Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/441

 black oaks, and in November and December to strip the bark from others then standing. The Company was under the impression that the ironworks and the saw-mills which had been erected were in full operation, and relied upon both to furnish the shipwrights with the iron and plank which would be required. If the furnaces and mills were still incomplete, then the workmen could accomplish nothing. In conformity with the previous announcement, Captain Barwick and twenty-five ship-carpenters were dispatched to Virginia in the following spring. They were to be employed only in the trade in which they had been educated. The band were commended to the particular care of Treasurer Sandys, who was instructed to seat them upon a tract of land containing twelve hundred acres of fine timber, and to allow them the use of four oxen for dragging the logs from the forest to the spot where they would carry on their work. Captain Barwick and his carpenters established themselves at Jamestown. At first, they were employed in erecting houses to afford shelter for themselves, and afterwards were engaged in building shallops. It was in shallops, rather than in ships, that the tobacco was transported, for the latter were too heavy in draught to make their way into the creeks. It was not long before six or seven of the carpenters had succumbed to the deadly influences of the climate. Captain Barwick also perished. This appears to have caused their mission to end in failure.

The Company had been very solicitous for the erection of saw-mills in Virginia with a view to house and ship building; in the Second Supply, sent to Virginia under