Chapter 8: Starving Jacobeans. c1605–1625.

When Queen Elizabeth died childless in 1603, the English crown passed to her distant Stuart cousin, James I (1603-25). Already King of Scotland, James's English coronation united the two crowns under his kingship. For the first time in history, the island of Great Britain was under one monarch. Born unto a Catholic mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, but raised with a Protestant ethos, James personified the sectarian strife that divided his kingdom. While King James ended the long-running war with Catholic Spain, English Catholics yet faced oppression at home. Plotting to kill the king and all his ministers, one Catholic faction planted 20 barrels of gunpowder in a cellar beneath the Parliament Building; the plot was thwarted at the last moment, with Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators executed. English Protestants warmed to the king's rule after he authorized a new English translation of the Scriptures: the King James Bible.

At peace with Spain and France, King James diverted English fleets from privateering and directed them towards colonization. In 1606, he granted one royal charter to the Virginia Company of London to settle southern Virginia, and another to the Virginia Company of Plymouth to settle northern Virginia. Notwithstanding the grants made by Queen Elizabeth, Walter Raleigh was in no position to challenge the new colonial charters. Accused of atheism and treason by the new king, he was currently held prisoner in the Tower of London.

Despite heavy investment from several court favorites, the Virginia Company of London could only rig three ships for its first colonial push: the Godspeed, captained by Bartholomew Gosnold; the Discovery, captained by John Ratcliffe; and the flagship Susan Constant, captained by Christopher Newport. After two decades plundering Spanish shipping in the Caribbean, Captain Newport's seamanship and knowledge of the western Atlantic was unassailable. Also aboard the flagship was Edward Maria Wingfield, a key promoter of the colonial venture, and a cousin of Gosnold. Wingfield soon clashed with another headstrong passenger, John Smith. Not yet 30 years of age, Smith had already been thrown into the sea as a heretic; fought bloody campaigns in French, Dutch, and Transylvanian armies; dueled three Turkish champions in one day and beheaded each in turn. Accusing Smith of mutiny on the crossing to Virginia, Newport and Wingfield intended to hang him upon arrival.

In April 1607, after almost five months at sea, Newport led the fleet to its first landing in Virginia. As if to sanctify the land, they planted a crucifix in the soil. And to crown it an English possession, they christened the headland Cape HENRY, after Prince Henry, eldest son of King James.

Upon arriving in Virginia, the prospective colonists opened sealed orders from the Virginia Company and King James. Newport and Wingfield were dismayed to discover orders stipulating that John Smith was to serve alongside them on the governing council. Proceeding up a broad tidal river in May, Newport anchored by a small island deemed safe for settlement. A deepwater anchorage allowed large ships to moor beside the riverine island. The river itself was stocked with fish, including sturgeon as long as 14 feet. And sections of forest stretching back from the river had already been cleared for cultivation by local Indians. Elected first president of the council, Wingfield directed 100 English men and boys to fortify a one-acre triangle of land behind eight-foot-tall palisades. In honor of King James, they christened the settlement JAMESTOWN. Soon after the English landing, a bright comet blazed across the night sky; local Indians saw the celestial event as a portent of great change.

Anon Jamestown's colonists learnt that their new home, known also as "Jimston" and "Jimson," was bathed by brackish waters and swamped by mosquitoes. Bartholomew Gosnold died of malaria within weeks; others died of typhoid and dysentery. Those who survived the first months then faced malnutrition and starvation, as English seeds sprouted strains of inedible crops. Local Indians offered rations of corn and bread but after outbreaks of violence Jamestown's food supply was cut off completely. Hungry and desperate, settlers sampled the toxic Jimson weed – with strange, mind-altering results.

Virginia might have swallowed another English colony but for the efforts of John Smith. Absenting himself from the governing council in Jamestown, he ventured out to explore the surrounding terrain. Moving upriver from the tiny English fort, Smith saw sizeable Indian villages with houses 100 feet long. All whom he met along this river declared their loyalty to King Powhatan of the Powhatan tribe. Armed with bows, clubs, and tomahawks, these Indians reigned supreme in Virginia. Tacitly acknowledging the tribe's sovereignty, Smith and fellow colonists called Jamestown's river the "Powhatan". Though the river was to be renamed, scattered locations upon the river yet preserve the name POWHATAN.

Yet to meet King Powhatan, Smith made contact with various tribes under his dominion. Transcribing tribal names, and ascribing to each a location, he fixed many familiar names upon the maps of Virginia. Up the Powhatan River, he met the "Queene of Agamatack" who treated colonists with great hospitality; unable to fix the spelling of this difficult tribal name, Smith also spelt it "Apamatuc" and "Appamatuck" – a name finally fixed upon a tributary of the Powhatan as APPOMATTOX. At the lower end of the Powhatan River, he met the "Nawsamond" living near today's NANSEMOND River; the "Pamaunke" of the PAMUNKEY; the "Matapamient" of the MATTAPONI; the "Pavankatank" of the PIANKATUNK. In another broad river valley, Smith and his men came under attack from a "peevish nation" he called "Tappahanocke," and "Toppahannock," near the site of TAPPAHANNOCK. Smith soon made peace with the tribe and reported a variant spelling of their river as the "Rapahanock," now the RAPPAHANNOCK; the tribe drew its name from the river, probably a tidal river.

Smith detailed many aspects of the Powhatan appearance that would terrify and titillate English readers. He described men sporting long black hair, with half their crowns shaven, and without any facial hair at all; and women, more so than men, flaunting body art across their bare skin. When not naked or scantily clad, both sexes wore deerskin cloaks and durable moccasins. Even the world-weary Smith was shocked by beastly Indian jewelry: some wore earrings of dead rats, tied to their ears by the tail; others threaded through their pierced ears the writhing bodies of small snakes.

Closely allied with the Powhatans was another tribe Smith recorded as the "Chickhamania," a name assumed by the CHICKAHOMINY River; the tribal name signified Hominy or Ground Corn People and, indeed, they did provide Smith with corn. While exploring this swampy stream in 1608, Smith was separated from his crew and ambushed by a party of Pamunkeys led by Powhatan's brother, Opechancanough. Under a hail of arrows, one of which pierced his thigh, Smith surrendered. Taken from tribe to tribe among the Powhatan Confederacy, he was finally brought before King Powhatan. According to Smith's later account, King Powhatan ordered that he be clubbed to death but the king's daughter, Pocahontas, saved his life by throwing her body over his. Released by the Powhatans, Smith returned once more to Jamestown – with bushels of corn to feed the starving colonists.

Smith did not long dwell behind colonial palisades. Hoping to find a passage to the Pacific Ocean, he spearheaded the exploration of Chesapeake Bay in the summer of 1608. Embarking in a small barge, Smith crossed the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, from Cape Henry to a northern point he christened Cape CHARLES for Prince Charles, the second son of King James. Capes Henry and Charles would hereafter mark Chesapeake Bay as the king's dominion. Groomed to succeed his father, young Prince Henry succumbed to typhoid after an ill-advised swim in the Thames River; Prince Charles became heir to the throne.

Off the northern shoreline, Smith and his men sighted a small group of islands by the northern entrance to Chesapeake Bay. These isles they named after the expedition commander, one of which remains SMITH Island.

On the vast peninsula forming the bay's eastern shore, Smith's men met two stout Indians carrying long spears tipped with sharpened bone. Hostile at first meeting, the Indians warmed to the Englishmen and escorted them to a village Smith recorded as "Acawmacke." Signifying at the other side, the name aptly fit the eastern shores of Chesapeake Bay, still showing variant spellings like ACCOMAC and ACCOMACK. Smith met other resident tribes along the eastern shore, among them the "Wighcocomoco" of the WICOMICO River, whose initial aggression gave way to a mirthful dance; the "Pawcocomocac," closely related to the Wicomico, and source of the name POCOMOKE; the "Nantaquake," of the NANTICOKE River, whom Smith called the best merchants among all the Indians; and the "Monacans," whom Smith called neighbors and friends, the source of MANOKIN.

Smith and his company crossed to the bay's western shores – at once paddling into a wide riverine mouth bordered by cliffs. As a navigable passage inland, this river showed promise. Smith remarked: "The fourth river is called Patawomeke and is 6 or 7 miles in breadth. It is navigable 140 miles…" This broad river took its name from a local tribe, also spelled "Patawomeck," now POTOMAC.

Smith met other tribes in the Potomac watershed whose names are now borne by tributaries of the broad river. But the names Smith recorded were Anglicised, clipped, and softened into more manageable forms: "Sekacawone" became COAN; "Onawmanient" became NOMINI; "Nushemouck" became NANJEMOY; "Quiyough" became AQUIA; "Mataughquamend" became MATTAWOMAN; and "Nacotchtanke" became ANACOSTIA. A nearby tribe that he called the "Pawtuxent" is more recognizable as the source of the PATUXENT. And upon the Pawtuxent River Smith noted the village of "Acquackack," now AQUASCO.

The most impressive tribe Smith met in his 1608 travels lived on the longest river running east of the Appalachian Mountains. Their size and dress amazed him:

Such great and well proportioned men are seldom seen, for they seemed like giants to the English…Those are the most strange people of all those countries, both in language and attire; for their language it may well beseem their proportions, sounding from them, as it were a great voice in a vault, or cave, as an echo. Their attire is the skins of bears and wolves; some have cassocks made of bear heads and skins that a man's neck goes through the skin's neck, and the ears of the bear fastened to his shoulders behind, the nose and teeth hanging down his breast...

Smith called these giant, bear-skinned men the "Sasquesahanocks," now the SUSQUEHANNOCK, and on an accompanying map marked their river as the "Susquesahanough" – the SUSQUEHANNA; the tribe drew its name from the river, perhaps a muddy river.

Returning south past the mouth of the Rappahannock, Smith took to spearing fish with the blade of his sword. Grappling with one stingray, he was stung in the arm and suffered pains and swellings such that his companions readied themselves for his funeral. Smith yet again cheated death and delighted in eating a portion of the ray that stung him – at a point marked on the map as STINGRAY.

Back at Jamestown, disputes over possession of land and food brought more conflict. Smith compelled Indians to trade at gunpoint, securing provisions for hungry colonists but stoking further conflict. Powhatan ordered Smith's execution but the wily Englishman once more escaped death: a bag of gunpowder exploded in his lap, scorched his genitals, and forced his return to England. Relations worsened between natives and colonists. Powhatans refused further aid to hungry Englishmen and began destroying their crops.

Back in London, the Virginia Company's directors strove to keep the colony afloat. On its second charter of 1609, the first name listed on its ruling council was "Henry, Earl of Southampton." Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, was an active company member, investing part of his fortune to keep colonists provisioned. As a leading patron of English poetry, he also provided generous support to Shakespeare. Shakespeare returned his favors by dedicating two narrative poems to Wriothesley, with words suggesting a deeper intimacy, "The love I dedicate to your lordship is without end..." In fact, with his initials reversed, Henry Wriothesley may have been the elusive "Mr. W.H." to whom Shakespeare dedicated his entire body of sonnets. Of how little consequence must it have been to the Earl of Southampton, when colonial officials expressed their gratitude to him by naming a short Virginian river HAMPTON; he could not have known that the name would be assumed by a bustling port city and would then spread across the waters of one of the world's busiest harbors: HAMPTON ROADS.

The transportation of provisions and settlers across the Atlantic remained the duty of Captain Newport, who made annual supply voyages from England to Virginia. Hungry colonists celebrated Newport's return to the colony with cheers and a discharge of weapons – signaling the end of their hunger and their isolation from the civilized world. At the mouth of the Powhatan River, where settlers first sighted incoming supply ships, a most unusual name appeared. With news of Newport's return – and news of England from Newport – a new port site was settled as NEWPORT NEWS.

Embarking on his third supply voyage to Virginia in June 1609, Newport sailed into a storm that wrecked the hulking Sea Venture upon the islands of Bermuda. The dramatic stranding may have inspired Shakespeare's Tempest; one headstrong colonist who led a failed mutiny, Stephen Hopkins, closely resembled the character of Stephano. Whilst survivors began constructing two smaller craft from the wreckage, colonists in Virginia began starving again. Smaller supply ships yet saved the colony from devastation. Samuel Argall arrived at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay in late July – just in time to thwart a Spanish ship under Francisco de Ecija from entering the bay in his search for the English colonists. But when Argall left in October, the colony was still critically undersupplied.

During the winter of 1609-10, three quarters of the colony's number went underfed to their deaths. In desperation, ravenous colonists opened graves and ate the flesh of fresh corpses. Hoping to trade for corn, John Ratliffe and a dozen other colonists blundered into a Powhatan ambush. Ratcliffe was captured and bound naked to a tree – where his flesh was scraped from his bones with shells and thrown into a fire before his dying eyes.

Upon his belated arrival in late May 1610, Newport found the Virginia colonists dead or dying. Crowding aboard his ships, ragged survivors demanded a passage back to England; Newport agreed. The colony had failed. But while waiting for the tide to turn before sailing back downstream, departing colonists beheld the vision of more English ships approaching upstream. Unknown to Captain Newport and the colonists, the Virginia Company had dispatched another supply voyage to Jamestown. In early June, Samuel Argall guided the flagship De La Warr to Jamestown, conveying to the colony its new governor, Thomas West, Lord de la Warr. A wealthy member of the Virginia Company, and of the House of Lords, de la Warr promised to protect the fledgling settlement and coerced colonists to stay. With scores of soldiers behind him, he waged war on the Powhatans with brutal efficiency – burning native villages and cornfields, and killing men, women, and children. His attacks secured the colony's immediate future but perhaps imperiled it in the long-term.

In August 1610, seeking to shore up Jamestown's supplies, Samuel Argall explored the coastline to Virginia's north. Rounding a prominent cape, he entered one of the largest bays on the continent. Still under the authority of Lord de la Warr, and in command of his flagship, De La Warr, Argall named the cape DELAWARE. The name was transferred to that of a bay, a river, and thence a colony.

Among the colonists arriving on Newport's last supply voyage was John Rolfe, whose late wife and child lay buried in Bermuda. Rolfe's arrival would ever alter Virginia's fortunes. Planting tobacco seeds obtained from a strain grown in Trinidad, he oversaw the first tobacco plantation in Virginia. Although King James railed against the "vile custome," tobacco became the colony's first cash crop; anon the king considered seizing Trinidad and the tobacco island of Tobago. Marrying Pocahontas, Rolfe made more peaceable relations with the Powhatans, bringing stability to the colony. On a visit to England in 1616, Rolfe and Pocahontas met King James, charmed London society, and allayed English fears of Indian savagery. But after a brief reunion with John Smith, whom she had believed was dead, Pocahontas paled and withdrew into herself. Before she could reembark for her native Virginia, the Indian princess succumbed to European disease; interred in a Gravesend graveyard, she was the first American woman buried on English soil.

King James sought to increase English activity in the Americas without reigniting war with Spain. In 1616 he released Walter Raleigh from 13 years of imprisonment, placing him in command of another expedition to find El Dorado. In failing health, Raleigh remained in Trinidad while others pushed onto Guyana and Venezuela. Compounding their failure to find gold, the English adventurers attacked a Spanish fort – during which Raleigh's son was fatally shot. Upon Raleigh's pitiful return to England in 1618, amidst fears of another war with Spain, King James had him beheaded. His widow, Elizabeth, carried his head in a velvet bag for the remainder of her life.

In conditions of peace, colonists spread out across Virginia. Wherever English folk went English names followed – at the expense of native names. In the colony's first years, while colonists remained at the mercy of King Powhatan, Jamestown's river was known as the "Powhatan River." As the colony grew in strength, and colonists in confidence, the river was more commonly known as "King's River" – an ambiguous name honoring both King Powhatan and King James. But before Powhatan's death in 1618, by which time colonists had established permanent plantations downstream, the King's River was known as the JAMES River. The pattern repeated itself across Virginia. When colonists settled on the banks of a short, tidal estuary, near the mouth of the James River, they replaced its native name with that of King James' eldest daughter: ELIZABETH. In the Pamunkey and Mattaponi valleys, where early English colonists rarely ventured, the native names remained; yet where the two rivers converged, they planted the name of King James' second son, now heir to the throne: "Charles." The Charles River prevailed on maps for decades before it was replaced by an even more English name.

English folk appropriated more and more acreage in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, but some rivers retained their native names. Large-scale settlement of river valleys like the Potomac and Susquehanna did not take place for decades, by which time their "savage" names had become fixed on the maps and familiar to colonials. The first generation of colonists showed more concern that their towns, cities, and counties – reflections of human geography – carried names of "civilized" origin.

In 1619 the structure of Virginian society was upended. The Virginia Company sent the first shipload of English women to help populate the colony; Dutch traders sold the first African slaves to meet the labor shortages on plantations; and propertied men sowed the seeds of representative democracy by sitting in the first session of the House of Burgesses. But the Virginia Company baulked at giving colonists too much sovereignty. Reminding English settlers of their allegiance to the English monarchy, it assigned royal names to all occupied lands of Virginia: JAMES CITY for King James; HENRICO, for the late Henry, Prince of Wales; CHARLES CITY, for Charles, Duke of York; and a fourth shire was later named "Elizabeth" City for Princess Elizabeth. No resident of colonial Virginia lived beyond the names of the reigning Stuart monarchs.

The royal naming presaged the colony's future. In March of 1622, the new chief of Powhatan Confederacy, Opechancanough, launched a series of coordinated attacks across the colony. Entering English settlements with goods to trade, Indian warriors suddenly fell upon men, women, and children as they sat down for breakfast. John Rolfe was among hundreds presumed killed. Deeming the Virginia Company incapable of protecting British subjects, James I revoked its charter and made Virginia a crown colony under the direct authority of his kingship. Already the king claimed dominion over England, Scotland, Ireland, and parts of France; herewith he claimed Virginia as his "Fifth Dominion." As new British colonies began in America, Virginia vaunted its seniority as the "Old Dominion."