nt, whose West India tobacco had
hitherto monopolized the London market. Directly contrary to the
provision of the charter which exempted tobacco from any duty except
five per cent., the king in 1619 levied an exaction of one shilling a
pound, equal to twenty per cent. The London Company submitted on
condition that the raising of tobacco in England should be prohibited,
which was granted. In 1620 a royal proclamation limited the
importation of tobacco from Virginia and the Bermuda Islands to
fifty-five thousand pounds, whereupon the whole of the Virginia crop
for that year was transported to Flushing and sold in Holland. As this
deprived the king of his revenue, the Privy Council issued an order in
1621 compelling the company to bring all their tobacco into
England.[14]

Nevertheless, these disturbances did not interfere with the prosperity
of the settlers. Large fortunes were accumulated in a year or two by
scores of planters;[15] and soon in the place of the old log-cabins
arose framed buildings better than many in England. Lands were laid
out for a free school at Charles City (now City Point) and for a
university and college at Henrico (Dutch Gap). Monthly courts were
held in every settlement, and there were large crops of corn and great
numbers of cattle, swine, and poultry. A contemporary writer states
that "the plenty of those times, unlike the old days of death and
confusion, was such that every man gave free entertainment to friends
and strangers."[16]

This prosperity is marred by a story of heart-rending sickness and
suffering. An extraordinary mortality due to imported epidemics, and
diseases of the climate for which in these days we have found a remedy
in quinine, slew the new-comers by hundreds. One thousand people were
in Virginia at Easter, 1619, and to this number three thousand five
hundred and seventy more were added during the next three years,[17]
yet only one thousand two hundred and forty were resident in the
colony on Good Friday, March 22, 1622, a day when the horrors of an
Indian massacre reduced the number to eight hundred and
ninety-four.[18]

Since 1614, when Pocahontas married John Rolfe, peace with the Indians
continued uninterruptedly, except for a short time in 1617, when there
was an outbreak of the Chickahominies, speedily suppressed by Deputy
Governor Yardley. In April, 1618, Powhatan died,[19] and the chief
power was wielded by a brother, Opechancanough, at whose instance the
sav