n them the means of
gratuitous transport; and that they could only escape from such bondage
by paying a ransom four or five times as large as that to which the
expenses of their passage would have amounted. Moreover, he describes
the parishes as extending, some of them, sixty or seventy miles in
length, and lying void for many years together, to save charges.
Jamestown, he distinctly states, had been left, with short intervals, in
this destitute condition for twenty years. "Laymen," he adds, "were
allowed to usurp the office of ministers, and deacons to undermine and
thrust out presbyters; in a word, all things concerning the church and
religion were left to the mercy of the people." And, last of all: "To
propagate Christianity among the heathen--whether natives or slaves
brought from other parts--although (as must piously be supposed) it were
the only end of God's discovering those countries to us, yet is that
looked upon by our new race of Christians, so idle and ridiculous, so
utterly needless and unnecessary, that no man can forfeit his judgment
more than by any proposal looking or tending that way." Such is the Rev.
Mr. Godwyn's account of the state of religion and the condition of the
clergy in Virginia during Sir William Berkley's administration.[279:A]

FOOTNOTES:

[279:A] Anderson's Hist. of Col. Church, first edition, ii. 558, 561.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

1675.

Lands at Greenspring settled on Sir William Berkley--Indian
Incursions--Force put under command of Sir Henry Chicheley--
Disbanded by Governor's Order--The Long Parliament of Virginia
--Colonial Grievances--Spirit of the Virginians--Elements of
Disaffection.

THE lands at Greenspring, near Jamestown, were settled during this year
on Sir William Berkley, the preamble to the act reciting among his
merits, "the great pains he hath taken and hazards he has run, even of
his life, in the government and preservation of the country from many
attempts of the Indians, and also in preserving us in our due allegiance
to his majesty's royal father of blessed memory, and his now most sacred
majesty, against all attempts, long after all his majesty's other
dominions were subjected to the tyranny of the late usurpers; and also
seriously considering that the said Sir William Berkley hath in all time
of his government, under his most sacred majesty and his royal father,
made it his only care to keep his majesty's country in a due obed