Explorer

Nightmare in Jamestown (2005x12)

Air date: Nov 20, 2005

You're starving - and under attack by hostile neighbors. Spies have infiltrated your town, half your family is sick with some deadly disease and rumor has it that your neighbor just ate his wife for lunch. Welcome to America, 1607-where evidence suggests that this nightmare could have been the settlers' reality. It's a story of bubonic plague, starvation, espionage and cannibalism - and the founding of North America's first successful English colony. In 1606, a handful of English adventurers set sail across the Atlantic, expecting a paradise teeming with gold and riches. Instead, they discovered a living hell. Now, nearly 400 years later, the latest discoveries explore the story of Jamestown - as you've never seen it before. Exclusive access to forensics and archaeology will take us inside the graves, revealing shocking new evidence of starvation and disease, secret plots and Spanish spies. Dramatic recreations bring to life one of the darkest chapters in U.S. history. And in an unprecedented act, the Church of England will open its vaults, allowing National Geographic to dig up the remains of a 17th century woman whose bones hold clues to the disastrous venture known as Jamestown and its founding father, an unsung hero of American history called Bartholomew Gosnold. Like many mysteries, we begin with the bodies: a burial ground containing the remains of more than 70 people, some haphazardly arranged. It looks like whoever buried these people hardly had the time or energy to do so properly. Who were they? What happened? The burial site is just steps from the remains of Jamestown Fort, where archaeologists and forensic specialists are toiling to uncover the secrets of America's first successful colony. Stylized recreations and CGI will transport us back four centuries to reveal the hopeful beginnings of a colony made famous by fanciful tales of romance between Captain John Smith and Pocahontas. A colonist's diary claims at least one person, out of desperation, turned