeks later. The next group came while they think the people from the this group
admit that had left for England go get supplies. They arrived about two weeks after Sir Walter Raleigh showed up and took the the hundred men back to England. So this the supply should comes to. It
later finds no one there and
you know they don't want to give up their stake in the new world, so they
the guy Glenville, I believe, grenville- sorry, he leaves fifteen soldier
behind the kind of man the settlement until more colonists can be rounded up and brought back to the new world
and while that may, if in a wise decision when it comes to holding onto your land, there is very poor decision in terms of relations with the native Americans, because here were really fired. A group of people who were mounted all things,
Panzer and these new men come in
Maybe they have some idea of the precedent that their fellow Europeans who set, but maybe not, I would signal, and so even if they try to establish relations with the locals
It was all shot peer because they were simply killed off really fast. We don't know exactly when they were killed off, but when the second wave of coyness arrive in fifteen eighty seven about twelve months later, there was nothing but one set of bones of one of the soldiers. So you know
that he'd been killed in our long enough, a girl so that all that was left his bones. There was no routing flesh or anything like that, and I think that their ways I gave a gallop,
and of some sort of how
or had or something nearby was all pretty the lava deeply.
Try it was try ass yeah, I was trash and in this new group or Sattler
it was men, women and children.
This is a settlement that Martin that much resembled later colonies. There were. There is ways to reproduce
new kids and was clearly a colony that was intended to to plant and actually than the male colonists of this colony were called planters so that they wanted.
And a plant this english seed in the new world and let it grow and actually the first english baby
was born in the new world order, is in dire need of Virginia there and she was actually
and daughter of John White, who was the artist who'd been on that fifteen eighty five expedition, and here
the government areas that I'm right you for governor now and they
set up a nice little village for themselves. They think they have two story: little houses with that prove something seemed to be going pretty well, but again, no surprise
Tensions exists between native Americans, chinese people, another between all the native American Tribes
Some are actually a little bit friendly and while you are they the patents, they manage to get back in their good graces again. But there are plenty of other tribes. There had been a hostile from the start or had grown hostile from the fifteen eighty five expedition. They either kept their destiny in some
think that there were any attacks on the second Roanoke
money that we know of that were documented, but at the very least they weren't helping these people out. So basically they
At the patents to rely on and supplies from England, which is, I think, thirty six hundred miles away from the outset-
North Carolina was were. Roanoke is right there in a precarious position. They were and why actually had to leave, backed in, like a more than my view after and here is where I think, tat mysterious. Here's that here's the factor fiction, part in a most people- think Roanoke last colony
They. They assume that the Indians there was an indian attack and the colonists the colony was wiped out. So let's make that the factor fit in with you, wanna tell
that fact or fiction. We don't really. Now I may go with facts my default answer and when White came back, everyone must die unjust.
Gone gone, and it wasn't. You know bone
here and there, like the fifteen soldiers before it wasn't dilapidated heights. Like the boy he wrote later that they ve been taken down yeah, they indicate that they had been destroyed, burned or anything like. That is that they were there any longer exactly and he looked for a maltese cross, which is essentially a symbol the day
three two years to indicate distress, none and there was one
Claire there too, but one
half way.
The word Croton right right was carved into this impromptu fort. Basically, the colonies had built of of wall around
where the settlement had been and on one of the post postal of this, this fort was carved the word Croton
toying with an island nearby were friendly. Patents lived right and because there was no answer
there is no Maltese promised carved in
governor. Wait assume that the colonists head out and moved to Croton right for protection, food resources. Something like that. The other half of that clear with that on another post or a tree
a tree ways. The word crowd like seminar in this area too. Right cried how high they ran out the sunrise or something like tat. When I went back and did it all think, that's the only clue. That's it
in our current makes. You gonna beat your headache.
The Wall, because no one,
other really investigating that disappearance and
FED England launched a few afflict the ships to go over, but people sir I've used it to their
I worry and overtook these missions as mercenary trips relay to go and exploit different parts of the land and sort of investigating what happened a Roman out. You have to wonder why John Weight than through the moon think about it. His his daughter, son in law and granddaughter, were among the missing.
Harry is on Roanoke, Island and crow. Towing is a hops given a jump away. The problem is when he went to go, get supplies
that there was an attack on England by the spanish Armada. So he was delayed basically three years before he could go, get back to Roanoke and by the time he could get back the only way to get there. He knew in have supplies. He was basically again.
On this passenger ship. We had no say in when what the ship data or where it went so, the yeah, I believe, the these ships captain
say that they were gonna, go up for a little piracy and before they could the I think the season changed in they headed back for England, so he's so close to Croton, impossible
The answer is that what happened to this colony and he had to leave her frustrating
if you read first hand accounts of what he observed. He wrote
that they moved inland. I think you're dimension in our miles and miles into the main, and I
to wonder, was that away
consoling himself. Maybe he he thought it was just a mysterious and upsetting, and perhaps he convinced himself that doubts but help
He couldn't probe any further. He didn't have the resources are time and so thats, just how wise they just moved enlightened and, though
then a reassuring answer. It would have been better, but don't you find a curious that he specified at a distance fifty, my
the main and also
the main has come and contention that the thing I
I into is fifty miles inland into the mainland. Other people have said the white men fifty miles north,
I don't know you get into the main or north from into the main, but that would place the settlers and about the Chesapeake area, which was
where they were originally supposed to be going. They were just stopping at Roanoke to make contact with those fifteen soldiers, found him dead and
only the pilot of the ship who was going to take them to the chest peak colony, refused to take him any further, so they were stuck in Roanoke search like mystery upon mystery,
holding this day, there's an anthropologist, namely Miller, and, I think, she's out of Vanderbilt University. Maybe I can't remember
sorry I miss Miller, but she she suspects that the whole thing was sabotaged.
By people who are out to undermine sir.
Walter Raleigh, who had an excuse.
Patent on the new world and at that pilot, refusing to take it, take take the colonists. Any further was part of this. This plot to thwart the colonists success
Some may have an conspiracy greatly simpler dazed and it wasn't until sixteen or something
when the Jamestown colony came into play. There was time and there were resources to dedicate to the disappearance of the Rona colonists,
It's funny is that when people got two Roanoke, they couldn't even
really where the settlement would have done. You know which part of the island was it where the cannons were,
in our further inland. Now the cannons were located in the sound in the little inlet, basically, and that that's for the cannons where this were vote should have been
John White found no evidence of any of these
regional. So my head Afford Fort Raleigh and that's where people have been digging pretty much, since I think the nineteen forties, when serious scientific digs or a began to be underlined
and they found no evidence of the second settlement so
not only were the colonies lost. The colony
health is literally lost. We have no idea where it is where it went and because, when I got an island people to use this fact that erosion may have why some evidence away in part to Verona could be underwater now and the mystery,
and even more, if supposedly therewith,
I may on who either
adverted lay or you notice the live in and around some help,
the Spanish, where Roanoke, why
eyes and that he was on route there, and this is what England was doing with the land and the English in this.
Where none to friendly, so people think that the Spaniards may have come in and cause the mischief
or that there was a shift in power among other native american tribes, and even if the roan colonist for friendly with one of the tribes, they would have been no match against a big tribal
I guess uprising may lie back, that's it. It's one of anthropologist. Miller's theories is that there was a
shifting power from the patents who were friendly with the roan colonists. They lost their can
all of the area and to fill it power vacuum. Other tribes who are hostile to the colonists rose up, took power.
Had. If that happened in the row knows the Rona colonies have moved fifty miles into the main right, then they would have been walking into just at this
the tribal war and they would have been slaughtered. The men would have been, and the men inside a women and children live in thought of flies right, yeah and in there is apparently training network from Virginia to Augusta Georgia all up and down the coasts of the
The evidence of them would have been lost, even if they had been subsumed into any tried that that that purchase them, basically- which is another theory right, and there is one more possibility at least find more
it's a little bit more peaceful and a little bit of a slight happier ending, and that is that the colonists moving
and they assimilated into native american tribe and things were hunky dory they inner married and produce an entirely new subset of people. Though,
the Lundy until there is called the lumber connection run and a lot of people.
Made it over to the area later said that they would see. People who had european draw us are european.
Energy and and speech associating with
native Americans, or that even there were some people who,
like they were neither native American entirely nor european entirely. Maybe they had darker scan, but they also had left
colored eyes, a european tourism must think french or english settlers who were hunting and
having in the North Carolina area who made the first documented contact with the lumber. Try
So you imagine you meeting this tribe, who are supposed to have come in contact with any any whites and they can
read and write and speak English and some of
have gray eyes, which is an anomaly among native Americans and their house.
Look a lot like the houses we see back in England. There is a lot of support to this. This lumber connect
in the lumber themselves, alot of em, but it's part of their oral tradition that the ruin colonists
soon into their true
even though they form the lobby, but that's also in dispute there's a especially back during the I guess, the anglican cessation of native Americans in the nineteenth century. This is a big kind of fun. I there is enough
energy crisis among tribes and a lot of Colombia as far as I understand kind of they, they don't really like to talk about their white heritage because it may make them perceived, is less than native american law. For my name, I
thinking that they were some elated and to the native american building. On the one. The connection I mean if there were houses and the area that looks familiar to what the roan colonists hide on Roanoke and if John White observed that these houses had been, I guess, disassembled, for lack of a better term. I think they probably just took all their supplies, other research resources behind
sort on roman hook and moves rail inland locally, so vector fiction with your wits.
A verdict on the indian attack, our guy, you say a fiction. I guess
I don't even know what can I say facts and that's it achieved compound bags, and maybe this is actually know it now, I'm not gonna give it. Anyone aggravates bag, friction armed action towards the outlines of ages, a throne mystery, and you want more details about it. You can read what happened at the last colony at Roanoke body also works for more on this and thousands of other topics how stuff works, dot, com? What is no, what should they send? An email to podcast Housetop works dot com. I am Bobby Rome welcome to my podcast beyond the baby,
from my heart, radio, I'm here to be sitting down with different people each week that I think we can all learn from. I hurt radio is number one for podcast, but don't take our word for listen to beyond the beauty. I hurt radio APP Apple Todd cast or ever you get your podcast, because we all have something to learn about the real me. I don't think America has ever gone back to the way that it was due to a sniper the gun,
most likely a skilled marksman fired six times in the course of sixteen hours. The police over have never had a crime quite like this
is quite a mystery and then, as the DC sniper case, unfolded that terror boldly group. This was the most intense man Hunt in american law enforcement. History, listen to monster DC, sniper on the eye hard radioactive apple podcast.
Or wherever you get your pockets.
Transcript generated on 2020-02-07.