The settlers, despite the immediate area of Jamestown being uninhabited, are attacked on May 14, less than a fortnight after their arrival, by Paspahegh people, who succeed in killing one of the settlers and wounding eleven more.

Jamestown is often referred to as an island.

During periods of the past four hundred years, it has been joined by a narrow land bridge (or "isthmus") to the mainland; at other times, the flow and fluctuations of the James River severed and recreated the connection, thus perhaps the confusion in definition.

Although it is technically a peninsula when thus connected, functionally, in many ways, Jamestown throughout the past four centuries has been an island.

Largely cut off from the mainland's typical game and wildlife by natural forces, the shallow harbor affords the earliest settlers docking of their ships.

This is its great attraction, one which comes at the price of other far less favorable conditions.

The colonists soon discover that the swampy and isolated site is plagued by mosquitoes and tidal river water unsuitable for drinking, and offers limited opportunities for hunting, as most potential game such as deer and bears like to forage over much larger areas, and little space for farming.