In 1587, 115 colonists established England’s first small colony of the Americas on Roanoke—a swampy, coastal island that would eventually be considered part of North Carolina. The governor of the colony, John White, returned to England shortly after. Three years later he returned to find the colony gone. There was nothing: no corpses, no burnt buildings, and no signs of struggle. The only thing left of the lost colony was a word scratched into a tree: CROATOAN.
