In 1587, 117 English men, women and children came ashore on Roanoke Island to establish a permanent English settlement in the New World. Just three years later in 1590, when English ships returned to bring supplies, they found the island deserted with no sign of the colonists.

What happened on the Lost Colony of Roanoke?

In 1585, the English settlers reached the New World and established a colony on the island of Roanoke, in what is now part of North Carolina, only to mysteriously disappear. ... The leading theory is that they belonged to survivors of the lost Roanoke colony.

What Lost Colony means?

Lost Colony, early English settlement on Roanoke Island (now in North Carolina, U.S.) that mysteriously disappeared between the time of its founding (1587) and the return of the expedition's leader (1590). ... The group may have been annihilated by hostile Native Americans or may have joined a friendly tribe.