EFFORTS OF THE LONDON COMPANY 11 



defrayed; and because the skill of handling them is 

 only deriued from the Frenchmen we canot but here 

 recomend this to yo r fauo r and regard that they may 

 be kindly used and cherished." The letter also rep- 

 resents that supplies were furnished for the French- 

 men and Dutchmen (the latter having been sent to 

 erect saw-mills). The supplies were "diuers provis- 

 ions of victualls as also a cloth to make them appar- 

 rell; for hose and shoes and other such matters we 

 desire they may be supplied by the Companies stock 

 there, out of the Magazine wch now comes along in 

 the Warwicke large and abundante in all usefull and 

 necessarie comodities." 



It is evident from this narrative that the London 

 Company desired to introduce the cultivation of the 

 vine into Virginia and that it encouraged the immi- 

 gration of the French for that purpose. The experi- 

 ment seems to have come to naught, however. Bever- 

 ley, writing a hundred years later, speaks of the 

 attempt as follows: "The Year before the Massacre, 

 Anno 1622, which destroyed so many good Projects 

 for Virginia; some French Vignerons were sent thither, 

 to make an Experiment of their Vines. These People 

 were, so in Love with the Country, that the Character 

 they then gave of it, in their Letters to the Company 

 in England, was very much to its Advantage, namely, 

 'That it far excell'd their own Country of Languedoc: 

 The Vines growing in great Abundance and Variety 

 all over the Land: That some of the Grapes were 

 of that unusual Bigness, that they did not believe 

 them to be Grapes, until by opening them, they had 

 seen their Kernels: That they had planted the Cut- 

 tings of their Vines at Michcelmas, and had Grapes 



