They stand courageously on the shores of the New World. The date is May 14, 1607. They are Englishmen - 100 men and four boys - and they have spent five months at sea. Now, finally, they stand on the solid ground of America. It is, they note, a land of "faire meadows and goodly tall trees."

Lying at anchor behind them is the Susan Constant - the main vessel that transported them across the treacherous Atlantic. Alongside they have posted soldiers with matchlock muskets to guard against the unknown dangers of this wonderful but mysterious new land. Above them fly two flags - England's historic Cross of St. George and the new English Union Jack. Around them lies the great American forest, and before them the challenges and the promises of the New World.

Few of them will survive. The deadly threats of the American wilderness - disease, exposure, Indian attacks and starvation - will eventually claim most of them. But a hardy few will prevail, and here, on the banks of Virginia's James River, they will establish the first permanent English colony in North America. Their hard-won settlement will be christened "Jamestown" - and their bold feat will launch a chain of events that will eventually give birth to the Commonwealth of Virginia - and to our American nation.