Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/86

 English Government, was in 1618, when the exclusive privilege was conferred upon the Earl of Warwick and his associates of carrying on a traffic of this kind on the Guinea coast. As has been seen in connection with the Treasurer, which, if not the property of the Company, was owned by its leading members, the restriction to this coast was not strictly observed in its operation. The fact that the vessel, although belonging to men who were licensed to trade in slaves, was turned away from Jamestown in the summer of 1619 without being permitted to dispose of the negroes on board, is an additional indication of how solicitous the Governor at that time was that Virginia should not be drawn into any complication with the Spanish Power. There is no evidence to show that the Fortune, which was commanded by Captain Grey, was connected with the Company over which Warwick pre sided. She was probably an independent vessel engaged in general commerce.

In 1631, the year following the seizure of the Angola slaver, a charter was obtained from Charles the First by an association that went to an extraordinary expense in making every provision for securing the traffic of the Guinea coast, inclusive of the barter in negroes. The importation into Virginia of Africans by the agency either direct or indirect of this Company must have been small, as eighteen years subsequent to the acquisition of its charter the number in the Colony did not exceed three hundred. A part of this number is to be attributed to natural increase, for thirty years had now passed since the negro was first landed in Virginia. A fair proportion of the three hundred, however, had been introduced by planters or shipowners, the principle of the head right having been adjudged to apply to the slave as well as to the indented servant. The first instance recorded in the