Hello and welcome to a history of the United States, Episode 4, The One Where Everyone Dies.

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This week, our newest pioneer is Mary. Thanks Thanks Mary, this show couldn't exist without you.

Last week, we left off with Newport sailing back to England on June 22nd. He had with him a letter

from the governors, addressed to the Virginia Council back in London, to spread the word on how the

expedition was going.

The colonists were spectacularly excited about Jamestown. The seas were plentiful, as was the land.

There was plenty of game and timber, and it would be able to supply all the tobacco the English could need.

All the colonists needed was more labourers.

When Newport arrived back in London on August 12th and got off the plane, sorry, off the boat,

it wasn't so much these resources that caused excitement back home, but instead the gold.

There was talk of mountains in the interior, which had plentiful gold, and this was the

really exciting stuff. They'd all be rich. However, a sample was taken back to England for testing,

and it was found that the colonists hadn't discovered gold at all. It was instead iron pyrite.

Fools gold. This put the future of the colony in jeopardy. Sure, there were good resources, but there was no

gold. Was it really worth the investment? The Spanish ambassador in London, Don Pedro de Zwinga, wrote to King Philip

the 3rd to inform him that the English colony was sterile, and it was likely that it would be used as a

base for piracy instead. While there may have been no gold, there was enough good news that the

company decided to send a second expedition to the colony with more supplies.

That was how things had been going for Newport, but how about for the colonists?

If you've paid attention to the episode title, it should be blindingly obvious that things were not going well.

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