As a result, Sandys
continued to take certain shortcuts, or perhaps the blame should rest
rather on Deputy John Ferrar. In any case, the colonists complained
that shipping came out so overloaded with passengers as to invite the
epidemic disease with which they usually suffered on landing, and which
made of newcomers a useless burden on the colony for some time after
their arrival. The deathrate among the colonists continued to be high.
The time and energy required to house them, or to feed them,
unavoidably forced delay with projects on which Sandys had pinned his
chief hopes. He was especially disappointed over the slow progress of
agricultural experimentation. Accordingly, when Yeardley's three year
term was ended in 1621 and Sir Francis Wyatt was sent as his
replacement, Sir Edwin also sent his brother, George Sandys, as
appointee to a new office of treasurer. He was given special charge of
all projects looking to the development of new staple commodities and
was intrusted with the collection of rents, of which the company
claimed L1,000 were presently due. These rents, which were to be
collected largely from half-share tenants who had migrated within the
preceding three years, undoubtedly now constituted the company's main
hope for an immediate revenue. Except in a very few instances, no
quitrents would be payable until 1625, and so general had been the
disappointment experienced so far with special projects that further
time would have to be allowed before any return from them could be
expected. In short, the company had exhausted its very limited
resources in getting Wyatt and George Sandys out to Virginia, and had
nothing left but hopes for the future and the anticipation of a small
immediate revenue from the rents of its own tenants, most of which had
already been assigned to such special charges as the support of public
officers in the colony. In London, virtually the only asset left to the
company was the will and determination of Sir Edwin Sandys.

In these circumstances, Sandys necessarily devoted his main energies
after 1621 to the problem of tobacco, the only marketable staple the
colony had as yet produced. It was an old problem, but one now filled
with new difficulties. In earlier days, when it had been hoped that
tobacco might be one of a variety of staples produced in the colony,
the Virginia Company, like the Bermuda Company, had lent encouragement
to efforts looking to its production. But hardly had