"A True Relation," by George Percy 1609-1612. Comments of a survivor.
ìThe Starving Timeî: John Smith Recounts the Starving Time, 1609
The experiences suffered by the Jamestown Colonists in the winter of 1609-10 is best left described by those who experienced it. Nine years would pass before our first known ancestor to America James Woodson arrived to the Jamestown Colony in company of his wife Sarah. By that time, because of the hybrid tobacco which John Rolfe had developed, the colony was faring much better; It had found its commodity. Here are excerpts from remarkable accounts of this worst year for the colony, a period well known to London and no doubt discussed in depth by our first Virginians prior to their emmigration.
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"A True Relation," by George Percy 1609-1612. Comments of a survivor. ìThe Starving Timeî: John Smith Recounts the Starving Time, 1609 |
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"A
Trewe Relacyon"
" Now all of
us att James Towne beginneinge to feele that sharpe pricke of hunger wch
noe man trewly descrybe butt he wch hath
Tasted the
bitternesse thereof A worlde of miseries ensewed as the Sequell will expresse
unto you in so mutche thatt some to satisfye
their hunger
have robbed the store for the wch I caused them to be executed. Then
haveinge fedd uponn horses and other beastes as long as they Lasted we
weare gladd to make shifte wth vermine as doggs Catts Ratts and myce All
was fishe thatt came to Nett to satisfye Crewell hunger as to eate Bootes
shoes or any other leather some colde Come by And those being Spente and
devoured some weare inforced to searche the woodes and to feede upon Serpents
and snakes and to digge the earthe for wylde and unknowne Rootes where
many of our men weare Cutt off of and slayne by the Salvages. And now famin
begineinge to Looke gastely and pale in every face thatt notheinge was
spared to mainteyne Lyfe and to doe those things wch seame incredible As
to digge up dead corpses outt of graves and to eate them and some have
Licked upp the Bloode wch hathe fallen from their weake fellowes And amongste
the reste this was moste Lamentable Thatt one of our Colline murdered his
wyfe Ripped the childe outt of her woambe and threw itt into the River
and after chopped the Mother in pieces and salted her for his foode The
same not beinge discovered before he had eaten Pte thereof for the wch
crewell and inhumane factt I aiudged him to be executed the acknowledgmt
of the dede beinge inforced from him by torture haveinge hunge by the Thumbes
wth weightes att his feete a quarter of an howere before he wolde confesse
the same."
"A
True Relation" by George Percy 1609-1612.
ìThe
Starving Timeî, John Smith:
"...as for
our Hogs, Hens, Goats, Sheepe, Horse, or what lived, our commanders, officers
& Salvages daily consumed them, some small proportions sometimes we
tasted, till all was devoured; then swords, armes, pieces, or any thing,
wee traded with the Salvages, whose cruell fingers were so oft imbrewed
in our blouds, that what by their crueltie, our Governours indiscretion,
and the losse of our ships, of five hundred within six moneths after Captaine
Smiths departure, there remained not past sixtie men, women and children,
most miserable and poore creatures; and those were preserved for the most
part, by roots, herbes, acornes, walnuts, berries, now and then a little
fish: they that had startch in these extremities, made no small use of
it; yea, even the very skinnes of our horses. Nay, so great was our famine,
that a Salvage we slew, and buried, the poorer sort tooke him up againe
and eat him, and so did divers one another boyled and stewed with roots
and herbs: And one amongst the rest did kill his wife, powdered her, and
had eaten part of her before it was knowne, for which hee was executed,
as hee well deserved; now whether shee was better roasted, boyled or carbonadoíd,
I know not, but of such a dish as powdered wife I never heard of. This
was that time, which still to this day we called the starving time; it
were too vile to say, and scarce to be beleeved, what we endured: but the
occasion was our owne, for want of providence, industrie and government,
and not the barrennesse and defect of the Countrie, as is generally supposed;
for till then in three yeeres, for the numbers were landed us, we had never
from England provision sufficient for six moneths, though it seemed by
the bils of loading sufficient was sent us, such a glutton is the Sea,
and such good fellowes the Mariners; we as little tasted of the great proportion
sent us, as they of our want and miseries, yet notwithstanding they ever
over-swayed and ruled the businesse, though we endured all that is said,
and chiefly lived on what this good Countrie naturally afforded; yet had
wee beene even in Paradice it selfe with these Governours, it would not
have beene much better with us; yet there was amongst us, who had they
had the government as Captaine Smith appointed, but that they could not
maintaine it, would surely have kept us from those extremities of miseries.
This in ten daies more, would have supplanted us all with death. "
ìThe
Starving Timeî: John Smith Recounts the Early History of Jamestown,
1609
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