EARLY SETTLEMENT AND THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE 41No name is more closely connected with the Virginia
colony than that of Captain John Smith. An early
associate of the Virginia Company, he crossed the
Atlantic Ocean along with Robarte Tindall and the
other founders of Jamestown. Smith was a soldier
and an explorer, and in his brief time as leader of
the colony he imposed the harsh discipline that
contributed to its survival.
Upon his arrival in Jamestown, Smith—like
Tindall—was charged with exploring England’s
territorial claims in Virginia. Of course, in light of the
Company’s limited geographical knowledge of the
region, any attempt to delimit the colony seemed
more than a little speculative. From 1607 to 1609
Smith conducted several reconnaissance missions in
the Chesapeake Bay, making contact with tribes both
friendly and hostile. From Smith’s own journals we
have an account of his capture by a Powhatan hunting
party in December 1607. When he was brought before
Chief Opechancanough, he used his compass to
present information about the rotation of the earth
around the sun, hoping to save his life by impressing
the Powhatan with this scientific instrument.
The following summer Smith took another
extended trip through the bay to gather geographical
intelligence from the local inhabitants. He used this
information to draw his influential map of Virginia,
published in 1612 and the most comprehensive
picture of the region for decades. Oriented with
west at the top, Smith’s map presents a pleasing,
holistic, and even inviting view of the Chesapeake.
The decorative figures at upper left and right were
likely added by someone else, but, together with the
elaborate compass rose and coats of arms, these
details suggest a stable and harmonious settlement.
The map is far more detailed than Tindall’s earlier
chart of the York and James Rivers on page 36.
Both Smith and Tindall hoped to find a passage to
the Pacific Ocean within the Chesapeake. But, while
Tindall primarily focused on rivers and navigation,
Smith paid closer attention to the adjoining land. This
difference marks the shift in the nature of the colony
itself: while in 1608 the colonists were primarily
THE SURVIVAL OF VIRGINIA
John Smith, “Virginia,” 1612 interested in extracting resources to send back to
England, by the time Smith published his map the
colony had become one of settlement and farming.
Smith’s careful rendering of the complex shoreline,
and his identification of more than 200 Indian
villages, presents a place that the English intended
to make their own.
While navigating the rivers and exploring the land,
Smith and his companions marked the limits of their
travels by carving crosses into trees. On the map, he
used a similar system of Maltese crosses to indicate
the limits of his own knowledge, beyond which he
relied upon information from Native Americans.
These crosses appear throughout the map, forming
a ring around the Chesapeake. They are visual
indicators of Smith’s reliance on local tribes for
geographical intelligence, much as the colony itself
depended upon local support for its survival.
Smith’s debt to these tribes is embodied by the
large native figures at upper left and right, which
remind us that the bay was home to an estimated
15,000 to 25,000 natives when Jamestown was
founded. It was their guidance and knowledge that
enabled Smith to navigate through the Chesapeake
and then compile this larger picture of the region.
Moreover, it was Powhatan—pictured at upper
left—who ultimately ensured the survival of the
Jamestown colony. Smith’s own journal recounts the
“starving time” of the winter of 1609–10, when the
colony was reduced to a population of sixty, surviving
on roots, herbs, acorns, berries, and a little fish.
“So great was our famine,” Smith wrote, that some
resorted to cannibalism, but he blamed this not on
the land but on the lack of planning and industry on
the part of the colonists themselves.
The disastrous early years at Jamestown forced
its investors to recruit more aggressively. In 1610 the
Virginia Company marketed the colony as a virtual
paradise that required only a measure of human
labor to flourish. But the reality was much different:
Jamestown survived only with gifts of food from native
tribes, the arrival of new settlers, and the imposition
of strict new rules by Smith and other leaders.
And the colony of Virginia prospered only with the
introduction of tobacco—and the importation of
slave labor.