Grenville was expected to return with supplies by Easter, but Easter passed and there was no news.

In order to get subsistence, Lane divided his men into three parties, of which one remained at Roanoke Island and the other two were sent respectively to Hatteras and to Croatoan, an island just north of Wokokon.
Not long after Sir Francis Drake, returning from sacking San Domingo, Cartagena, and St.Augustine, appeared in sight with a superb fleet of twenty-three sail.

He succored the imperilled colonists with supplies, and offered to take them back to England.

Lane and the chief men, disheartened at the prospects, abandoned the island, and July 28, 1586, the colonists arrived at Plymouth in Drake's ships, having lost but four men during the whole year of their stay.[11] A day or two after the departure of the colonists a ship sent by Raleigh arrived, and about fourteen or fifteen days later came three ships under Sir Richard Grenville, Raleigh's admiral.

Grenville spent some time beating up and down Pamlico Sound, hunting for the colony, and finally returned to England, leaving fifteen men behind at Roanoke to retain possession.[12] This was the second settlement.
The colonists who returned in Drake's ships brought back to Raleigh two vegetable products which he speedily popularized.