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The London company, under the name Of Jamestown, established the beginning of the first English town in America, May 13, 1607, with one hundred colonists. Captain John Smith was the genius Of the colony, and it enjoyed a certain prosperity while he remained with it. A curious incident Of its history was the importation Of a large number of young women of good character, who were sold for one hundred and twenty, or even one hun dred and fifteen, pounds Of tobacco (at thirteen shillings a pound) to the lonely settlers. The Company failed, with all its expenditures, some half-million dollars, in 1624, and at that time, numbered only two thousand souls — the relics of nine thousand, who had been sent out from England.