14 Industrial Experiments in Colonial America. 



usually bought for the navy and the tar was of indififerent qual- 

 ity. The Navy Board, therefore, recommended that the com- 

 mission be recalled, "to ease the king of that great and growing 

 charge, it seeming to be far from answering the service ex- 

 pected from it."^ A letter from Secretary Burchett to the Board 

 of Trade, commenting upon Lord Bellomont's charges of ex- 

 travagance against the commissioners, observes that "they 

 have been sent for and their expenditures will be strictly 

 inquired into."- In 1702, after having spent five years in New 

 England, Mr. Bridger returned to England and presented his 

 accounts.^ Two years of altercation followed, because many 

 of the disbursements had been recorded without the proper 

 vouchers which the Navy Board required before they would 

 confirm the accounts; but finally (1704) the Board of Trade 

 recommended that Bridger be paid for the five years and three 

 months of his actual service*, at the rate of £250 a year. 



With respect to one of the objects of their journey, the com- 

 missioners may be said to have been fairly successful. There 

 was a prevailing ignorance in the mother country of the geo- 

 graphy, resources and general condition of New England, 

 especially of New Hampshire; and, although as a means of 

 procuring information the commission was certainly expensive, 

 its reports undoubtedly enabled the Lords of Trade to form a 

 more intelligent opinion as to the possibility of depending upon 

 the American plantations for naval stores. 



^Reports from officers at Deptford and Woolwich, B.T.New Eng., 

 F:3i. 



^Secretary Burchett to Board of Trade, B. T. New Eng., F: 55. 



^Minutes of Bridger's expenses, affidavits, etc., B. T, New Eng., N: 

 ID, 19, 20, 26. 



^Correspondence relating to Bridger's accounts, B. T. New Eng., 

 N: 34, 35, 36, and Entry Bk, E., April 6, 1704. 



