Jamestown Diary Entry

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In 1606 myself and 107 other Englishmen crossed the Arctic Ocean. We were trapped in close quarters with minimum amount of food. What was suppose to be only take three months turned to four. The English investors such as Bartholomew Gosnold owned the Virginia Company and departed three ships from England in December. More than half of the gentlemen don’t do anything worthy. Their egos are bigger than the size of the ship. I’ve seen the Spanish’s ships full of gold and I just can’t wait to get my hands on some. This new world is be told to be a paradise with gold and riches beyond imagination.

We didn’t  reached the shore until April. So far the Spanish hadn’t attacked us yet. We all settled towards the bottom of the James River. We were told that the Indians would get us food and supply to help us survive but that expectation quickly changed. There were 13,000 Indians under Chief Powhatan up the James River stream. They became are new enemies. They’re different from the Spanish. Their light weight weapons were easy to transport and deadly within 40 yards, holds ten bows and only takes 30 seconds to reload, blending into their surroundings with paint. While our armor weighs 24 pounds making it difficult to move quickly and our weapons take much longer to reload.

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A lot of our men perished against the Indians, my brother was one of them. They surrounded him and shot him right in the chest with and arrow. We were surrounded by both land and sea by the Spanish and Indians. It was about three weeks after we had arrived that we needed shelter. We all constructed a fort that was twice the height of a man. In 19 days we successfully cut down around 600 trees and built the fort. We aligned cannons in both the directions of our enemies, providing us a sense of security.

It must had be the worst drought there had been in a very long time. In 5 months there was less than 50 men still alive. You were lucky if you died sooner not having to face the suffering. These poor men suffered from water poisoning, dehydration and illnesses. Our captain Bartholomew Gosnold didn’t make it. He was only in his mid 30's when he passed away. We needed to show the Indians our courage and buried him outside our fort. He was a great sailor and captain.

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John Smith became our new captain. We needed food. Captain Smith started to understand their language to be able to negotiate with the Indians. He traded some of our gold and jewels for food. He took a risk attempting to trade with them. They easily could have killed him and all of us but thankfully did not. Within about two months after Captain Smith left with the Captain Powhatan’s daughter, Pocahontas, starvation was at it’s worst.

It was the winter of 1609 when the Indians set war against us. We were all trapped in the fort. The was about 200 of us and a few women that were mostly recently sent over. We had to resort to the only food source we had. We had to kill our horses, dogs, cats, snakes and the most desperate dug up corpses. By spring only 60 of us remained alive. I was extremely fortunate to survive. I caught a mild case of illness and should not have lived. Luck was on my side. I made it past the worst nightmare you could dream of. After three more English ships had arrived we discovered tobacco. Life in Jamestown is now live able, no more starvation, rapid death or desperation. I fear the truth may be lost in the future, that is why I document what had occurred.