What does the word "Croatoan" mean or refer to?

DomiNeyTor

Croatoan, unexplained letters found (1590) carved on a tree on Roanoke Island off North Carolina by Governor John White when he returned to the colony from England and discovered the colonists gone. http://www.croatoan.net/ May 09 12, 9:39 PM

sportsherald

There was a tribe of that name in what is now North Carolina, which is one of the possible explanations for CROATOAN being carved into the wooden palisade of the deserted Roanaoke Island ("Cittie of Raleigh") colony: "...[Governor] White ... ...again departed for Roanoke Island. He arrived on August 18, 1590--his grand daughter's third birthday--and found the Cittie of Raleigh deserted, plundered, and surrounded "with a high pallisado of great trees, with cortynes and flankers, very fort-like". On one of the palisades, he found the single word "CROATOAN" carved into the surface, and the letters "CRO" carved into a nearby tree. White knew the carvings were "to signifie the place, where I should find the planters seated, according to a secret token agreed upon betweene them and me at my last departure from them...for at my coming away, they were prepared to remove 50 miles into the maine". He had also instructed the colonists that, should they be forced to leave the island under duress, they should carve a Maltese cross above their destination. White found no such sign, and he had every hope that he would locate the colony and his family at Croatoan, the home of Chief Manteo's people south of Roanoke on present-day Hatteras Island. Before he could make further exploration, however, a great hurricane arose, damaging his ships and forcing him back to England. Despite repeated attempts, he was never again able to raise the funding and resources to make the trip to America again. Raleigh had given up hope of settlement, and White died many years later on one of Raleigh's estates, ignorant to the fate of his family and the colony. The 117 pioneers of Roanoke Island had vanished into the great wilderness." -from http://www.coastalguide.com/packet/lostcolony-croatan.shtml May 09 12, 9:48 PM