Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/93

 fostered by the extraordinary wealth of the southern continent in the precious metals, these reasons were worthy of that sober and enterprising race of men who were in the course of the following two hundred and eighty years to cover the surface of a great part of the globe with their colonies, and in doing so, to justify the magnificent description of one of the most splendid of modern orators. It is no reflection upon the character of the Virginian enterprise to say that it was essentially a practical commercial undertaking, without any ulterior religious motive beyond that which has influenced the English in all of their settlements of barbarous countries. It was a religious age, and therefore the expression of interest in the moral condition of the Indians was somewhat more fervent than would be observed under similar circumstances in more modern times. In the letters patent of 1606, the hope was expressed that the colonization of Virginia would tend to the propagation of the Christian religion among the tribes &#8220;who as yet live in darkness and miserable ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God;&#8221; and in the instructions for the government of the Colony which accompanied these letters, it was provided that the inhabitants should use &#8220;all good means to draw the savages and heathen people of those territories to the true knowledge of God.&#8221; The True and Sincere Declaration, published in 1609, stated that the first object of the Plantation was &#8220;to preach and baptize into the Christian Religion, and by the propagation of the Gospell, to recover out of the armes of the Devill, a number