The night of their arrival they anchored at Point Comfort, now Fortress Monroe; the box was opened and the orders read, which constituted Edward Maria Wingfield, Bartholomew Gosnold, John Smith, Christopher Newport, John Ratcliffe, John Martin, and George Kendall the Council, with power to choose a President for a year.Until the 13th of May they were slowly exploring the River Powhatan, now the James, seeking a place for the settlement.They selected a peninsula on the north side of the river, forty miles from its mouth, where there was good anchorage, and which could be readily fortified.This settlement was Jamestown.The Council was then sworn in, and Mr.
Wingfield selected President.Smith being under arrest was not sworn in of the Council, and an oration was made setting forth the reason for his exclusion.
When they had pitched upon a site for the fort, every man set to work, some to build the fort, others to pitch the tents, fell trees and make clapboards to reload the ships, others to make gardens and nets.The fort was in the form of a triangle with a half-moon at each comer, intended to mount four or five guns.
President Wingfield appears to have taken soldierly precautions, but Smith was not at all pleased with him from the first.He says "the President's overweening jealousy would admit of no exercise at arms, or fortifications but the boughs of trees cast together in the form of a half-moon by the extraordinary pains and diligence of Captain Kendall." He also says there was contention between Captain Wingfield and Captain Gosnold about the site of the city.
The landing was made at Jamestown on the 14th of May, according to Percy.Previous to that considerable explorations were made.On the 18th of April they launched a shallop, which they built the day before, and "discovered up the bay." They discovered a river on the south side running into the mainland, on the banks of which were good stores of mussels and oysters, goodly trees, flowers of all colors, and strawberries.Returning to their ships and finding the water shallow, they rowed over to a point of land, where they found from six to twelve fathoms of water, which put them in good comfort, therefore they named that part of the land Cape Comfort.On the 29th they set up a cross on Chesapeake Bay, on Cape Henry, and the next day coasted to the Indian town of Kecoughton, now Hampton, where they were kindly entertained.When they first came to land the savages made a doleful noise, laying their paws to the ground and scratching the earth with their nails.This ceremony, which was taken to be a kind of idolatry, ended, mats were brought from the houses, whereon the guests were seated, and given to eat bread made of maize, and tobacco to smoke.The savages also entertained them with dancing and singing and antic tricks and grimaces.They were naked except a covering of skins about the loins, and many were painted in black and red, with artificial knots of lovely colors, beautiful and pleasing to the eye.The 4th of May they were entertained by the chief of Paspika, who favored them with a long oration, making a foul noise and vehement in action, the purport of which they did not catch.The savages were full of hospitality.The next day the weroance, or chief, of Rapahanna sent a messenger to invite them to his seat.His majesty received them in as modest a proud fashion as if he had been a prince of a civil government.His body was painted in crimson and his face in blue, and he wore a chain of beads about his neck and in his ears bracelets of pearls and a bird's claw.The 8th of May they went up the river to the country Apomatica, where the natives received them in hostile array, the chief, with bow and arrows in one hand, and a pipe of tobacco in the other, offering them war or peace.
These savages were as stout and able as any heathen or Christians in the world.Mr.Percy said they bore their years well.He saw among the Pamunkeys a savage reported to be 160, years old, whose eyes were sunk in his head, his teeth gone his hair all gray, and quite a big beard, white as snow; he was a lusty savage, and could travel as fast as anybody.
The Indians soon began to be troublesome in their visits to the plantations, skulking about all night, hanging around the fort by day, bringing sometimes presents of deer, but given to theft of small articles, and showing jealousy of the occupation.They murmured, says Percy, at our planting in their country.But worse than the disposition of the savages was the petty quarreling in the colony itself.
In obedience to the orders to explore for the South Sea, on the 22d of May, Newport, Percy, Smith, Archer, and twenty others were sent in the shallop to explore the Powhatan, or James River.
Passing by divers small habitations, and through a land abounding in trees, flowers, and small fruits, a river full of fish, and of sturgeon such as the world beside has none, they came on the 24th, having passed the town of Powhatan, to the head of the river, the Falls, where they set up the cross and proclaimed King James of England.
Smith says in his "General Historie" they reached Powhatan on the 26th.But Captain Newport's "Relatyon" agrees with Percy's, and with, Smith's "True Relation." Captain Newport, says Percy, permitted no one to visit Powhatan except himself.
Captain Newport's narration of the exploration of the James is interesting, being the first account we have of this historic river.
