Tom McCarthy - Weird Disappearances: Real Tales of Missing People

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Contents

Its a simple enough question. Where did they go?

Here is a thought that might seem strange since you are holding a book filled with stories about mysterious disappearances. There is no such thing as disappearing. People have to go somewhere. They dont vaporize into thin air. It is just that no one knows exactly where they went.

That is what makes this book so interesting.

Take the story of Virginia Dare. When Virginia Dare was born on the steamy island of Roanoke in 1587, she was the first baby in what settlers called the New World. The colonists who welcomed her saw the smiling baby as a sign of hope that they would make it. That hope would not last. Where did the entire colony disappear to? More than 400 years later, historians are still trying to answer that question.

Or what about Anastasia Romanov? In 1918, revolutionaries overthrew the Russian monarchy and murdered Tsar Nicholas II and his familyAnastasia among them. But afterward, no one could find Anastasias body. Did she somehow survive her execution?

Have you heard of Amelia Earhart? She was a daredevil hero who flew her airplane everywhere. The entire world loved her sense of adventure and her smiles and bravery in the face of danger. When she announced her plan to fly around the world in 1937, the whole world buzzed with excitement. She confidently guided her plane off the runway toward the horizon andwas never heard from again.

Solomon Northup was an African American at a time when many African Americans were slaves. They were treated no better than farm animals by their white owners. Solomon Northup lived in the North as a free man. That changed quickly when he was tricked, kidnapped, and sold as a slave. He then spent 12 years as a piece of property. Even after he escaped back to freedom, fate intervened again when he disappeared after giving a lecture to the public. Was he captured again? Killed? Did he simply decide to live a quiet life?

Percy Fawcett was an explorer. He had subjected himself to years of torturous slogging through the dangerous jungles of South America and came close to death many times. Along the way, he claimed to have seen many very unusual things, such as dogs with two noses. Stories about a lost city of unimaginable wealth drew him back to the jungle. But he should not have tested his luck. He returned one final time to find the lost city. That was a mistake. No one ever saw him again.

Ready to take a journey into the mysterious world of the unknown? Maybe youll unearth some answers to these historical mysteries!

For the English settlers in the colony of Roanoke, the birth of Virginia Dare was the beginning of a new era of health and wealth. Or so they hoped.

But history isnt always nice to new settlers.

Virginia Dare was born in 1587, just two weeks after her parents, Eleanor and Ananias Dare, landed on an island in the New World. Roanoke Island lay between the coast of what is now North Carolina and a small group of outer islands. The Dare family and more than 120 other men, women, and children had sailed from England in search of a better life.

Everyone was excited that a new baby had been born in the New World, but at the same time, they felt nervous. The place they now called home was not very welcoming. The forest was so thick that sunlight barely reached the moist, mossy ground. Supplies were scarce. People were scared.

There is danger lurking out there, they thought.

The colonists had survived a rough ocean voyage and two weeks of hard living on new land. Except, it wasnt exactly new land. Another group of settlers had lived there two years before. Those settlers had left behind cabins and a crumbling fort. They hadnt succeeded in establishing a colony. Where did they go? Why had their settlement failed?

Heres what happened. The English people in the earlier settlement did not appreciate that others already lived there. These other people had been living on that land comfortably, peacefully, and productively for many years.

The Native Americans who lived there knew and loved the land and what it offered. At first, they welcomed these strange new English people, hoping they could all share in the abundance that surrounded them.

The two groups traded goods. The English needed deer and bison skins, which the Native Americans gave them in exchange for knives, hatchets, and colorful glass beads. It seemed to be a good deal for both, each getting something they wanted but did not have.

Soon enough, however, things began to get tense. Mistrust settled in. The English were unused to surviving off the land. They were running out of food. They were hungry.

While trying to get more food, the English killed one of the Native Americans who had been helping them. And that was the end of the peaceful arrangement. The English had to get off the island quickly, before their hosts sought revenge. They left behind their houses and a small fort built from the strong pine trees of the lush forest.

Now, two years later, a new group of settlers would try to succeed where the first had failed.

A man named John White was the driving force behind this new settlement. He was a friend of the famous Sir Walter Raleigh, an English knight with big plans to expand English territories. Sir Walter was a favorite of Queen Elizabeth, who wanted more than anything to increase the size of her empire. The queen had the power and, more importantly, she had a lot of money.

What she needed was people. She needed people who were brave enough and adventurous enough to want to pick up everything and move to a new land thousands of miles from home. Would you have volunteered?

John White had visited Roanoke with the first group, but he had been lucky enough to leave before the troubles began. He had liked what he saw and was willing to try again.

John White was a great talker. He could persuade a pig to take a bath! John White talked to anyone in England who would listen about the hope and dreams and comfort that were waiting for them in the New World. He probably didnt mention much about what happened with the Native Americans. He painted a picture of the wealth and riches that were far beyond anything people had in London, where it was crowded and dirty.

Whatever he said made Roanoke and the New World sound as if they were worth the risk of a long ocean voyage and uncertain early days.

John White was so convincing that he even talked his daughter, Eleanor, and her husband, Ananias, into making the dangerous trip. John Whites stories of the beautiful land that lay ahead were so magical that Eleanor and Ananias left their two young children behind in England. Once they settled in the New World, they could send for the youngsters and they would all live happily together.