or physicke, alleaging that it
cureth the sicknesse and paine of the belly." Insomuch as the Indian
priest preferred to keep his professional secrets, the colonist was
unlikely ever to learn the "vertue" of the clay.

If the Indian medicine man had not believed that his gods would be
displeased--or his prestige lowered--by revealing the nature of the
_wisoccan_ he prescribed, it would have been possible for the early
Virginians to have drawn upon the Indian knowledge of, and experience
with, the simples and therapies of the New World. (Perhaps the
"vertues" of the clay would have cured the "paines" of the Jamestown
bellies.) As it was, the settlers make little mention of a reliance
upon the Indians for medical assistance.

CHAPTER TWO

Disease and The Critical Years At Jamestown

MOTIVES AND PROVISIONS FOR COLONIZATION

In 1606 King James of England granted a charter to Sir Thomas Gates and
others authorizing settlements in the New World. In 1609 this charter
was revised and enlarged, granting the privileges to a joint-stock
company. Among the merchants, knights, and gentlemen holding shares in
the company and among those particularly interested in the more
southerly areas of North America, including Virginia, were a number of
physicians. The instructions given to the first settlers reflect the
general concern of the London Company for the health of the colony and
perhaps the particular interest of the physicians. One of the
physicians, John Woodall, took especial care to urge that cattle be
sent to provide the settlers with the milk he considered essential to
their health.

Not only did the Company wish to lessen the dangers of disease in the
New World, but it also urged colonization as a means of reducing the
plague in England. In 1609 the Company advised municipal authorities in
London to remove the excess population of that great city to Virginia
as the surplus was thought to be a cause of the plague. There was
little danger of a surplus population during the initial years in
Virginia.

Before the colonists, or the Company, however, had to be concerned with
dangers from disease in Virginia, the colonists had to undertake an
extremely difficult and unhealthy voyage across the Atlantic.

DISEASE AND THE OCEAN VOYAGE

Ships plying the Atlantic at the beginning of the seventeenth century
were small and the voyage was lengthy. Four months passed before the
_Godspeed_, the _Discovery_, and the _Susan