Word: winters
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...when the Indians refused to trade for food, the colonists died horribly. The winter of 1609 became the "starving time." The colonists ate horses, dogs, cats, vermin, even (it was said) corpses. In June 1610 the survivors staggered onto their ships and sailed into the bay, either looking for help or intending to sail home. Help came with the arrival of three ships from England and new settlers. The shattered colony was put under strict martial law. The penalties for running away included shooting, hanging, burning and being broken on the wheel...
...James River, killing 347 colonists, a quarter of the total population. Jamestown itself escaped, warned by an Indian boy who had converted to Christianity. "Besides them they killed," a survivor lamented, "they burst the heart of all the rest." Dispirited and disorganized, hundreds more colonists died the following winter, the second "starving time...
...hard-pressed tribe balked at the corn-for-copper trade, Smith ordered his men to rake the village with shot and put the odd lodge to the torch. Terrified natives opened their granary to the armed trespassers, knowing that meant some of their own people would likely starve come winter. Returning from one such mission of foraging and gunboat diplomacy, Smith found disgruntled settlers trying to commandeer a ship back to London. He opened cannon and musket fire on the would-be deserters, who quickly reassessed and came ashore...
...though, was a long and tortuous series of missed opportunities, conflict and outright betrayal that set Smith and Powhatan on a collision course. When the old chief got word that Smith had sacked yet another village and made off with half its provisions on the eve of a harsh winter, he summoned the white man to his lodge and offered to trade in peace...
...never been credibly disputed. What is less well known is that she saved the Englishman a second time, risking her life to sneak through a darkened forest alone to warn Smith of imminent ambush, and that she continued to find ways to help the Jamestown settlers. When a winter fire ravaged their colony in 1608, Pocahontas paid a series of calls, accompanied by braves bearing beaver meat, venison and other delicacies. And it was Pocahontas who was sent to Jamestown one year to negotiate the release of half a dozen Indian prisoners...