nents, there can be no question as to the correctness
of the action taken by the government. The leaders of the two factions
were called before the privy council on April 17, where they displayed
so "much heat and bitterness" toward one another as to make it
difficult to get on with the business. In the end, the council won
agreement that a special commission should be established for an
investigation of the state of the colony's affairs, the agreement
coming finally when the council conceded the demand of Sandys'
supporters that the investigation should begin with the administration
of Sir Thomas Smith. Accordingly, on May 9, a commission was issued to
Sir William Jones, justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and six other
gentlemen "to examine the carriage of the whole business." Meantime, a
letter had been prepared by the privy council to acquaint the colonists
with the fact that their affairs had been taken into "His Majesty's
pious and princely care" and to encourage them "to go on cheerfully in
the work they have in hand." The central issues all pertained to
Virginia, but in the circumstances there was no choice but to include
both companies in the province of the Jones commission.

The appointment of the Jones commission ended, for all practical
purposes, the control of the Virginia Company over the colony. The
company lingered on as an agency chiefly through which the Sandys
faction prepared its briefs for the attention of the commissioners, or
through which orders from the commissioners might be implemented. All
of the company's records were impounded by the commission, which also
took charge of all correspondence with the colony. The records of the
company demonstrated all too clearly the bankrupt state of its
finances. The hearings before the commissioners demonstrated with equal
clarity the hopeless division of the adventurers by bitter factional
strife. Correspondence from the colony brought evidence of a desperate
situation. Even Sandys had to admit that no more than 2,500 colonists
were still alive in the colony, which was to confess an attrition,
mainly by death, of something over 40 percent of the colonists residing
in Virginia, or sent to Virginia, since he had assumed responsibility
for the management of its affairs. Actually, the situation was much
worse than these figures suggested, for a census taken in Virginia
early in 1625 showed a total population of only 1,275. In the fall of
1623 the privy cou