tion on the part of the authorities in Virginia to consider that the period of distress in which the strictness of the rule was to be relaxed had arrived whenever a Dutch ship made its appearance in the James or York, and that it was, therefore, entirely proper to issue to its captain a license to trade.[1] A case of this kind occurred in 1640. A Flemish vessel reached the Colony early in the season, and exchanged her goods for tobacco, which was taken on board and a security given for the payment of the customs in London. A petition was entered by the masters of the English ships riding at that time in Virginian waters, asking that an example should be made of the alien by confiscating her cargo. The General Court rejected it, alleging that when the Dutch vessel had arrived the people were in pressing want of supplies; and that the articles imported by her had afforded great relief; that the English ships reaching Virginia at a later date had been lacking in the commodities so much needed, and that if dependence had been placed upon them alone, the colonists would have been left in a state of “intolerable exigency.” The license to the Fleming, instead of being revoked, was solemnly confirmed.[2]
The authorities of Virginia were disposed to extend to the Dutch as ample encouragement as they dared. A
- ↑ In the well-known speech delivered by Sir William Berkeley in March, 1651, before the Assembly, in condemnation of the first Act of Navigation, he charged the “men at Westminster” with the desire to bring the people of the Colony “to the same poverty wherein the Dutch found and relieved them.” See Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. I, p. 77.
- ↑ General Court Orders, Feb. 4, 1640, Robinson Transcripts, p. 183. The following is preserved in the Records of Accomac County in vol. 1632-1640, p. 17 (Va. State Library), being a part of an account between Mr. Barnett and Daniel Cughley of “several voyages made by the good vessel called the Virgine.” “Pr. Contra: more for overplus of goods received out of ye Dutch voyage, 9 £.”
