Sir Thomas Dale with "three ships, men, and cattell (100 kine, 200
swine)" arrived in Virginia May 10, 1611. Dale had seen military
service in the Old World and was a severe and strict disciplinarian.
The surviving colonists received a jolt in their manner of living.
From habits of indolence into which they had fallen, owing to the hot
climate and lack of food, after the departure of Captain John Smith,
they were with little ceremony put to work. "His first care therefore
was to imploy all hands in the setting of corne at the two forts at
Kecoughtan, Henry and Charles," wrote Ralph Hamor "and about the end
of May wee had an indifferent crop of good corne." This corn was
planted near what is now Hampton where Strachey says, "so much ground
is there cleared and open; enough with little labour alreddy prepared
to receive corne or make viniards of two or three thowsand acres."
With corn planting completed, two palisaded forts were built for the
protection of a few men left to care for the crops. They made another
planting across Chesapeake Bay on the Virginia Cape. They had learned
the hard way that clearing the heavily timbered land at Jamestown was
hopeless for immediate results. Dale then returned to Jamestown
"where the most companie were, and their daily and usual works,
bowling in the streets." This game was interrupted and the men put to
work felling timber, repairing their houses and providing pointed
pickets for fencing a new town, which Dale proposed to build, eighty
miles above Jamestown.