A reprieve came for John Smith when it was discovered that he was one of the counselors that had been appointed by the Virginia Company back in England to govern this new colony in America.
When the English government granted the London Company a charter for settlement in America the government did not surrender the right to govern the colonies. A king-appointed council was to govern the colonies from far across the ocean in England. A local council was appointed by the council in England to carry on the everyday affairs of the colony. The colonial council was instructed to follow English laws. They were also prohibited from passing their own laws. As one source strangely states, "Otherwise, it was self-governing." Once it was realized that Smith, rather than attempting to take over and assert his personal authority, had been officially appointed by the crown as a councilor the conspiracy charges were dropped at once.
It did not take long after landing at the Jamestown site to see that these people were ill prepared for beginning a new life in a strange wilderness. Compounding their problems were occasional raids by Indians, disease that decreased their numbers, and quarrels amongst the local seven-man council. But that was not all that was halting progress.
These newcomers to the New World were not the same caliber of pioneers that would, in a little over two hundred years later, cross the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains to settle the West. Those good folks to come would be those who knew the land and how to live upon it. The people who began Jamestown were far less qualified for the task they had taken upon themselves.
Captain John Smith continued.
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