fort in the winter of 1609-10 apparently fared much
better than those at Jamestown. When Percy visited here he found them,
he reports, "in good case and well lykeinge haveinge concealed their
plenty from us above att James Towne beinge so well stored thatt the
crabb fishes where with they fede their hoggs wold have bene a greate
relefe unto us and saved many of our lykes."

It was on the Kecoughtan site that an English settlement (Hampton) began
to evolve. For two or three years it was little more than a military
outpost and a plantation where corn was grown to help fill the larder at
Jamestown. To supplement the fort at Point Comfort, De La Warr had two
more built on either side of a small stream, Fort Henry and Fort
Charles. This river De La Warr called the Southampton (Hampton), the
name that came to be applied, too, to the wide waters into which it
flowed, Hampton Roads. The forts were intended both as strongholds
against the Indians and as a rest stop, or acclimation point, for
incoming settlers "that the weariness of the sea may be refreshed in
this pleasing part of the countree."

The forts were abandoned in the fall, but when Sir Thomas Dale reached
Point Comfort on May 22, 1611, he reoccupied them. He left James Davis
in command of Fort Algernourne and proceeded to restore Fort Charles on
the east side of, and Fort Henry on the west side of, Hampton River
before going on to Jamestown.

It was in 1611 that a Spanish caravel appeared at Point Comfort, picked
up an English pilot and sailed away leaving three of its crew. One of
them was the spy Diego de Molina who later reported that Fort
Algernourne had a garrison of twenty-five and four iron pieces. A fire
destroyed the fort, except for Captain Davis' house and storehouse. He,
however, rebuilt it with "expedition." In 1614 "Point Comfort Fort" as
Fort Algernourne was called after Percy left in April, 1612, was
described as a stockade "without brick or stone" containing fifty
persons (men, women and boys), protected by seven iron pieces. Soon
after this the fort evidently fell into disuse.

In 1613 each of the forts on Hampton River had fifteen soldiers but no
ordnance and in 1614 Capt. George Webb was the principal commander of
both. Ralph Hamor at this time described them as "goodly seats and much
corne ground about them, abounding with the commodities of fish, fowle,
deere and fruits, whereby the men live there, with halfe that
maintenaunce out of the stor