Scriveners, Fruiterers, Plaisterers, Brown Bakers, Imbroiderers, Musicians,
and many more.

The first Council appointed by the new charter had fifty-two members,
fourteen of whom sat in the English House of Lords, and twice that number
in the Commons. Thus was Virginia well linked to Crown and Parliament.

This great commercial company had sovereign powers within Virginia. The
King should have his fifth part of all ore of gold and silver; the laws and
religion of England should be upheld, and no man let go to Virginia who had
not first taken the oath of supremacy. But in the wide field beside all
this the President--called the Treasurer -and the Council, henceforth to be
chosen out of and by the whole body of subscribers, had full sway. No
longer should there be a second Council sitting in Virginia, but a Governor
with power, answerable only to the Company at home. That Company might tax
and legislate within the Virginian field, punish the ill-doer or "rebel,"
and wage war, if need be, against Indian or Spaniard:

One of the first actions of the newly constituted body was to seek remedy
for the customary passage by way of the West Indies -so long and so beset
by dangers. They sent forth a small ship under Captain Samuel Argall, with
instructions "to attempt a direct and cleare passage, by leaving the
Canaries to the East, and from thence to run a straight westerne course . .
. . And so to make an experience of the Winds and Currents which have
affrighted all undertakers by the North."

This Argall, a young man with a stirring and adventurous life behind him
and before him, took his ship the indicated way. He made the voyage in nine
weeks, of which two were spent becalmed, and upon his return reported that
it might be made in seven, "and no apparent inconvenience in the way." He