On May 14, 1607, (May 24 by today's calendar) three ships, the Susan constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery landed on a small peninsula. The colony built here was called Jamestown.
This location for the colony, however, turned out to be a bad choice. This was a marshy area, and the water wasn't pure. Many of the trial crops failed when tried (they weren't suited for the Virginia climate). During the first year, two-thirds of the men died of such causes as malnutrition, malaria, pneumonia, and dysentery.
Captain John Smith held the settlement together from mid-1608 to mid-1609. It is said that Pocahontas had saved the life of John Smith. He had bought corn from the Indians and had made the colonists work (previously, few colonists were willing or able to work). But he was forced to return to England because of injuries.
Things began to fall apart after he left. They suffered their worst winter the year that he left. The colonists were about to leave when Governor Thomas West, Lord De La Warr, came with new settlers and supplies in 1610.
In 1614 Pocahontas married a colonists named John Rolfe. This marriage brough eight years of peace between the colonists and Indians. Rolfe had brought a new kind of tobacco frmo Trinidad which was sweeter than the plant from Virginia. He also improved the tobacco curing method.
Then in 1622 the Indians attacked and killed 350 colonists. The town had received warning, and resisted the attack. The Indians attacked again in 1644, killing 500 colonists. Each of the times, the colonists struck back, destroying the Indians' food supplies.
Jamestown was devastated by fires in 1676 and 1698. But is was not rebuilt in 1699 because the government of Virginia was moved to Middle Plantation, which later became Williamsburg.