Talk:Roanoke Colony
it is my interpretation that the colonist's deal was to carve a cross on a tree, not the word cross, if they we in trouble. source from http://www.thelostcolony.org/voyages2.html
"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."