More Jamestown

Someone asked me the other day why the settlers chose the swampy north side of the James River to settle when directly across from Jamestown was a nice broad hill which receives good breeze in the summer. First when the settlers came to Jamestown they knew that the Spanish possibly would attack their fort. They wanted to be prepared for the attack and looked for a broad river which their ships could come up and be safe from storms along the Atlantic as well as a place along the river where they could see a ways down the river for the Spanish. Second, The location of the fort would provide a bit of safety also as the Spanish could not fire directly on the fort from the deep channel in the river. Third, during the April that they arrived (1607) there was one of the most severe droughts in many years. This would have left the river very low and had exposed much of the side "walls" of the river. This place on the north side must have looked like it was higher land than expected. Looking on the southside, it must have looked like a very steep hill on which to haul their supplies. Thus they chose the north side.

In fact, not too many days after the fort had been erected the Spanish sent a scouting group to spy on the new settlement. They camped across the river on the hill (amongst the trees) and drew a hand sketch of the fort and its relation to the river. This was not much more than a modern day sketch on a bar napkin. But with this sketch Dr. Kelso was able to venture to guess that the fort ruins were still on land and not in the middle of the river. When the Spanish reported back to their people they determined that the fort was temporary and the settlement probably wouldn't last very long.

Check out this link. It is a very good site that was created for the 400th anniversary.

Did you know that the Pilgrims of Massachusetts had originally set sail for Virginia? Topic for next time...