INSTRUCTIONS TO GOVERNOR WYATT.
To keep up religion of the church of England as near as may be; to be obedient to the king and to do justice after the form of the laws of England; and not to injure the natives; and to forget old quarrels now buried:*
To be industrious, and suppress drunkenness, gaming, and excess in clothes; not to permit any but the council and heads of hundreds to wear gold in their clothes, or to wear silk till they make it themselves:
Not to offend any foreign princes; to punish piracies; to build fortresses and block-houses at the mouths of the rivers:
To use means to convert the heathens, viz.: to converse with some each town to teach some children fit for the college intended to be built:
After Sir George Yeardly has gathered the present year's crop, he is to deliver to Sir Francis Wyatt, the hundred tenants belonging to the governor's place: Yeardley's government to expire the 18th November next, and then Wyatt to be published governor; to swear the council:
George Sandis appointed treasurer, and he is to put in execution all orders of court about staple commodities; to whom is allotted fifteen hundred acres and fifty tenants. To the marshall, Sir William Newce, the same. To the physician five hundred acres and twenty tenants; the same to the secretary:
To review the commissions to Sir George Yeardley, governor, and the council, dated 18th November, 1618, for dividing the colony into cities, boroughs, &c., and to observe all former instructions (a copy whereof was sent) if they did not contradict the present; and all orders of court (made in England):
To make a catalogue of the people in every plantation, and their conditions; and of deaths, marriages and christenings:
To take care of dead persons' estates for the right owners; to keep a list of all cattle and cause the secretary to return copies of the premises once a year:
To take care of every plantation upon the death of their chief; not to plant above one hundred pounds of tobacco per head;† to sow great quantities of corn for their own use, and to support the multitudes to be sent yearly; to inclose lands; to keep cows, swine, poultry, &c., and particularly kyne, which are not to be killed yet:
Next to corn, plant mulbury trees, and make silk, and take
*It appears that at a very early period of the colony, they were desirous of cultivating a friendly understanding with the natives of the country. Unfortunately, however, for our ancestors, and for the Indians themselves, this friendly disposition was never of long duration.
†This order strikes the author as one of a singular character. It certainly requires great judgment and experience of the planter to decide what number of plants would make his 100 lbs. of tobacco, considering the casualties to which his crop was liable.
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