An island of northeast North Carolina off the Atlantic coast between Albemarle and Pamlico sounds. Colonists dispatched by Sir Walter Raleigh founded the first English settlement in North America in August 1585 but returned to England the following year. A second group of colonists organized by Raleigh landed on the island in July 1587 but vanished sometime before 1591.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
