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A new look at a 425-year-old map has yielded a tantalizing clue about the fate of the Lost Colony,

A new look at a 425-year-old map has yielded a tantalizing clue about the fate of the Lost Colony, the settlers who disappeared from North Carolina's Roanoke Island in the late 16th century.

First Colony Foundation

British Museum in London

the "Virginea Pars" map of Virginia and North Carolina

they moved westward up the Albemarle Sound to the confluence of the Chowan and Roanoke rivers,

James Horn, vice president of research and historical interpretation at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and author of a 2010 book about the Lost Colony.

their clear intention, marked on the map

in what is modern-day Bertie County in northeastern North Carolina – hides what appears to be a fort. Another symbol, appearing to be the very faint image of a different kind of fort, is drawn on top of the patch.

the fort symbol could indicate where the settlers went.

"First Colony Foundation researchers believe that it could mark, literally and symbolically, `the way to Jamestown.'

When he came back, the colony was gone.

"CROATOAN"

White made the map and other drawings when he traveled to Roanoke Island in 1585 on an expedition commanded by Sir Ralph Lane. In 1587, a second colony of 116 English settlers landed on Roanoke Island, led by White.

what happened to the 95 or so settlers,

Brent Lane, a member of the board of the First Colony Foundation, asked a seemingly obvious question: What's under those two patches?

But the other covered the possible fort symbol, which is visible only when the map is viewed in a light box.

"If this was such an accurate map and it was so critical to their mission, why in the world did it have patches on it? This important document was being shown to investors and royalty to document the success of this mission. And it had patches on it like a hand-me-down."

The land where archaeologists would need to dig eventually is privately owned, and some of it could be under a golf course and residential community. So excavating won't begin anytime soon.

"The search for the colonists didn't start this decade; it didn't start this century. It started as soon as they were found to be absent from Roanoke Island ... I would say every generation in the last 400 years has taken this search on."