propriated to the colony comprised a square of a base of
one hundred miles, and including an area of ten thousand square miles,
of which Jamestown was the centre, so to speak.

The settlers landed at Jamestown on the 13th day of May, 1607. This was
the first permanent settlement effected by the English in North America,
after the lapse of one hundred and ten years from the discovery of the
continent by the Cabots, and twenty-two years after the first attempt to
colonize it, made under the auspices of Walter Raleigh. Upon landing,
the council took the oath of office; Edward Maria Wingfield was elected
president, and Thomas Studley, cape-merchant or treasurer of the
colony.[41:A] Smith was excluded from the council upon some false
pretences. Dean Swift says: "When a great genius appears in the world,
the dunces are all in confederacy against him."

All hands now fell to work, the council planning a fort, the rest
clearing ground for pitching tents, preparing clapboard for freighting
the vessels, laying off gardens, and making fishing-nets. The Indians
frequently visited them in a friendly way. The president's overweening
jealousy would allow no military exercise or fortification, save the
boughs of trees thrown together in a semicircle by the energy of Captain
Kendall.

On the fourth of June, Newport, Smith, and twenty others were dispatched
to discover the head of the river on which they were seated, called by
the Indians, Powhatan, and by the English, the James. The natives
everywhere received them kindly, dancing, and feasting them with bread,
fish, strawberries, and mulberries, for which Newport requited them with
bells, pins, needles, and looking-glasses, which so pleased them that
they followed the strangers from place to place. In six days they
reached a town called Powhatan, one of the seats of the great chief of
that name, whom they found there. It consisted of twelve wigwams,
pleasantly situated on a bold range of hills overlooking the river, with
three islets in front, and many corn-fields around. This picturesque
spot lies on the north bank of the river, about a mile below the falls,
and still retains the same name.

On the day of their arrival, the tenth of June, the party visited the
falls, and again on the day following, Whitsunday, when they erected a
cross there to indicate the farthest point of discovery. Newport, in
return for Powhatan's hospitality, presented him with a gown and a
hatchet. Upon the