Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/252

 of the ground should plant two acres in grain, he ended with this regulation in entire abeyance. The lack of corn became so great in consequence of the exclusive attention paid to the culture of tobacco, that there would have been ground for anticipating a severe famine if two hundred quarters of meal had not been imported in the magazine. The only portion of the public stock of animals still unsold or unslaughtered were six goats. All this destruction or dispersion of property had been caused by Argoll without the receipt on the part of the Company of a penny in compensation. The only public property that they could recover was the cattle he had sold, and which still remained in the Colony. Instructions were given to Delaware, when he set sail for Virginia, to drive together all the bullocks, cows, and steers distributed among different purchasers, and to preserve them for the public use; the tobacco and goods in the possession of Argoll were to be seized, as a partial indemnity for the gross injury he had inflicted upon the interests of the Company. Delaware died before he could perform this mission.

The arrival of Sir George Yeardley in 1619 is the starting-point of a new era in the history of the Colony, which is hardly less impressive in its agricultural than in its political aspects. The first six months of his administration are among the most memorable in the history, not only of Virginia, but also of America. It was during this period that the earliest representative body that came together on this continent assembled. The erection of this