sentences:  After that point, McMullan argued, the colonists would have begun to assimilate with the Croatan at Beechland.This theory largely depends upon oral traditions and unsubstantiated reports about Beechland, as well as a 1651 map that depicts a sassafras tree near the Alligator River.A significant problem is that Raleigh supposedly planned a sassafras farm in 1587 to capitalize on a dramatic increase in crop prices, so that he could quickly compensate for the great expense of the failed 1585 colony.