[SunkenCiv]

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Roanoke-settlement

American anthropologist Lee Miller, in Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony proposed that the expedition was sabotaged from the beginning by Sir Walter Raleigh’s rival at court, Elizabeth’s “spymaster,” Francis Walsingham, while other theorists contend that the colony moved wholesale, and was later destroyed.

[muawiyah]

Or, that it simply "moved". The Jamestown colony was founded right at the end of a 17 year Drought that affected Coastal Virginia, and presumably Maryland, Delaware and the Carolana coast (so-called before the area was taken over by England).

[bigheadfred]

Roanoke Island: What Happened to the Lost Colonists of 1587?

[twigs]

I read her first book—it read like a mystery. I really liked it and would recommend it to anyone.

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

Given their geographical location, I have long thought that you have to at least consider the possibility that the “Lost Colony” was taken out by what we would now call a category 5 hurricane.