In May 1610, the hearts of the weary settlers were gladdened when Sir
Thomas Gates, their new governor, sailed into the James. For about a
year he and the survivors of the wreck of the _Sea Venture_ had labored
in Bermuda to make possible the continuation of their voyage to
Virginia. The last part of the journey was made in two boats built by
them in Bermuda—the _Patience_ and the _Deliverance_, names suggestive
of their thankfulness for survival. It was not a pleasant sight that
greeted them at Jamestown. Ruin and desolation were everywhere. Gates,
with his Council, on July 7, 1610, wrote that Jamestown seemed
raither as the ruins of some auntient [for]tification, then that any
people living might now inhabit it: the pallisadoes he found tourne
downe, the portes open, the gates from the hinges, the church ruined
and unfrequented, empty howses (whose owners untimely death had taken
newly from them) rent up and burnt, the living not hable, as they
pretended, to step into the woodes to gather other fire-wood; and, it
is true, the _Indian as fast killing without as the famine and
pestilence within_.
Gates promptly distributed provisions, such as he had, and introduced a
code of martial law, the code that was strengthened later by Delaware
and made famous by its strict enforcement under the governorship of Sir
Thomas Dale. After surveying the condition of the settlement and
realizing that the supplies he had brought would not last 3 weeks, Gates
took council with the leaders. They decided to abandon the settlement.
On June 7, 1610, the settlers, except some of the Poles and Dutchmen who
were with Powhatan, boarded the ship, left Jamestown, and started down
the James.
The next morning, while still in the river, advance word reached Gates
that Lord Delaware had arrived at Point Comfort on the way to Jamestown
and was bringing 150 settlers and a generous supply. The bad news
carried to England by the returning ships of the third supply, late in
1609, had caused considerable stir in Virginia Company circles and had
resulted in Delaware’s decision to go to Virginia. Learning of the new
supply, Gates hastened back to Jamestown. The new settlement had been
saved in a manner that was recognized at that time as an act of
“Providence.”