They thought they were†lost. The Susan Constant, the Godspeed and the Discovery had sailed from London, England, on December 20, 1606. The ships, carrying 144 passengers and crew, were bound for Virginia.

Finally, at 4 a.m. on April 26, 1607, they saw land. The ships sailed into Chesapeake Bay (see map). They found, in the words of one voyager, "fair meadows and goodly tall trees." On an island in a river, they later built a fort and named it after their king, James.

This May marks the 400th birthday of Jamestown, the first successful, permanent English settlement in the New World. Britain's Queen Elizabeth II is set to come over to celebrate the occasion on May 3 and 4. Elizabeth is James I's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter. The Struggle to Survive

The 104 men and boys who came ashore looking for gold and riches faced many challenges. The water from the James River was not safe to drink. Food was scarce. Two weeks after the settlers arrived, 200 Indians attacked them.

But the English adventurers persevered. They put John Smith, an experienced military man, in charge of finding local tribes willing to swap corn, fish and game for English copper and beads. Smith was tough with both the Indians and his fellow Englishmen. "He that will not work, shall not eat," he told the colonists.

The western Chesapeake area was ruled by an Algonquin chief who governed an empire of 15,000 people known as the Powhatan. Sometimes the English and Indians fought. Sometimes they traded. A Very Close Relationship

Archaeologists digging in Jamestown have discovered evidence that Indians lived in the fort for some period of time. Indian artifacts were mixed in with English ones. "It must have been a very close relationship," says William Kelso, an expert in colonial American archaeology.

After more than 10 years of patient work at Jamestown, Kelso has mapped out the triangular shape of the fort, the foundations of buildings and a burial ground. His team has dug up more than 1 million artifacts (see "Pieces of the Past"). In one building, the archaeologists found a turtle shell, pig bones and an Indian cooking pot with traces of turtle bone. Kelso believes that an Indian woman may have been the cook.

As Jamestown grew, its Powhatan neighbors became alarmed. In July 1624, some 800 Indian warriors lost a two-day battle against 60 well-armed colonists. America's Birthplace

The settlers did not find gold in Virginia. Instead, they found a fertile ground to grow tobacco. Servants and slaves were brought to work the land. Eventually, property owners banded together to elect representatives who met in a general assembly.

Jamestown left a record of greed, war and death. It also left a legacy of bravery, resilience, religious liberty, cultural diversity and the beginning of representative government. The settlers gave America a solid foundation to build upon.