Chart of the head of navigation of the Potomac River shewing the route of the Alexandria Canal : made in pursuance of a resolution of the Alex'a Canal Company Oct. 1838 /

The word portolan comes from the Italian adjective portolano, meaning "related to ports or harbors", or "a collection of sailing directions". Portolan charts are maps based on compass directions and estimated distances observed by the pilots at sea. They were first made in the 13th century in Italy, and later in Spain and Portugal where they considered to be state secrets. The English and Dutch found the description of Atlantic and Indian coastlines extremely valuable for their raiding, and later trading, ships. The oldest survived portolan is the Carta Pisana, dating from approximately 1296 and the oldest preserved Majorcan Portolan chart is the one made by Angelino Dulcert who produced a portolan in 1339.

English efforts to settle a colony in America were not successful. In 1606, King James I granted a charter to a new venture, the Virginia Company, to form a settlement in North America. Virginia, named Elizabeth I, the “virgin queen,” was the English name for the entire eastern coast of North America north of Florida. The Virginia Company sent three ships (the Susan Constant, the Godspeed and the Discovery) in search for gold and silver, as well as a river route to the Pacific Ocean. On May 14, 1607, a group of 100 members of the Virginia Company founded the first permanent English settlement in North America on the banks of the James River. The new settlement consisted of a wooden fort built in a triangle around a storehouse for weapons and other supplies, a church and a number of houses. Famine, disease, and conflict with local tribes brought Jamestown to the brink of failure before the arrival of a new group of settlers and supplies in 1610. A period of peace due to the marriage of colonist John Rolfe to Pocahontas, the daughter of an Algonquian chief, followed. Tobacco became Virginia’s first export and Jamestown expanded and remained the capital of the Virginia colony until 1699. Pocahontas’ death during a trip to England in 1617 and the death of her father in 1618 strained the already fragile peace between the English settlers and the Native Americans. The Algonquians became angry about the colonists’ need for land. In March 1622, the Powhatan made an assault on English settlements in Virginia, killing up to 400 residents (or one-quarter of the population). Soon, King James I dissolved the Virginia Company and made Virginia into an official crown colony, with Jamestown as its capital. In 1698, the central statehouse in Jamestown burned down, and Williamsburg replaced it as the colonial capital.

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