. In 1619
James commenced the system of transporting malefactors, by sending 100
"dissolute persons" to Virginia. These men were used as laborers, or
rather slaves, but tended seriously to lower the character of the
voluntary emigration.[306] In 1625 only 1800 convicts remained alive out
of 9000 who had been transported at a cost of L15,000.[308] The
contracted and arbitrary system of the exclusive company was felt as a
great evil in the colony.[309] This body was at length superseded by the
forfeiture of its charter, and the crown assumed the direction of
affairs. Many years of alternate anarchy and tyranny followed. During
the rebellion of Bacon in 1676, the most remarkable event in this early
period of Virginian history, English troops were first introduced into
the American colonies. Sir William Berkeley, who was appointed governor
in 1642, visited the insurrectionists with a terrible vengeance, when
the death of the leader, Bacon, left them defenseless. "The old fool,"
said Charles II. (with truth), "has taken away more lives in that naked
country than I for the murder of my father." But, though the complaints
of the oppressed were heard in England with impartiality, and Berkeley
was hunted to death by public opinion on his return there to defend
himself, the permanent results of Bacon's rebellion were disastrous to
Virginia: all the measures of reform which had been attempted during
its brief success were held void, and every restrictive feature that had
been introduced into legislation by the detested governor was
perpetuated.

Among the first settlers in Virginia, gold was the great object, it was
every where eagerly sought, but in vain. Several ships were loaded with
a sort of yellow clay, and sent to England under the belief that it
contained the most precious of metals, but it was found to be utterly
worthless. The colonists next turned their attention to the cultivation
of tobacco.[310] This speedily became so profitable that it was pursued
even to the exclusion of all other industry.

There yet remains to be told one terrible incident in the earlier story
of Virginia, an incident that resulted in the total destruction of the
Indian race. The successor to the father of Pocahontas had conceived a
deadly enmity against the English: this was embittered from day to day,
as he saw the hated white men multiplying and spreading over the hunting
grounds of his fathers. Then a fierce determination took possession of