Three small ships "Susan Constant", "GodSpeed" and "Discovery" left England on Dec 20th, 1606 and travelled to the new world, arriving in Virginia with a total of 104 settlers. The trip took 4 1/2 months. The picture (left) is of the ships, as they have been recreated today. These ships were exact duplicates of the original three, all are able sailing vessels today. The largest "The Susan" and the middle one "GodSpeed" made the trip back and forth to England, while the smallest remained with the Colony to be used to sail up and down the coasts exploring the coatal waterways.

Here is a better picture of the larger of the three ships. The Susan Constant. She had a crew of 28 and carried stocks, supplies, and 65 colonists.

By late summer the colonists were dying from starvation and disease... Capt John Smith, through Pocahontas solicited help from the Powhatan Indians, and that helped the remaining colonists survive. The next two Pictures are of the recreated Powhatan Indian Village, and some of the activities there. (Note: with the Cooks, cooking in traditional dress, and cooking as it was done then. In the background is a canoe maker, burning out a log for a dugout canoe.) The second picture is the Dance Circle. A circle of ornamental posts with faces cut into the surface.. this is where they held ther tribal ceremonies.

With the Virginia Company (Chartered by James I), the Colony surviving through the starving winter of 1609-1610, only 100 colonists were left out of 300. In 1622 The Powhatan Indians attacked Jamestown, and other outlying settlers, killing 347, almost a third of the Virginia population. The James Fort was built to protect the settlers against outside attack. In 1660 with the restoration of the English Crown, all trading with outside colonies ( Dutch, Spanish), the economy was weakened.. and the Fort was needed. The pictures of the fort shows the out side.. note the gardens lying out side the fortress ... this was their food supplies. Inside we see a demo of a "defender" loading and firing his musket. His story: he had every one time "How Long" it took him to Load and fire his musket ( 19 seconds). Then he said.. Indians could shoot an arrow each 5 seconds, and they were normally out numbered about ten to one... so for every ONE musket shot, they had to duck at least 40 arrows.... so each shot had to count.

In 1624 King James I revoked the "Virginia Company's Charter" and made Jamestown a Royal Colony. By 1676 when Nathanial Bacon revolted, He attacked the Fort.. but died before any real damage was accomplished... The colonies were 53,000 strong with some 9,000 african slaves by 1690. In 1698 the state house burned, and the colony government moved to Williamsburg, abandoning Jamestown. Here are two more Fort Pictures. First being a group playing a favorite colony game. "Badmitton" with a real "Homemade" birdie of cloth/sand and real feathers. The second shows the inside fortifications. A three inch cannon, of which the Fort had five 3 inch cannons, and two four inch cannons. The larger cannons had a special door they could open when-ever they were ready to fire it.

Is in any wonder then in 1660, that Danil Mathena, and Michael Mathena, after hearing the stories coming out of the new world, Starvation, Indian attacks, internal strive and revolutions, and attacks from other colonies, that they even made the trip at all? They must have been real adventurers. Danil then going on the the Maryland colonies, must have sailed up the coast on a small ship such as the The Discovery pictured above.

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