The Jamestown Experiment (10 page)

For many weeks the colonists were reduced to a miserable existence by the avarice of their fellow countrymen. They tried to
subsist on a daily ration of some “meal and water,” placing them in a condition no worse than before the relief expedition arrived, and their numbers were ravaged by the “extremity of the bitter cold frost.” Half of the colonists died, including some of the first settlers and the more recent arrivals.
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As the men perished of malnutrition and exposure, Smith reported that instead of rebuilding the fort in the wake of the fire, most of the settlers were more interested in finding gold. He wrote: “The worst mischief was our gilded refiners with their golden promises made all men their slaves in hope of recompense. There was no talk, no hope, no work but
dig
gold,
wash
gold,
refine
gold,
load
gold.” The men neglected all the necessary work on spring planting or erecting a new fort to “fraught such a drunken ship with so much gilded dirt.”
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On April 10, the sailors were busily preparing the
John and Francis
for its return trip to England. Having gathered up enough of what they thought to be gold ore and believing the colony adequately provisioned, Newport stepped aboard the ship accompanied by former president Wingfield and councilman Archer. The Indian Namontack also joined the ship’s passengers; he would excite Londoners and investors about the exotic peoples of Virginia. Londoners might be taken in by the spectacle of native American peoples, but no amount of promotion could hide the fact that the dreams of investors were not being realized. The gold was found to be fool’s gold, and their dreams to be a fool’s hope.

With Newport returned home, the gold fever that captivated the settlers’ attention did not abate, especially since John Martin encouraged the search for gold and President John Ratcliffe was laid low by an illness for months. But Smith and Scrivener tried to restore some semblance of order and discipline among those who
had survived the winter. The two men divided up the remaining colonists and put them to work rebuilding Jamestown. The men repeated the scene of the previous spring, sweating under the temperate spring sun, “repairing our palisades, cutting down trees, preparing our fields, planting our corn, rebuilding our church, and recovering our storehouse.” The discipline recovered some order and led to the completion of some necessary tasks for their survival, but its martial character was not proving to be a viable long-term solution to their problems.

On April 10, while their hard work was going forward, an alarm went up through the settlement. The men dropped their axes and saws and grabbed their muskets and manned the cannons. At first they anticipated a “new assault of the savages.” When no threat materialized from the woods, they learned that there was a “boat under sail” approaching Jamestown. They expected Spanish warships to appear at any moment, with cannons roaring against the fort. If Newport had not sailed the
John and Francis
back to England so recently, they might have had a better chance against their greatest enemy. Still, it could be a friendly vessel—perhaps Newport had encountered storms and was forced to return. Tense minutes passed slowly.
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The settlers relaxed their guard when they saw St. George’s flag and were pleasantly surprised when the
Phoenix,
commanded by Francis Nelson and presumed lost and the men dead, sailed gently to the berth at Jamestown. Nelson came ashore with his sailors and some additional settlers and related their tale to the eager colonists. Nelson explained to Ratcliffe and the council that he had sailed alongside Newport until they encountered the fog off the Virginia coast. After becoming lost, Nelson’s ship was pounded by “many perils of extreme storms and tempests” that ripped his sails and destroyed his masts. The captain decided to
make for the West Indies to winter there while undergoing repairs and replenishing his supplies of water. He now had finally reached his destination.
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The colonists were relieved that Nelson brought dozens of settlers and plenty of provisions, because he had fed his company with local food in the West Indies. The supplies Nelson carried to the colony would last for months and supplement whatever crops they raised that year. “His victual [added] to that we had gotten,” noted Smith, “was near after our allowance sufficient for half a year.” Moreover, the Virginia Council in London would send another relief expedition after Newport returned home. Unlike the price-gouging sailors on the
John and Francis
who shared few provisions with the starving colonists, Nelson’s mariners willingly unloaded their provisions and sold a few items at fair prices. Nelson “had not anything but he freely imparted it, which honest dealing (being a mariner) caused us to admire him. We would not have wished more than he did for us.”
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President Ratcliffe wanted to send Smith and Nelson on a voyage to the falls and the Monacans to discover “his fantastical gold” and the suspected passage to the South Sea. Nelson, however, intervened and refused to let his sailors be employed in such a venture. A relieved Smith preferred to load the
Phoenix
with cedar to promote the wealth of commodities available in Virginia to English investors. The impasse would continue until Nelson returned to England, and Smith went separately to explore the region.
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In early June, having delivered his shipload of provisions and the remaining settlers to Jamestown and reloaded his ship with commodities for the company, Nelson sailed for England. John Martin, who was “always very sickly and unserviceable,” was allowed to go home aboard the
Phoenix.
The colony was back
on a proper footing, but how long this would remain true was anyone’s guess.
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On June 2, 1608, with the crops sown and the settlement rebuilt, John Smith went out on a voyage of discovery accompanied by six gentlemen, seven soldiers, and a physician. He set out alongside the
Phoenix,
which continued into the expansive ocean, while Smith’s barge made for Chesapeake Bay. Smith journeyed to continue the search for gold and the Northwest Passage, either of which would bring great wealth and renown to him in England. At the very least, he would certainly find valuable commodities to send to England or find new native peoples with whom the English could trade. The adventurers landed at the Eastern Shore and talked with the natives, who spoke the Powhatan language and related their knowledge of the river system to Smith.

A storm suddenly rolled up. The tempest stirred up “mighty waves” that crashed over the small barge and threatened to sink her. The “foremast and sail blew overboard” as the Englishmen struggled to keep the vessel seaworthy. They had to bail out the vessel and barely made it to an island, where they waited out the “gusts, thunder, rain, storms, and ill weather” and appropriately labeled the place Limbo. The crew found innovative solutions to their problems, erecting a new mast and sewing together some of their shirts to repair the torn sails so they could continue their endeavor.
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Many of their encounters with Indians were initially hostile and then smoothed into friendly relations, but not before a hail of arrows hit their barge or they fired their muskets into groups of natives on shore. Establishing relations was often accomplished through the mixture of force and diplomacy that Smith had practiced with the Powhatans and other peoples near Jamestown. In one incident after the storm, the Englishmen were angrily assaulted with arrows.
The next day, the Indians appeared unarmed and carrying baskets, but Smith suspected a trap. The Englishmen “discharged a volley of muskets charged with pistol shot,” dispersing the Indians into a cluster of reeds where their companions “lay in ambush.” The settlers landed and fired into the reeds and hit their unseen enemies, soon finding “much blood” but no Indians. Smith and his men left “pieces of copper, beads, bells, and looking glasses” near some homes and departed. The next day, first a few and eventually hundreds of Indians approached the strangers to trade and share information. Smith called these peoples “the best merchants of all other savages.”
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The voyagers headed for the western shore and continued up toward the head of Chesapeake Bay. They sailed for thirty leagues but did not encounter any more Indians—only miles of wooded shoreline and some wild animals. At this point, the Englishmen began grumbling about being fatigued from rowing. The provisions of bread they brought with them were growing moldy after being waterlogged. Moreover, the unbroken monotony of the landscape with few human encounters and few discoveries made them wonder if they were wasting their time. They angrily complained to Smith that they wanted to return to the settlement.

Smith, fearing a mutiny and possibly for his life, appealed to his men to endure on their journey. He asked them to “abandon these childish fears” and behave like men. Then, arguing as many commanders have throughout history, he told his men that he had shared and would continue to share in their privations. “You cannot say but I have shared with you in the worst, which is past. And for what is to come—of lodging, diet, or whatsoever—I am contented you allot the worst part to myself.” Although he quelled any incipient rebellion, more storms two days later “added such discouragement to our discontents that three or four fell extreme sick, whose pitiful complaints caused us to return.” Smith sailed
back down the Chesapeake to appease his irate men, but the voyage of discovery continued.
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Between sailing and rowing up the Potomac River, they encountered several peoples. Then some sparkling rocks caught their eyes toward the end of their journey. In many places, “where the waters had fallen from the high mountains, they had left a tinctured, spangled [layer] that made many bare places seem as gilded.” They went ashore and dug into the ground finding “a clay sand so mingled with yellow spangles as if it had been half pin-dust” or proof of some precious metal for manufacturing.
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Smith’s party was thrilled with the discovery and took some samples. They showed their discovery to the Patawomecks, whose werowance informed the visitors that there was a mine nearby. They enthusiastically set out for the mine, marching seven or eight miles to the spot. The Indians had excavated the mine near a brook, where they washed the dirt to separate out the precious material. They used the silver-colored mineral to paint their bodies or special objects. They gladly offered the Englishmen as much of it as they could carry back to their barge. It would “prove of no value,” but they determined copious sources of valuable furs (bears, beavers, minks, otters, and sables) and fish. Moreover, Smith learned from the Indians that there was good reason to hope “our bay had stretched into the South Sea or somewhat near it.”
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Smith’s band of explorers returned to Jamestown on July 21 after discovering many native peoples and potential sources of wealth for the colony. They had good news to share. But when they went ashore, they were greeted with terrible news that the colony was again being ravaged in the deadly summer months.

The colonists, particularly the “last supply” who had recently migrated, suffered from the same maladies—typhus, dysentery, and salt
poisoning—that had afflicted the settlers the previous summer. Just as in 1607, the men fell “sick…some lame” and were “unable to do anything but complain.” Smith noted that the new settlers “were sick almost to death until they were seasoned to the country.”

The suffering once again bred resentments and disputes that tore apart the leadership.
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Many in Jamestown criticized President Ratcliffe for his “unreasonable, needless cruelty.” As with Wingfield, the men were nearly mutinous and charged that Ratcliffe had “riotously consumed’ the provisions of the common storehouse as the food supply began to dwindle. Although they had willingly contributed to the building of houses in the spring, they criticized the arrogant president because he compelled them to erect “an unnecessary building for his pleasure in the woods.” (Smith had disparagingly called the building “Ratcliffe’s palace,” representing the popular anger against the would-be lord.) The colonists were bent on revenge.
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The circumstances of the colony were pregnant with danger, but Smith smoothed over relations by relating to everyone the opportunities in the Chesapeake for precious metals, commodities, and the Northwest Passage. Smith may have “appeased their fury,” but they remained adamant that “Ratcliffe should be deposed.” In his stead, they turned to Smith to seize the reins of government.
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Smith’s conceit was satisfied by their wishes, but he demurred on actually taking over as president. The lure of discovering great riches in the Chesapeake drew him to return and continue his explorations. Smith nevertheless exploited the divisions to place his friend, Matthew Scrivener, in the presidency while he was away. He also succeeded in getting “more honest officers to assist Master Scrivener,” especially because the new president was then suffering from one of the summer fevers that plagued the colony. Rather than remaining for the good of the colony while one president was
deposed and his replacement was deathly ill, on July 24, Smith sailed off after spending only three days in Jamestown.
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Smith headed up the Chesapeake with twelve men on the barge. He had replaced nearly half his men—presumably the troublemakers who had almost diverted the last trip. Unfortunately, seven of the men had acquired lethal diseases in Jamestown and were laid low during the voyage as they sailed around Point Comfort. Fearing an Indian attack during their distress, Smith put the men’s hats on sticks to make it appear that they were all hale, and the men who were able to stand held two muskets each to thwart any offensive.

They continued sailing into the upper bay and went up the Tockwough River in the northern end of the Chesapeake. Smith was very interested to see that the men had “many hatchets, knives, pieces of iron, and brass,” which they explained they had gotten from the Sasquehannocks. Before the English departed to visit this other people, Smith learned that several native peoples “inhabit upon a great water beyond the mountains.” A somewhat disappointed Smith guessed from the description that it was not the Pacific, but “a great lake or the River of Canada, and from the French to have their hatchets and commodities by trade.” Still, they did relate that at least one of the peoples lived “on the ocean sea.” A frustrated Smith was left with nothing but vague clues of the proximity to the Pacific and the passage leading there.
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