phoid is not the only
possibility, but burning fever, the flux (diarrhea), and the
bellyache--symptoms listed in the early accounts--indicate typhoid.
Other diseases that may have caused the seasoning were dysentery,
influenza, and malaria; and these may have been the seasoning during
some of the later summers of the century.

Whatever diseases may have caused the seasoning, it plagued the colony
summer after summer. A Dutch ship captain wrote of it as it was in
Virginia in the summer of 1633:

There is an objection which the English make. They say that during
the months of June, July, and August it is very unhealthy; that
their people, who have then lately arrived from England, die during
these months like cats and dogs, ... when they have the sickness,
they want to sleep all the time, but they must be prevented from
sleeping by force, as they die if they get asleep.

Sir Francis Wyatt, twice governor of Virginia wrote, "but certaine
it is new comers seldome passe July and August without a burning
fever--this requires a skilful phisitian, convenient diett and lodging
with diligent attendance." The skillful physician could not limit
himself, however, to the curing of the seasoning; he had many other
maladies in Virginia with which to contend: dietary disorders, malaria,
plague, yellow fever, smallpox, respiratory disorders, and a host of
other diseases.

Beriberi and scurvy, both dietary diseases, handicapped the colony
throughout the century, and probably had acute manifestations during
the Starving Time of 1609-10. The colonists during the early years at
Jamestown often boiled their limited rations in a common kettle, thus
destroying what little valuable vitamin content the food may have had;
eggs, vegetables, and fruits which would have countered the disease
were not available. The swellings and the deaths without obvious cause
described by the early commentators may have resulted from beriberi
(the disease did not have a name until the eighteenth century).

Another dietary disease troubling the colonists but, unlike beriberi,
known by name and at times properly treated, was scurvy. Mention has
been made of the outbreak of this disease aboard the ships, and of the
stops made in the West Indies to eat the health-restoring citrus
fruits, but in the case of the colonists at Jamestown the fruit was
non-existent. A belief, also held, that idleness caused the disease did
little to bring about