A hardship that almost caused Jamestown to fail as a successful settlement was the Starving Time. The Starving Time took place in 1609 to 1610. The starving time began when John Smith was gone and he miscalculated the amount of food that was in storage for winter. There was very little in storage but there was still animals. Once all of the food was gone, the settlers ate there dogs. They even ate cats, rats, mice, serpents, snakes, boots, and shoes. The new captain of Jamestown, George Percy, who said that the settlers felt the “sharp prick of hunger which no man can truly describe but he who hath tasted the bitterness thereof.”