The Development of Jamestown

In 1606, King James I set two companies, the London and the Plymouth, out with three instructions: find gold, find a route to the South Seas, and find the Lost Colony of Roanoke. Five months later, and forty-five men less, the London Company landed on a semi-island along the banks of a river the Indians knew as “Powhatan’s River”. On May 13, 1607, the first permanent British colony had been established in the form of a triangular fort. The men named their fort Jamestown, in honor of their King, and named their land Virginia, in honor or Queen Elizabeth I, the “Virgin Queen
At first, the men believed they had found paradise. The climate appeared mild, and the natives had reacted friendly. John Smith wrote, “Heaven and earth never agreed better to frame a place for man’s habitations.” (Colonial History) Then, the beautiful new world turned to blistering heat, swarms of insects, unfit water, starvation, fierce winters, Indian attacks, and shiploads of inappropriately-...