l. Some time in 1656
Povey drew up a series of queries "concerning his Highness Interest in
the West Indias" in which occur the following suggesive paragraphs:

"Whether a Councell busyed and filled with a multitude of
Affaires, w^{ch} concerne the imediat Safety and preservation
of the State at home, can bee thought capable of giving a proper
conduct to such various and distant Interests.

"Whether an Affaire of such a nature and consequence may be
transacted in diverse peices and by diverse Councells, and how
a proper Result cann be instantly arise out of such a kind of
management.

"Whether a Councill constituted of fitt Persons Solely sett apart
to the busyness of America be not the likeliest means of advancing
his Highness Interest there and of bringing them continually to
a certain account and readiness whensoever his Highness or his
Privie Councill shall have occasion to looke into any particular
thereof.

"Whether it be not a prudentiall thing to draw all the Islands,
Colonies, and Dominions of America under one and the same
management here."[7]

That the men who drafted these queries were mainly responsible for the
creation of the select council of 1656, at first known as the Committee
for Jamaica and afterwards as the Committee for his Highness Affairs
in America, we can hardly doubt, for the constitution and work of that
committee represents very nearly the ideas that Povey and Noell had
expressed up to this time. It is not to be wondered at that Povey should
have been the chairman, secretary, and most active member of this
committee after his appointment in 1657.

Two other propositions or overtures appear among Povey's papers that
belong to the period of the Protectorate, and were written probably
the one in 1656, known as the "Propositions concerning the West India
Councill," and the other, known as "Overtures touching the West Indies,"
before August, 1657.[8] In the first of these the number of the
council was to be ten, in the second it was not to exceed six. The
"Propositions" repeat in the main the points already quoted, including
the recommendation that it should be the business of the council
"to consider of the reducing all Colonies and Plantations to a more
certaine, civill, and uniform waie of Governm^{t} and distribution
of publick justice." The "Overtures" are much more elaborate, though
frequently containing the ident