Sir Christopher Newport
Sir Christopher Newport is well known for his part in creating the first English settlement in North America – Jamestown, Virginia. He was also a privateer of some note, who – when he was not introducing Virginian tobacco to European coffee houses, or claiming the islands of Bermuda for the Crown, was busy robbing enemy ships of precious stones, silks and spices.
Sir Christopher Newport’s claim to fame is that in 1607 he helped to found the first English settlement in North America, at Jamestown, Virginia. Two years later, he inadvertently colonized Bermuda for the British when he was shipwrecked on the reef there after encountering a hurricane. The passengers on board included the admiral of the Virginia Company charged with colonizing the lands, Sir George Somers. Somers, like Newport, survived the wreck, and went on to claim the island, and the islands around it, for Britain.
But less well known than his part in the colonizing of North America and the West Indies, is the fact that Sir Christopher was an extremely successful privateer. Before his adventures in Virginia, he had made his name by capturing a number of Spanish and Portuguese ships, including the biggest prize of the century, the Madre de Deus, a galleon loaded with 500 tons of precious stones, silks and spices. It was for this reason that he came to the attention of the court.
Baby crocodiles
There is little information about the early life of Newport, but we know that for many years he worked as an independent privateer in the Caribbean and the Atlantic, capturing Spanish cargo ships. He was funded by a number of London merchants who purchased the treasures he stole from the ships. As well as gold, silver, jewels, silks and spices, he sometimes brought back live animals. On one occasion, he presented King James I with two baby crocodiles. Not only did this put him in the king’s favour, but it was also good publicity, and soon Newport became one of the most famous privateers of his day, receiving commissions from the monarchy. It is strange to think that this adventurer, now hailed as a founding father of Jamestown, Virginia, was also engaged in robbing enemy ships and bringing the spoils back to his royal sponsors in Britain.
In 1606, Newport was hired by the Virginia Company of London, whose mission was to establish a colony in North American lands claimed by the British crown. He set sail in December of that year with three ships, including the largest, the Susan Constant, which he himself captained. The ships arrived at their destination months later, landing at Cape Henry and mounting an expedition inland to explore their surroundings. During the trip, the settlers held an election and also mounted a trial with a judge and jury against one John Smith, who was accused of mutiny. Smith was acquitted and this election and trial are celebrated today as the first instances of democratic activity to take place in North America.
Disease, starvation and death
After many setbacks, Newport’s little expedition chose a site on which to build their colony. Today, this is known as Jamestown Island. One of the aspects of the site that attracted them was that there appeared to be no Native Americans living there. They soon found out why. The area was a swamp, and few wild animals lived there, so hunting any kind of game was impossible. In addition the water was foul, and the air thick with mosquitos. The settlers, who consisted of English, German and Polish farmers and woodcutters, were inexperienced in managing such conditions and soon succumbed to disease, dying of fever, dysentery and malnutrition. Not only that, but the apparently uninhabited area turned out to be near an encampment of Paspahegh Indians, who attacked the settlers, killing one and wounding several more.
The sweet smell of success
Nevertheless, despite these problems the settlers were determined to stay, so Newport sailed off home to bring essential supplies for the nascent colony. It was on one of these supply missions that Newport’s ship encountered a hurricane, and was washed up on Bermuda, one of a group of islands known as the ‘Isle of Devils’ because of its treacherous barrier reef. Because of this delay, most of the colonists back in Jamestown starved to death.
However, this was not the end of the story. On Newport’s final supply voyage to Jamestown, he was accompanied by a survivor of the Bermuda shipwreck, a man name John Rolfe, who brought with him some seeds for a new type of tobacco. In a turn of events that no one could have predicted, the seeds proved to be the saving of the colony: once cultivated, they yielded good crops, and proved to be a very popular export commodity. The colony was securely established at last, and the denizens of the coffee houses of Europe were introduced to the supposedly health-giving benefits of Virginia tobacco. Newport, his part in the colonization of North America over, sailed off to the Far East, where he became a privateer for the British East India Company, until his death in Java in 1617.