CHAPTER III. 



Schemes for Employing Emigrant Labor in the Pro- 

 duction OF Stores. 



Before entering upon a discussion of the policy which the 

 government finally adopted, after consideration of the best 

 methods for encouraging the production of naval supplies in 

 the colonies, a little space ought to be given to an outline of two 

 experiments which illustrate the application of the contract sys- 

 tem to this undertaking. They represent an attempt to offset 

 one of the chief obstacles in the way of manufacturing planta- 

 tion stores as cheaply as they could be bought from the East 

 Country, namely, the scarcity and dearness of labor. It was 

 conceived that this might be done by transporting poor but in- 

 dustrious emigrants to some of the timber lands not already 

 occupied, and granting them land on easy terms. The rent 

 might be paid in the naval stores which the settlers were 

 expected to produce after they had cleared land enough for their 

 habitation and subsistence. It cannot be said that these projects 

 were consciously fostei'ed by the government to take the place 

 of the proposals of the rejected joint-stock companies, but as 

 they happen to follow the failure of these attempts, the natural 

 chronological order will be observed. 



The first settlement scheme was that undertaken by Colonel 

 Hunter, who was made governor of New York in 1710. Before 

 he went to New York, he submitted to the Board of Trade an 

 elaborate proposition for transporting, at the expense of the 

 government, 3,000 refugees from the German Palatinate to 

 crown lands in New York, and employing them in the produc- 

 tion of naval stores. The advantages of the scheme were many. 

 In the first place, the Palatines would be provided for in such a 



