For more than two weeks they sought a place of settlement, and they named the promontory at the entrance of Hampton Roads “Point Comfort,” and the broad river which opened beyond after the king who gave them their charter.  At length they decided upon a tract of land in the Paspahegh country, distant about thirty-two miles from the river’s mouth; and though a peninsula they called it an island, because of the very narrow isthmus (long worn away) connecting it with the main-land.  There they landed May 14, 1607 (May 24 New Style), and at the west end, where the channel of the river came close to the shore, they constructed a triangular fort with bulwarks in each corner, mounting from three to five cannon, and within it marked off the beginnings of a town, which they called Jamestown.[21]

The colonists were at first in high spirits, for the landing occurred in the most beautiful month of all the year.  In reality, disaster was already impending, for their long passage at sea had much reduced the supplies, and the Paspaheghs bitterly resented their intrusion.  Moreover, the peninsula of Jamestown was not such a place as their instructions contemplated.  It was in a malarious situation, had no springs of fresh water, and was thickly covered with great trees and tall grass, which afforded protection to Indian enemies.

May 22 Captain Newport went up in a shallop with twenty others to look for a gold-mine at the falls of James River.  He was gone only a week, but before he returned the Indians had assaulted the fort, and his assistance was necessary in completing the palisades.  When Newport departed for England, June 22, he left one hundred and four settlers in a very unfortunate condition:[22] they were besieged by Indians; a small ladle of “ill-conditioned” barley-meal was the daily ration per man; the lodgings of the settlers were log-cabins and holes in the ground, and the brackish water of the river served them for drink.[23] The six weeks following Newport’s departure were a time of death and despair, and by September 10 of the one hundred and four men only forty-six remained alive.

Under such circumstances dissensions might have been expected, but they were intensified by the peculiar government devised by the king.  In a short time Gosnold died, and Kendall was detected in a design to desert the colony and was shot.  Then (September 10) Ratcliffe, Smith, and Martin deposed Wingfield from the government and elected as president John Ratcliffe.

In such times men of strong character take the lead.  When the cape merchant Thomas Studley, whose duty it was to care for the supplies and dispense them, died, his important office was conferred on Smith.  In this capacity Smith showed great abilities as a corn-getter from the Indians, whom he visited at Kecoughtan (Hampton), Warascoyack, and Chickahominy.  At length, during the fall of 1607, the Indians stopped hostilities, and for a brief interval health and plenty prevailed.[24]