 The Spanish War prevented any further contact between the colony and England until a 1590 expedition, which found no remains of any colonists, just an abandoned colony and the letters "CROATOAN" carved into a tree, and "CRO" carved into another.Despite many investigations, no one knows what happened to the colony.Historians widely believe that the colonists died of starvation and illness or they were being taken in and assimilated by Native Americans.