The Queen toured the marshy, bug-infested site, where 400 years ago this month, a band of English pioneers changed the course of history.
JAMESTOWN (Virginia): Britain's Queen Elizabeth II was on Friday to tour the marshy, bug-infested site on the Virginia coast, where 400 years ago this month, a band of English pioneers changed the course of history.
The 104 ill-prepared men and boys who founded the New World's first permanent English settlement set in motion the creation of the United States, but also brought unrivaled bloodshed to Native American tribes.
The queen and her husband, Prince Philip, began on Thursday their fourth state visit to the United States and their first since 1991.
The six-day trip will take in a day at the races at the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, and a White House state dinner with President George W Bush on Monday.
The queen visited the Jamestown settlement 50 years ago, when Virginia was deeply segregated between black and white, and the 350th anniversary was devoted exclusively to the advent of European culture in North America.
"With the benefit of hindsight, we can see in that event the origins of a singular endeavor, the building of a great nation, founded on the eternal values of democracy and equality based on the rule of law and the promotion of freedom," she said in a speech on Thursday to Virginia legislators.
"But 50 years on we are now in a position to reflect more candidly on the Jamestown legacy. Human progress rarely comes without cost," the queen said.
"And those early years in Jamestown, when three great civilizations came together for the first time, Western European, Native American and African, released a train of events which continues to have a profound social impact, not only in the United States but also in the United Kingdom and Europe."
The settlers sent by the Virginia Company of London set up camp on May 14, 1607 on an inhospitable island along what is now the James River. They sought safe haven from marauding Spaniards and a route to Oriental treasures.
Instead they found disease, drought and hostile natives whose fate would forever be altered by the Jamestown settlement, which was also responsible for the advent of African slaves in North America.
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