This was that time, which still to this day we called the starving time; it were too vile to say, and scarce to be believed, what we endured: but the occasion was our own, for want of providence, industry and government, and not the barrenness and defect of the Country, as is generally supposed...we endured all that is said, and chiefly lived on what this good Country naturally afforded.
– John Smith, 1609
Read the underlined text. What does Smith dismiss as a cause of the starvation?
the willingness of the colonists to work
the inability of the land to support the colonists
the lack of assistance from the mother country, England
