NO.    4      INDIAN    SITES    ON    THE    RAPPAHANNOCK BUSHNELL  29 
great  charge  sent  for  the  erecting  of  a  glasse  furnace  in  Virginia  wee 
hartylie  desire  yow  to  afford  them  all  favor  possible." 
It  is  evident  the  Company  in  London  feared  that  bartering  too 
many  beads  with  the  Indians  would  lessen  their  relative  value,  and 
in  a  letter  to  the  Governor  and  Council  in  Virginia,  dated  August  12, 
1621,  stated  (op  cit.,  p.  495)  :  "The  makinge  of  beade  is  one  of 
Cap*  Nortons  cheife  employ mente  w'^'^  beinge  the  mony  you  trade 
w**'  the  natives  we  would  by  no  meanes  have  through  to  much  abun- 
dance vilified  or  the  Virginiane  at  all  pmitted  to  see  or  und''stand 
the  manufacture  of  them:  wee  therefore  pray  you  seriously  to  con- 
sider what  proportion  of  beade  can  be  vented  and  their  worth  not 
abated,  and  intimate  the  proportion  to  Cap'  Norton  and  his  Italians, 
and  certifie  the  same  to  us  in  yo''  next  letters,  that  accordingly  we 
may  limitt  the  quantitie  that  shall  from  time  to' time  be  made." 
The  importance  of  beads,  and  of  blue  glass  beads  in  particular, 
was  thus  acknowledged.'''  and  it  is  evident  that  vast  quantities  were 
made  and  traded  to  the  Indians. 
The  use  of  beads  was  frequently  mentioned  in  the  early  records  of 
the  colony.  One  such  account  of  more  than  usual  interest  forms  part 
of  the  Minutes  of  the  Council  and  General  Court."  At  a  court  held 
at  Jamestown,  November  8,  1624,  Robert  Poole  told  that  while  on  a 
trading  voyage,  "  wherein  he  was  ymployed  for  Mr  Thresurer,"  he 
had  bought  corn  from  the  Indians,  and  had  exchanged  "  thirteene 
armes  length  of  some  beades  for  Another  Tubb  [of  corn]."  "  Further 
he  sayeth  y*  Capt  Croshow  gave  for  a  great  Canoe  w'''^  he  bought 
loooo  of  blew  beades,  saying  y*  he  would  give  Mr  Thresurer  satis- 
faction for  the  beds. 
"  Also  he  sayeth  y'  he  paide  for  matts  20000  of  blew  beads,  of  w*^'* 
matts  there  was  used  to  seele  ye  shipp  20,  and 
"  Further  he  sayeth  that  he  gave  to  the  great  man  of  Potuxsea  to  be 
their  guid  to  Pocotonck  6  or  800  of  blew  bead." 
From  this  it  may  be  assumed  that  innumerable  blue  glass  beads, 
made  at  Jamestown,  served  the  treasurer  of  the  Colony  as  a  medium 
of  exchange  when  dealing  with  the  Indians. 
Happenings  in  England  during  the  early  years  of  the  seventeenth 
century  undoubtedly  led  to  the  endeavor  to  establish  a  glasshouse  in 
"  Strachey,  in  his  "  Dictionarie  of  the  Indian  Language,"  gave  "  Blew  beades, 
vnetagwushomon." 
""The  Virginia  Magazine  of  History  and  Biography,  vol.  21,  p.  46,  Virginia 
Hist.  See,  Richmond,  1913. 
