University of Virginia Library

VII.—SUPPLEMENTARY CONTEMPORARY CORRESPONDENCE AND RECORDS

In addition to the documents which are either official records or similar to such
records in character, there is a large amount of correspondence between officers
of state in England and other individuals which by its reference throws light
on the affairs of the company or gives additional or corroborative data. All of
this which is earlier in date than 1616 has been published by Alexander Brown.

There are seven letters, the dates of which fall between 1616 and 1619, that
are of the same character; but they add nothing in fact to the other documents,
although two of them reveal the measures taken even at this early date to impress
youths and maidens for Virginia and to send reprieved prisoners to the colony.[74] Of
the documents of this character, which are given by Brown, perhaps the correspond-
ence between the Spanish ambassador in London and the King of Spain is the most
valuable, not in the trustworthiness of the data—though much of it confirms other
sources—but in the revelation it contains of the part that Spanish relations played
in the development of the company and especially in its decline during the follow-
ing decade, while its reference to prevalent rumors, reports, and sentiment are
extremely illuminating. There are thirty-seven of these documents in all, including
the correspondence concerning the Spanish ship Chaloner. The Chamberlain-Carleton,
Digby-Salisbury, Cottington-Salisbury, and Lee-Wilson correspondence add occa-

sional data and serve to fix dates and facts which are known from other sources.[75]
Of similar value are the chronicles of Howes, Abbot's Geography, Smith's Map of
England and his General History, the Commons Journal, the writings of Sir Fer-
dinando Gorges, and other material which emanated from the Plymouth adventurers.[75]