University of Virginia Library

CCCXXII. George Sandys. Letter to John Ferrar
April 8, 1623[116]

Worthy Sr, I have sent you the coppy of my Letter by the Hopewel how
coppied, I know not, for I have not the leasure to pervse it. N. P. Of
all your depts, & the tobacco dew for the saile of their times wch belonged
to Sr William Nuce (of whom 3 onely are alive) I can but receive a hundred
weight, wch I am ashamed to send you single Som fault I must lay vpon
the tardy receait of your accounts, wch I have often importuned. I have
divers under arest, & distrained on the goods of others; but the Country
is so empty of tobacco, that no present satisfaction wilbe given. Let it
be accounted my fault if you have it not the yeare following wth arerages,
for I wil trust no more vnto promises but seaze on their crops before any
be distributed. The like Counsil I gave Mr Blany the last yeare (for

yoyr §your§ informations cam too late for me) but he trusted too much
vnto those who had never formerly faild him. Leifetenant Perce hath
tak[en] order in England to pay you the 501 wch he owes.

I have beene at Kicotan to order your affaires in that place. Captaine
Nuce died very poore: he had no crop of tobacco this yeare, nor hath
any of the tenants a graine, hardly, of corne to sustaine them. it is aledged
that most was spent in releiving of those that came thether for succor.
But they lay al on the short provitions sent wth them: by wch meanes
they [do] depart wth most of their corne as soone as it is reaped to dis-
charge their borrowings & besides the Companyes tenants are planted on
the barrenest places in al the Country, by reason of your affecting of
cleared ground, wch is generaly worne out, & vngrateful to the planters.
Captaine Whitacres lost yearly his labor on the place where he was seated.
Of him onely I receaved 180 waight of tobacco, wch wth 20 more, I payd
to Mr Cleyborne for his wages according to your agreement. He is now
at Kicotan, drawne thether by Captaine Nuce a little before his death.
I have disposed of things there in this manner. I have taken Captaine
Whitacres bond to pay you for the tenants, together wth those wch he
formerly com̃aunded, a hundred waight of the best tobacco a man, & 15
bushels of corne, (besides a like proportion for themselves) wch is as great
a rate as any wil do give, & more then most men can make. Captaine
Wh Wilcocks pays 20 waight les a man, being compounded wth before: &
Captaine Smith shal pay, if he have his, as much as the most. By this
meanes you wil have a constant rent, & equal the gettings of the privat
planter, the moyety for the tenant deducted: wch other wise wil com (as
it hath don) vnto nothing. The tenants that belong to Captaine Nuce
his place, I have suffered his widdow (provided that it be alowd of by
you) to enioy them this year: not out of charity onely, although she hath
nothing left to sustaine herselfe, & her poore child (her houband [sic]
having sould his land to furnish himselfe for this place; she being besides
a woman of good birth, & better conditions.) but partly out of right in
that he livd a good part of the yeare, & partly out of necessety; they
having no corne nor we able to help them wth any, the Seafloure not [2]
yet arived; so that they must have famished, or by shifting abroad returnd
you no proffit. You may hereafter save the charge of a Deputy, who can
no way advantage you in I have sent you hereinclosed the names of al

your tenants that are living; Wth the times past I wil have nothing to do;
but for the future I doupt not but to give you contentment. Your pinnas
lies like a wrack at Elizabeth citty; wch hath brought in this year not les
then 1800 bushels of corne, & yet, wch is strange, not any in the Colony
so nere starving as they. I sent Nun wth his fellows (of whome none
deserve the name of a shipwrite) to vew her; who writ the woord that
1501 would not repaire her; wch was twice as much, if not more, as she
cost: but one having offered to buy her, I suspected som knavery, & vpon
my com̃ing downe had her exactly serched, & found that no great matter
would renew her: so that I have set both them & others vpon her. yet
sailes & tackling we shal want except you supplie vs: & I doubt not but
to imploy her to your better satisfaction.

The Vinerouns are placed together at Elizabeth Citty & altogether im-
ployed about silek §silck-woormes§, that we may preserve the seede &
send you home som silck the next yeare. for the planters are so busied
about rebuildings & prepareing theyr grounds, that few, at this time,
ether can, or wil atend them. Yet for my owne part I have set 4 to do
nothing else: & im prepared the chamber where in I ly at Leiftenant
Perses (the fairest in Virginia) for that purpose. I heare the Frenchmens
times com out the next yeare: you must vse the meanes to procure their
stay, & send more of their quality if you would have that woorke goe
realy forward.

Since my last letter I have sent my shallop with my servants as far almost
as the fals for sand for the Glasse men, but can §could§ find none that
would serve; & since to Cape Henry, where they lighted of that wch they
like (however send us two or three Hogsheds out of England) if it be not
disliked in the tryal. Al the servants are dead, wch you must supply, for
the charge is intollerable to hyre them: wch, wth their provitions, lyes al
vpon me, that am not able to feede my owne familie. And, to give a
greater blow to our necessitys, the Tygar sent forth a trading wth Mr
Puntises pinnace vnder Captaine Spilman (a man warie enough hereto-
fore & acquainted wth their trecheries) is not onely returned empty, but
himselfe wth 26 wel armed, sufficient to have defended themselves against
500 Indians, are cut off or taken prisoners; ether by ambushes or too much
credulity: for as yet we know not the certanty. the ship attempted by 60

canoues (not above five of the seamen aboard) but were dispersed by the
discharge of their Ordnance. So that if the Seaflower com not quickly
in, there wil hardly be found a preservation against famin. And, by the
way, to our no little discontentment, we having wth great expence set out
that ship to Somer Ilands for furnishing the country wth their frutes, in
print you have given the reputation [to another] Sic vos non vobis.

[3] Since our general letter we have vewed the place where we are now goeing
about to erect our fort; naturaly almost intrenched about wth deepe
ditches: wch, by the grace of God, shal not want our vtter most indevours
in the finishing. We shal need great ordnance, whole Culvering & demy-
culvering at the least. And if God shal prosper vs, we wil frame a plat-
forme hereafter & sinck it on the opposite flat, to large enough to containe 5
or 6 peeces, & thereby make the passage more vnpassable for an enimy.

For Silke gras, earths, rareties &c, it was impossible for me this year, by
reason of the trobles & want of meanes to send you any. But if I can make
the pinnace Navegable, & furnish her (wch I shal do the better of your
healpe) you shal never [haue] occation to complaine in that kind.

It would wel please the Countrye to heare that you had tak[en] revenge
of Dupper for his stincking beare; wch wth what [hath] succeed by their
contagion, in my conscience hath beene th[e] death of 200. You have
imployed a strange Purser: a m[an] wthout witt, or out of his witts: who
hath lost much & never d[e]livered a great part of his good; throwing them
vpon the shore scarce above the hygh water mark, wthout the informing of
any, or setting any to guard them. But Mr Tucke deserves your thancks,
& our com̃endations.

Great are the likelyhoods of the vicinity of the South sea by a general
report of the Indians: the mountaines being, as they say, not past 4 days
iourny above the falls, they two days over, & rivers on the other sid there
into of no great length. I[119] I were furnished wth meanes, I would willingly
venter my life in that discovery. but we want asineicos, provisions, &
numbers of men fro for such an attempt: wch requires a general purse,
& patient expectance of proffit. And indeede theise slow supplies, wch
hardly rebuild every yeare the decayes of the former, retaine vs onely in a

languishing state, & curb vs from the carrying of enterprise of moment.
As this is in the greater, so is it in the lesse. for tis a great pitty that so
goodly a territory as Martins Hundred should be no better followed: by
wc they certainely loose what they have already ventured. who might,
wth a forward hand, secure that place, & raise to themselves an vndoubted
proffit; besides the honour & example.

It doth greive me much that your noble disposition & burning zeale to the
good of this place should incounter wth such dishartnings, & be burthned
wth so many ingagements; but I hope ere long we shal remove the first, &
free you of the latter: Wherein their shalbe nothing wanting that lies in
the indevours of your