But that was almost exactly the same ratio as at Jamestown-—and even after they got 100 reinforcements, have of those died too. They were hard times, it’s not that the people were stupid or had no concept of how to live or what they were getting into.
The spot they chose for settlement (Jamestown Island -- actually a tiny peninsula) was a swampy area with (as the local Indians knew) limited hunting available as most game animals required larger foraging areas. The settlers quickly hunted and killed off all the game animals. Their chosen swamp-peninsula was infested with malaria mosquitoes, and the brackish water of the tidal James River was not a good source of water. Over 135 settlers died from malaria; drinking contaminated and saline water caused more to sicken and die from saltwater poisoning and dysentery.
Most of the settlers who came over on the initial three ships were were upper-class gentlemen, with very few farmers or skilled laborers. It's their incredibly poor pre-planning (location) as well as their lack of the necessary knowledge and skills, as well as their unwillingness/inability to do the incredibly hard labor needed for wilderness subsistence, that caused most of them to die of disease and starvation, quickly and badly.