e party had died of
fever. Had it not been for the energy and courage of John Smith, every
one of them would have perished. He practically assumed command, set the
men to building huts, persuaded the Indians to give them food, explored
the bays and rivers of Virginia, and for two dreary years held the
colony together. When we consider the worthless men he had to deal with,
and the hardships and difficulties that beset him, his work is
wonderful. The history which he wrote, however, is not to be trusted.[2]

[Footnote 1: Nothing now remains of Jamestown but the ruined tower of
the church shown in the picture. Much of the land on which the town
stood has been washed away by the river, so that its site is now
an island.]

[Footnote 2: Read the _Life and Writings of Captain John Smith_, by
Charles Dudley Warner; also John Fiske in _Atlantic Monthly_, December,
1895; Eggleston's _Beginners of a Nation_, pp. 31-38. Smith's _True
Relation_ is printed in _American History Leaflets_, No. 27, and
_Library of American Literature_ Vol. I.]

[Illustration: All that is left of Jamestown]

Bad as matters were, they became worse when a little fleet arrived with
many new settlers, making the whole number about 500. The newcomers were
a worthless set picked up in the streets of London or taken from the
jails, and utterly unfit to become the founders of a state in the
wilderness of the New World. Out of such material Smith in time might
have made something, but he was forced by a wound to return to England,
and the colony went rapidly to ruin. Sickness and famine did their work
so quickly that after six months there were but sixty of the 500 men
alive. Then two small ships, under Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George
Somers, arrived at Jamestown with more settlers; but all decided to
flee, and had actually sailed a few miles down the James, when, June 8,
1610, they met Lord Delaware with three ships full of men and supplies
coming up the river. Delaware came out as governor under a new charter
granted in 1609.[1]

[Footnote 1: Read "The Jamestown Experiments," in Eggleston's _Beginners
of a Nation,_ pp. 25-72.]

[Illustration: Vicinity of Jamestown]

%21. The Virginia Charter of 1609% made a great change in the
boundary of the company's property. By the 1606 charter the colony was
limited to 100 miles along the seaboard and 100 miles west from the
coast. In 1609 the company was given an immense domain reaching 400
miles along the coast