tion to vessels trading upon the Potomac, York or
Rappahannock, and very little to those upon the lower James. After one
hundred pounds sterling had been expended at Jamestown, the structure
partly completed and fourteen guns brought up, the merchants procured
orders from the English government that the fort be transferred to Old
Point. The Governor and Council were most reluctant to make this change,
but the commands were so positive they dared not disobey. So the guns
were conveyed back down the river and the work begun again. But many
serious difficulties were encountered. "We have been at 70,000lb tobacco
charge," wrote Thomas Ludwell in 1667, "and have lost several men in the
worke and many of the materials by storms breaking our rafts whereon we
float the timber to that place.... After all (we) were forced to quit
the work as of impossible manage, for great were the difficulties, and
so insupportable would the charge have been."[456] A few months after,
when the Dutch captured the tobacco fleet in the mouth of the James,
this fort seems to have been deserted. It was utterly destroyed by the
great hurricane of the following August.

Thereupon it was decided to build five new forts, two on the James and
one upon each of the other great rivers. The charges for these
structures were to be borne entirely by the counties upon the rivers
they were to defend. Whether from mismanagement or dishonesty large sums
of money were expended in this undertaking with but little good effect.
Berkeley wrote that the colony lacked the skill either to construct or
maintain the forts, "We are at continuall charge," he declared, "to
repaire unskilfull & inartificall buildings." The King's commissioners
in 1677, testified that the forts were made of "mudd and dirt", and
could be of little service against the enemy.[457] At the beginning of
the Dutch war of 1672 the Assembly found them in poor condition and
incapable of offering resistance to the enemy. "For as much," it was
declared, "as the materials ... were not substantial or lasting, some
have suffered an utter demolition, some very ruinous and some capable of
repair." It was thereupon ordered that the forts be at once restored and
authority was given for new taxes to cover the cost.[458]

One at least of the reconstructed forts proved of service in the hour of
need, for it was under the guns of Nansemond that many of the
merchantmen ran in July 1673, from the pursuing Dutch men-of-wa