When John White left the colony to return to England in 1587, it was not a happy colony he left behind. Supplies were running very short, and what was worse, the colonists had, through a series of misunderstandings, cultural errors, and the aggressive actions of a previous English colony (Grenville attempted to settle Roanoke in 1585, but withdrew), managed to alienate the local Native Americans. One colonist, George Howe, had recently been killed while gathering crabs on the beach, and the remainder were terrified and unwilling to leave the protection of the fort.

Where, then, does that leave us? The two likeliest options, given the situation when White left, are that the Roanoke colonists starved, or Native Americans wiped them out; after all, Grenville's men had burned a Native village in a dispute over a silver cup, so it would hardly be an unexpected escalation. Another possibility is that the colonists were absorbed into one or several Native groups. We know that, in the wake of European settlement, many Native American groups fractured and amalgamated with others; it is possible this process played out earlier, with the Roanoke colonists. But at the end of the day - we don't know.