As a sea captain, in 1609, Argall was the first to determine a shorter northern route from England across the Atlantic Ocean to the new English colony of Virginia, based at Jamestown, and made numerous voyages to the New World.

[2] He captained one of Lord De La Warr's ships in the successful rescue mission to Virginia in 1610 which saved the colony from starvation.

Knighted by King James I after serving as Governor of the Virginia Colony, Argall was accused by planters of having been excessively stern in his treatment of them.

[10] Argall returned to the Virginia Colony in the summer of 1610, when Royal Governor Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr reinforced the defences of the English against the sometimes hostile Native Americans there.

De La Warr became so ill that in the spring of 1611 he sailed home to England, and Sir Thomas Dale took his place as Deputy Governor in charge of the Virginia Colony.

After De la Warr reached England and recovered, he wrote a book, The Relation of the Right Honourable the Lord De-La-Warre, of the Colonie, Planted in Virginia.

When two English colonists began trading with the Patawomeck, they discovered that Pocahontas, the daughter of Wahunsonacock, Chief of the Powhatan Confederacy, was living there.

Sending for the local chief, Japazaws, Argall told him he must bring her on board his ship, and suggested luring her with the present of a copper kettle.

Argall also commanded the ship that took Pocahontas, her family, and her retinue, including her brother in law Uttamatomakkin, to visit England in 1616.

First he sacked the French Jesuit colony of Saint-Sauveur on Mount Desert Island (now part of the state of Maine).

Back In the Virginia Colony, Argall was viewed as an autocrat who was insensitive to the poorer of the colonists, who included indentured servants.

The London Company granted him a parcel of land, which he forced free ancient planters to clear, and used the colony's stock of corn to farm.

[12] After Argall served as Principal Governor of Virginia beginning in 1617, Lord De La Warr was enroute from England to investigate complaints about the man, but died at sea in 1618.

Before he could be investigated further, Samuel Argall gave gubernatorial powers to Captain Nathaniel Powell and absconded to England aboard the pinnace, Ellinor, in 1618/9.