The same thing happened to me! My villagers were dying of starvation! The crops took too long to grow. After all that, I had only 5 villagers. One female and four males. She then died of old age and I had only 4 males left. I thought it was over! Until one glorius day,*SPOILER!* I got an "Old Friends" Event. I was so happy, now my population is 12 and growing