In a letter to Nicholas Hawes, written in June, 1613, Samuel Argall
(later Sir Samuel Argall) tells of a voyage to Virginia in 1612, and
some of his activities there. On the 17th of September, he arrived at
Point Comfort with sixty-two men on the ship _Treasurer_, his course
being fifty leagues northward of the Azores. From the day of his
arrival until the first of November, he spent the time in helping to
repair such ships and boats as he found there "decayed for lack of
pitch and tarre." About the first of November, he carried Sir Thomas
Dale in the _Deliverance_ to Sir Thomas Smith's Island to have his
opinion about inhabiting it. They found an abundance of fish there,
"very great cod" which they caught in water five fathom deep. They
planned to get a great quantity in the summer of 1613, and hoped to
find safe passage there for boats and barges by "a cut out of the
bottom of our bay into De La Warr Bay." This is an early mention of
the need for a canal connecting these two bays. That the Sir Thomas
Smith's Island referred to was not the island known by that name lying
near Cape Charles is evident from the reference to large cod fish
caught there, and the desire for a passage between the bays for a
shorter route.
Argall sailed from Point Comfort on the first of December and entered
Pembroke, now Rappahannock, River where he met the king of Pastancie,
who told him the Indians were his very great friends and had a good
store of corn for him, as they had provided the year before. He
carried his ship to the king's town and there built a stout shallop to
take the corn aboard. After concluding a peace with other divers
Indian lords, and giving and taking hostages, Argall hastened to
Jamestown with 1100 bushels of corn, which he delivered to the
storehouses there, besides the 300 bushels he retained for the use of
his own company. As soon as he had unloaded the corn, Argall set his
men to work felling timber and hewing boards with which to build a
"frigat." He left this vessel half finished in the hands of his
carpenters at Point Comfort in order to make another voyage to
Pembroke River, and so discovered the head of it. Upon learning that
Pocahontas was with the King of Patowomack, he devised a stratagem by
which she was captured. Pocahontas was taken to Jamestown and
delivered to the protection of Sir Thomas Gates, who hastened to
conclude with Powhatan, her father, a peace based upon the terms
demanded by Argall. Argall returned to Point Comfort and "went forward
with his frigat and finished her." He sent a "ginge" of men with her
to Cape Charles, to get fish and transport them to "Henries Town"
(Henrico). Another gang was employed to fell timber and cleave planks
to build a fishing boat. Argall himself, with a third gang, left in
the shallop on the first day of May to explore the east side of the
Bay. Having explored along the shore for some forty leagues northward,
he returned on the 12th of May, fitted his ship and built a fishing
boat, and made ready to take the first opportunity for a fishing
voyage.