Norma Lewis wrote: This has been so interesting, Lee and Harry: If these early colonists had only moved further inland, they may have had a more successful settlement and saved many of their settlers. Their problem seemed to be one of ignorance and lack of medical knowledge, . . . Hi to G.Lee Hearl, Norma, Gene and others; I hope the following will answer your queries and statements and will lead to further research and learning for us all. G.Lee, you are right, the colonists were dumb for the most part. As the record shows ". . . The idle, lazy, and factious behavior of early Virginians was, in part, the result of a steady summer diet of salt water." The Labor Problem at Jamestown, 1607-1618, American Historical Review, LXXVI, 1971. Of the first group of 104 to come to Virginia, there were seven on the Council, 48 Gentlemen, six carpenters, 43 laborers and sailors made up the rest. "August 7, 1610, report by Sir Thomas Dale that the 300 disorderly persons he took with him to Virginia are mutinous and unchristian and are so disordered that only 60 of them are employable." The Complete Book of Emigrants 1607-1660, Peter Wilson Coldham, 1987. "April 3, 1617, Stephen Rogers, convicted of a killing and reprieved, ordered to be sent to Virginia at the instance of Sir Thomas Smith because he is a carpenter. ibid. Gene, yes to the Potomac River & other waterways, however, no settlers were living there in 1607-1609, the deaths due to salt & contaminated water occurred early before the settlers moved out of the James River area, into the beautiful Vir. countryside. "The first two summers in Vir. were disastrous; the third offered the first glimmer of hope. As of Oct. 1608, 244 colonists had come to Jamestown and 144 of them had subsequently died." Irene W.D. Hecht, The Virginia Colony, 1607-1640, A Study in Frontier Growth, Ph.D. diss., U. of Washington, 1969. Also Gene, "This close relationship between environment, disease, & mortality in 1607 Jamestown may be stated more generally for all Chesapeake estuaries." George H. Lauff, ed., Estuaries, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, D.C., 1967. Norma, at first, it was not the policy of the London Company to spread out, they were interested in commercial profitability. Death and Indian's hindered outward movement for a few years. In the first group there was William Wilkinson, and Thomas Wotton, who were surgeon's, and Robert Hunt, a priest of the Church of England. Those three should have had a little medical knowledge. It was in the 1617-1619 period that movement increased, ". . . which did much to populate the James River basin as far as the falls." Conway Whittle Sams, The Conquest of Virginia, 4 Vols., 1916. My interest in this period is one of my ancestors, Capt. Peter Wynne came to Jamestown in 1608. All the listed surnames are very interesting of those who came first. Three books of great help: 'INSIDE THE GREAT HOUSE' planter family life in the 18th century Chesapeake society, by Daniel Blake Smith, Cornell University Press. 'HOW JUSTICE GREW' Vir. Counties: An Abstract of Their Formation, Martha W. Hiden, 1957. And,'THE CHESAPEAKE in the SEVENTEENTH CENTURY', by Thad W. Tate & David L. Ammerman, The University of North Carolina Press. History and Genealogy, makes life interesting. Harry