The Story of Jamestown (continued)

THE FIRST SUPPLY. Upon returning to Jamestown, Smith was caught in the meshes of a feuding council. All was forgotten early in January, however, when Newport reached Jamestown with the first supply for the settlers. He brought food, equipment, instructions, and news from home. His cargo was nor sufficient, but for the moment this was over looked. The two ships of the supply had left England together, but the second did not reach Virginia until April.

Shortly after Newport's arrival in January, disaster came to Jamestown. Fire swept through the fort, consuming habitations, provisions, ammunition, and even some of the palisades. This was a serious blow in the face of winter weather. With the help of Newport and his sailors, the church, storehouse, palisades, and cabins were partially rebuilt before he sailed again for England early in April. Much more could have been done had he not consumed so many days in a pompous visit and lengthy negotiations with the wily Powhatan. Then, too, the ships had to be loaded for the return voyage, for the London backers were loudly calling for profitable produce. The first of the spring months were spent in cutting cedar logs and preparing "clapboards" for sale in England, and a little later there seems to have been a mild "gold rush" at Jamestown as some hopeful looking golden colored soil was found. This all delayed early spring clearing and planting, and boded ill for the coming summer when Ratcliffe wasted precious days building a house suitable to his position and Smith engaged in important, yet not particularly pressing, explorations.

The four glass furnaces located by archeological excavation on Glass-house Point.

THE FIRST MARRIAGE AT JAMESTOWN. It was in September 1608 that Smith became president in fact and inaugurated a program of physical improvement at Jamestown. The area about the fort was enlarged and the standing structures repaired. At this point, in October, the second supply arrived, including 70 settlers, who, when added to the survivors in Virginia, raised the over-all population to about 120. Among the new arrivals were two women—Mistress Forrest and her maid. Several months later, in the church at Jamestown, the maid, Ann Burras, was married to one of the settlers, John Laydon, a carpenter by trade. This marriage has been ranked as "the first recorded English marriage on the soil of the United States." Their child, Virginia, born the next year, was the first to be born at Jamestown. Here was the beginning of family life in the new colony. Soon other women would arrive to help continue, or to establish, new homes.

THE SECOND SUPPLY AND EARLY INDUSTRY. With the second supply came workmen sent over to produce glass, pitch, soap ashes, and other items profitable in England. These men, including some Poles and Dutchmen, were quickly assigned to specific duties. So rapidly did they begin that "trials" of at least one product, glass, were sent home when Newport left Jamestown before the end of the year. As usual, in addition to settlers and supplies, Newport brought more instructions from the company officials. The colony was not succeeding financially, and it was urged that the council spend more time in the preparation of marketable products. It was urged, too, that gold be sought more actively; that Powhatan be crowned as a recognition befitting his position; and that more effort be expended in search of the Roanoke settlers. These things were all desirable, but, at the moment, impracticable. No one understood this better than did Smith, who spoke his mind freely in a letter he wrote for dispatch to the authorities at home. Nevertheless, these projects were emphasized, and the more pressing needs of adequate shelter and sufficient food were neglected.

In the interval from about February to May 1609, Smith reported considerable material progress in and about Jamestown. Perhaps 40 acres were cleared and prepared for planting in Indian corn, the new grain that fast became a staple commodity. A deep well was dug in the fort. The church was re-covered and 20 cabins built. A second trial was made at glass manufacture in the furnaces built late in 1608. A block house was built at the isthmus which connected the island¹ to the main land for better control of the Indians, and a new fort was erected on a little creek across the river from Jamestown. Smith was now in command, as his fellow councilors either had returned to England or were dead. About this time there came a new disaster. With all attention centered on the numerous construction projects, insufficient protection was given the meager supply of grain. When discovered, rats had consumed almost all of the corn stores. Faced with this situation, Smith found it necessary to scatter the settlers, sending some to live with the Indians and some to eat at the oyster banks where the unbalanced oyster diet is reported to have caused their skin "to peel off from head to foot as if they had been fleade." Only "a small guarde of gentlemen & some others [were left] about the president at James Towne."

In midsummer of 1609, conditions at Jamestown were not good, although it is doubtful that they were any worse than during the two previous summers. The settlers were becoming acclimated, and they were learning the ways of the new country. Supplies were low, yet the number of colonists was small, and a good harvest and a good autumn might have improved matters had not some 400 new, inexperienced settlers sailed into the James without their leaders, without instructions, and with damaged supplies. To add to other complications, they brought fever and plague. In the selection of prospective settlers for the voyage the standards had been low, and too many ne'er-do-wells, and even renegades, had been included. This was the third supply, and it reached Jamestown in August 1609.