30  SMITHSONIAN    MISCELLANEOUS    COLLECTIONS  VOL.    96 
Virginia.  In  1615'^  the  importation  of  foreign  glass  into  England 
was  prohibited,  but  5  years  later  permission  was  granted  to  import 
"  rare  and  curious  glasses."  About  that  time,  1620,  "  an  attempt  was 
made  to  set  up  glass  works  in  Scotland,"  with  workers  from  Venice. 
If  beads  were  included  among  the  articles  that  were  not  to  be  im- 
ported from  a  foreign  country,  which  would  have  included  Venice, 
it  became  necessary  to  make  all  that  were  required  for  the  Indian 
trade.  Such  may  have  been  the  reason  for  the  establishment  of  the 
industry  at  Jamestown  in  1621. 
DISCOVERY  OF  THE  BEADS 
Just  east  of  the  triangular  tract,  within  the  shadowed  area  in  the 
aerial  photograph  (pi.  2),  the  river  bank  rose  normally  some  6  or  8 
feet  above  the  gravelly  beach.  At  some  time  in  the  past  the  bank  had 
been  cut  away  for  a  distance  of  more  than  150  feet,  and  the  surface  for 
a  like  distance  back  from  the  water  had  been  graded,  thus  forming  a 
level  area  approximately  150  feet  square  sloping  gradually  to  the  edge 
of  the  water.  In  the  middle  of  the  far  boundary  of  the  graded  area, 
facing  and  paralleling  the  river  and  8  or  10  feet  higher  than  the  beach, 
are  the  remains  of  an  ancient  brick  foundation,  and  about  midway 
between  this  and  the  river  are  other  bricks  which  appear  to  be  part 
of  a  wall.  Locally,  and  traditionally,  this  graded  square  is  known  as 
the  Old  Arsenal,  a  term  which  during  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries  would  have  applied  to  a  place  where  boats  were  built,  also 
where  arms  and  all  military  equipments  were  manufactured  or  stored. 
Such  was  probably  the  site  at  Leedstown,  with  the  customhouse 
nearby. 
The  graded  square  has  long  been  cultivated.  When  the  ground 
was  plowed  early  in  the  spring  of  1925,  a  few  beads  were  found  on 
the  surface  near  the  center  of  the  area.  That  night,  as  related  by  an 
old  negro  who  lives  nearby,  a  heavy  rain  fell  and  the  following- 
morning  many  beads  were  scattered  over  a  very  limited  space.  This 
caused  a  search  for  more,  and  soon  great  numbers  of  beads  were 
encountered  a  few  inches  below  the  soil  that  had  been  disturbed  by 
the  plow. 
The  13  varieties  of  beads  illustrated  in  plate  i  are  thought  to  include 
examples  of  all  that  were  discovered  in  the  cache.  There  may  have 
been  others,  but  if  so,  they  have  not  been  traced.  Their  history  is  not 
known,  nor  has  it  been  possible  to  determine  when  or  for  what  reason 
^*  Nesbitt,  Alexander.     Glass.    New  York,   1879.    This  is  one  of  the  South 
Kensington  Museum  Art  Handbooks. 
