thought he discovered a
gold-mine near Jamestown, and for a time the council had busied the
colonists in digging worthless ore, some of which Newport carried to
England.[30] These works hindered others more important to the
plantation, and only four acres of land was put in corn during the
spring.[31] Newport took back with him the councillors Wingfield and
Archer, and April 20, ten days after Newport's departure, Captain
Francis Nelson arrived in the _Phoenix_ with about forty additional
settlers. He stayed till June, when, taking a load of cedar, he
returned to England, having among his passengers Captain John Martin,
another of the council.

During the summer Smith spent much time exploring the Chesapeake Bay,
Potomac, and Rappahannock rivers,[32] and in his absence things went
badly at Jamestown. The mariners of Newport's and Nelson's ships had
been very wasteful while they stayed in Virginia, and after their
departure the settlers found themselves on a short allowance again.
Then the sickly season in 1608 was like that of 1607, and of
ninety-five men living in June, 1608, not over fifty survived in the
fall. The settlers even followed the precedent of the previous year in
deposing an unpopular president, for Ratcliffe, by employing the men
in the unnecessary work of a governor's house, brought about a mutiny
in July, which led to the substitution of Matthew Scrivener. At
length, September 10, 1608, Captain Ratcliffe's presidency definitely
expired and Captain Smith was elected president.

[Footnote 1: Purchas, _Pilgrimes_, IV., 1647-1651; Strachey, _Travaile
into Virginia_, 153-158; John Smith, _Works_ (Arber's ed.), 332-340.]

[Footnote 2: Purchas, _Pilgrimes_, IV., 1654-1656, 1659-1667.]

[Footnote 3: Brown, _Genesis of the United States_, I., 27.]

[Footnote 4: Brown, _Genesis of the United States_, I., 46.]

[Footnote 5: Hening, _Statutes_, I., 57-66; see also Cheyney,
_European Background of American History_, chap. viii.]

[Footnote 6: Brown, _First Republic_, 8.]

[Footnote 7: Hening, _Statutes_, I., 67-75.]

[Footnote 8: Ashley, _English Economic History_, II., 261-376.]

[Footnote 9: Brown, _Genesis of the United States_, I., 50.]

[Footnote 10: Brown, _Genesis of the United States_, I., 127-139.]

[Footnote 11: Gorges, _Briefe Narration_ (Mass. Hist. Soc.,
_Collections_, 3d series., VI. 53).]

[Footnote 12: Strachey, _Travaile into Virginia_, 162-180; Brown,
_Genesis of the United States_,