The massacre of 1622 forced the withdrawal of any who may have been located in the area at that date. Included in the list of those killed at the time was Edward Walters, his wife, child, maid and boy all at "Master Edward Walters his house" which may have been in the Blunt Point vicinity. If this were really Edward Waters who received the patent at Blunt Point in 1624, it would mean that he had already established himself here. Such is conceivable since, at the time of the massacre, he and his wife were made prisoners by the Nansemond Indians and possibly could have been listed as dead. He was fortunate in being able to manage an escape and took refuge at Elizabeth City (Kecoughtan). Waters was an ancient planter who had come to Virginia with Gates, reaching the Colony in 1610. He was one of a party who returned to Bermuda for hogs for Virginia. Circumstances intervened and he remained there about seven years. It was not until about 1617 that he returned to Virginia where he was married and settled down. In 1625 he was listed as living at Elizabeth City with his wife, son and daughter, "borne in Virginia." His muster then included six servants and five others. In a statement made by a number of Virginia planters on April 30, 1623, there is mention of the plantation at "Blunt point" which would imply an established settlement here at that time. It was enumerated along with a number of others, including Newport News, which were described "as verie fruitfull and pleasant seates." This was ten months after Captain Samuel Each's offer to "erect before the end of March [1623] uppon the oyster bankes, a block-house, that should forbid the passage of any shipp" up the James. Each felt that he could lay his vessel near "Blunt point" and do this with dispatch with his mariners and twelve carpenters. The Governor and Council embraced his offer to build this "Block house about Blunt Point." Company officials in England, too, liked the idea very much. Seemingly, however, it never materialized. Instead, talk turned to the fort which was undertaken at Warrascoyack on the opposite shore of the James. MULBERRY ISLAND (43) On the north side of the James River some ten miles below Jamestown, this "island" embraces some ten square miles of ground. Its name evidently was derived from a heavy growth of the native Virginia mulberry trees (_Morus rubra_). This must have been the case since "Mulberry Island" and "Mulberry Point" were in use as place designations as early as July, 1610. It was so named even before it was settled. When Gates was proceeding down river, having abandoned Jamestown, in June, 1610, it was just off Mulberry Island that he encountered Lord De La Warr's "long boat" which gave word of reinforcements and supplies. This saved the Colony and Gates reversed his course and returned to Jamestown. In this way Mulberry Island is linked with this decisive meeting which greatly affected the survival of the Colony.