In 1587, Sir Walter Raleigh tried once more to establish a colony and ‘city of Raleigh’ on Roanoke Island in North America. The Governor, John White, soon returned home for supplies, but on his exasperatingly delayed return three years later he found the settlers, including his new-born granddaughter Virginia, all gone, leaving just the word CROATOAN etched on a tree.

In accord with their pre-arranged plan, the settlers’ message told White that they had gone to Croatoan Island and, since no cross was added, gone willingly. But nothing more was ever discovered of little Virginia or the other settlers. Raleigh’s colony at Roanoke was abandoned, though two centuries later a ‘city of Raleigh’ was founded in neighbouring North Carolina.

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