On the return trip to Jamestown the exploring party visited other Indian towns on the James River, including one whose chieftain was Powhatan's brother—the wily and crafty Opechancanough. Gabriel Archer, a member of the group, recorded that the chief's "kyngdome is full of deare (so also is most of all the kyngdomes:) he hath (as the rest likewise) many ryche furres."
Many of the early settlers listed the fur-bearing animals that inhabited the dense woods near Jamestown. George Percy, an original planter, observed that:
There is also great store of deere both red and fallow. There are beares, foxes, otters, bevers, muskats, and wild beasts unknowne.
John Smith, in one of his early books describing Virginia (A Map of Virginia, With a Description of the Country, Oxford, 1612), gives brief descriptions of deer, squirrels, opossums, muskrats, bears, beavers, otters, foxes, and others. With the exception of bears, these fur-bearing animals still inhabit Jamestown Island—protected by the National Park Service.
Jamestown Settlers Trading With The Indians
Conjectural sketch
For inexpensive beads and trinkets the colonists received furs, foods, and other commodities from the aborigines.