a safe and sure place to receave people from all partes of the world that are forced to flee for the truth of Gods worde. . . . ... 17. If frontier warres there chaunce to arise . . . it will occasion the trayninge upp of our youthe in the discipline of warr, and make a nomber fitt for the service of the warres and for the defence of our people there and at home. . . . 20. Many men of excellent wittes and of divers singuler giftes, overthrown by suertishippe [suretyship, trusteeship], by sea, or by some folly of youthe, that are not able to live in England, there be raised againe, and doe their contrie goodd service. ... 22. The frye of the wandringe beggars of England, that grewe upp idly, and hurtefull and burdenous to this realme, may there be unladen and better bredd upp. . . . may 23. If Englande crie oute and affirme, that there is so many in all trades that one cannot live for another . . . this Norumbega ... offreth the remedie. 10. An Eng man's town in 1619 [29] CHAPTER II THE ENGLISH COLONIES THE OLD DOMINION John Pory, the author of the following letter, was lish gentle Cambridge Master of Arts and an ex-member of Par impressions ment. He accompanied Governor Yeardley to Jamesto of Jamesin 1619 and became secretary of the Colony. He Speaker of the first legislative assembly that met American soil, the House of Burgesses of July 30 August 4, 1619. The proceedings of this memora session, written in Pory's own hand, were discovered the State Paper Office of England in 1853. The foll ing letter was written by Pory to his friend, the Eng Ambassador to Holland, only a few weeks after adjournment of the Assembly: RIGHT HONORABLE, AND MY SINGULAR GOOD LORDE: ... Here (as your lordship cannot be ignorant) I am, for f of a better, Secretary of Estate, the first that was ever ch and appointed by Commission from the Counsell and Com in England, under their handes and common seale. By my I must maintaine my selfe; which the Governour telles me, this yeere amounte to a matter of 300 l. sterling; wherof doe I owe to himselfe, and I pray God the remainder amounte to a hundred more. As yet I have gotten nothing onely (if I may speak it without boasting) a general repu of integrity. . . . As touching the quality of this country, three things ther which in a fewe yeares may bring this Colony to perfection 24 English plough, Vineyards, and Cattle. For the first, there may be many grounds here, cleared by the Indians, to our handes, which being much worne out will beare no more of their corn, which requireth an extraordinary deale of sappe and substance to nourish it; but of our graine of all sortes it will beare great abundance. We have had this yeare a plentifull cropp of English wheat, though the last harvest 1618 was onely shed upon the stubble and so self-sowne. In July last, so soone as we had reaped this self-sowen wheate, we sett Indian corne upon the same grounde, which is come up in great abundance. ... Vines are here in suche abundance that, wheresover a man treads, they are ready to embrace his foote. . . . For cattle they do mightily increase here, both kine, hogges and goates, and are much greater in stature than the race of them first brought out of England. All our riches for the present doe consiste in tobacco, wherein one man by his owne labor hath in one yeare raised to himselfe to the value of 200 l. sterling; and another by the meanes of sixe servants hath cleared at one crop a thousand pound English.1 Nowe that your lordship may knowe that we are not the veriest beggers in the worlde, our cowekeeper here of James citty on Sundays goes accowtered [dressed] all in freshe flaming silke; and a wife of one that in England had professed the black arte, not of a scholler but of a collier of Croyden, weares her rough bever hatt with a faire pearl hatband, and a silken suite thereto correspondent. But to leave the populace and come higher; the Governour here, who at his first coming, besides a great deale of worth in his person, brought onely his sword with him, was at his late being in London, together with his lady, out of his meer gettings here, able to disburse very near 3000 l. to furnishe himselfe for his voyage. And once within seven yeares, I am persuaded (absit invidia verbo)2 that the Governors place here may be as profittable as the lord Deputies of Irland. . . . At my first coming hither the solitary uncouthnes of this place, compared with those partes of Christendome or Turky where I had been ; and likewise my being senquestered from all occurrents [events] 1 $5000, equivalent perhaps to $20,000 to-day. 2 " Envy be absent from my speech." 11. Virginia changes masters, 16511662 [32] and passages which are so rife there, did not a little vexe me. Ar James Citty in Virginia, Sept. 30, 1619 Jo. Pory The colonies in America naturally felt the effect of stormy years of the mid-seventeenth century in Engla Two years after Oliver Cromwell had established Commonwealth (or Republic) in England, the follow proclamation was issued by Parliament: INSTRUCTIONS FOR CAPTAIN ROBERT DENIS, Upon your arrival at Virginia, you, or any two or of you (of whom captain Robert Denis to be one) shall use best endeavors to reduce all the Plantations within the B Chesopiaik [Chesapeake] to their due obedience to the F ment of the Commonwealth of England. For which pu you . . . have hereby power to assure Pardon and Indemn all the Inhabitants of the said Plantations, that shall submi the present Government and authority. . . And in case they shall not submit by fair ways and means, you are to use all Arts of hostility, that lie in your power to enforce them: and if you shall find that the People so stand out that you can by no other ways or means reduce them to their due obedience, you have power to appoint captains and other officers, and to raise forces within every one of the Plantations aforesaid, for the furtherance and good of the Service. . . . You shall cause and see the several acts of Parliament against kingship and the House of lords to be received and published; also the Acts for abolishing the Book of common prayers. . . and all other Acts herewith delivered you. You... have full Power to administer an oath to the Inhabitants or planters there, to be true and faithful to the Commonwealth of England, as it is now established, without a King or House of lords. . . . You shall cause all writs, warrents, and other processes whatsoever to be issued forth as occasion shall require, in the name of the keepers of the liberty of England, by authority of the Parliament. And lastly we doubt not but you will use your best diligence and care in carrying on of this affair. . . . So the Council1 will take the same into consideration, that respect may be had of your Pains and travail therein, and of a recompence agreeable to your service. . . . Signed in the name and by the order of the Council of State appointed by authority of Parliament Whitehall, Sept. 26th, 1651 Jo. Bradshawe, President From the resignation of Richard Cromwell, son of the great Oliver, April 22, 1659, until the restoration of Charles II, May 29, 1660, England was without a legal government. The Virginia House of Burgesses in its session of March 13, 1660, passed the following acts: 1 The Council of State was a committee of about forty members of Parliament which performed the executive duties under the Commonwealth. |