presented the Indian chief with a hatchet and a red waistcoat.

On the return trip to Jamestown the exploring party visited other Indian towns on the James River, including one whose chieftain was Powhatan's brother—the wily and crafty Opechancanough. Gabriel Archer, a member of the group, recorded that the chief's "kyngdome is full of deare (so also is most of all the kyngdomes:) he hath (as the rest likewise) many ryche furres."

Many of the early settlers listed the fur-bearing animals that inhabited the dense woods near Jamestown. George Percy, an original planter, observed that:

There is also great store of deere both red and fallow. There are beares, foxes, otters, bevers, muskats, and wild beasts unknowne.

John Smith, in one of his early books describing Virginia (A Map of Virginia, With a Description of the Country, Oxford, 1612), gives brief descriptions of deer, squirrels, opossums, muskrats, bears, beavers, otters, foxes, and others. With the exception of bears, these fur-bearing animals still inhabit Jamestown Island—protected by the National Park Service.

Jamestown Settlers Trading With The Indians

Conjectural sketch

For inexpensive beads and trinkets the colonists received furs, foods, and other commodities from the aborigines.

It appears that early in the century some profit was being made from the sale of furs in England, for Thomas Studley, who was in charge of the first storehouse at Jamestown, wrote that "one mariner in one voyage hath got so many [furs] as he confessed to have solde in England for £30."

William Strachey, who lived at Jamestown in 1610-1611, described a trading expedition made by Captain Samuel Argall in 1610:

Within this river, Captayne Samuell Argoll in a smale river which the Indians call Oquiho. Anno 1610. trading (in a bark called the Discovery) for corne, with the great king of Patawomeck, from him obteyned well neere 400. bushells of wheat, pease and beanes (besyde many kind of furrs) for 9. powndes of copper, 4. bunches of beades, 8 dozen of hatchetts, 5 dozen of knives, 4 bunches of bells, 1. dozen Sizers, all not much more worth than 40s. English....

It is evident, therefore, that the Jamestown colonists who traded their colorful beads and trinkets to the woodland Indians in exchange for food and other commodities—including furs and hides—were the pioneer English fur traders in the New World. The experiences which adventurers like Christopher Newport, John Smith, and Samuel Argall had with the cunning Virginia aborigines were just as exciting and stirring as those shared by the hardened trappers and traders who searched the Rocky Mountain streams for beaver two hundred years later. The hunt for furs which began at Jamestown in 1607 did not diminish until the western boundary of the United States had expanded to the shores of the Pacific Ocean during the middle of the nineteenth century.

Photo courtesy National Park Service.

Objects Found At Jamestown Which Were Used For Trading With The Indians Shown are glass beads, bell fragments, a hatchet, scissors, knives, and an incomplete brass pan.

BUILDING

The day the colonists landed at Jamestown, May 14 1607, they began building a triangular-shaped fort ("a pallizado of planckes and strong posts, foure foote deepe in the ground, of yong oakes, walnuts, &c."), "a setled streete of houses," a church, a guardhouse, and a storehouse. It is apparent that all men familiar with tools and building skills were extremely busy during the first few weeks, especially the four carpenters in the group (William Laxon, Edward Pising, Thomas Emry, and Robert Small), two bricklayers (John Herd and William Garret), and mason (Edward Brinto). As brick houses were not built at Jamestown until about 1625, the bricklayers who came to Virginia with the first group of colonists undoubtedly aided the carpenters. Perhaps it was they who made the first stone footings and mud and stick chimneys for the frame houses which were built inside the fort.

As timber was plentiful in Virginia during the early years of the settlement, most of the houses were of frame construction. During the first decade or two house construction reflected a primitive use, not of materials brought from England but those that were found ready at hand, such as saplings for a sort of framing, use of branches, leafage, bark and animal skins. During these early years, when the settlers were having a difficult time staying alive, mud walls, wattle and daub, and marsh grass thatch of a coarse sort were used. Out of these years of improvising the construction with squared posts, later with quarterings (studs), came into practice. There probably was little thought of plastering walls during the first two decades, and when it was done, clay, or clay mixed with oyster shell lime, was first used. The early floors were of clay, and it should be remembered that clay floors continued to be used in the humbler dwellings throughout the seventeenth century. It can be assumed that most of the dwellings, or shelters, of the Jamestown settlers, certainly until about 1630, had the primitive appearance of "settlers" houses, and were rough on the exterior.

The Landing May 14 1607.
The day the colonists landed at Jamestown (May 14 1607) they began building a triangular-shaped fort ("a pallizado of planckes and strong posts, foure foote deepe in the ground, of yong oakes, walnuts, &."), "A setled streete of houses," a church, a guardhouse, and a storehouse.

Conjectural sketch

From A Pictorial Story of Jamestown Virginia: The Voyage and Search for a Settlement Site, by J. Paul Hudson. Not to be reproduced without permission of the author.

Photo courtesy National Park Service. Research by A. Lawrence Kocher.

A Small Jamestown House Built About 1630

Conjectural Painting

The frame house shown is believed to be typical of many built by the yeomen settlers after 1630. A coarse marsh grass thatch covers the roof and rough clapboards cover the sides of the building. The few casement windows used have diamond-shaped panes, and heavy wooden doors swing on hand wrought iron strap hinges. In the foreground is a large brick chimney, oven, and woodshed. The shed and recessed nook in front of the oven are covered with red earthenware pantiles. Jamestown has taken on a degree of permanency, and many of the Colonists are realizing small profits from the sale of tobacco.

After the settlement had become fairly well established the colonists began building a few