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Jamestown and Captain John Smith Part 4
Suddenly, Pocahontas ran to Captain
Smith. She put her arms around him and
laid her head on his. The Indians could not
kill Smith without hitting Pocahontas. They
did not know what to do. When Powhatan
saw that Pocahontas wanted to save the
Englishman’s life, he would not let the men
kill him. Powhatan kept Captain Smith for a
few more days and then sent him back to
Jamestown.
Soon after he returned, Captain John
Smith became the leader of the colony. He
had no time to go exploring then, for there
was work to be done at Jamestown.
Captain Smith made the men build up the
palisade to make it stronger. He made
them dig a well inside the fort, so that they
would have enough good water to drink.
He made them plant more corn, because he
knew that the Indians might not always
trade with them. He drilled the men as
soldiers. He made them work hard. Many
of the men had never had to work before,
and so Captain John Smith set a rule that he
enforced. His rule was: “If you don’t work,
you don’t eat.” This changed the behavior
of many of the gentlemen who had come to
Jamestown had not lifted a finger to help
with the settlement’s survival. Now these
same gentlemen were learning to work,
because they were hungry.
While
Captain Smith
ruled
Jamestown,
there was peace
with the Indians,
and the colony
got along well.
The native
peoples
contributed to the survival of the
Jamestown settlers in several ways.
Powhatan, chief of many tribes, provided
leadership to his people and taught the
settlers survival skills. Pocahontas, the
daughter of Powhatan, served as a contact
between the native peoples and the
English. The native peoples showed the
settlers how to plant corn and tobacco.
One day while Captain Smith was out
in his boat, his powder bag exploded. The
captain was so badly burned that he went
back to England to see a doctor. He got
well and had more adventures, but he
never came back to Jamestown.
Most of the early settlers stayed in
Virginia. They had many hardships. The
settlers had chosen land to live on that was
marshy and lacked safe drinking water. The
settlers lacked some skills that were
necessary to provide for themselves. Many
settlers died of starvation and disease. The
settlers were nearly always hungry. Often
they were sick, because the food they ate
was bad and the water they drank was not
pure. Many of the settlers had a kind of
fever that may have been malaria. Some
mosquitoes carry the germ of malaria, and
there were many mosquitoes around
Jamestown. In those days, people did not
know about germs. The settlers did not
know what made them sick. Many of them
died. New settlers came and took the
places of those who died. They, too, had
many hardships.
By the time Captain John Smith left,
in the fall of 1609, other ships had come
from England. Then there were about 500
settlers in the colony. Some of the new
settlers were women and children. When
winter came, they had almost no food, and
the Indians would not trade with them,
because the Indians had experienced a bad
drought themselves. They barely had
enough corn to last their tribes through the
winter. During the long winter, many of the
settlers died from hunger. So many of them
starved to death that it has been called:
“The Starving Time.”
When spring came, only about sixty
of the 500 settlers were still living. Those
sixty people were weak from hunger and
sickness. It seemed to them a long time
since an English ship had come to Virginia.
Had the Virginia Company forgotten them?
Would they have to stay at Jamestown and
starve to death as their friends had done?
Directions: Circle the correct answer.
1. What did Pocahontas do to save John
Smith’s life?
A. Put her head on his head
B. Jumped out of the forest and took
the arrow for him
C. Wrote a letter to her father after he
was captured
D. Yelled and screamed to embarrass
Powhatan
2. Who became the leader of the
Jamestown colony?
A. Pocahontas
B. Powhatan
C. John Smith
D. Christopher Newport
3. What was John Smith’s new rule?
A. If you kill an Indian, you get to eat
B. If you don’t work, you don’t eat
C. If you learn a trade, you will go back
to England
D. If you work, you will get rich
4. What was NOT something the settlers
died from?
A. malaria
B. starvation
C. sickness from bad water and food
D. working too hard
5. In what year did a new supply ship
with more settlers come?
A. 1607
B. 1609
C. 1620
D. 1709