Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/440

 and enlightened policy, John Wood, who, as has been previously stated, had been interested in the transportation of cattle to the Colony, petitioned the Quarter Court that he should be permitted to have the use of a certain shore on Elizabeth River, covered with fine timber, and also abutting on water sufficiently deep to allow the safe launching of vessels. He proposed to build ships for the service of the Company, and his proposal was received with sufficient favor by the latter to be recommended to the consideration of the Governor and Council in Virginia. These authorities are found entreating the Company in the following year to carry out the project which that body now had under advisement, of sending shipwrights to the Colony for the purpose of supplying the inhabitants with vessels of various sorts, the need of which, the Governor and Council urged, prevented the prosecution of further discovery in Virginia or the extension of trade with the Indians, or an easy passage from one settlement to another.

Many members of the Company now consented to advance a sum of money for the purpose of defraying the expense of securing and forwarding skilful workingmen, Lord Southampton and Sir Edwin Sandys contributing for this purpose two hundred pounds apiece. A short time after these subscriptions were obtained, in order to facilitate and hasten the labors of the shipwrights and forty carpenters who were to be sent out from England in the following spring, the Governor and Council in Virginia were directed by a Quarter Court to cut down many white and