Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/94

 After 1682, there is reason to believe that the Royal African Company became either directly or indirectly the principal agent in increasing the African population of Virginia. In the commission which Culpeper received in the course of this year, it was announced that the English Government had recommended to that corporation to furnish the Colony with slaves at very moderate prices, and in return for this benefit, the authorities there were commanded to enforce the payment of all dues to the Company on the part of planters who had purchased negroes from its representatives. Stress was laid in the commission upon the fact that only in this way could its trade be secured, as it was hardly probable that the Company would continue to carry valuable goods to an unprofitable market. Ships were now arriving in the rivers of Virginia directly from the factories on the African coast. Such a vessel was that which came to anchor in the James in 1686, with a large number of negroes consigned to Colonel Byrd, several of whom were smitten with the small-pox, which was thus introduced into his household with fatal consequences in at least one instance. Fitzhugh, writing