Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/66

 in the following spring. This commission, it seems, was obtained, for in a letter written June 13, 1670, he mentions that he had recently dispatched a party of &#8220;valient and resolute&#8221; men towards the west, the infirmities of old age probably preventing him from leading them as he had at first intended. This little band was instructed to turn back as soon as they had found a rivulet running in a westerly direction, for this would be an indication that there were streams in that region which emptied into the South and East India Seas. &#8220;If the distance by land,&#8221; remarked Governor Berkeley, &#8220;be not too great for traffic and commerce, nothing would be more advantageous to the wealth of England.&#8221; That it was anticipated that this distance would not be very great, was shown in the fact that thirty days was the length of time prescribed for the journey to the head-waters of the first river flowing into those great oceans and for the return of the expedition to Jamestown.

All hope of discovering a short and unobstructed route to the South Sea by way of Virginia was in time dispelled by a juster notion of the true physical dimensions of the North American continent. In spite of the enormous width of that continent, the modern railroad has brought the South Sea practically as near to Virginia as Newport