goats increased more rapidly at this time than any other kind of live stock, on account of the inexhaustible quantity of the food upon which they subsisted. It is said that if their number had been one million, there would still have been ample sustenance for them.[1] The cows, oxen, sheep, and horses were not only confined to a narrow pasturage in consequence of the vast extent of forest, but they were also exposed to the depredations of wolves. There were five hundred chickens in the Colony, although no food was specially provided for them.[2]
The interval between the departure of Smith and the arrival of Delaware was marked by a complete abandonment of the methods which the former adopted to place the Colony in a position to obtain its supplies of food entirely from the soil of Virginia. The hogs, poultry, goats, sheep, and horses were all, with the exception of one sow, killed and devoured by the settlers and Indians, and the few persons who survived the frightful Starving Time were compelled to rely for subsistence on roots, herbs, acorns, walnuts, berries, and fish. Lord Delaware arrived in Virginia in June, 1610, and only a few days after he reached Jamestown, Sir George Somers was despatched in company with Captain Argoll to the Bermudas, to procure from those islands, among other things,
- ↑ Letter of Francis Perkins, Brown’s Genesis of the United States, p. 176.
- ↑ Works of Capt. John Smith, p. 471. In his Discourse of Virginia, Edwin Maria Wingfield wrote: “I had by my owne huswiferie bred above 37, and the most part of them of my owne poultrye.” Works of Capt. John Smith, p. lxxxix.
