Reading in a single sitting 一口气读完这段历史

Although Spain and Portugal（葡萄牙）moved quickly to establish a presence in the New World, other European countries moved more slowly. Not until many decades after the explorations of John Cabot（约翰·卡伯特）did the English attempt to found colonies. Early efforts were failures, most notably the Roanoke Colony, which vanished about 1590.

Late in 1606, English entrepreneurs set sail with a charter from the Virginia Company of London to establish a colony in the New World. After a particularly long voyage of five months duration including stops in Puerto Rico（波多黎各）from where they finally departed for the American mainland On April 10, 1607, the three ships, named Susan Constant, Discovery, and Godspeed, under Captain Christopher Newport（克里斯托弗·纽波特）, made landfall in May 1607 at a place they named Cape Henry（亨利角）. Under the first settlement orders to select a more secure location, they set about exploring what is now Hampton Roads and a Chesapeake Bay outlet they named the James River in honor of their king, James I of England.

Jamestown (or James Towne or Jamestown) was a settlement located on Jamestown Island in the Virginia Colony. Founded as "James Fort" on May 14, 1607, it was the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States of America, following several earlier failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke（罗诺克）.

Despite the leadership of Captain John Smith early on, most of the colonists and their replacements in Jamestown died within the first five years. Two-thirds of the settlers died before arriving ships brought supplies and experts from Poland（波兰）and Germany in the next year, 1608, who would help to establish the first factories in the colony. As a result, glassware became the "first" American product to be exported to Europe. On June 10, 1610, retreating "settlers" were intercepted a few miles downriver by a supply mission from London headed by a new governor, Lord De La Warr, who brought much-needed supplies and additional "settlers". Lord De La Warr' s ship was named The Deliverance. The English called this The Day of Providence, and the state of Delaware（特拉华）was eventually named after the timely governor. Fortuitously, among the colonists inspired to remain was John Rolfe, who carried with him a cache of untested new tobacco seeds from the Caribbean.

The following year, 1614, John Rolfe began to successfully harvest tobacco. Prosperous and wealthy, he married Pocahontas（波卡洪塔斯）, daughter of Chief Powhatan（波瓦坦酋长）, bringing several years of peace between the English and natives.（Through their son, Thomas Rolfe, many of the First Families of Virginia trace both Virginia Indian and English roots.）However, at the end of a public relations trip to England, Pocahontas became sick and died in 1617. The following year, her father also died. As the English continued to leverage more land for tobacco farming, relations with the natives worsened. Powhatan' s brother, a fierce warrior named Opchanacanough, became head of the Powhatan Confederacy. After several years of strained coexistence, Chief Opchanacanough and his Powhatan Confederacy attempted to eliminate the English colony once and for all. Despite such setbacks, the colony continued to grow.

In 1619, the first documented Africans were brought to Jamestown, though slavery in the future United States as we know it today did not begin in Virginia until 1660.

The London Company' s（伦敦公司）second settlement, Bermuda, claims to be the oldest town in the English New World, as St. George' s, Bermuda was officially established (as New London) in 1612, whereas James Fort, in Virginia, was not to be converted into James town until 1619. Further, the latter did not survive into the present day. In 1699, the capital Jamestown was relocated to Middle Plantation, about 8 miles (13 km) distant. That community, which had also become home to the new College of William and Mary in 1693, was renamed Williamsburg in 1699. Jamestown ceased to exist as a settlement after the transfer of the capital, existing today only as an archaeological site.

1606年12月，三艘帆船从伦敦港启航，向西驶往新大陆。船上共载有大约150个成年和少年英国男子，为首的是克里斯托弗·纽波特船长。这些人受伦敦弗吉尼亚公司的派遣，揣有英王詹姆斯一世的特许状。

经过144天的艰难航行，在付出将近40人葬身海上的代价之后，1607年5月14日，船队驶进北美洲中部东岸的切萨皮克湾。根据英王的名字，这些殖民者将当地注入大西洋的河流命名为詹姆斯河，定居点就叫詹姆斯敦。整个新殖民地被称为“弗吉尼亚”，意即“处女之地”，以纪念1603年去世的“处女国王”伊丽莎白一世。

Key Words in History 历史关键词

1. John Rolfe 约翰·罗尔夫

John Rolfe (1585-1622) was one of the early English settlers of North America. He is credited with the first successful cultivation of tobacco as an export crop in the Colony of Virginia and is known as the husband of Pocahontas, daughter of the chief of the Powhatan Confederacy.

In competing with Spain for European markets, there was another problem beside the warmer climates the Spanish settlements enjoyed. The native tobacco from Virginia was not liked by the English settlers, nor did it appeal to the market in England. However, Rolfe wanted to introduce sweeter strains from Trinidad, using the hard-to-obtain Spanish seeds he brought with him. In 1611, Rolfe is credited with being the first to commercially cultivate Nicotine tobacco plants in North America; export of this sweeter tobacco beginning in 1612 helped turn the Virginia Colony into a profitable venture. Rolfe named his Virginia-grown strain of the tobacco "Orinoco", possibly in honor of tobacco-popularizer Sir Walter Raleigh' s expeditions in the 1580s up the Orinoco River in Guiana in search of the legendary City of Gold, El Dorado. The appeal of Orinoco tobacco was in its nicotine, and the conviviality of its use in social situations.

2. St. George' s, Bermuda 圣乔治镇-百慕大

St. George' s (formally, the Town of St. George, or St. George' s Town), located on the island and within the parish of the same names, was the first permanent settlement on the islands of Bermuda, and was the third successful English settlement in the Americas, after St. John' s, Newfoundland, and Jamestown, Virginia. However, St. George' s is claimed to be the oldest continuously inhabited English town in the New World. Although Jamestown is normally described as having been founded in 1607, this was actually James Fort, which was not converted to Jamestown until 1619, seven years after the founding of St. George' s. After the capital of Virginia was transferred from Jamestown to Williamsburg in 1699, Jamestown fell into disuse. Only below ground achaeological remains of the town exist today. As the claim of St. John' s to official establishment in the 16th Century, and to permanent settlement since that date are difficult to verify, St. George' s is not simply the oldest successful English settlement in the New World, but was also the first such town established. The town is the largest settlement in Bermuda, with a population of 1, 802 people.

Background Knowledge 背景知识补充

在获得国王的特许后，弗吉尼亚公司很快组织起大概有120人的殖民队伍，其中有很多穷人因支付不起前往新大陆的交通费用，只能与公司签约，以义务为公司效力7年为代价，换取免费前往弗吉尼亚的机会。1606年12月，他们乘坐三艘船起航，一路奔波，很多人在路途中因病困丧命，最后的一百来人在1607年5月24日抵达了一个河口。为感谢国王詹姆士一世，他们将此地命名为詹姆斯敦（Jamestown）。

但他们很快发现在此立足是多么的艰难，当时已经错过了播种季节，平日里养尊处优的“绅士”们根本做不了什么体力劳动。很快，他们之间为了争夺食物发生了激烈的冲突，有超过一半的移民死于疾病与饥饿，很多人因为惧怕艰苦的生活选择了打道回府。尽管不断有新移民加入，弗吉尼亚十年里的人口也不过1000人。多亏当时负责殖民点军事防御的约翰·史密斯上尉管理有方，该殖民点才幸存下来。史密斯上尉首先与当地的印第安人搞好关系，从他们那里获得了一些玉米和山药，解决了“饥荒”的燃眉之急。他还在殖民点实行军事管制，声明不劳动者不得食。在能干的史密斯上尉的领导下，詹姆斯敦的移民很快摆脱了困境，生活开始安定下来。他们与印第安人的关系一直时好时坏，为了恫吓印第安人，阿盖尔上尉率众绑架了印第安人部落首领的女儿波卡洪塔斯（Pocahontas）。幸运的是波卡洪塔斯很快喜欢上了这些英国人，并学会了他们的语言，1614年她还嫁给了其中的一个移民约翰·罗尔夫，这使得英国移民与当地印第安人的和睦关系维持了十年之久。

詹姆斯敦的移民很快在印第安人的帮助下学会了种植烟草。当时的欧洲吸烟风气盛行，1614年约翰·罗尔夫向英国销售了第一批烟草，大受当地民众欢迎。詹姆斯敦通过出口烟草逐渐发展起来，并且吸引了更多的人前来定居。

为了吸引更多的英国移民前来北美洲，弗吉尼亚公司改革了土地制度，规定凡是1616年之前自费而来的移民每人授予100英亩的土地，永久免税；1616年之前由公司出资运来的移民在为公司劳动满7年后也授予100英亩土地；1616年以后到来的移民也能获得50英亩的土地。慷慨的土地政策很快吸引了大批移民，1619～1625年之间，有近5000名英国移民来到詹姆斯敦，殖民点很快扩大，并最终形成后来的弗吉尼亚殖民地。1625年，弗吉尼亚公司因经营不善与人事纠纷陷入困境，负债累累，濒于破产，英国国王查理一世宣布将殖民地收归国有，由英国政府直接管理。 vMyF0aBksGoLVNTW7jWMFcvzdFMiDUvhKpb3qR8amISxXdS45QCl6raqKdkt+azI