Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/65

 As late as 1623, George Sandys, the treasurer, referred to the extreme likelihood of its being situated not far from the plantations in Virginia, and he declared that if he were furnished with a sufficient escort, he would gladly risk his life in the attempt to reach it. The belief in its comparative nearness was still universal, the General Assembly in this year going so far as to say that it was only six days&#8217; journey from Jamestown. In May, 1669, sixty years after the memorable expedition of Newport into the Monacan country, Berkeley, at that time the Governor of the Colony, wrote to the authorities in England that two hundred gentlemen had agreed to accompany him in an expedition to the west, which he had arranged for the discovery of the East India Sea, but that unusually heavy and prolonged rains had for that season disconcerted his plans. He petitioned that a commission should be sent to him, which would empower him to undertake the