John White

The lost colony

logbook

Roanoke colony

John White

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In the service of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, I undertook in the year of grace 1587 to establish an English colony on the shores of Virginia. God had entrusted me with a noble mission: to bring civilization and faith across the seas, and to offer my country a new land. There, on the island of Roanoke, we built houses and palisades. I still remember the laughter of the children, the trusting gaze of my daughter Eleanor, and the first cry of little Virginia, the first English soul born in those lands. Everything seemed destined for prosperity. But food supplies ran low, and relations with the natives became uncertain. In my duty as governor, I set sail to beg England to send help. Storms, war, and fate prevented me from returning for three whole years. This journal contains my thoughts and observations during that dreaded return. Anyone who reads it will know the doubts and sorrow of a man who searched in vain for his people and found only silence and mystery. May God she’d light on what remains hidden.

Elisabeth I

Roanoke

LET'S GO!

Firsts elements

The colony after the trip

The colony before the trip

First Clue

second element

.August 18, 1590 – Day of arrival on Roanoke Island We landed. Silence greeted us. Not a child's cry, not a sound from the forge. The houses are there, bare, torn by the wind, the gardens abandoned, eaten away by brambles. Only the palisade still stands. On a post, a word was carved: “CROATOAN.”

A place

a code

the noum of a tribe

But where is it ?

third element

Fourth element

Fifth element

All our clues

• the houses have been dismantled

• The tribe living in Croatan was friends with

the settlers

• 1587-1589 = worst drought in 800 years

• the settlers were probably received by the

local tribes.

• Some settlers could have migrated inland and

built a new fort.

Violent Conflict

The Assimilation Theory

Maritime Disaster

Inland Migration

the roanoke colony : the most likely conclusion