Page:Craik History of British Commerce Vol 2.djvu/45

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BRITISH COMMERCE.
43

submitting thereto, "the said charters are now avoided by a quo warranto." Charles, however, in his proclamation does not rest the right of the crown altogether upon this revocation; he broadly advances the principle that these colonies, and, by implication, all others founded or occupied by English subjects, were essentially a portion of the dominion of the mother country:—"considering, also," are his words, " that we hold those territories of Virginia and the Somers Isles, as also that of New England, lately planted, with the limits thereof, to be a part of our royal empire." It is said that by this time the Virginian companies had expended a capital of not less than 200,000l., from which they had as yet derived but a very inadequate return, so that many of the original adventurers, thoroughly weary of the speculation, had sold their shares for what they would bring. The failure of their expectations, however, did not check other attempts of the same kind. Almost all the West India islands not previously settled upon were taken possession of and colonized within a few years from this date. In 1627 an English and a French company divided the island of St. Christophers between them; and the next year the English added to the territory in their occupation the neighbouring small isle of Nevis, and also sent off a detachment of their body to Barbuda, as they likewise did others in subsequent years to Montserrat and Antigua. Meanwhile, in 1629, Charles confirmed a former grant to James Hay, Earl of Carlisle, and to his heirs for ever, of all the Caribbee Islands, as they were called, including both those that have just been mentioned and also Barbadoes, with regard to which an arrangement had been made with the former grantee, the Earl of Marlborough. That same year he granted in perpetuity to Sir Robert Heath and his heirs all the Bahama or Lucaya Isles, together with what was then called the Province of Carolana on the Continent of North America, being the immense region now forming the States of North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and the southern part of Louisiana. This vast territory was afterwards conveyed by Heath to the Earl