Surviving Jamestown

by Gail Langer Karwoski

  Nate and Richard walked back to the starting place. They crouched, ready to race.

  Suddenly Richard stood up and said, “Hold on. What does the winner get?”

  Nate snorted. “There’s not much to offer here in James Fort, Richard. What do you want?”

  “How about a favor?” Richard asked. “Any favor within reason.”

  Sam and Nate looked at each other, their eyebrows raised. “Agreed,” Sam called. “As long as it’s reasonable.” Sam called a start to the race, and Richard slammed himself forward with the speed of a cannonball. He tagged the trunk before Nate had gotten his full stride.

  “Good race, Richard!” Sam cried.

  As soon as he stopped panting, Nate said. “Well, Richard, you won, fair and square. What’s the favor you’re asking?”

  Sam was expecting Richard to ask them to take his turn at guard duty or some other chore. Instead, Richard looked at Sam and said, “I want you to talk to Master Smith for me.”

  Sam looked puzzled. “About what?”

  “I want Captain Newport to hire me as part of his crew.”

  “Part of his crew?” Sam was stunned. “But you’d have to leave Virginia!”

  “That’s right,” Richard said. “Next time somebody asks who Richard Mutton is, I want the answer to be, ‘He’s a sailor.’ After I leave this place, nobody will say that I’m the boy who worked for the Spanish spy.”

  “But….” Sam turned to Nate for help. “New settlers will be coming here. They’ll—”

  “They’ll ask who I am,” Richard interrupted. “And they’ll be told. Just like that hunter was told.”

  Nate looked at Richard. “He won fair and square, Sam,” Nate said. “And we promised him any favor within reason.”

  Sam spoke to John Smith as soon as he got a chance.

  At first, Smith didn’t like the idea. “Richard’s already sixteen. He’s big and strong enough to take a man’s job here in James Fort,” Smith said. “We need all the able-bodied workers we can get in Virginia.” Smith looked at Sam and continued. “I know it’s hard on him now, Sam. The reputation of the master rubs off on the boy, just as the father’s reputation rubs off on the son. But boys grow up. When they’re men, they earn their own reputation.”

  “Like you’ve earned your own reputation in Virginia?” Sam asked.

  Smith nodded. “Exactly, Sam.”

  “And like you earned your reputation when you fought for the Dutch against the Turks?”

  Smith nodded again. He knew the boy’s questions were leading somewhere.

  “You told me that, as a lad, you were sent to learn a merchant’s trade.” Sam said. “But you didn’t like the life of a merchant, so you chose another way to earn your reputation as a man.”

  “I see your point,” Smith said. “You think a lad needs to make his own choice about what he’ll do as a man.” He smiled. “You win, Sam Collier,” he said. “You have a clever head on your shoulders. I’ll speak to Captain Newport for your friend.”

  Newport had already noticed young Richard’s strength, and he was glad to take him as part of the crew for the crossing to England. Newport was readying the John and Francis to leave for England in a few weeks, at the beginning of April.

  The news of Newport’s upcoming departure was a relief to John Smith, because the sailors were eating more of the fort’s provisions than they produced. As the crew got the ship ready for the voyage, Smith and some of the gentlemen hurried to write letters to family, friends, and sponsors at home.

  Sam asked John Smith if he might write a letter to his family in Lincolnshire. “That letter from my brother Thomas—it was the first letter I ever got,” Sam explained. “I’d like to try my hand at writing a letter home. My family will be relieved to hear that I’m well.”

  Smith agreed and gave Sam paper, pen, and ink. “But take care how you word your letter, Sam. The company doesn’t want us sending letters to England that might discourage others from coming over.”

  Sam spent a long time considering what he should write. Paper and ink were scarce, and he couldn’t afford to make mistakes. When he sat down to his task, he went slowly and carefully, using his very best handwriting to show that he had not forgotten his letters.

  My respected and honored father,

  Our ship arrived here in May. We found Virginia very beautiful, with goodly trees, abundance of game, and wide rivers. Although winter is as cold as England, I live in a house and get enough to eat. Tell mother not to worry. The hot months were hard on us, but I survived the seasoning. Our fort’s walls are sturdy now, and Master Smith has taught me to fire the guns, so I stand guard with the men.

  Master Smith is very kind to me. He desires me to learn the natives’ speech and has me study the building of our houses, the tending of our crops, and other skills as will prove useful to a man of this settlement.

  Although I have no family on these shores, I am not entirely alone as I have a good friend called Nathaniel Peacock who is as a brother to me in Virginia. I am praying God may protect you, though I don’t know when I shall see you anymore.

  I remain your loving and devoted son,

  Samuel Collier

  Sam labored over the letter until the light was beginning to fade. Finished at last, he was very pleased with himself. He gave the letter to Master Smith, who sealed it for him. Smith had a stack of papers to send to England.

  The John and Francis was ready to set sail on April 10, 1608. Sam and Nate shook hands with Richard on the shore, just before he boarded the ship. Richard sparred playfully with them, his freckled face grinning happily. “Perhaps I’ll be on the crew of one of the supply ships coming to Virginia,” he said.

  “Godspeed, Richard,” Sam said. “I hope a sailor’s life suits you. You earned it fair and square!”

  Ten days later, the fort’s guards sighted a large ship coming up the James from the bay. “Ship heading this way!” they shouted. “Large ship under sail toward us! Take arms!”

  Men rushed out of buildings, grabbing for their weapons.

  “What colors does it fly? Is it Spanish?” voices shouted. Men leaped onto the platforms and readied the cannons for battle.

  Suddenly, one of the guards called, “Hold your fire! That’s the flag of England.”

  Another man shaded his eyes with his hand. “Why, bless my stars,” he gasped. “That’s the Phoenix!”

  “The Phoenix? Cap’n Newport’s companion ship? I thought she was shipwrecked months ago. I figured all her men were at the bottom of the sea!”

  All over the fort, the men buzzed with excitement. “Fancy that—the Phoenix has arrived! She’s been missing for how long now?”

  “Three months! It’s been three months since Cap’n Newport lost sight of her in a fog. Wouldn’t the Cap’n marvel to hear this?”

  Sam and the settlers rushed to the riverbank to welcome Captain Nelson, his sailors, and the forty passengers on board.

  “Where have you been all this time?” President Ratcliffe asked, shaking the captain’s hand. “We’d given up looking for you. What happened?”

  “We lost sight of the John and Francis in heavy fog,” Captain Nelson explained. “When we couldn’t find her, I assumed we’d sailed right past her on the river, so I changed direction. The fog was so thick that we lost our bearings. We hit rough weather and took some damage to the hull. By that time, we were in open waters, so I judged our best course was to head for the islands. We finally made landfall in the West Indies. As soon as I was sure the Phoenix was fit to sail, and the winds were with us, I retraced our course through the Chesapeake.”

  Even more amazing than the arrival of the Phoenix was what she had on board. Most of the ship’s provisions were still packed in her hold. The crew and passengers had been living on what they were able to find on the islands.

  Since Captain Newport would be carrying news of the disappearance of the Phoenix to England, Captain Nelson was eager to return and let friends and family know that h
is crew and passengers were safe. So the Phoenix remained in James Fort less than a month—just long enough to unload supplies and passengers and fill the hold with cedar wood to sell in England. Then she sailed, leaving the English population in Virginia at more than one hundred and fifty.

  By the time the Phoenix sailed for England, the days were getting hot and sticky again. Within a few weeks, some of the new settlers began to complain of stomach cramps and fevers. Sam recognized the beginnings of the sickness he and so many others had had the previous summer. Soon, the sick men were lying in their sleeping quarters, groaning with pain and delirious with fever.

  “This is their seasoning, isn’t it?” Sam said to John Smith, as they walked to their lodging one evening. Passing by the sleeping quarters, Sam could hear the muffled cries of the ailing men. “Do you think these men will die from the sickness?”

  Smith nodded. “Some will, Sam. But we have more food and better shelter now. I don’t think their seasoning will be as severe as ours.”

  Sam remembered the deaths of James Brumfield, Master Calthrop, and the others. “I didn’t know we’d have so much sickness and death during our first year here,” he said.

  “It was a hard first year, Sam, but think of what we’ve created. We’ve colonized a bountiful land—a place teeming with game and fish and trees. We’ve planted civilization in a new world! This undertaking is certainly worth the price.”

  “Before we came, did you realize that so many would die?”

  Smith paused. “I suspected as much. Virginia is a test for us, Sam. It tests our courage, our cunning, our determination. Only the strongest and smartest will survive. Before we started this adventure, I realized there were risks. Grave risks. But I was confident that I’d withstand the test. And I chose you as my servant boy because you have what it takes to survive.”

  Sam thought over his master’s words. James Brumfield wasn’t strong, he thought, or brave. Although he was a clever boy, he had no desire to explore a new world. But others who died weren’t timid and sickly like James. Some of them were brave and determined, too. Like Master Calthrop. Sam wondered whether a man’s survival really had more to do with luck than skill or strength.

  That summer, John Smith led two expeditions to explore Chesapeake Bay and took Sam and Nate along. Smith was searching for a waterway across the continent to the South Sea. If such a passage existed, it would be a shortcut for English ships to reach the Orient, with its thriving spice and silk trade. Smith was also hoping to find deposits of minerals, especially gold. But he found neither the passage nor the minerals.

  By the time the explorers returned, the colony was in turmoil. While they were gone, conditions in the fort had grown worse. Heat and sickness had caused old jealousies to flare up. Complaints and rumors about President Ratcliffe swirled around the settlement. The council removed Ratcliffe from office, and in September, John Smith was elected president.

  Sam was astounded. “This is a new world for sure!” he exclaimed. “When we first came to Virginia, the other settlers didn’t even want my master to serve on the council. Remember, Nate? They said he wasn’t born to lead. They insisted that only men from the finest families are fit for leadership.”

  “I remember that some of the passengers wanted to hang your master for mutiny during the crossing. Now he’s our president!” Nate said. “I wish Master Calthrop was alive to see this. He always said your master had bold ideas.”

  “Master John Smith—president of the Virginia colony!” Sam said, his eyes sparkling as he tried out the new title. “Do you know what this means, Nate?”

  Nate laughed. “Let me guess—that you’re a lucky boy because you serve the most important man in Virginia.”

  Chuckling, Sam punched Nate’s arm. “Much more than that, Nate. Master Smith comes from a middling sort of family. No better than yours or mine. If he can become the president of Jamestown, then someday you or I could be president. Back in England, we could never dream of such a thing. But here there’s no limit to what our future may hold!”

  On the twenty-ninth of September 1608, Captain Newport arrived in Virginia again. He brought a second supply of provisions and seventy passengers, including two women. Sam watched the women come ashore with an ache in his chest. These were the first English women he’d seen in almost two years. In their long dresses and white caps, either one could have been Sam’s mother.

  The arrival of the two women stirred up memories of home, but it also boosted everyone’s confidence.

  “The Virginia Company must be pretty pleased about what we’ve done over here,” one man said. “Else they wouldn’t be sending women over. Yes, indeed, we’ve got us a permanent settlement. Over in England, they must be saying that a man can make himself a living in Virginia! Even have a family.”

  Along with the two women, the seventy passengers included several craftsmen from Poland and Germany who had been hired by the Virginia Company to develop industries in the colony. Some were skilled glass makers. Sam and Nate were assigned the task of chopping wood for the glass makers’ furnace.

  “I think I might like to apprentice to a craftsman,” Nate told Sam. “Glass making is a skill a man could use anywhere—here or in England. And I like the idea of taking a common thing like sand and making something beautiful and useful out of it.”

  Sam smiled at his friend. Learning a craft like making glass held no attraction for him. Sam wanted to be outdoors—in the woods or on the boat. He liked exploring new places, like John Smith. He also thought he’d like to farm, like his father. Someday, the company may let us own farms here. There’s so much land in Virginia.

  The mornings had already turned frosty, and gradually the crisp fall weather gave way to cold. At the start of the winter of 1608–1609, Captain Newport sailed back to England. When Sam added up the newcomers from the second supply ship, the passengers from the first supply ships, and those who had survived from the original fleet, he counted over two hundred people now living in the fort. No longer was their colony a small outpost. It had become a town—Jamestown.

  14

  Man of the New World

  Now that John Smith was president, he was usually busy with meetings and other matters, so Sam spent less time at his side. Instead, Sam worked with Nate and the new boys from the supply ships on chores around Jamestown. Whenever he could, Sam avoided the adult colonists. So many of these men resented his master! They complained angrily in the boy’s presence, and that made Sam uneasy. In particular, the gentlemen hated the way President Smith forced them to do the same work as common laborers.

  As president, John Smith had decided there were far too many people living in the fort. “We can’t have two hundred people hunting the same ground and fishing the same water,” Smith said. “Not during winter, anyway. We’d all starve.”

  Smith sent groups of settlers to live at outposts along the river. Those settlers who were assigned to move were scared. They didn’t want to live away from the security of the fort, so they begged Smith to let them stay. But Smith insisted.

  Trade for the Indians’ food became more and more difficult. In the last week of December, Smith led a large expedition to Werowocomoco, to meet with Powhatan and discuss the problem. The boats traveled down the James River to the Indian village of Warraskoyack, where the Englishmen camped overnight. Smith met with Sasenticum, the village chief, who agreed to trade enough food to stock the English boats for the expedition.

  In the morning, Sasenticum warned Smith against going to Powhatan’s town. He said the emperor planned to betray the Englishmen and seize their guns.

  Smith thanked the chief for his warning. “But I have no choice,” he explained. “We depend on trade with Powhatan’s villages to supply our colony with food. I’m not afraid of Powhatan. I won’t hide inside our fort all winter and let him starve us to death. Not while I have guns and ammunition!”

  As the Englishmen walked toward the riverbank, Smith called Sam aside. “I told Chief Sasent
icum that I wanted to leave a lad here at Warraskoyack,” Smith told Sam. “I’ve spoken to you about the importance of learning the natives’ speech and customs. I want you to stay here while I lead the rest of the party to Werowocomoco. Do you understand?”

  Sam’s heart began to pound, and his eyes darted wildly around the village. The Warraskoyack villagers seem friendly enough. But I will be all alone here. What if something goes wrong? Sam tried to blot out the memory that flashed into his mind, the image of George Cassen being tortured in Apokant.

  “Sam, I’m speaking to you! Look at me!”

  Sam met John Smith’s eyes.

  “Look, lad,” Smith continued. “I already told the chief that I would leave my personal servant here. He agreed to send you back to the fort in a few weeks. That should give you enough time to learn some of the Indians’ language. I want you to watch how the villagers hunt, trap, and fish during the winter. I know I can depend on you, Sam. This will be a good test of your resourcefulness.”

  As soon as Smith said the word, “test,” Sam nodded. Master Smith is right. I can’t stay by his side forever. “I’ll gather my gear,” he said.

  “Sam, tell him you don’t want to stay here alone. It’s not safe!” Nate hissed as soon as they were out of earshot.

  “But I do want to stay, Nate. If I’m going to be a man of Virginia, I need to study the Indians. I’ll be safe. Maybe safer than you’ll be at Powhatan’s village.” Sam looked at Nate and declared, “I’m not afraid!” But in his heart Sam knew he really was.

  As soon as the English boats disappeared from sight, one of the village women led Sam to her house and showed him where to put down his things. Then she motioned for him to follow her outdoors. Several women were sitting around a fire, twisting hemp between their hands to make strong cord. One woman was kneeling on a piece of hide and scraping off the fur with a shell.