From its start, the Virginia colony suffered from unrealistic expectations, political infighting, violence between Indians and settlers, and deprivation. Within weeks of being deposited on Jamestown Island by Captain Christopher Newport, the first settlers realized that the promises made by the Virginia Company of London that the settlement would be safe, prosperous, and bounteous had been greatly exaggerated. While the colonists futilely searched the forests for gold and the “other sea” (and a quick passage to the Far East), their leaders quarreled and alienated the powerful leader Powhatan (Wahunsonacock). Colonist George Percy quickly decided “There were never Englishmen left in a forreigne Countrey in such miserie as wee were in this new discovered Virginia.” Half the colonists who arrived in April 1607 were dead by October, and fewer than forty survived the winter. Newport made two supply trips to Virginia, in January and October 1608, both times bringing home more bad n
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