hich to cure
sturgeon, a cattle-barn and a stable.

In order to broaden the base of the colony, Dale at once set about
seeking a suitable location for a new town, which he located on the neck
of land since changed into an island by the Dutch Gap canal, and later
known as Farrar's Island. At the site of the projected town, laid out on
a seven acre enclosed plat, and called Henrico, he raised watchtowers at
four corners, built a wooden church and several storehouses, laid off
streets on which frame dwellings were erected, with the first stories,
probably the foundations, built of brick. This is the earliest mention
of the use of bricks for home building in Virginia. Also, five houses
were erected on the banks of the James River, the dwellers agreeing to
act as sentinels for approach to the town by water.

The elements, however, favored the new town no more than Jamestown, and
the buildings were constantly in need of repair. A hospital was
projected for location at the new town and its building begun. At the
site, also, a college for the education of the Indians was planned, and
iron works were erected at Falling Creek, a portion of the profits from
which, under agreement, was to defray the cost of operation of the
proposed college. As is well known, the Indians, in an attempt to wipe
out the colony in 1622, practically obliterated the town.

PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF LAND

Terms agreed upon, in the Virginia Company at the beginning of the
settlement, stipulated that there should be no individual assignments of
land during the first seven years. The communal plan, under which the
colonists lived through these years, was terminated while Dale ruled the
colony; a policy was adopted of assigning rights for a hundred acres to
every individual who had come to Virginia, before 1616, with the
intention of planting (settling). This acreage could be doubled under
certain conditions. Those who came, after 1616, were entitled to fifty
acres each, provided they paid their own passages. Similarly, each could
claim an additional fifty acres in the name of every person whose
passage he paid. This was known as the headright system of granting
land. Thus, a man with a wife, three children and two servants, was
entitled to 350 acres. Not only did these generous provisions, for the
acquisition of landed estates, lure settlers to the new world, but they
provided a sound base for the beginning of a secure domestic life in the
colony.

Unfor