First Supply Mission
Newport had returned to London with his cargo of “gold” in August, 1607. He immediately began planning a mission to reinforce the Virginia settlement with additional colonists and supplies. Newport returned to Virginia with another 120 men, including the crews of his two ships, and some, but not enough, urgently needed supplies, arriving on January 2, 1608. Shortly after his arrival a fire destroyed much of the fort, including storehouses containing most of the supplies Newport had delivered to the settlement. This led several of the colonists, including Germans brought to the colony to establish a glass works, to defect to the natives, taking their weapon making skills with them.
By the spring of 1608, John Smith had become president of the council, and he responded to the messages of the investors in London demanding a return on their investment with a demand for skilled artisans for the colony. Newport returned to London and then back to the settlement, arriving in October 1608, with additional settlers, including the first English women to arrive in the colony. He once again arrived with inadequate supplies to sustain the colony through the winter. Late in 1608 dissenters among the settlers conspired with some of Powhatan’s men to assassinate Smith, a plan of which he learned, according to his account written years later, from Pocahontas.