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For the United States, Roanoke is like Dyatlov Pass for Russia: a little-studied place where something terrible once happened to a group of people, but what exactly caused the tragedy no one knows and will never know, at least because the direct participants in the events have long been no longer with us. The understatement, leaving continuous questions without answers, excites the imagination of descendants. And let the absence reliable evidence and the general lack of information about “cases of bygone days” complicate any attempts at serious investigations, there are also advantages: Hollywood stories grow well on this material, all the more terrifying because they are involved in “real events.”

The main plot of the sixth season of American Horror Story revolves around Shelby and Matt, an interracial couple tired of rampant crime in... big cities and decided to start new life in the outback. The house they bought in the forest of North Carolina turns out to be a dangerous place, where crowds of sinister characters in medieval clothes visit at night. They place dead pigs on the doorstep, climb into the house, scare its owners, etc. The couple first blames local bikers who decided to harass strangers, but then begins to suspect some kind of paranormal intervention. Even the surrounding forest gives the impression of a living organism: the trees in it sway without wind, and the earth moves as if breathing... In general, the authors of the series have a lot of imagination.

Of course, showrunner Ryan Murphy didn't want viewers to find out ahead of time that the plot of the new season has something to do with Roanoke, so the subtitle, which includes this word, contrary to tradition, was not announced until the premiere. But now that the genie is out of the bottle, no one is stopping us from clarifying what exactly inspired the scriptwriters, and maybe even, by studying the facts, finding the key that explains what will happen next to Shelby and Matt. Real story, associated with Roanoke, is, of course, much more prosaic than Hollywood horror films, but in its own way it is quite entertaining.

Data

Late 16th century Sir Walter Raleigh - English statesman, admiral, scientist, poet, polyglot, close friend of Shakespeare, one of the favorites of Queen Elizabeth I - undertook to organize in the territory North America first permanent British settlement. From his first days at court, the young careerist, who quickly became one of the richest men in England, was looking for an opportunity to distinguish himself by pleasing his aging patroness; For this purpose, he equipped an expedition to America in 1584, from which his envoys brought tobacco, corn and potatoes. Raley immediately decided to expand on the success and sponsored new expedition- now with the goal of consolidating the English presence in the New World.

Both the queen, who gave Raleigh an exclusive ten-year right to found a colony, and her favorite himself agreed on the goals: Elizabeth needed a naval base to deter the Spaniards, who were actively engaged in the colonization of North America, while Walter was especially interested in the stories of local Indians about gold reserves hidden under earth.

Despite the fact that his contemporaries considered Raleigh an impudent and upstart, today he is revered as the first British colonizer of America and the founder of American civilization in general. Unfortunately, the pioneers are not always lucky: both colonies organized by Walter did not survive even a few years. However, it was not he who had to deal with the difficulties associated with their functioning, but other people, since Rayleigh was too busy at home and did not swim anywhere himself.

At first everything went well. The first attempt to organize a colony was made immediately after the first expedition, during which Philip Amades and Arthur Barlow, who led it, explored the mainland coast, established relations with the Spanish colonists and the local Secotan and Croatoan tribes. But the next expedition, organized in the summer of 1585 and led by the famous naval commander Sir Richard Granville (a friend and relative of Raleigh), turned out to be far from so successful: although Granville chose a good place for a colony on Roanoke Island and quickly built a small fort there, he managed to quarrel with the indigenous inhabitants, accusing them of stealing a silver cup and completely slaughtering an entire village. The rude disposition of the corsair, famous for his ability to bite glasses in anger and kill enemies with one blow of his fist, was extremely far from diplomatic refinements. In addition, one of his ships ran aground, and in order to free it, the sailors had to throw almost all their food supplies overboard.

In these circumstances, Granville sailed home, promising to return in the spring of 1586 with help, but the colonists could not withstand the harsh tests: with almost no food, surrounded by angry natives, they quickly began to miss their native places. Since the promised reinforcements did not appear either in April or May, and the natives repeatedly tried to attack the fort, its inhabitants fled back to England at the first opportunity (on the ships of Francis Drake, who was just returning from a campaign in the Caribbean). On the way, they missed Granville, who arrived in Roanoke just two weeks later. Finding the fort abandoned, the 400 new colonists suspected that this was a bad place and did not want to stay there either. Almost all of them turned home, but only 15 guards remained in the fort - the minimum number that allowed us to say that the Raleigh colony was nominally functioning.

This shameful state of affairs did not suit the royal favorite: he had already spent 2 years, another 8 remained, after which the right to colonize North America and develop its wealth would pass to someone more fortunate. They had to hurry, and in 1587 Raleigh equipped a new expedition led by his friend, the artist John White. He already had experience exploring Roanoke, having participated in both previous trips. White performed so well in organizing the expedition that Raleigh appointed him governor of the island as a reward. But upon arriving at the place, the Englishman again found an empty fort. The Indians of the Croatoan tribe - the only one with whom the pale-faces had not yet had time to quarrel - said that one of the enemies attacked the village, putting the colonists to flight. Of the 15 soldiers, nine allegedly survived - they managed to sail on a boat down the Roanoke River, but no one knows where they went after that.

In fact, White intended to build another, more reliable fort in the Chesapeake Bay area, and only stop briefly at Roanoke on the way to this point. But the Portuguese navigator Simon Fernandez, with whom the captain did not immediately have a good relationship, considered it humiliating for himself to obey “some artist” and insisted that the ships remain on Roanoke. As it soon turned out, this was not the best idea.

Attempts to make peace with the locals yielded nothing: having decided that the new colonists were no better than the old ones, the Indian tribes flatly refused to make contact. When one of the aliens happened to fight off their comrades, they were mercilessly destroyed. The British were despondent and wanted to use the tried and tested method - to return home, but Fernandez, according to him, had orders to deliver people only in one direction, so they were not allowed back on the ships. He ignored White's objections, so in fact it was arbitrariness and rebellion.

In general, judging by the entries in the captain’s diary, which conveys details of the captain’s constant conflicts with the navigator, Fernandez was that kind of guy. Refusing to obey the orders of his superior, he and his team did everything possible to lead the expedition to failure. A professional in his field when it came to technology and navigation, in all other respects he turned out to be completely unbearable, uncontrollable and obviously harmful to the common cause - it was not for nothing that the sailors called him among themselves nothing more than a “pig.” It is not known for certain why he behaved so brazenly, although some historians believe that he was persuaded to resort to sabotaging the expedition by the Minister of Intelligence and Counterintelligence Francis Walsingham, who was enraged by the rise of the “upstart Raleigh.” Elizabeth's favorite should have been made out to be a loser, having thwarted his colonialist plans. A former pirate Fernandez simply could not evade the delicate assignment, since he owed his life to his patron: thanks to Walsingham’s intercession, he had once managed to avoid hanging for the murder of seven Portuguese sailors, and now he was probably paying him back “quid pro quo.” According to another version, he and the team expected to rob way back oncoming ships, and did not want the colonists to get in the way at this time.

One way or another, only White eventually returned to England, whom the colonists asked to talk to Raleigh and explain that life on Roanoke was too dangerous for Europeans. White was not sure that this argument would help, but he still believed that he was going to England for good reason - the colony needed to replenish its quickly dwindling supplies of provisions. And in the event that something really bad happened to the settlers, they promised to carve a symbol on the tree - the Maltese cross.

For White, leaving home in August 1587 was not an escape: he really wanted the colony to grow and strengthen, and was not afraid of difficulties. His family remained in the fort, whom he expected to see again soon, and the fort itself, when the opportunity presented itself, would finally be moved to a more comfortable spot. But difficulties arose with the return: at first, none of the captains wanted to sail to the New World due to the imminent onset of winter, and by winter the Anglo-Spanish War flared up, and the queen demanded that all available English ships be involved in it. In March 1588, naval commander Richard Granville planned a new voyage to the New World to surprise the Spanish flotilla in the Caribbean, and at the same time drop supplies at Roanoke, but the trip was canceled - instead Granville was sent to fight the “Invincible Armada” in the English area Plymouth.

And when a month later White managed to send two ships to the colony, their captains turned out to be irresponsible people and decided to simultaneously rob the French “colleagues” they met at sea. As a result, they lost the battle and lost all the cargo, but there was no point in going to America empty-handed, so White returned to England (among other things, he was wounded and needed treatment). The English crown, busy with the war with the Spaniards, at that time cared little about the fate of the colony left in the New World, so for three whole years its head could not get back to Roanoke and had no news from there.

He managed to sail to the island only in August 1590 - without his own ship, as an ordinary passenger, who was thrown to Roanoke by a private privateer ship heading to the Caribbean. On the way, White worried, not knowing whether he would find the colonists alive or dead. But in the end he found neither one nor the other - or rather, he found no one at all. There was not even a fort itself, from which only a palisade around the perimeter remained.

The situation could not be clearly deciphered. 90 men, 17 women and 11 children, among whom was White’s own granddaughter, who was born on the island, disappeared without a trace - no belongings or bodies remained from them (not counting two unmarked graves near the settlement). The village area did not look at all as if someone was fighting for their lives here. The houses were not destroyed: judging by the absence of debris or traces of ashes, they were simply carefully dismantled and carried away. There was no Maltese cross on the agreed tree, which could indicate the non-violent nature of the resettlement. White, just in case, examined all the trees in the area, but found only the letter combination CRO carved on one of the trunks. He guessed what this unfinished inscription could mean when his assistants found the desired word scrawled in its entirety on a fence post - CROATOAN. That's all. White, who searched the nearby territory with a team of his few assistants, was unable to find any other traces of the presence of the colonists.

It made sense to communicate with the Croatoans, since the name of their tribe (coinciding with the name of the island located next door) was scratched on the fence by someone, but there was no time for this - and there were no daredevils either. A storm was approaching, and the ship's crew hurried White, wanting to sail as quickly as possible. John’s assistants saw no point in staying on the island, much less going deep into the territory with their searches, where inhospitable aborigines could be waiting. White seriously suspected that the settlers could go to Croatoan Island, which they probably tried to warn him about with the help of an inscription, but he did not have time to check this guess: the ship could have sailed without him, and the governor was not at all happy about being left alone on Roanoke. The artist never had enough authority in conversations with the military, so the next day he left the island along with everyone else, without finding out the fate of the 120 colonists.

If we believe in the theory that the collapse of the colony was caused by the criminal actions of navigator Fernandez, acting at the instigation of the chief of the British intelligence services, then in a broad sense it turns out that the unfortunate colonists fell victim to palace intrigues. Raleigh, of course, did not forgive the navigator for his pigish behavior during the voyage and made sure that he no longer sailed across the Atlantic. But this was not enough to save the colony. John White never found out what happened to his family, and the ongoing war put an end to further searches. Three years later, John died without waiting for its completion.

In addition, the court career of Raleigh, who sponsored colonialism, collapsed with a bang.

In 1592, one of the royal ladies-in-waiting became pregnant by Raleigh, and he was forced to secretly marry her. He himself tried to escape on a ship to America. Having learned that her favorite was playing tricks behind her back, and even left the country without asking, Elizabeth became furious and sent a whole flotilla after him. Rayleigh was brought back and arrested, but by that time the queen had managed to calm down slightly, so in the end the ex-favorite was released in peace. But from now on he was denied “access to the body.”

Bored at his estate, he soon gave up on North America and followed the Spanish path: he became interested in searching for the mythical country of Eldorado. IN next years Raleigh could not think about anything other than South American gold, for the sake of which in 1895 he even went on a six-month expedition to the territory of today's Venezuela. But he found nothing, and gold mines in those places were explored only two and a half centuries later. The former royal favorite never visited North America in his entire life.

Versions

After 400 years, the answer to the question of what happened to the second colony has not been received. But there are several versions.

1. The first version is related to weather conditions. According to archaeologists who studied annual rings on sections oldest trees North Carolina, in 1587, the worst drought in 700 years hit the East Coast. For colonists with minimal provisions, replenishing food supplies mainly through trade with the locals, this would be the worst case scenario, since drought would lead to widespread depletion of supplies fresh water, the inability to grow crops on their farm and the complete collapse of trade - after all, the Indians would have starved too. And the dry summer would be followed by an even hungrier winter. The prospect of starvation might have forced the colonists to head elsewhere (for example, to the Chesapeake Bay, where White intended to build a new, more secure, virtually self-contained fort). The death of settlers on the road would not be something surprising: as the history of later colonies showed, in dry years the mortality rate among settlers jumped sharply. However, they could be driven out of their place by the local residents themselves, who never had much reverence for strangers - with the onset of drought, they could recognize them as “superfluous” and force them to move away in order to engage in gathering and hunting without unnecessary competition.

2. Another version depicts the British as victims of a hurricane that wiped out their village from the face of the earth. True, this version is powerless to explain why the fence remained intact and why the ruins of the village did not scatter throughout the forest for kilometers around. Surely at least some recognizable pieces of wood should have survived?

3. According to another version, the weather has nothing to do with it. The colonists simply ran out of provisions, and they had to look for new house among those who are more adapted to life in wild places - that is, among the Indians. Many researchers believe that the British simply scattered to the native villages, where they remained to live (as indicated, in particular, by the statements of some Indians that “the blood of the pale-faces flows in their veins” - such stories were recorded over the next 150 years and were supported by the fact that the narrators spoke English and had light gray eyes). Of course, the colonists could have tried to join the Native Americans - if only to hold out until help arrived - but judging by the fact that more than a hundred people disappeared without visible traces, their plan failed. This version has opponents who point to a fairly obvious fact: given the information about the strained relations between the aliens and the natives, they had a better chance of getting an arrow in the eye than joining Indian society.

4. The colonists could have been robbed, killed and buried by the Indians themselves (perhaps by first luring them, under some pretext, to another place along with all their belongings, or by dismantling the village buildings themselves). It was not for nothing that White mentioned in his report the Indian traces he found in the vicinity of the fort. As an option, the settlers could be driven away and sold into slavery, which was actively done by some mainland tribes. Even the Croatoan tribe, which adhered to neutrality, at some point could consider the colonists a burden or threat, or even encroach on the remains of their reserves. Especially if there really was a drought leading to competition for food...

5. There is also a version that the British could have been killed by Spanish settlers who knew about the existence of the colony and, of course, did not welcome the appearance of a naval base among the British. Still, there was a war, and these two peoples were at enmity. Indeed, the Spaniards would have been happy to defeat their competitors (in those years they regularly destroyed French bases), but in this case they were let down by a lack of information: judging by the surviving records, Spanish attempts to find the fort were never successful. The non-involvement of the Spaniards is evidenced by the fact that they did not give up trying to find the English village even 10 years after they put an end to it in England itself.

6. We must give the word to the Indians themselves: if you believe an American newspaper article from 1885, which quotes the Croatoan legend about the pale-faces who arrived from England, their colony did not die, but simply moved. When the British ran out of provisions, the Indians advised them to leave the island and move inland, which they allegedly did. Indirect confirmation of this can be the observations of colonists from new expeditions organized already in the first decade of the 17th century and leading to the formation of the town of Jamestown. The new settlers were looking for any information about their missing predecessors and this is what they dug up: one source reports their meetings with Indians who already knew English from somewhere and were converted to Christianity, another describes rumors about several groups of Englishmen allegedly being held in Indian villages on the mainland as slaves and working as copper miners. These rumors were recorded in 1610, but all the search parties sent by the colonists of Jamestown to check them died (according to another version, not only were they not looking for people, but they deliberately hid rumors about slaves from the population of the Jamestown colony, which already had enough stress) . And it is, of course, impossible to verify their authenticity today, hundreds of years later. But it is worth noting that the Briton William Strachey, who wrote a book about his life in the new colony in 1612, mentioned in it that in some Indian settlements his colleagues encountered two-story stone houses, clearly built using European technology. Something to think about, right?

7. A variant of the previous hypothesis can be considered the version that the colony moved to the mainland, but did not disperse across different tribes, but joined one of them and was later destroyed by competitors. In any case, there is a documented statement by Chief Powhatan (aka Wahunsunakok, father of the legendary Pocahontas), who attributed to himself the destruction of the English colonists who allegedly settled in the village of the Chesepian tribe. After they offended Powhatan by refusing to move under the protection of one of his tribes, the indignant chief ordered the entire village to be slaughtered. Powhatan even showed his interlocutors several iron trophies he had captured - tools with English marks. But where he actually got them remains in question.

Still from the series "American Horror Story"

8. There is also a hypothesis that the British, left without food, tried to return home on the small boats that remained with them, not intended for transatlantic crossings, and drowned during a storm. Such a voyage, of course, would be pure madness - at least that’s why it didn’t take place: judging by White’s information, although the English village disappeared, all the ships remained in the bay.

9. Perhaps the most exotic version is the hypothesis about the hypnosis of Indian shamans, under the influence of which the colonists themselves went to the shore and drowned themselves in the water. Fans of this version claim that when certain conditions hypnosis is not even needed, since people living in solitude sometimes develop special shape hysteria called measuring. In other words, they go crazy, which is expressed in an inexplicable craving for copying other people's words and actions or following orders from outside. Moreover, in some cases this phenomenon can be widespread. Psychologists give examples of such behavior observed in northern peoples, Asian tribes and American Indians. This version is too similar to the story of the Pied Piper of Hammel to be taken seriously, but fans of the series “ Secret materials"Delighted with her. And try to prove that everything really was wrong!

Of course, these 9 versions exclude mysticism and try to more or less reasonably explain what happened to the colonists. But there is no shortage of mystical explanations, since science fiction writers (Stephen King, Harlan Ellison, Dean Koontz, etc.), and after them Hollywood directors, have taken the history of the lost colony into circulation and are actively building the plots of their works around it. And the mysterious word “Croatoan” has become a popular trick “with deep meaning": putting him under some pretext in a mystical horror has become a sign of good form.

The fate of the colonialist

As for Sir Raleigh, it is not for nothing that he is called the founder of American civilization: not only the heyday of his career, but also the end of his life was connected with America. Raleigh made his only attempt to find out the fate of the missing colony in 1602, buying a ship specifically for this purpose and paying the crew well in exchange for a promise not to be distracted by the robberies of Spanish ships. He hoped to return the money spent on the expedition by stocking up on aromatic wood in the New World. But the ship did not reach the island - bad weather forced it to turn back.

And at home, Walter was soon in for a shock: Queen Elizabeth died, and her successor, the Scotsman James I Stuart, accused Raleigh of organizing a palace conspiracy and high treason, ordering him to be beheaded, drawn and quartered. The sentence was unheard of savage and cruel; So many people stood up for Walter (including half the jury) that the execution was postponed, replacing it with imprisonment in the Tower, where Raleigh spent the next 13 years in reasonable comfort. In his cell he wrote books, staged chemical experiments in the mini-laboratory he organized, received dignitaries, and there he conceived his wife youngest son. But in the end, he was so tired of sitting within four walls that in 1617 he decided on a new adventure, promising the king to bring mountains of gold from South America.

It worked. Although the monarch ended nearly 20 years of war with Spain back in 1604, the country was still in economic crisis. It is not surprising that Jacob was seduced by Walter’s promises and gave the go-ahead for an expedition to Guiana. They both knew that the ex-favorite, whose sentence had been suspended but not overturned, was literally risking his neck, and this served as the best guarantee of his diligence. But alas, like last time, Rayleigh found nothing. He would have been glad to stay in the New World forever, but the crew rebelled and forced him to turn home. Walter understood that nothing good awaited him there, and he was right: the angry Jacob caught him in strictly prohibited skirmishes with the Spaniards. Rayleigh really failed to avoid conflicts during the voyage, but this, of course, was a trifle compared to the empty holds. It is believed that it was the disappointed hopes that offended the king, forcing him to take revenge: on the second try, he still sent the former royal favorite to the scaffold.

If we consider this as retribution for the lives of at least 135 colonists, for whose disappearance and probable death on Roanoke Island Raleigh was in one way or another to blame (after all, he was the initiator and organizer of the expeditions), then we can say that justice has triumphed.

By the way

People with a good memory might have noticed that the story of the Roanoke colony was mentioned in American Horror Story not for the first time. In the 11th episode of the first season, the medium tells his version of events: the colonists died, and then returned in the form of ghosts and bothered the local Indians until they carried out the ritual of expulsion (for which they had to burn all the things of the British). As far as can be understood from the first episodes of the sixth season, the writers decided to act in a direction that, by and large, does not contradict this story. According to their version, Thomasina, the wife of John White, who led the starving colony in his absence, was once possessed by a certain spirit, and she switched to “ dark side" After which Thomasina decided to move the colony to the mainland, where the settlers eventually died.

So why did they die? This is perhaps not as important as the surprise that series creator Ryan Murphy intends to present to viewers in the sixth episode. Everything that we see before this, he calls nothing more than “the buildup.”

Still from the series "American Horror Story"

The most ardent fans have sifted all the interviews of the project participants through a fine sieve and already consider themselves mentally prepared to “break the pattern.” According to some reports, it will be like this: the main characters, statically telling their stories on camera in the studio of the reality show “My Roanoke Nightmare,” at some point will no longer be satisfied with their roles “ talking heads” and will begin to actively act (it’s not for nothing that IMDb reports that Lily Rabe has a stunt double in the last episode of the season). Or maybe they will even break the “fourth wall” by coming into contact with their doubles. And even the show itself, judging by the hints from the actors, may not be what it is cracked up to be.

Naturally, we also suspect something like this. And we will only be glad if Internet theorists turn out to be right. Hollywood pseudo-documentary stories about ghosts in “bad houses” have become so overgrown with cliches that they resemble each other like a Chinese stamp - and the story of Shelby and Matt, at least half consisting of already hackneyed moves, has every chance of joining the mournful list of consumer goods. It's time to sprinkle some real pepper into this story.

Only 15 people remained. The second group, numbering more than a hundred, is considered missing. Its head, White, who went to England for help, did not find the colonists upon his return, but the word “Cro” (probably the initial letters Croatoan).

Popular story of the "disappearing colony", closely associated with a neighboring Indian tribe Croatoan, served as the basis for many works of art and films. The most common belief is that the colonists were captured by local hostile tribes, or were taken from the island by the Spaniards.

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✪ CROATON: The Mystery of the Vanished Colony

Subtitles

Background

Raleigh himself never visited North America, but in 1595 and 1617 he led expeditions to the river basin Orinoco V South America looking for legendary city El Dorado.

First group of settlers

On April 27, 1584, Raleigh sent an expedition led by Philip Amades and Arthur Barlow to explore the east coast of North America. They arrived on Roanoke Island on July 4th and soon established relations with local residents, by the Secotan and Croatan tribes. Barlow returned to England with two Croatans named Manteo and Wanchese, who described the politics and geography of the area to Raleigh. Based on this information, Raleigh sent a second expedition led by Sir Richard Granville. He was ordered to further explore the area and return back to England with a report on the success of the operation.

Granville's flotilla set sail from Plymouth on April 9, 1585. It consisted of five ships: "Tiger" (Granville's ship), "Roe Deer", "Red Lion", "Elizabeth" and "Dorothy". Off the coast Portugal The flotilla encountered a storm that separated the Tiger from the rest of the ships. On similar case the captains had prepared an action plan according to which they were to meet at Puerto Rico. On May 11, the Tiger arrived at Musquito Bay.

While waiting for the remaining ships, Granville established relationships with the residents spanish colonies that belonged to America. In addition, he built a fort. "Elizabeth" arrived shortly after its construction was completed. In the end, Granville did not wait for the remaining ships and set sail on June 7. The fort was abandoned and its location remained unknown.

On June 26, the Tiger sailed through Ocracoke Inlet, but ran aground and lost most of its food supplies. After repairs in early July, the Tiger met with the Roe and Dorothy, who arrived in the waters Outer Banks along with the Red Lion a few weeks earlier. However, the Red Lion disembarked its passengers, and its crew went to Newfoundland to study privateering.

In the New World

On July 29, the expedition arrived on the shores of America. After initial reconnaissance of the mainland coast and local Indian settlements, the British accused the natives of the village of Aquacogok of stealing the silver cup. The village was destroyed and burned along with the tribal leader. This incident is also described Richard Hakluyt. His reports are based on information received from various bankers, including Walter Raleigh himself. Hakluyt himself never visited the New World.

Despite this incident and the lack of food, Granville decided to leave Ralph Lane and 107 men to establish an English colony on the northern tip of Roanoke Island, promising to return in April 1586 with more men and fresh materials. A group led by Lane landed on August 17, 1585 and built a small fort on the island. On this moment no depictions of it exist, but it was similar to the fort built at "Musquito Bay."

By April 1586, Lane organized an expedition to explore the river Roanoke and, perhaps, the search for the legendary “fountain of youth”. However, relations with neighboring tribes were so damaged that the Indians attacked the expedition led by Lane. In response to this, the colonists attacked the central Aboriginal village, where they killed their leader Winjin.

As April passed, there was still no sign of Granville's fleet. The colony existed with difficulty due to lack of food. In addition, the fort was attacked by the indigenous peoples of America, but the colonists were able to resist them. Fortunately for the settlers, in June, Sir's expedition sailed past Roanoke. Francis Drake, returning home from a successful trip to Caribs. Drake invited the colonists to sail with him to England. Many agreed, including metallurgist Joachim Hans. This is how the settlers of Roanoke brought it to Europe. tobacco , sweet corn And potato.

Granville's auxiliary fleet arrived two weeks after the colonists sailed with Drake. Finding an abandoned colony, Granville decided to return to England, leaving only 15 men on the island to maintain the English presence and Raleigh's rights to colonize Roanoke.

Second group

In 1587, Raleigh sent a second group to colonize Chesapeake Bay. This group of 155 people was led by John White, artist and friend of Raleigh; he also participated in past expeditions to Roanoke. The new colonists were tasked with finding 15 people left behind in Roanoke. However, arriving there on July 22, 1587, they found no trace of them, except for the remains (bones) of a single person. One local tribe, still friendly to the English, Croatoan on a modern island Hatteras, reported that the men were attacked, but nine survived and sailed to their coast in a boat.

Fleet commander Simon Fernandez did not allow the colonists to return to their ships and ordered the establishment of a new colony on Roanoke Island.

Crossing the Atlantic at the end of the year was a risky undertaking. Emergency plans for the fleet were carried out with delay, caused by the refusal of the captains to sail back during the winter. Shortly afterwards England was attacked An invincible armada during Anglo-Spanish War. Every English ship was committed to the battle, making it impossible for White to return to Roanoke. In the spring of 1588, White obtained two small ships and set sail for Roanoke. His plans were thwarted: wanting to benefit, the captains tried to capture several Spanish ships that were heading abroad. The captains were captured and their cargo was taken away. White was forced to return to England because he had nothing to bring to the colonists. Thus, because of the war with Spain, White was unable to go to the colony for another three years. Eventually, he was able to board a privateer's ship, asking to stop at Roanoke on the way from the Caribbean.

The only clue was the letters "CRO" carved into one of the trees near the fort, and on the stockade around the village was the word "CROATOAN". Two buried skeletons were also found. All buildings and fortifications were dismantled, which meant that the settlers were not forced to leave quickly. Before the colony disappeared, White decreed that if anything happened to them, they were to paint a Maltese cross on a tree near them; this would mean that they were forced to leave. There was no cross, and White believed that they had moved deeper into Croatan Island. It seemed unthinkable to continue the search: a strong storm was approaching, and his people refused to go further. The next day they left the island.

The fate of the disappeared colony

Only 12 years later Raleigh decided to find out what happened to his colony. In 1602, an expedition led by Samuel Mace was sent. It differed from the previous ones in that Raleigh bought his own ship and promised the crew a salary so that he would not be distracted by privateering. However, Raleigh intended to profit from this expedition. Mace's ship stopped in the Outer Banks to collect aromatic wood or plants (e.g. sassafras), which could be sold profitably in England. As Raleigh turned his attention back to Roanoke, the weather turned bad and the expedition had to return to England without reaching the island. After this, Raleigh was arrested for treason and was unable to send other expeditions.

The Spaniards were also interested in finding a colony. They knew of Raleigh's plans to use Roanoke as a privateering base and hoped to destroy it. In addition, they received inaccurate reports about the activities of the colony, so they imagined it to be much more developed and successful than it actually was. In 1590, the Spaniards found the remains of the colony completely by accident, but assumed that most of it was in the Chesapeake Bay area, where John White originally wanted to go. However, the Spanish authorities did not have enough support from the people to carry out such an adventure.

Hypotheses about the disappearance of the colony

The main hypothesis regarding the fate of the lost colony is that the settlers scattered across the area and were absorbed by local tribes.

Tuscarora

In Roy Johnson's book The Vanished Colony in Facts and Legends" says:

The evidence that some of the Lost Colonists were still living around 1610 in the area of ​​Tuscaroa is impressive. Jamestown settler Francis Nelson's 1608 map of the interior of what is now North Carolina is the most eloquent evidence of this. This document, called the Zuniga Map, reports: "4 men dressed as if they came from Roanoke" still living in the town of Pakerukinik, apparently Iroquois land on the Nisi River. This is also supported by reports in 1609 in London of Englishmen from Roanoke Island living under the leadership of the chief "Jeponokan", apparently at Pakerukinika. Jeponokan held "four men, two boys" and "one young girl" (Virginia Dare?) from Roanoke as copper miners.

On February 10, 1885, Representative Hamilton McMillan helped pass the "Croatan Bill" which officially designated the Indian population around Robison County as Croatoan. Two days later, on February 12, 1885, the Fyteville Observer newspaper published an article about the origins of the Indians Robson. Here is an excerpt from it:

According to them, traditions say that the people whom we call the Croatoan Indians (though they do not recognize this name, and say that they were Tuscaroras) were always friendly to the whites; and finding them destitute of provisions and despairing of ever receiving help from England, they were persuaded to leave the island, and go inland. They gradually moved further from their original place, and settled in the town of Robeson, in the center of the county."

Persona terrain

Similar legends claim that the Native Americans of the area Person in North Carolina, are descendants of English colonists from Roanoke Island. Indeed, when subsequent settlers encountered these Indians, they noted that these Native Americans already spoke English language and had a Christian religion. But many discount these coincidences and classify the settlers of the Person area as an offshoot of the Saponi tribe.

Chesepian

Others hypothesize that this colony moved entirely and was later destroyed. When Captain John Smith and the Jamestown colonists settled in Virginia in 1607, one of their main tasks was to locate the Roanoke colonists. The local population told Smith about the people living in the surrounding area Jamestown who dress and live like the English.

Chief Wahunsunakok (better known as Chief Powhatan) told Smith that it was he who destroyed the Roanoke colony, since they lived with the Chesepian tribe and refused to join his tribes. To confirm his words, Powhatan demonstrated several iron tools English-made labor. No bodies were found, although there were reports of an Indian burial mound at Pine Beach (now Norfolk), where the village of Chesepiana - Scioak may have been located.

Death in the ocean

However, others suggest that the colonists simply gave up waiting, tried to return to England, and died during the return attempt. When White left the colony in 1587, there remained pinasse and several small ships for exploring the coast or moving the colony to the mainland. All ships remained in the bay [ ] .

Spaniards

There are those who suggest that the colony was destroyed Spaniards. At the beginning of the century, the Spanish destroyed the French colony of Fort Charles in southern South Carolina, and then killed the inhabitants of Fort Caroline, a French colony in what is now Florida. However, this version unlikely, since the Spanish were still searching for an English colony ten years after White discovered the colony's disappearance.

In culture

• In 1937, American playwright Paul Green wrote the play Lost Colony (play) about Roanoke.
• According to a science fiction novel Philip Farmer"Deir" ( Dare), the inhabitants of the colony were abducted by aliens and taken to one of the planets in the system Tau Cita.
• Movie " The Disappeared Colony"(USA), in which the spirits of Vikings, “trapped” between the world of the living and world of the dead(“Valhalla”), who fed on the souls of colonists and aborigines.
• Film script published as a book Storm of the Century» by author Stephen King and him film adaptation. Here Croatoan is the name of an ancient sorcerer who was able to take over the minds of people, and in this way forced people to commit suicide. According to King's plan, the residents of the village of Roanoke disappeared because they did not want to voluntarily give one of their children to the sorcerer.
• IN popular TV series « Supernatural» Croatoan is an incurable virus that destroyed the colony.
• In Game Assassin's Creed III one of the documents says that Roanoke was a colony of Assassins.
• In Game Dead Space 3 there is an expedition ship (more precisely, an Orbital Command Platform) called CMS Roanoke, sent to the planet Tau Volantis. All inhabitants of the ship were killed by General Mahad's punishers (in order to carry out “Plan 5”) and necromorphs.
• In the game Contagion, the fictional city where the events take place is named Roanoke.
• Dean Koontz's novel Phantoms.
• Story Harlan Ellison"Croatoan."
• Comic Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert's 1602.
• Movie "The Disappearance on 7th Street"

• In the series "Sleepy Hollow" Roanoke is a disappeared settlement in which an incurable plague virus was found.

• Blue Bloods novel by Melisa De La Cruz. Roanoke is a settlement of vampires who were fleeing from their own kind, but mutated individuals.

• Series "

The history of the first English settlement in North America is tragic and mysterious. This colony was established on the island of the same name at the mouth of the Roanoke River. Queen Elizabeth commissioned Walter Raleigh to organize a settlement to begin establishing a foothold in North America as the Spanish had already done. Elizabeth I's decree specified that Raleigh had 10 years to establish a colony in North America or he would lose his right to colonize.

In 1584, Raleigh equipped an expedition to explore the coast of North America to search for suitable place. It was led by Philip Armades and Arthur Warlow, who soon brought back specimens of flora and fauna (including potatoes) and two natives. The land explored by Armades and Warlow was named Virginia in honor of Elizabeth (“the Virgin Queen”).

In April 1585, the first colonial expedition consisting entirely of men was sent. Many of them were veteran soldiers who had fought in the war to establish English influence in Ireland. The settlers were led by Sir Richard Granville.

On July 29, the expedition arrived on the shores of America. But their flagship crashed in shallow waters, and most of food was lost. The colonists began to explore the coast. They did not want or were unable to establish peaceful relations with the local residents. Accusing the Indians from the settlement of Akwakogok of stealing a silver cup, they killed the leader and burned the village.

Despite difficult situation, Granville still decided to leave Ralph Lane and about 75 men to establish an English colony on the northern tip of Roanoke Island, promising to return in April 1586 with reinforcements and supplies. Lane organized an expedition to explore the Roanoke River, but the Indians attacked the travelers. The answer was another destroyed village, another slain chief named Winjin. The situation was heating up, and Granville was late. But in June, the ships of Francis Drake, who was returning home from a successful trip to the Caribbean, approached the shore. Drake invited the colonists to take them to England, and they readily agreed.

Two weeks later Granville returned to the abandoned island. He did not want to accept failure and, in order to consolidate the English presence in these places and preserve Raleigh’s rights to colonize Virginia, he left fifteen people on Roanoke. In 1587, Sir Walter Raleigh sent a second group of settlers to America. It was led by artist John White. Thanks to his paintings, one can now imagine those events. He was tasked with moving the settlement from Roanoke Island to the shores of Chesapeake Bay. White went on the trip with his son-in-law and daughter, who was expecting a child.

On June 22, 1587, 1 21 colonists, including 11 children, landed on the island. But Granville's people were not there. Those who arrived found only one skeleton. Indians from the neighboring island of Crotan (Hattera) said that the English village was attacked, but nine people survived and reached them by boat. Their further fate is unknown. White tried to establish relations with other Indian tribes, but in vain. Shortly thereafter, a colonist named George Howe went crabbing alone and was killed by Indians. White began to be persuaded to return to England for help. He did this with a heavy heart - on August 18, his daughter Elizabeth Dare gave birth to his granddaughter, who was named Virginia. This was the first English child, born on American soil.

White sailed to England, hoping to return before winter. However, in England at that time they were preparing to repel the “Invincible Armada”, and no one - neither Raleigh, nor Drake, nor the queen - could now deal with the small colony. But the governor still managed to find two ships. In April 1588 they sailed to America, but soon veered off course, and fifty miles from Madeira they encountered two French ships. The British were boarded and robbed. I had to return to my homeland. And there all the ships - both commercial and military - were mobilized to fight the Spaniards. In the summer of that year, the Invincible Armada was defeated, but a year and a half passed before White was able to set off. True, the governor did not bring any supplies, settlers, or weapons. He simply joined Raleigh's expedition to the West Indies, which would first stop at Roanoke.

John White landed on Roanoke three years after his departure, namely on August 15, 1590. In vain the governor and sailors searched the entire island. They only found a palisade that surrounded the place former settlement, remains of fortifications and other evidence that people lived here. However, all the houses were demolished and no remains of boats or weapons were found. The sailors did not find the remains or burials of white people. Only on one of the trees was the inscription “Croatoan” carved, and when re-examining the island, five chests with the governor’s belongings, which he left behind during his hasty departure, were found in one of the ditches.

The key to finding the missing settlers could be given by the word “Croatoan,” as Hutter Island was then called. White explained to the expedition skipper that before he left the island, he had agreed with his advisors about conventional signs in case they are forced to leave their settlement. But there was no sign of distress next to the inscription, and the settlers had no intention of moving from the island thirty miles inland. So we urgently need to organize a search for the missing colonists. But skipper Watts had other instructions. The expedition turned to the West Indies, and in October 1590 returned to England. It was no longer John White who was searching for the missing colonists, but completely different people.

Later, English ships repeatedly visited Roanoke Island and explored the surrounding islands, as well as lands on the mainland, but no traces of settlers could be found. Then a place was found for a colony in the New World in the Chesapeake Bay area; the search temporarily stopped and resumed at the end of the 17th century, but too much time passed, so they were unsuccessful. Thus was born the mystery of the disappearance of settlers from Roanoke Island.

According to one version, the settlers tried to move to another place because they still had boats. However, during the storm, everyone drowned. The second version is inclined to believe that the Spaniards, who learned about the settlement on Roanoke Island, exterminated all the settlers or took them to their colonies. But no traces of a punitive expedition were found on Roanoke, and the removal of 119 people to other colonies would be difficult to keep in strict confidence.

According to the third version, some of the settlers joined local tribes. In 1709, historian John Lawson communicated with the Hatteras (Croatan) Indians, who at one time lived on Roanoke Island and then often visited it. Among the Indians there were gray-eyed people. They claimed that their ancestors were white people and read the Bible.

In 1607, Captain John Smith landed in Virginia with large group colonists and founded the colony of Jamestown. He also tried to find out the fate of the settlers of Roanoke. The Indians told him that some English were living in the vicinity, and a chief named Wauhansunakok said that he had destroyed the inhabitants of Roanoke because they had settled with the Chesapeake tribe and refused to join his tribe. The leader showed Smith several iron tools made in England. Later, the new colonists heard that a chief named Jackponokan was holding the English from Roanoke Island—"four men, two boys" and "one young girl." But nothing more could be learned. More than three hundred years passed, and in 1937, 60 miles from Roanoke, a fragment of stone was found in a swamp, on which an inscription was found scratched. It was deciphered as a letter from Elizabeth Dare to her father, where she reported that the colonists fled Roanoke after an Indian attack.

Of course, the colonists could turn to the Croatan Hatteras for help and gradually assimilate with them. But why, having dismantled and taken away the houses, taking with them everything down to the utensils and weapons, did they not take the governor’s personal belongings? And they didn’t leave clear instructions on the spot why and where they were going? There is no answer to this question.