28  SMITHSONIAN    MISCELLANEOUS    COLLECTIONS  VOL.    96 
When  trading  with  the  Indians,  during  the  summer  of  1608  at  a 
time  when  Powhatan  was  present,  the  colonists  received  a  large 
quantity  of  corn  in  exchange  for  "  a  pound  or  two  of  blew  beads." 
About  this  time  the  first  glass  was  made  at  Jamestown. 
The  spring  of  1609  found  the  colonists  engaged  in  many  endeavors  ; 
houses  were  being  erected,  a  well  was  dug,  and  they  "  produced  a 
tryall  of  Glasse."  This  was  done  at  "  the  Glasse-house,  a  place  in  the 
woods  neare  a  myle  from  James  Towne  ",^  which  had  probably  been 
erected  during  the  preceding  year.  To  what  extent  beads  were  then 
made,  or  were  produced  during  the  years  that  immediately  followed, 
is  not  known. 
The  second  attempt  to  establish  glass  making  in  the  colony  was  a 
more  serious  consideration.  On  June  11,  1621,  at  a  Court  held  for 
Virginia,™  "Intelligence  was  given  y^  one  Cap*:  Norton  made  an 
offer  &  would  undertake  to  pcure  6  straungers  skillfull  in  makinge 
of  Glasse  and  Beads  to  goe  over  to  Virginia  to  be  imployed  in  the 
saide  worke  for  the  Company  for  no  other  consideration  then  onely 
the  halfe  profitts  of  their  labo''^  ..."  The  proposition  was  accepted 
by  the  Company  on  June  13,  and  Norton  agreed  to  "  carry  over  with 
him  4  Itallyans  and  two  servants  of  his  owne  .  .  .  which  six  psons 
shall  within  three  moneths  after  their  Arivall  in  Virginia  sett  upp  a 
Glass  ffurnace  and  make  all  manner  of  Beade  &  Glasse  ..." 
But  it  soon  became  known  that  the  cost  of  the  undertaking  would 
be  greater  than  anticipated  and  that  the  Company  "  were  not  able  to 
goe  through  wth  itt."  It  was  then  deemed  best  to  let  it  be  "  free  to 
pryvate  Adventurers  to  undertake  the  same  ..."  And  so  Captain 
Norton  was  released  from  his  agreement.  This  was  on  July  16,  1621, 
and  as  stated  by  "  certaine  adventurers  now  present  they  did  now 
acquainte  this  Courte  that  itt  was  not  their  intent  therby  utterly  to 
exclude  the  Company  from  a  buisiness  of  this  speciall  consequence 
unto  them  all  (seeinge  the  Comoditie  of  Beads  was  like  to  prove  the 
Verie  Coyne  of  that  Country)    ..." 
In  the  "  Instructions  to  the  Governor  and  Council  of  State  in 
Virginia,^'  dated  July  24,  1621,  is  included  the  following:  "Item 
whereas  Cap*^  William  Norton  and  certaine  Itallians  now  by  the 
general  Company  and  other  worthy  mynded  adventures  att  a  verie 
^°  Smith,  op.  cit.,  p.  467. 
^"/n  The  Records  of  the  Virginia  Company  of  London,  vol.  i,  p.  484.  Library 
of  Congress,  Washington,  1906. 
'^^  In  The  Records  of  the  Virginia  Company  of  London,  vol.  3,  p.  477.  Library 
of  Congress,  Washington,  1933. 
