lony consisted of about five hundred
inhabitants. They were furnished with three ships, seven boats,
commodities ready for trade, ten weeks' provision in the public
stores, six mares and a horse, a large stock of hogs and poultry, some
sheep and goats, utensils for agriculture, nets for fishing, one
hundred trained and expert soldiers well acquainted with the Indians,
their language and habitations, twenty-four pieces of ordnance, and
three hundred muskets, with a sufficient quantity of arms and
ammunition.[23]

[Footnote 23: Stith.]

The fair prospects of the colony were soon blasted by a course of
folly and crime, of riot and insubordination.

Numerous pretenders advanced their claims to the supreme command. The
choice at length fell upon captain Percy, who derived much
consideration from his virtues, as well as from his illustrious
family; but his talents, at no time equal to this new and difficult
station, were rendered still less competent to the task, by a long
course of ill health. Being generally confined by sickness to his bed,
he was incapable of maintaining his authority; and total confusion
ensued, with its accustomed baneful consequences.

The Indians, no longer awed by the genius and vigour of Smith,
attacked the colony on all sides. West and Martin, after losing their
boats and nearly half their men, were driven into Jamestown. The stock
of provisions was lavishly wasted; and famine added its desolating
scourge to their other calamities. After devouring the skins of their
horses, and the Indians they had killed, the survivors fed on those of
their companions who had sunk under such accumulated misery. The
recollection of these tremendous sufferings was long retained, and,
for many years, this period was distinguished by the name of THE
STARVING TIME.[24]

[Footnote 24: Robertson. Chalmer. Stith. Beverly.]

{1610}

In six months, the colony was reduced, by these distresses, to sixty
persons, who could not have survived ten days longer, when they were
relieved from this state of despair by the arrival of Sir Thomas
Gates, Sir George Somers, and Captain Newport, from Bermuda.

[Sidenote: They abandon the country.]

The determination to abandon the country was immediately taken, and
the wretched remnant of the colony embarked on board the vessels, and
sailed for England. "None dropped a tear," says Mr. Chalmer, "because
none had enjoyed one day of happiness."

[Sidenote: Stopped by Lor