What happened to the lost colony of Roanoke?

The settlers were murdered by a local Native American tribe

Question: What happened to the lost colony of Roanoke?
Position1 of 5›: The settlers were murdered by a local Native American tribe
Argument: The settlers were murdered by a local Native American tribe

John White, upon his return to England, recorded that there had been skirmishes with local Natives, including an attack just a month before he returned to England.

The argument

Previously, attempts to colonize Roanoke Island had been made between 1585 and 1586, but those settlers were forced to return to England due to the large amount of violence between them and local Native Americans. It escalated to a point where Ralph Lane, the governor of the first Roanoke colony, killed Wingina, the king of the local tribe. Such regicide likely would not result in diplomacy anytime soon. With the settlers arriving with John White arriving only a year later, it is more than possible that the local Native Americans would retain their feelings of hostility to those infringing on their land. John White, upon his return to England, recorded that there had been skirmishes with local Natives, including an attack just a month before he returned to England. A massacre of the settlers also explains the lack of time to write more clues beyond the word “Croatoan” if they were under attack. It may have been a last-ditch effort to communicate their troubles to John White, as Croatoan aside from being the name of a nearby island, was also the name of one of the local tribes.

Premises

[P1]Prior Roanoke colonists had violent conflicts with local Native Americans, culminating in the English killing the local king Wingina just a year before the new settlers arrived. [P2] John White himself recorded ongoing skirmishes with local tribes, including an attack shortly before his departure for England, indicating sustained hostility. [P3] The single carved word "Croatoan" — the name of a local tribe as well as an island — is consistent with a hurried message left under attack rather than a planned relocation. [C] Therefore, the most likely fate of the lost Roanoke colonists is that they were murdered by a hostile local Native American tribe.

Counter-arguments

Roanoke Island is not a particularly large place and it is self-contained as all islands are. For 115 people to be killed on the island, without a mass grave site or sign of massacre visible, is largely preposterous. There would almost certainly be signs of a scuffle, with the settlement itself likely falling into disarray. When John White returned, the settlement had been largely untouched, implying that it was left, not seized. Furthermore, the word “Croatoan” carved onto a tree does not seem the most logical clue if their settlement was under violent attack.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Earlier violence establishes motive, not the event. That hostility involved a different governor and a different party, and White's colonists had reason to seek accommodation with the Croatoan, with whom relations had been comparatively good. [Rejecting P2] Recorded skirmishes are consistent with many outcomes, including relocation under pressure, and they were reported before three years of absence during which a great deal could have happened. [Rejecting P3] The physical record is the difficulty. More than a hundred people could not be killed on a small island without graves or signs of a struggle, and White found the settlement dismantled in orderly fashion rather than destroyed — with a word carved deliberately and without the cross that had been agreed as the signal for departure under duress.