On September 10, 1608, Ratcliffe’s
term as president of the Virginia council was up. Who would be next? Of the
original seven councilors, Newport was not now a Jamestown resident, Wingfield
had been deposed, Gosnold had died, Kendall had been executed, and Martin was
ailing. Gabriel Archer, Smith’s avowed enemy, and Matthew Scrivener, a newcomer
who became Smith’s friend, were the councilors chosen to replace Gosnold and
Kendall. When the vote was taken, Captain John Smith was elected president of
the Virginia council.
Not everyone was pleased.
When Christopher Newport returned
to Jamestown that same September, John Smith was not pleased.
Newport brought 70 more colonists, but as before, not enough food
for them. Newport also brought orders from the profit-hungry, image-conscious
Virginia Company: (1) hunt for gold,
(2) try again to find the Roanoke colonists (3) stage a coronation for
the Indian king Powhatan, to make him a vassal of King James I. All this, when
food was scarce, and the colony was depending on corn from the Indians. President
Smith was furious.
Captain Newport and ex-president Ratcliffe hatched a scheme
to get rid of Smith. They claimed he had gone on a food-trading expedition to
Indian lands without asking their approval. On these trumped-up charges they
wanted to depose him as president--and banish him from the fort. But Smith had
friends as well as enemies at Jamestown, and the attempted coup failed. As one
observer wrote of Newport and Ratcliffe, “their horns were too short.”
The palisade wall at Jamestown Fort: Enemies inside and out.
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