The word Croatoan, carved into a tree trunk, was the only clue left by the vanished colonists of Roanoke Island, who were discovered to be missing in 1590.
Croatan was the name of a nearby island, and of the local Native American tribe.
For some reason, the story of the lost colony of Roanoke Island is a favorite of conspiracy theorists and cryptohistorians. Aliens abducted them... The Bermuda Triangle fluctuated... Cthulhu swallowed them. But it seems pretty clear that the colonists didn't have enough food and joined the Croatan Indians -- or were killed by them.