Today's lesson focused on an introduction to English settlements in America. We know that Roanoke was an English colony that failed and that the fate of its settlers is one of US history's great mysteries. However, the English engage in later attempts to establish settlements in North America. In 1606 an English joint-stock company called the Virginia Company sent 144 settlers back to the area of Virginia. The group entered Chesapeake Bay in April 1607 and established a settlement they named Jamestown, after their king. The settlers built Jamestown on a peninsula so they could defend it from attack. However, the site had many drawbacks: it was swampy and infested with mosquitoes, it lacked good farmland, there was no gold or silver to be found and disease and hunger took a huge toll on the colonists. Bella will read more about Jamestown tonight. We concluded class with a quick look at the famed Flagler Family of Palm Beach County. Bella has been interested in them ever since she and her family met some of the Flaglers recently. We learned that the Flaglers were central to the construction of the railroad here in Florida. In 1912 Henry Flagler arrived aboard the first train into Key West, marking the completion of the Florida East Coast (FEC) Railway's Over-Sea Railroad to Key West. With the completion of the Over-Sea Railroad the entire east coast of Florida, from Jacksonville to Key West, was linked by a single railroad system. That's quite an accomplishment!