Land, you say, as you raise your hand and point in the direction of a tiny outskirt of land. Well, from far away it is tiny, but up close it’s massive. As you get closer to land, your shipmates begin to get ready to disembark. Your crewmates tie the ship to the dock and put a wooden plank to connect the ship and the dock, so it is much easier to get off the ship. You put your right foot on top of the plank and put a little pressure onto the plank to make sure it is steady Steady enough, you think. Then you take your left foot and put it on the plank and start to walk along it. You make your way to the other side and take a step off the ship’s wooden plank. You look around at the familiar place. It’s been a while since the last time you have visited, but with good reason. War, a war with Spain, and the Spanish Armada had delayed your return back to the island. You tell your men to start unloading the ship and they all nod and begin moving cargo around. You begin to walk straight, because last time you were here they weren’t too far away. You make your way into the woods. You put your hand on your weapon because you don’t know what to find or what might find you out in these woods, which you aren’t very keen about. After a few moments of walking, you exit the woods and come upon a settlement. A confused look comes across your face and you stop. You look around the settlement and there’s no sign of life. But that’s impossible, you think to yourself. You walk towards the middle of the settlement where last time, three years ago, it was full of life, people, animals, and now there’s nothing. You decide to look in some of the houses that are still up, but again you find nothing. You hear footsteps and look in the direction that they are coming from, hoping that it’s one of your colonists. But it is one of your shipmates, unfortunately. He stops next to you and scans the area. Is this where they were? He questions you and you nod. I don’t understand where they could be. Your voice reaches an octave higher and you get angry. You grab your weapon and throw it in a nearby tree. The shipmate sighs and goes to retrieve your weapon that is now stuck in the tree. John White, the shipmate calls out in an alarming tone and you run over to where he’s at. You can’t believe your eyes. Right above your blue-handled weapon are the words C-R-O that were carved in the tree. The shipmate runs to a nearby post and reads Croatoan. He yells at you. You grab your weapon from the tree and run over to the man and then obviously your shipmate, where he is. How could you have missed this? You look at the post and brush your fingers against it. It reads Croatoan. You take a second look at your shipmate. What on earth befell these people? You say that is one of the greatest mysteries of the lost colony of Roanoke, where 115 inhabitants just disappeared and no one knows why or how. But today we’re going to go over some very interesting theories.
Hello and welcome back to the Sanctum of Strange podcast. I’m Nikki, your host, and this week we are going to be focusing on the lost colony of Roanoke. I figured every week or so we do a different podcast episode. So we do a different podcast episode some weeks it’s going to be on actual friends and viewers who’ve had paranormal activities in their lives, or it’s going to be on a famous I’m just going to call it a famous case, kind of like Roanoke mysteries that are unexplained and maybe people that are unexplained, just unexplained and strange things. Which leads us to today’s podcast episode of Roanoke. I know I’ve mentioned that before, but I’m so excited to tell you this story. Originally, this idea came from my co-worker and she’s always found a fascination in Roanoke. So I was like you might as well just do Roanoke as the very first episode of the spooky series. So our story so far takes place in present-day North Carolina.
Back in 1587, there was an English colony of about 115 people. In 18, ooh, in 1585, there were a group before the Lost Colony who were led by Ralph Lane, who tried to make a settlement on Roanoke Island but due to food shortages and fights with the local Native American tribes, they had to leave and go back to England in 18, excuse me, in 1586, go back to England in 18, excuse me, in 1586, which I mean stinks, because they tried so hard to start a new settlement but they were met with so much pushback that they had to go back and you know, for everyone’s safety, that still sucks trying to make something work and then just ultimately it not working out. So then a year passes and in 1587, haha, I got it right that time in 1587, a new group went to Roanoke Island. This group included women and children and was led by none other than John White, our main character from the beginning of the podcast. So imagine setting up and then, a few weeks later, john, our person from the beginning of the podcast, has to leave for England to get more supplies for them, ie the colonists. Imagine just getting up and leaving because you have to go. It’s not something you want to do, but everyone’s running out of food, water supplies, you know, ammunition, etc. Etc. What have you? So John White leaves his daughter, eleanor Dare, and his granddaughter who was just born, whose name is Virginia, and he returns to England.
Well, he couldn’t go to the colony for three years because the war with Spain and the Spanish Armada, religious tension built. Spain was Catholic and England was Protestant. The war, although it wasn’t officially declared, was bought about by religious beliefs. Political rivalry, rivalry try saying that 18 times fast political rivalry and trade rivalry why can’t I say that word today? I apologize Lots of conflict on a number of different fronts. So it was almost impossible not to go to war. Imagine having a friend and being like nah, we don’t get along at all whatsoever, you just wouldn’t be friends with them. Imagine that situation.
The English also were interfering in Spain’s affairs. So King Philip of Spain decided to invade England and tried to overthrow the queen, who was Elizabeth at the time. And Elizabeth didn’t really like it and she had to fight back. If an invasion is happening in your town and or city, wouldn’t you want to fight back and protect the people and the things you love? You wouldn’t just sit around while some stranger takes everything you worked hard to get right. Right. So, war main events.
In 1585, the war started with the Habsburg Kingdom of Spain and the Kingdom of England. England’s military had expedition to today’s Spanish Netherlands under Robert Dudley, who is the Earl of Lakeshire Excuse my pronunciation, I might say this name’s wrong, I apologize. So this guy who was in support of the Dutch rebellion against the Spanish Hamburg rule, english merchant ships were captured in Spanish harbors. In 1587, the English navy had a very large victory at Gordiz, which they attacked Spanish ships and ports. In 1588, the Spanish Armada, which was a large fleet sent to invade England, was defeated by the English Navy. In 1589, england sent an Armada which was led by Sir Francis Drake to counter-attack against Spain, but unfortunately it failed and was defeated.
Now, now that we have caught up to what led John White to go back to Roanoke three years later, in 1590,. He returns to the settlement expecting to find his daughter and a bunch of other people 115 people to be exact but the settlement was deserted and no one was around. The only clue White had were the words Croatoan and Crow, which were carved in a post and a tree respectively. So here are the theories. Croatoan was the name of the Native American tribe that was south of Roanoke. So it is possible that the island, that well, I guess the people on the island, instead of starving or anything bad happening to the colonists, they integrated with the tribe.
There are lots of books and theories that say that this theory might be the most logical, and I agree. I mean, if you’re going to starve, I would rather much likely go with hey, there’s this town over there, let’s go hang out with them instead of, unfortunately, you know, passing. So another theory is that they were red-rummed spell that backwards, please and you will understand by other Native Americans. It is also very possible that they were taken over, since they didn’t have as much food or water and supplies were dwindling. This one is also possible, but I didn’t find anything that says that hey, they found a bunch of, you know, human remains or anything along those lines, while looking this topic up.
The next theory disease and starvation. It is possible that the colonists got a disease and they couldn’t get over it and that caused them all to perish. Again, there’s no bodies or skeletons, anything like that. They could have all starved to death and then the local wildlife could have done what they do you know ravage the bodies. But again, I didn’t find anything. A lot of you know didn’t find anything. A lot of you know didn’t find anything about skulls or body parts or anything like that, although I feel both of these theories are plausible. But what would happen to the hundred and fifteen plus bones of the colonists? Another theory they were never lost.
A new book suggests the colonists went on to live with other native tribes and the Croatoans, which were the Croatoans and the Heterons. Scott Dawson, who has dug up a lot and I mean a lot of artifacts, research and research records where the colonists lived, says that the mystery was never really a mystery and that it was all pretty much made up, which I mean I understand, because who doesn’t love a good mystery? Dawson, who wrote a book on the topic, said that the colonists were surrounded by Indian villages. He said that the Croatoans and another tribe, the Sekitoans, hated one another and the Sekitoans enslaved the Croatoans before the English colonizers arrived. In 1585, the English burned a Sekitoan village and then became friends with the Croatoans. Obviously, the Secotoans did not like any of this. Dawson says that the Croatoans saved the English from the Secotoans and brought them to the to Heatran’s island village. There are also artifacts that show a mix of English and Indian life together. So, like swords, guns, we’re apparently on the same layer of soil as other Indian pottery, arrowheads, things along that line. Now we add a touch of horror into the mix. This is pure fiction, but it should be mentioned because I find it entertaining and some people, some viewers, probably do as well, or listeners. Either way, you’re probably viewing this somewhere like on YouTube.
Season six of American Horror Story starts off with the telling of a haunted house in North Carolina. It’s loosely based off of the lost colony of Roanoke, if anything by title it’s called Roanoke. It involves a couple, shelby and Matt Miller, and they experience paranormal activity. The show kind of turns into a reality show called the Roanoke Nightmare, which documents everyone’s experiences. Then a second part of the show is called Return to Roanoke, where the actors from part one and Matt and Shelby return to the house and it gets kind of weird from there. So the actors, they meet the real-life counterparts of the people that they are playing. It has twists and turns and, in true American horror story fashion, everyone goes mad and unfortunately passes Well, I should say, almost everyone, that is. There is just one survivor of that season. Spoilers, I apologize.
This Roanoke season’s theme also deals with dangers of seeking out the supernatural, just like most of our stories. So when seeking out the supernatural, just like most of our stories, so when seeking out the supernatural beings, please be careful and safe when and if doing it. I hope this episode of the Lost Colony of Roanoke was enjoyable, as always. Thank you for making the Sanctum of Strange your home for the strange and spooky. This episode was written by me, nikki. For more strange and spooky content, please follow me on TikTok X, youtube, and soon I’ll be doing a Discord. You guys have a fantastic week. I know this episode is a little shorter than the other few, but I figured I’d give us a little bit of a leeway, since the others were really long. But have a fantastic week and I will see you guys in two weeks. What the topic in two weeks is Maybe geoglyphs, maybe pyramids I haven’t decided yet, but we’ll find out together, won’t we have a fantastic weekend, thank you.