Obey My voice . . . that it may be well with you. . . . Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward.

Jeremiah 7:23–24

Spain became the most powerful nation on earth during the 1500s. Her ships returned from the New World filled with gold. England, France, Portugal, and Holland jealously watched Spain fill her treasury.

By 1558, Spain had settled Mexico and Central America. Portugal had colonies in Brazil, and the French had gone deep into the interior of America and into Northeast Canada. No country had yet claimed the vast eastern coast of North America, although the Spanish had managed to plant temporary settlements on the Florida coast. When Elizabeth I became Queen of England, she determined that Great Britain would have its share of colonies in the New World too.

But after the failure of the Roanoke colony, it wasn’t until the spring of 1606 that interest arose for a new expedition to Virginia. By then Queen Elizabeth had died, and James I was the King of England. Investors, called Partners, formed the Virginia Company to raise money to buy the supplies. The King told the Company that the colonists should spread the Christian faith among the Native Americans, and the Partners agreed, saying that one of their main purposes was “to preach and baptize into Christian religion” as many of the Indians as they could. The colonists were supposed to be missionaries to the Native Americans. But would they do it? Would they listen to God’s guidance?

In December 1606, three ships set sail for North America with 104 men on board. They were supposed to plant a permanent colony in Virginia, but they brought no women with them. And as was true with the Roanoke colony, many of the men were Gentlemen who intended to get rich in America but thought it was beneath them to work with their hands. How could they grow enough food to feed the colony? Were these the kind of people that God could use to spread the Christian faith in the New World? It didn’t seem likely.

Two weeks after sailing, bad weather forced the ships to return to port. The colonists started squabbling and quarrelling among themselves. More winter storms delayed them for months. It appeared that God was not blessing their voyage.

Finally, after a stormy crossing under the command of Captain Christopher Newport, the three ships of the expedition arrived at the south shore of the Chesapeake Bay in late April 1607. It was springtime in Virginia, and the dogwood trees were in full bloom. After their rough voyage, it seemed to the men that they were in a beautiful paradise.

But where were the natives? They found out soon enough. When they went ashore they were suddenly attacked by Indians shooting arrows at them. Several men were wounded before they chased the Indians off with musket fire. Could these Indians have been sent by Powhatan to keep the prophecy from coming true? Whatever caused the Indians to attack, this was certainly not a good beginning for the colony.

When they retreated to their ships for protection, they decided that Captain Newport should open the sealed orders that contained the names of the seven-man council that would govern the colony. They were Captain Newport, Bartholomew Gosnold, Edward-Maria Wingfield, John Ratcliffe, John Martin, George Kendall, and a red-haired former soldier named John Smith.

But the council got off to a bad start. They argued with one another, creating ugly conflicts.

One of the leaders, an Anglican minister named Robert Hunt, was a true man of God. He exercised his spiritual authority and required everyone to remain on the ships for three days of prayer and repentance, asking God to forgive them for their quarrelling. But would it change their hearts?

On April 29, they went ashore and followed Robert Hunt to a wind-swept sand dune at a place they named Cape Henry, in honor of the King’s oldest son. There they planted a seven-foot, rough-hewn oak cross, which they had brought from England, and took possession of the land in the name of Christ and King James.

Now they had to find the place to build the colony. They sailed up the James River until they were about eighty miles from the ocean and landed on a small peninsula on May 14. But again they started arguing.

“This place is fine,” said Kendall. “Let’s build a settlement here.”

“No,” Gosnold replied, “we should look for higher ground. We need fresh water. The water is bad here. We’ve got to have open, clear land for planting. This place is surrounded with swamps.”

“You’re wrong, Gosnold,” John Martin cut in. “This is good enough. Besides, everybody is sick of being on the ships. Let’s stay here.”

They finally decided to stay where they were, and named the place Jamestown. But they should have listened to Gosnold and found a better place for the colony. While beautiful in May, Jamestown became hot and humid in summer. The nearby swamps harbored mosquitoes that carried diseases, and by July many of the men were sick. And this was just the beginning of their troubles.

The colonists soon had their first encounter with the local Indians, named the Paspahegh, and it wasn’t friendly. When an Indian was caught stealing an English hatchet, its owner hit him. Another warrior swung a wooden sword at the settler, and the English went for their guns. The Paspahegh ran away, angry. Now the English and the Indians had become enemies.

Another problem for these colonists was the Gentlemen’s unwillingness to work. They thought that chopping wood and planting corn were jobs for commoners. In fact, a Gentleman would rather die than work—and many of them did.

On Sundays, the Reverend Robert Hunt held outdoor services under an old sail. He nailed a plank between two trees for the altar. He celebrated Holy Communion and preached about trusting God. He called the proud Gentlemen to repentance.

“We are all laborers in the same vineyard,” Hunt preached. “Let us work together. God will provide. We must trust Him and let Him guide us.”

The Gentlemen did not like this. They were not laborers.

Hunt continued. “Let us remember that we are all brothers in Christ.”

And Hunt practiced what he preached. He did more than his share of physical work, helping to cut down trees to make a wall around the colony, called a palisade. He took charge of building Jamestown’s first grist mill for grinding corn. He cleaned and fed the sick and urged those that were dying to give their lives to Jesus.

Captain Newport took an exploring party up the James River, and it was on this expedition that George Percy saw what might have been a descendant of a Roanoke settler—an Indian boy with yellow hair and white skin.

But when the party returned to Jamestown they found that Indians had attacked the settlement, killing one man and wounding twelve or thirteen others. They were supposed to be leading the Indians to faith in Christ, but instead they were fighting with them. Further, they had not planted a corn crop that spring, and very soon their food supplies would run out. Then they would have nothing to eat except game and shellfish, unless they could somehow get food from the very Indians they were fighting with.

And then God intervened. The Indians came bearing gifts of food—venison, corn bread, fish, and squirrels! John Smith was amazed: “God . . . so changed the hearts of the savages that they brought plenty of their fruits and provisions.”

By late fall, Newport had sailed back to England, and the settlers’ food was again almost gone. So Captain Smith traded trinkets to the Indians in exchange for corn and oysters and bread. But when negotiations with the Indians took too long, he liked to draw his sword and take the food from them by force.

A few days after Christmas, Smith was off on another food expedition when he was ambushed and trapped by Indians. Thinking fast, he pulled a compass out of his pocket and showed it to their leader. “Here,” stammered Smith, “you see an instrument with great magical powers. The spirit inside this needle always seeks the North Star.”

Smith held up the compass. The Indian was fascinated and stared at the compass for a long moment. Finally, without saying a word, he motioned to his men to bring Smith along. The Indian, whose name was Opechancano, took Smith to his brother, Chief Powhatan.

It was an unusually warm December afternoon. The sun’s bright rays filtered through the tall fir trees. Powhatan sat on a raised platform at one end of a hut made of branches. The chief wore a coonskin coat and sat on big leather pillows. In front of him were ten warriors with fiercely painted faces and feathers in their hair, and at his side Indian maidens waited to carry out his every order.

Smith knew he was in trouble, so he spoke quickly.

“Chief Powhatan,” Smith said, “the world is round, and on the other side of it is the great chief who sent me here. He has many ships, which could fill the James River all the way to its mouth. Soon, one of these ships will come to look for me.”

Powhatan sat up higher on the cushions. Smith knew he was listening.

“He will send one of his warriors, Newport, who will arrive soon. And he will have mighty guns that roar and can knock down trees standing three fields away. It is not a good idea to kill me, Chief Powhatan.”

Powhatan leaned back. Smith knew that Powhatan had great authority over the Indians for many miles around. What he did not know was that Powhatan had already decided to kill him, to prevent the prophecy given to him by his elders from coming to pass. They had prophesied that white men would try three times to plant a colony there. The first two times they would fail, but the third time they would succeed, and the Indians would be conquered by them. Grenville’s and White’s expeditions at Roanoke had been the first and second attempts, and Jamestown was the third. But Powhatan was going to do everything he could to keep it from succeeding.

He told his warriors to tie Smith up and push his head down on a boulder. The Indians were about to bash Smith’s head in, but God intervened again! Smith later said that Powhatan’s favorite child, his lovely twelve-year-old daughter, Pocahontas, had run up to the kneeling Smith and laid her head on his. If her father was going to kill Smith, he would have to kill her first!

Powhatan was shocked. Only the Great Spirit could have made his daughter do this. For a long moment he said nothing. Then he announced that he was pardoning Smith and sent him back to Jamestown with a large gift of corn.

But Smith found only thirty-eight settlers alive, and every one was very hungry. He had brought the corn just in time. That fall Pocahontas arrived every four or five days with gifts of food. Had it not been for her kindness they might not have made it through that first winter. Smith said she was “a true proof of God’s love.”

Christopher Newport’s long-awaited return happened right after New Year’s Day 1608. He brought a hundred new settlers and provisions with him on the John and Francis, but an accidental fire on January 7 burned up most of the food supplies. Houses, tents, blankets, and clothes were also lost in the fire, so more men died from the winter cold before shelter could be erected.

The colony hobbled along, dependent on the generosity of the Indians, although some of the settlers who still had money were buying food from the sailors on board Newport’s ship. So a few men were eating well while the others were hungry almost all the time.

By April 1608, it was planting season once again, but while the Indians were planting corn the Jamestown colonists were more interested in other things—such as finding gold.

Captain Newport’s arrival from England had sparked fresh interest in gold. Five gold experts came with him, sent by the Virginia Company after the first sample of ore he had brought back to England turned out to be “fool’s gold.” In spite of that Newport himself had now become convinced that Jamestown rested on a foundation of gold! Smith said there was “no talk, no hope, no work, but dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, load gold.” Soon Newport sailed off with another cargo of ore, but this too proved to be worthless.

Another supply ship showed up with forty settlers and more food. When it sailed back to England it carried John Smith’s story of Jamestown’s first year, entitled True Relations. In it he was honest about the arguing and the fact that many of the settlers didn’t bother to plant corn. And his book, plus the letters and the stories that the returning sailors told, meant that the truth about the terrible conditions at Jamestown was spreading throughout England. The Virginia Company tried to counter the bad news by convincing some ministers to preach about the wonderful opportunities to share the Christian faith with the American Indians. They did print John Smith’s book, but they added a preface by Thomas Harriot, claiming that the hardest part of building a colony in Virginia was over. All that remained now was to glorify God by winning thousands of the natives to Christ.

But it was all just words. There would be no evangelizing of the Indians around Jamestown for a long time. And the colony’s darkest time was yet to come.

When Newport returned for the second time in the fall of 1608, he found that John Smith had been elected President, and he had put everyone to work, including the Gentlemen. The settlers had repaired storehouses and the palisade, and even planted a small corn crop. But rain had gotten into the casks of corn and ruined it. Worse, Newport had brought seventy new settlers with him, including the first two women at Jamestown—and no food.

The Virginia Company had ordered Newport to have a special ceremony and make Powhatan a king under King James. To help him accept being under King James’s authority, the English gave him presents, including a copper crown, some scarlet robes, a washbasin and pitcher, and silliest of all, a truly king-sized bed! Powhatan was enjoying wearing his new red robe, and everyone was having a good time until the moment came for Powhatan to kneel to receive his crown. He didn’t know what a crown was, but he understood perfectly well what kneeling meant, and he wasn’t about to kneel down to anybody.

Finally, Smith and Newport pushed hard on his shoulders and got him to stoop a little, and the crown was placed on his head. Someone fired a pistol as a signal and the ships fired their cannons in salute, which made Powhatan jump up in fear. But when he saw there was no danger, he relaxed.

And that is how it happened that King Powhatan was the only king ever crowned on American soil.

———

When the time came for Newport’s ship to go back to England, there was not even enough food in the colony to provision it. Trade with the Indians had dried up because the Indians were now demanding English weapons in exchange for food. So Smith took forty-six men and sailed upriver in the pinnace to see if he could resume trading with Powhatan.

The negotiations failed when Powhatan insisted that the English disarm themselves. “You do not need to come to me with guns and swords, Captain Smith,” Powhatan said. “I will trade with you.”

“This is good,” Smith replied. “I’ll return tomorrow to trade.”

But Smith had decided to kidnap Powhatan and exchange him for food. He arranged a secret signal with his men to attack the Indians and capture the chief. But Smith could not fool Powhatan. The wily old chief slipped away, leaving his warriors to fight against Smith and his men. The English barely escaped back to their ship anchored at the river bank.

That night Powhatan decided to end his problems with the English once and for all by sending his warriors to kill Smith and all his men. But here again, God intervened. Pochahontas came running through the woods to warn Smith that the Indians were coming. The English kept watch all night, and when morning came they slipped downriver to safety.

But they had brought back no food. So Smith launched raids against the Paspahegh and the Chickahominy Indians—burning villages, killing the Indians that resisted, and taking their food. They gathered so much food that they could finally outfit Newport’s ship, and he sailed home after Christmas.

For a few months that winter the fortunes of the little colony seemed to improve. They built houses, dug a well, repaired the church, and made weirs and nets to catch fish. But when corn planting time arrived and they went to check on their corn supply they found that rats had gotten into the casks and the rain had ruined what the rats had left. They were completely out of food!

Immediately, everyone left. Some moved to the oyster banks at the mouth of the James River to live on shellfish. Others journeyed upriver to hunt for acorns and berries. Some sought help from Powhatan, who took them in as long as they worked for their food. More than half of them died, including Reverend Hunt, the only true man of God among them.

Did God allow the rats to destroy their food because the English had raided Indian villages, killing people and stealing food? Perhaps He did.

One thing is certain: the Jamestown settlers did not seek the Lord’s direction. They had not listened to His guidance in locating the colony, but had settled next to swamps that bred disease-carrying mosquitoes. During their second year, nine out of ten men died. And when they got desperate for food they did not turn to God for help. Instead of working harder to plant their own crops, they found it easier to attack the Indians, burn their villages, and take their food supplies. Surely God wanted the English to evangelize the natives instead of terrorizing them, but these settlers were not men of God. They chose their own way, and they suffered for it.

———

Back in England, the Virginia Company reorganized. They obtained a new charter from the King and set up a new government with a single governor, Lord De La Warr. He wasn’t able to go right away, so they sent nine ships and a substitute governor, Thomas Gates, in May 1609. The ships carried five hundred passengers, including women and children.

Unfortunately, they sailed straight into a hurricane, and the ships were scattered all over the ocean. One sank, and another turned back to England. Gates’s ship, the Sea Venture, landed safely on the island of Bermuda. The other six ships limped on to Jamestown, disobeying strict orders to meet in Bermuda.

Had they obeyed, the fleet could have rested in Bermuda and recovered from the hurricane. The people could have eaten good food and brought desperately needed food supplies to Jamestown. As it happened, they brought four hundred sick, helpless, and starving passengers to the colony.

Because Thomas Gates was stranded on Bermuda, John Smith was still acting as governor. But he was badly burned in an accident and had to leave Jamestown and go back to England for treatment. That fall the afternoons grew shorter and colder as winter approached. The first frost wiped out mosquitoes, but it did not wipe out the hunger. The scavengers could find no food. The Virginia Colony now entered into the darkest period of its history—a time that would come to be known as “the starving time.”

The colonists ate everything they could find. They consumed the livestock and cats and dogs. They even ate rats and mice. They dug up the roots of trees and bushes. They gnawed on shoe leather and leather straps. They boiled and ate book covers. Many froze to death in their beds because they had traded their blankets for food. Only sixty people survived.

In May 1610, Governor Gates finally arrived in a ship named Deliverance, which had been built from the remains of the Sea Venture and wood found on Bermuda.

The newcomers had expected to find a settlement filled with houses and activity. What they found instead was a group of flimsy huts enclosed by a crude triangular fence, sitting in the midst of a huge swamp. Sixty shabby, dirty, skinny figures with bony hands and hollow cheeks greeted them. These men wore ragged clothes. Some were barefoot. Some even had the look of death. “We are starved! We are starved!” they cried out.

The situation was hopeless. Gates had not brought any extra food, and Powhatan had forbidden his people to trade food to the English. Smith’s raids had so alienated the other Indian tribes that they were attacking boats on the river and any settlers that strayed beyond the palisade.

When they only had enough food left for sixteen days Gates and the other leaders decided to abandon the settlement. But, just as they were leaving, a ship arrived from England with Lord De La Warr. And he ordered everyone to stay.

Clearly, God had moved to save the first colony in Virginia. But why would He intervene to prevent the English from leaving when they had treated the Indians so terribly? Perhaps because if they had abandoned Jamestown the Partners would not have been able to raise enough support in England to try another colony. North America might have been left to the Spanish and French, and at this point in history both of their governments were even less committed to evangelizing the Indians than the English. God did not want the English to stop trying to colonize the New World. As we will see in the next chapter, He was about to send to America a group of English settlers who were serious Christians.

Meanwhile, De La Warr turned out to be a harsh governor. He made speaking against the Christian faith punishable by death. But at the same time he treated the Indians even worse than John Smith—sending war parties against the nearest tribes. The settlers claimed to be Christians, but the Bible forbids the killing of innocent people. Nobody at Jamestown stopped to ask how they could maintain that they were Christians and then turn around and murder the Indians.

During De La Warr’s governorship, in less than a year more than two hundred settlers died. When he went back to England in March of 1611 because of sickness, his replacement, Sir Thomas Dale, was even harder on the colonists than De La Warr had been. By now, things were more peaceful with most of the surrounding Indian tribes—because the English had made trade agreements with some tribes and killed off most of the warriors of others. Only Powhatan and his people were still enemies. Dale wanted to change this. It soon was changed, and in such a way that only God could have brought about.

It began when Pocahontas, now an eighteen-year-old beauty, was kidnapped by the settlers and held for ransom. Dale sent word to Powhatan that he would exchange her for the English weapons and the eight settlers Powhatan was holding. They heard nothing from Powhatan for months. Finally, Dale got tired of waiting and set out for Powhatan’s village with 150 men and Pochahontas. She sent word to her father that if he loved her, he would give the English back their men and weapons, and that if he didn’t do this she would stay with the English.

Governor Dale realized that Pochahontas had given him a great chance to reach a peace agreement with Powhatan. So he picked two of his best men, John Rolfe and Master Sparkes, and sent them to the Indian chief with instructions to work it out. Before Rolfe left, he gave Dale a letter. When Dale opened it he was amazed to read that Rolfe had fallen very much in love with Pochahontas and wanted to marry her! He also wanted her to come to know Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. During the peace talks with Powhatan he was going to ask the chief’s permission to marry Pochahontas, and he was also asking for Dale’s blessing.

Both Dale and Powhatan agreed to the wedding, and suddenly it seemed as if God was smiling on the troubled Virginia colony. The wedding took place on April 5, 1614, amidst much rejoicing by both English and Indians. Powhatan generously provided a great feast of good food for everyone, and for the first time the Indians and the English were able to relax in each other’s presence.

This was the beginning of things going much better for the Jamestown colony.

By the time John Rolfe and his new bride sailed to England the colony was starting to prosper. There were now 351 people living in six settlements, plus 144 cattle, 216 goats, and many chickens.

Pocahontas—now called by her Christian name of Rebecca—was a big hit with everyone in England. But sadly, she caught pneumonia and died. Her grieving husband returned to Virginia alone.

Back in the colony, John Rolfe began to experiment with a new crop. This crop was tobacco, the first cash crop in the New World.

By 1622, more than twelve hundred settlers lived on ten widely scattered plantations in Virginia. Yet the colony only had three ministers to preach the Gospel.

The Virginia Company finally sold its ownership to a group of ten adventurers. These men established a system of independent rule in the colony. Two representatives from each plantation would meet to make laws. This was the first self-governing representative assembly in North America, more than 150 years before the United States would finally go to war against Great Britain to defend the right of self-government.

———

The people who settled Jamestown considered themselves good Christians, but they were not living according to the teachings of Jesus. They made many decisions without seeking God’s guidance—especially when it came to their relations with the Indians. They treated the Native Americans terribly and did not ask God’s forgiveness. Though they did not deserve God’s mercy and goodness, He intervened many times to save the colony. But if they had depended on Him more they could have received many more of His blessings.

However, the next group of English settlers that came to America knew better than to start a new colony without depending on Christ. They would trust God to guide them, and it would make a big difference.