What Did The First Permanent Colony - 1525 Words

Before Christmas 1606, three ships left London’s Blackwall docks to establish a settlement on Chesapeake Bay, in the New World. The largest ship was heavily armed with 120-ton merchantman, carried seventy-one passengers and crew, including the experienced commander of the fleet, Captain Newport; a highly successful privateer. The second ship known as Godspeed followed with fifty-two men on board, while bringing up on third was the tiny pinnace Discovery, which carried twenty-one men crammed together trying to survive the voyage with few space and very limited supplies. Altogether, thirty-nine mariners and 105 adventurers set out to found what would be England’s first permanent colony in America. Jamestown expedition was not the first†¦show more content†¦John Smith, the General Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isle John Smith, 1632. Planning began to establish a colony on the Chesapeake Bay, James I of England had a peace treaty with the Spanish and would not tolerate piracy, but he allowed the planting of English settlements in North America as long as lands were uninhabited by other Europeans. The Virginia Company of London responsible for promoting and governing the southern colony. The Company created a local council to rule the colony headed by an annually elected president. The goals for Jamestown expedition were to establish England’s claim to North America, search for gold or silver mines, find a passage to the Pacific Ocean (the â€Å"Other Sea†), harvest the natural resources of the land, and trade. The settlers arrived off the Virginia capes on April 26 and the ruling council chose Edward Maria Wingfield, one of the prime movers of the expedition. James River for a couple of weeks, the council selected a site about fifty miles from the entrance to Chesapeake Bay, where they landed on May 14. Naming the settlement Jamestown in honor of their king. The English had settled in a region ruled by a powerful chief named Powhatan. Powhatan’s domain included more than thirty tribes numbering Approximately 14,000 people. The colonists had been instructed by the Company to be cautious in their dealings with the Indians but to