The first conflicts with the natives
While the British settlement erected the fort and the first buildings, including the church, the three ships which had carried them to the New World sailed upriver on exploratory missions. Commanded by Captain Christopher Newport (for whom Newport News is named) these ships were the Susan Constant, Discovery, and Godspeed. The voyages up the James River irritated the tribes not allied with the Powhatan Confederacy, one of which, the Paspahegh, claimed the land on which the Jamestown fort had been erected as their territory. The fort endured several attacks in late May 1607, before Powhatan intervened to end them in July.
By that time Newport and Susan Constant had sailed for England, carrying a cargo of rocks which the colonists believed were valuable metal ore, unearthed during explorations and the construction of the fort. The ore was pyrite, commonly known as fool’s gold. Newport was scheduled to return with additional settlers and supplies by the end of the summer, a cargo the colonists were relying on to help them survive the winter. The first summer in Virginia was hot, plagued with mosquitoes from the pestilential swamps, and a busy time as the settlers, led at first by Captain Edward Wingfield, strove to build their homes and fortify the young colony.