Dire disaster finally struck the colony. Food supplies were
exhausted. Starvation became a reality. A general drought blanketed
eastern Virginia. The Indians too were on short rations. Smith, the
provider, who had been injured by an explosion of gunpowder, had
returned to England. It was one of the most cruel experiences ever
endured by a group of men. The climax came during the winter of
1609-10.
A few quotations from the records of that period paint the picture in
its most terrible colors. Lord De La Warr who arrived in 1610 just in
time to save the colony from abandonment reported to the London
Company:
Our people, together with the Indians (not to friend), had the
last winter destroyed and kild up all our hoggs, insomuch as of
five or six hundred (as it is supposed), there was not above one
sow, that we can heare of, left alive; not a henn nor a chick in
the forte (and our horses and mares they had eaten with the
first).
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