With the second supply came workmen sent over to produce glass, pitch,
soap ashes, and other items profitable in England. These men, including
some Poles and Dutchmen, were quickly assigned to specific duties. So
rapidly did they begin that “trials” of at least one product, glass,
were sent home when Newport left Jamestown before the end of the year.
As usual, in addition to settlers and supplies, Newport brought more
instructions from the company officials. The colony was not succeeding
financially, and it was urged that the council spend more time in the
preparation of marketable products. It was urged, too, that gold be
sought more actively; that Powhatan be crowned as a recognition
befitting his position; and that more effort be expended in search of
the Roanoke settlers. These things were all desirable, but, at the
moment, impracticable. No one understood this better than did Smith, who
spoke his mind freely in a letter he wrote for dispatch to the
authorities at home. Nevertheless, these projects were emphasized, and
the more pressing needs of adequate shelter and sufficient food were
neglected.
In the interval from about February to May 1609, Smith reported
considerable material progress in and about Jamestown. Perhaps 40 acres
were cleared and prepared for planting in Indian corn, the new grain
that fast became a staple commodity. A deep well was dug in the fort.
The church was re-covered and 20 cabins built. A second trial was made
at glass manufacture in the furnaces built late in 1608. A blockhouse
was built at the isthmus which connected the island[1] to the mainland
for better control of the Indians, and a new fort was erected on a
little creek across the river from Jamestown. Smith was now in command,
as his fellow councilors either had returned to England or were dead.
About this time there came a new disaster. With all attention centered
on the numerous construction projects, insufficient protection was given
the meager supply of grain. When discovered, rats had consumed almost
all of the corn stores. Faced with this situation, Smith found it
necessary to scatter the settlers, sending some to live with the Indians
and some to eat at the oyster banks where the unbalanced oyster diet is
reported to have caused their skin “to peel off from head to foot as if
they had been fleade.” Only “a small guarde of gentlemen & some others
[were left] about the president at James Towne.”
[Illustration: _The four glass furnaces located by archeological
excavation on Glasshouse Point._]
In midsummer of 1609, conditions at Jamestown were not good, although it
is doubtful that they were any worse than during the two previous
summers. The settlers were becoming acclimated, and they were learning
the ways of the new country. Supplies were low, yet the number of
colonists was small, and a good harvest and a good autumn might have
improved matters had not some 400 new, inexperienced settlers sailed
into the James without their leaders, without instructions, and with
damaged supplies. To add to other complications, they brought fever and
plague. In the selection of prospective settlers for the voyage the
standards had been low, and too many ne’er-do-wells, and even renegades,
had been included. This was the third supply, and it reached Jamestown
in August 1609.