hands. Wee have receiued from him by the George a very strange letter which together with those Informations we haue against him by sundry witnesses lately come from thence doe importe more discontent in the Aduenturers heare, and more hazard to the Plantation than euer did any other thing yt befel that Action from the beginning. He's discontent that wee subscribed our Letter sent unto him with few hands, our terming him to bee but Deputy Gouernour, hee disdayning to bee Deputy to any man, our letters to bee delivered unto him by soe meane a man as the Cape Merchant, with many such like which we pass

ouer.

"And breifly wee must complayne to your Lo'p of his neglecting and transgressing our Commission and Instructions; first hee hath made away all the Kyne belonging to the Collony and taken satisfaction for them to himselfe, whereas wee gaue him express chardge in his Instructions to preserue and nourish them to the Common use except some few which wee had disposed, whereof wee writ him in particular. Hee has suffered passengers, mariners and others wthout restraynte to shipp most of the Tobacco and all the Sassafrass for themselves, which by order of Courte at certayne rates agreed upon are appropriated to the magazine. Hee armes himselfe and others wth uniust accusations agaynst us to overthrow the magazine, without w'ch wee know assuredly yt neither the Aduenturers heare, nor the Plantation there can long subsist.

"He hath gotten possession and keepeth back our Hyds under pretence of being Admirall w'ch cost our joynt stock well neare 400, with a great deale of toyle and trouble before wee could obtaine them, with his obstinate refusall to deliver them hee hath done us soe greate displeasure at

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the returne of this ship that he could not haue watched to haue done us a greater.

"Hee hath forbidden all trade and commerce with the Indians but trades amongst them with the Summer Island Frigott, and our men to his owne benefitt. Hee takes the auncient Collony men which should now bee free, and our men from the Common Garden to sett them aboute his own imployment, and with the Collony's share of Corne leeds his men, hee Proclaymes that noe man shall dare to buy any Furr of the Indians but himself as if the Plantation and People were ordayned onely to serue his turne.

"These and soe many like errours of his are layde to his charge for which the Aduenturers heere will noe way be satisfyd without his personal appearance to make his Answeare and they are hardly restrayned notwithstanding the Kings Court in progress from going to the Court to make there complaynte and to procure his Ma't's command to fetch him home and therefore pray your Lor'p to the avoyding of further scandall and slaunders to the Gouernment of our Plantation yt you will cause him to be shipped home in this ship the William and Thomas to satisfy the Aduenturers by answearing everything as shall be layde to his chardge, and for yt wee suppose there will be found many misdemeanors of his for w'ch hee may make satisfaction to the Company we pray your Lor'p to ceaze uppon his goods, as Tobacko and Furrs, whereof it is reported he hath gotten together great stoare to the Colonies prejudice, and so sending them to us to be in deposite till all matters be satisfyd and yt your Lo'p would be pleased to take back agayne those kyne and Bullocks w'ch by his unlawfull sale are despersed heare and there, and yt they may bee brought together agayne to the Collonies use, and to such others of

the Hundreds as the Generall Courte by yor Lo'ps consent did order and appoynt."

Argall's desperate course continued during his whole term of office. Capt. Edward, the son of William Brewster, and agent for the late Lord Delaware's estate, having complained of the unlawful use of Delaware's servants by Argall, was arrested, and on October 15, 1618, tried by martial law and sentenced to death, but upon the petition of the ministers resident in the colony and others it was commuted to banishment, with the promise that he would not return.

The Earl of Warwick, who was a relative, sent him "an olde comission of hostility from the Duke of Savoy against the Spanyards," and the ship Treasurer "being manned with the ablest men of the Colony was sett out on rovinge in ye Spanish Dominions in the West Indies," and after a successful cruise returned to Virginia with booty and "a certaine nomber of negroes." Discovering that Argall had escaped in the swift sailing pinnace Eleanor, and fearing the new Governor, Yeardley, Captain Elfred of the Treasurer sailed for the Somers Islands. In October, 1619, Capt. Nathaniel Butler became Governor of these islands, and he took from Miles Kendall fourteen negroes that had been given to the latter by the captain of a Holland vessel commissioned by the Prince of Orange, under the pretence that they belonged to the ship Treasurer which Argall had sent to rove in the West Indies.

All that we have known of the introduction of negro slaves in the year 1619, is the following brief statement of Rolfe quoted by Smith: "About the last of August came in a Dutch man of warre that sold us twenty negars."

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Is there not a probability that the vessel was under the control of Argall, if not the ship Treasurer? If twenty negroes came in 1619, as alleged, their increase was very slow, for according to a census of 16th of February, 1624, there were but twenty-two then in the colony, distributed as follows: eleven at Flourdieu Hundred, three at James City, one at James Island, one at the plantation opposite James City, four at Warisquoyak, and two at Elizabeth City.

About the same time that "negars" began to be brought to the colony, commenced the arrivall of starving boys and girls picked up out of the streets of London.1 In connection with this were great abuses. Sir Edward Hext, in October, 1618, wrote to the Privy Council:

"Upon complaint that Owen Evans, messenger of the Chamber, had a pretended commission to press maidens to be sent to Virginia and the Bermudas, and received money thereby, he issued a warrant for his apprehension. Evans's undue proceedings bred such terror to the poor maidens that forty have fled from one parish to obscure places, and their parents do not know what has become of them."

And on November 13th a clerk by the name of Robinson was hung, drawn and quartered for counterfeiting the great seal, and it was said "that another course of his, was by virtue of this commission, to take up rich yeomen's daughters, or drive them to compound, to serve his Majesty for breeders in Virginia.'

"2

1 Sainsbury, State Papers, p. 19.

2 Court and Times of James First, II, 108.

CHAPTER VIII.

the leyden puritans.1

HE members of the English Independent Church at Leyden, after mature deliberation, determined to go to America and "live as a distinct body by themselves under the general Government of Virginia, and by their friends to sue to his Majesty that he would be pleased to grant them freedom of religion; and that this might be obtained, they were put in great hope by some great persons of good rank and quality." Two of their number, therefore, in 1617, visited London and "found the Virginia Company very desirous to have them go thither, and willing to grant them a patent with as ample privileges as they had or could grant to any."

To remove the objections of the King and others as far as possible, the following articles were prepared by the church at Leyden : 3

"Seven Artikes which ye Church of Leyden sent to ye Counsell of England to bee considered of in respeckt of

1 "Those whom we ordinarily call Puritans are men of strict life and precise opinions." Discourse concerning Puritans, London, 1641.

"The style of Puritans properly belongs to that vile sect of the Anabaptists, called the family of Love-such were Browne and Penry." James First in Preface to Basilicon Doron.

2 Bradford, pp. 28, 29; Mass. Hist. Coll., 4 S., vol. III.

3 Furnished by Mr. Bancroft, and first printed in N. Y. Hist. Coll., 2d S., vol. III, Pt. 1.