Life was pretty hard at first for the Jamestown settlers. For one thing, they were unfamiliar with Virginian soil and so were unable to plant and grow crops. Add in their lack of preparedness for icy cold winters and constant attacks from marauding natives, and it's not surprising that the whole venture seemed destined to failure.
It had been anticipated that the Jamestown settlers might find it hard to grow their own food. So it was arranged for the colony to be supplied by ships sent over from England. Unfortunately, this left too much to chance, as the voyage across the Atlantic was notoriously difficult. It could take several months to travel from England to America by sea, longer if the weather conditions were bad, which they frequently were. So if the settlers ran out of food, as they did during that dreadful winter of 1609-1610, then starvation was virtually inevitable.
Settlers tried to get round the problem by trading for food with the local Powhatan tribe. But relations between the two sides were marred by suspicion and mistrust and, initially at least, diplomatic overtures towards the natives met with spectacular failure, exacerbating an already dire situation for the Jamestown settlers.
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