一个殖民地的一百多人不见了，只在树上留了一个词

In 1587, the English established a colony on Roanoke Island, in what is now North Carolina, USA. Over a hundred people, men and women and children. Governor John White went there with his pregnant daughter. Shortly after arriving on the island, his daughter gave birth to a girl named Virginia Dare, the first English child born in North America.

The colonists lacked supplies—food and tools were insufficient—so they asked White to return to England to expedite provisions. White had intended to come back within a few months, but England went to war with Spain, all ships were requisitioned, and he could not return. When he finally arrived back at the island in August 1590, three years had passed.

From a distance he saw smoke rising from the island and felt a surge of joy, but upon landing, there was no one. That day happened to be his granddaughter's third birthday.

The houses had been dismantled, the palisade remained, there were no signs of a struggle, and no bodies. On one of the palisade posts was carved a single word: "Croatoan," the name of a nearby Native American tribe and also the name of a nearby island. Before they left, they had agreed that if they departed, they would carve their destination on a tree; if they encountered danger, they would add a cross beside it. There was no cross on that post.

White wanted to search further in that direction, but a storm came, the ship nearly sank at sea, and the crew refused to go on, so he returned to England. He never came back again, and never saw his daughter or granddaughter. None of those over a hundred people ever appeared in later records.

People have always speculated that they merged with the Native Americans, others say they were wiped out, and still others say they went elsewhere and were killed by the Spanish. Scholars can only guess to this day.

In recent years, archaeologists have dug up some English-style small items on the island and along the nearby coast—pottery shards, tools. In 2012, researchers on the back of an old map discovered a very small fort symbol covered by a piece of paper, located on a river inland. They said perhaps those over a hundred people had moved there back then.

More than four hundred years have passed, and still not a single thing can be confirmed as having been left by them.

#Paranormal #网络转载 #世界悬案