Editing Jamestown, Virginia (section)

===1607–1609: Arrival and beginning===
<!--the following is intended to be a summary of the key points for the casual reader; a detailed articled exists at History of the Jamestown Settlement (1607–1699)-->
[[File:Jamestown Island (1958 base map).png|thumb|Map of [[Jamestown Island]], showing the terrain and location of the original 1607 fort]]
[[File:Marsh - Colonial National Historical Park (Robin Baranowski, NPS Photo) (8426448355).jpg|thumb|Salt [[marsh]]es along Jamestown Island; the ample wetlands on the island proved to be a breeding ground for [[mosquitoe]]s.]]
[[File:Jamestownzuniga.jpg|thumb|A map acquired by [[Pedro de Zúñiga y de la Cueva]], depicting the fort, {{Circa|1608}}]]
[[File:Page 445.JPG|thumb|Names of those on the Second Supply – Page 445 (or Page 72) "The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles", by Capt. John Smith<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/smith/smith.html|title=John Smith, 1580–1631. The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles: With the Names of the Adventurers, Planters, and Governours From Their First Beginning Ano: 1584. To This Present 1624. With the Procedings of Those Severall Colonies and the Accidents That Befell Them in All Their Journyes and Discoveries. Also the Maps and Descriptions of All Those Countryes, Their Commodities, People, Government, Customes, and Religion Yet Knowne. Divided Into Sixe Bookes. By Captaine Iohn Smith, Sometymes Governour in Those Countryes & Admirall of New England|website=docsouth.unc.edu|access-date=January 3, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180106093503/http://www.docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/smith/smith.html|archive-date=January 6, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>]]
In 1606, English [[Jamestown supply missions#Original mission|colonists set sail]] with a [[First Virginia Charter|charter]] from the [[London Company]] to establish a colony in the New World. The fleet consisted of the ships ''[[Susan Constant]]'', ''[[Discovery (1602 ship)|Discovery]]'', and ''[[Godspeed (ship)|Godspeed]]'', all under the leadership of Captain [[Christopher Newport]]. They made a particularly long voyage of four months, including a stop in the [[Canary Islands]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.virginiaplaces.org/vacities/7jamestown.html|title=Jamestown – Why There?|website=www.virginiaplaces.org|access-date=January 3, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170929231954/http://www.virginiaplaces.org/vacities/7jamestown.html|archive-date=September 29, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hLfS4ZdARVAC&q=john+smith+canary+islands&pg=PA27|title=John Smith: English Explorer and Colonist|last1=Mello|first1=Tara Baukus|last2=Schlesinger|first2=Arthur M. Jr.|date=2009|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=9781438101132|language=en|access-date=October 18, 2020|archive-date=November 21, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201121055158/https://books.google.com/books?id=hLfS4ZdARVAC&q=john+smith+canary+islands&pg=PA27|url-status=live}}</ref> in [[Spain]], and subsequently [[Puerto Rico]], and finally departed for the American mainland on April 10, 1607.

The expedition made landfall on April 26, 1607, at a place which they named [[Cape Henry]]. Under orders to select a more secure location, they set about exploring what is now [[Hampton Roads]] and an outlet to the [[Chesapeake Bay]] which they named the [[James River]] in honor of King [[James VI and I|James I of England]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/jamestown-browse?id=J1007 |title=Extracts from account of Capt. John Smith |publisher=Etext.lib.virginia.edu |access-date=September 22, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928085017/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/jamestown-browse?id=J1007 |archive-date=September 28, 2013 }}</ref> [[Edward Maria Wingfield|Captain Edward Maria Wingfield]] was elected president of the governing council on April 25, 1607. On May 14, he selected a piece of land on a large peninsula some {{convert|40|mi|km|0|round=5}} inland from the Atlantic Ocean as a prime location for a fortified settlement. The river channel was a defensible strategic point due to a curve in the river, and it was close to the land, making it navigable and offering enough land for piers or wharves to be built in the future.<ref name="NPS excavation 1958">{{cite book|last=Cotter|first=John L.|title=Archeological Excavations at Jamestown (Archeological Research Series No. 4)|year=1958|publisher=National Park Service|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=[https://archive.org/details/archeologicalexc00cott/page/1 1]–3, 6|url=https://archive.org/details/archeologicalexc00cott|access-date=March 3, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303175225/https://archive.org/details/archeologicalexc00cott|archive-date=March 3, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Perhaps the most favorable fact about the location was that it was uninhabited because the leaders of the nearby [[Native American tribes in Virginia|indigenous nations]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://indians.vipnet.org/resources/writersGuide.pdf |title=Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources – Doug Domenech |publisher=Indians.vipnet.org |access-date=December 25, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120224023658/http://indians.vipnet.org/resources/writersGuide.pdf |archive-date=February 24, 2012 }}</ref> considered the site too poor and remote for [[agriculture]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/jame/an-unoccupied-site.htm |title=Historic Jamestowne – An Unoccupied Site (U.S. National Park Service) |publisher=NPS.gov |work=Historic Jamestowne |date=June 22, 2009 |access-date=September 21, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090901023819/http://www.nps.gov/jame/an-unoccupied-site.htm |archive-date=September 1, 2009 |url-status=live }}</ref> The island was swampy and isolated, and it offered limited space, was plagued by mosquitoes, and afforded only brackish [[tide|tidal]] river water unsuitable for drinking.

The Jamestown settlers arrived in Virginia during a severe drought, according to a research study conducted by the Jamestown Archaeological Assessment (JAA) team in the 1990s. The JAA analyzed information from a study conducted in 1985 by David Stahle and others, who obtained drawings of 800-year-old [[Taxodium distichum|bald cypress]] trees along the [[Nottoway River|Nottoway]] and [[Blackwater River (Virginia)|Blackwater]] rivers. The lifespan of these trees is up to 1,000 years, and their rings offer a good indication of an area's annual amount of rainfall. The borings revealed that the worst drought in 700 years occurred between 1606 and 1612. This severe drought affected the Jamestown colonists and [[Powhatan]] tribe's ability to produce food and obtain a safe supply of water.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Blanton |first=Dennis B. |title=Drought as a Factor in the Jamestown Colony, 1607–1612 |journal=Historical Archaeology |volume=34 |number=4 |date=2000 |pages=74–81 |doi=10.1007/BF03374329 |jstor=25616853 |pmid=17111498 |s2cid=32640793 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25616853 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161201081533/http://www.jstor.org/stable/25616853 |archive-date=December 1, 2016}}</ref>

The settlers also arrived too late in the year to get crops planted.<ref name="autogenerated1">Kenneth C. Davis. Don't Know Much About History.</ref> Many in the group were either gentlemen or their manservants, both equally unaccustomed to the hard labor demanded by the harsh task of carving out a viable colony.<ref name="autogenerated1"/> One of these was [[Robert Hunt (chaplain)|Robert Hunt]], a former [[vicar]] of [[Reculver]], England, who celebrated the first known Anglican [[Eucharist]] in the territory of the future United States on June 21, 1607.<ref>{{ODNBweb|id= 14202 |title=Hunt, Robert (1568/9–1608)}}</ref>

Two-thirds of the settlers died before ships arrived in 1608 with supplies and [[Germans|German]] and [[Polish people|Polish]] [[Artisan|craftsmen]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.apva.org/history/2ndsup.html |title=list of settlers in 1608 expedition |publisher=Apva.org |access-date=September 22, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090323025459/http://apva.org/history/2ndsup.html |archive-date=March 23, 2009 }}</ref><ref name="CR-JanBogdan-1975">{{cite web |author=Congressional Record |title=Congressional Record 1975 |url=http://www.mocavo.com/Congressional-Record-September-18-October-19-1975-Volume-121/916273/1650 |volume=121 |date=1975 |work=[[Congressional Record]] |access-date=October 1, 2014 |author-link=Congressional Record |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006091829/http://www.mocavo.com/Congressional-Record-September-18-October-19-1975-Volume-121/916273/1650 |archive-date=October 6, 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="CR-JanBogdan-1976">{{cite web |author=Congressional Record |title=Congressional Record 1976 |url=http://www.mocavo.com/Congressional-Record-April-9-May-5-1976-Volume-122/441037/1269 |volume=122 |date=1976 |work=[[Congressional Record]] |access-date=October 1, 2014 |author-link=Congressional Record |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006082622/http://www.mocavo.com/Congressional-Record-April-9-May-5-1976-Volume-122/441037/1269 |archive-date=October 6, 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> who helped to establish the first manufactories in the colony. As a result, glassware became the foremost American products to be exported to Europe at the time. [[Clapboard]] had already been sent back to England beginning with the first returning ship.

The delivery of supplies in 1608 on the [[Jamestown supply missions#First supply mission|first and second supply]] missions of Captain Newport had also added to the number of hungry settlers. It seemed certain at that time that the colony at Jamestown would meet the same fate as earlier English attempts to settle in North America, specifically the Roanoke Colony (Lost Colony) and the [[Popham Colony]], unless there was a major relief effort. The Germans who arrived with the second supply and a few others defected to the Powhatans, with weapons and equipment.<ref>{{cite book |last=Horn |first=James |date=2006 |title=A Land as God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America |location=New York |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=0-465-03094-7 |pages=123–124, 127}}</ref> The Germans even planned to join a rumored Spanish attack on the colony and urged the Powhatans to join it.<ref>Horn, 2006, pp. 129–130.</ref> The Spanish were driven off by the timely arrival in July 1609 of Captain [[Samuel Argall]] in ''Mary and John'', a larger ship than the Spanish reconnaissance ship ''La Asunción de Cristo''.<ref>Horn, 2006, p. 154–156.</ref> Argall's voyage also prevented the Spanish from gaining knowledge of the weakness of the colony. Don Pedro de Zúñiga, the Spanish ambassador to England, was desperately seeking this information (in addition to spies) in order to get [[Philip III of Spain]] to authorize an attack on the colony.<ref>{{cite book|title=Letter from Pedro de Zuniga to the King of Spain, 1609 (Jamestown Adventure)|date=2004|publisher=John F. Blair|isbn=9780895874399|page=184|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Af726xGIl1gC|access-date=June 4, 2020|archive-date=November 21, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201121055158/https://books.google.com/books?id=Af726xGIl1gC|url-status=live}}</ref>

The investors of the Virginia Company of London expected to reap rewards from their speculative investments. With the second supply, they expressed their frustrations and made demands upon the leaders of Jamestown in written form. They specifically demanded that the colonists send commodities sufficient to pay the cost of the voyage, a lump of gold, assurance that they had found the South Sea, and one member of the lost Roanoke Colony. It fell to the third president of the council, [[John Smith (explorer)|Captain John Smith]], to deliver a bold and much-needed wake-up call in response to the investors in London, demanding practical laborers and craftsmen who could help make the colony more self-sufficient.<ref>Horn, 2006, pp. 128–129.</ref>