John Smith

Captain John Smith, under contract to The London Company and under the command of Capt. Christopher Newport, sails from London five days before Christmas, 1606 and arrives five months later at Chesapeake Bay. On May 14, 1607 they found and name the Jamestown colony for King James I.

The colony survives and eventually flourishes because Smith establishes friendly relations and commerce with Chief Powhatan, father of Pocahontas. Smith left Jamestown in 1609; John Rolfe, a colonist, married Pocahontas in 1614.