226 SPOFFORD 



libraries in quest of the missing link that shall connect them 

 with British ancestors, scarcely one in a hundred ever finds it. 

 Out of the hundreds of ship loads of early emigrants, many 

 kept no records, and of manj^ more the records are lost. For 

 the purposes of the genealogist, in most cases, the coming of 

 the white man was in vain. 



The progress of the colony in the arts of peace was steady 

 and great. In 1649 there were eleven mills to grind corn and 

 six public breweries. Iron and bricks were manufactured in 

 large quantities. The colony was hampered in its foreign com- 

 merce by the narrow and odious navigation laws of England, 

 which prohibited her colonies from trading with any other 

 nation, thus cutting off a lucrative trade which might have 

 made all countries tributary to Virginia's great staple, tobacco. 



In 1670 the peace of the colony was disturbed by the great 

 number of desperate villains sent over from the prisons of Eng- 

 land, and the Council of Virginia ordered that no vessel 

 should be allowed " to bring in any jaile-birds after January 

 next." Negro slavery was introduced as early as 1619, by im- 

 portation from Africa, and continued a growing evil, demoral- 

 izing to a certain degree both races, though the profits of slave 

 labor insured its perpetuation. 



That one may form an intelligent judgment of the country 

 and period that we contemplate, there should be brought into 

 view a distinct idea of the natural features of Virginia. The 

 country was held for hundreds of miles 'by barbarous tribes of 

 aborigines, forming a loose confederacy, each under its own 

 Werowance, or chief, but subject to the powerful king, Pow- 

 hatan. The Virginia Company's grant extended about two 

 hundred and forty miles north and south, with no defined limit 

 westward. Its territory was washed by four noble tide-water 

 rivers, the James, the York, the Rappahannock and the Potomac, 

 each having many tributaries. The ample Chesapeake Bay, 

 full of convenient and safe harbors, with good anchorage open 

 to commerce from one end of the year to the other, supplied a 

 coast line of a hundred and fifty miles. The magnificent har- 

 bor of Hampton Roads could float all the navies of the world. 

 The soil, covered mostly by vast primeval forests, was of such 



