In one of the most
puzzling mysteries of the Starving Time, while the Jamestown colonists were
dying from starvation, the thirty-odd residents of Algernon Fort, 39 miles
downriver on Chesapeake Bay, had plenty to eat. In fact, they caught so many
crabs that they fed the surplus to their hogs. Algernon Fort had been built in
October 1609. It was now May 1610. As
the months passed, why didn’t President George Percy try to contact Captain
James Davis and his people at Algernon Fort? Percy knew they must have food.
One of the reasons he had chosen that location for a fort was “the plenty of
the place for fishing.”
On
the other hand, after all that time, why didn’t Davis send someone upriver to
find out what was happening to his countrymen at Jamestown?
Perhaps
the people at Algernon Fort did not want to know how things were inside the
palisade at Jamestown. In January 1610, as Francis West had sailed for England,
he had told them how desperate things were upriver, and how hostile the Indians
had become. Perhaps Captain Davis, secure in his fort with plenty to eat, made
a decision to keep clear of Jamestown.
Why Percy and the others
upriver did not try to reach Algernon Fort is more puzzling. And if some Jamestown
colonists,, according to Percy, ran away to live with the Indians, then why did
not others take one of the boats and run away to join their own people at
Algernon Fort? Part of the answer lies with the James River. It is an estuarial
river (one whose currents reverse with the incoming and outgoing tides). When
the tide rose in Chesapeake Bay a boat sailing downriver had to stop and wait
several hours to catch the outgoing tide again. Because of this, from Jamestown
to Algernon Fort, nearly 40 miles, was a sail of at least two, perhaps three,
days.
A boat on the river would
be a sitting duck for Indians.
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