tress Forrest and her maid.
Several months later, in the church at Jamestown, the maid, Ann Burras,
was married to one of the settlers, John Laydon, a carpenter by trade.
This marriage has been ranked as "the first recorded English marriage on
the soil of the United States." Their child, Virginia, born the next
year, was the first to be born at Jamestown.

With the second supply came workmen sent over to produce glass, pitch,
soap ashes, and other items profitable in England. So rapidly did they
begin the search for a source of wealth that "trials" of at least some
of the products were sent home when Newport left Jamestown before the
end of the year.

In addition to settlers and supplies, Newport brought more instructions
from the Company officials. The Colony was not succeeding financially,
and it was urged that the Council spend more time in planning the
preparation of marketable products. It was urged, too, that gold be
sought more actively; that Powhatan be crowned as a recognition
befitting his position; and that more effort be expended in search of
the Roanoke settlers. These projects, all untimely, were emphasized, and
the more pressing needs of adequate shelter and sufficient food were
neglected.

In the interval from about February to May 1609, there was considerable
material progress in and about Jamestown. Perhaps forty acres were
cleared and prepared for planting in Indian corn, the new grain that
fast became a staple commodity. A "deep well" was dug in the fort. The
church was re-covered and twenty cabins built. A second trial was made
at glass manufacture in the furnaces built late in 1608. A blockhouse
was built at the isthmus which connected the Island to the mainland for
better control of the Indians, and a new fort was erected on a tidal
creek across the river from Jamestown.

Smith was now in command, as his fellow councilors either had returned
to England or were dead. About this time there came a new disaster. With
all attention centered on the numerous construction projects,
insufficient protection was given the meager supply of grain. When
discovered, rats had consumed almost all of the vital corn stores. Faced
with this situation, Smith found it necessary to scatter the settlers,
sending some to live with the Indians and some to eat at the oyster
banks. Only "a small guarde of gentlemen & some others [were left] about
the president at James Towne."

In midsummer of 1609, conditions at James