In 1607 I sailed to Chesapeake Bay in America. I came from England seeking adventure and a different way of life. My parents died when I was just a little boy and I had been running around the streets of London stealing and begging for food. I knew this was not the right thing to do but I had to survive. I decided it was time to change my ways and sail to a place where I could find a better life. I saw in the newspapers about several ships sailing to the New World and so I signed up. I didn’t have any money so I had to do lots of chores on the ship to pay my passage. The passage across America was no picnic. It was filled with sea storms, sickness and hunger but I made it through. Once we made it on to land I was so glad I fell on my knees and thanked God that I made it safe but there was little time to waste. Immediately we picked a site to build a settlement. It was right by a swamp and I thought that it was a bad place to build a town but know one listens to a young boy. We named it Jamestown in honor of our beloved King James I. When I first got to America I thought that the voyage here was hard but this was much worse. Our first trouble was when the gold lusting gentleman refused to work because they considered themselves above it. Instead they spent there time nosing about looking for gold while us poorer but hard working people planted food. We got angry when our harvest came up and it was promptly taken into a common storehouse. We protested and stopped working saying that it wasn’t fair that we had to do all the work and have to share our food with the Gentleman while they searched around for their gold. That was just the first problem, now the second problem was disease. I always had a bad feeling about the swamp but now I know it was a bad place for a town. Mosquitoes carrying diseases would bite us and then we would fall sick. We settlers were a pretty tough lot but we were no match for the unknown diseases. The only reason we survived I believe is from one courageous man named John Smith. He was very famous for being a war hero in England and even I had heard about him in the streets. He was a strict but fair man. He declared a good rule saying that anyone who did not work could not eat. That got the fat Gentleman working. If the Gentleman were working than us poorer types had no reason not to so we all pitched in and soon everybody was busy working. Things went well for a time but bad luck seemed to hover above us like a cloud. In 1608 John Smith was injured in a gunpowder accident and had to return to England. He was the only real thing holding us together and when he left the problems mounted up again. There was Indian attacks (they never were friendly to us), fires, and more disease. I always tried to avoid the swamp so I was one of the few that didn’t get sick. I helped and cared for the sick but there was little I could do. By the winter of 16010 we were starving and ate anything we could get our hands on. When you’re starving you have little preference on food as long as you could get it. We ate horses, dogs, snakes, and even mice. By the time spring came we only had about sixty men left. We were so discouraged that we had a council and decided to leave. Just as we were leaving we spotted ships coming with food and more men. We were encouraged and decided to stay. We soon learned the best food to help us survive and John Rolfe a scientific man discovered the tobacco plant. Our troubles weren’t over but we prospered anyways. Several women arrived from England and married some of the men. I personally didn’t take a wife because I was too young by colonist standards. Life went on in Jamestown and I grew up to be a prosperous farmer (oh ya and I lived happily ever after).