On the 26th day of April, 1607, three small ships carrying 105
colonists passed between Cape Charles and Cape Henry into Chesapeake
Bay for the purpose of founding a colony in the land called Virginia.
The voyagers took seventeen days to investigate the advantages and
disadvantages of that region for such an undertaking.
First consideration for selecting the site was its possibilities for
defense against a foreign foe, especially the Spaniards, in Florida
and the West Indies. This was no idle fear. Spain and England had for
many years been in conflict. Moreover, Spain claimed all of the
Americas by the right of discovery.
The second most important thing for consideration was adequate harbor
facilities. In both of these particulars, the site selected about
thirty miles up the James River left little to be desired. The
Jamestown peninsula jutted out into the river far enough to give an
unobstructed view for several miles. The character of the land on
either side of the river would have made difficult any attempt at an
overland attack.
The James was sufficiently deep to take care of any ocean going
vessels of that time. The heavily forested surroundings furnished
protection from violent storms. The channel ran near the shore. Ships
could be moored by cables to trees on the land.
From the standpoint of raising food stuffs, the colonists could
hardly have picked a more unfavorable situation. The peninsula was
connected with the shore to the north by a narrow neck of land
"thirty yards over." As this narrow strip of land was usually flooded
during times of high water, the peninsula was for most purposes an
island by which designation it is generally known.
There were about eight hundred and fifty acres of heavily timbered
forest lands on the island and about eight hundred acres of marsh
covered with coarse reedy grasses but there was no cleared land ready
for seeding.
Clearing forest lands even with modern tools and equipment is a slow
laborious process. Cutting down the trees is only a beginning. The
stumps with their interlocking root systems have to be removed. It
takes many years for hardwood stumps to rot to a condition that they
may be easily destroyed. Although the trees on Jamestown Island were
large, they could be cut, and those with straight grained boles rived
into clapboards, or the logs rolled into piles and burned for their
ashes, a product that was in demand in England for use in the
manufacture of soap.
The soil on the Island may not have been very fertile. The fact that
the Indians had never cleared any of the land indicates they did not
consider it of the best quality.