Dale's office as
marshal, made his loyal decision to remain in the colony for another
two years as lieutenant governor a further contribution to the ill
repute of Virginia's name.

Dale finally came home in 1616, the year in which the dividend on the
1609 joint-stock fell due. The contrast between the high hopes of 1609
and the reality of 1616 was all too painfully apparent. Six hundred
men, women, and children had sailed for Virginia in the first of these
years under a plan to live and work together for a seven year period.
They would share, each according to his particular skill or aptitude,
in the common task of planting a colony, and they would live out of a
common store. By 1616, towns were to have been built, churches and
houses raised, and an increasing acreage brought under cultivation. A
variety of profitable crops would have been tested, and markets
established for them. The original stock of cattle would have increased
through care until there were enough for all. At the same time, the
trade with the Indians would have been put on a profitable basis, as
would have mining operations and perhaps even a trade to Cathay. Such
was the general prospect to which so many adventurers had responded in
1609. To the modern student all this seems so unrealistic as to be
almost unbelievable, but unless one grasps the reality of the original
dream he cannot hope to comprehend the extent of a later
disillusionment.

There were no funds to be divided in 1616, but the company did declare
a dividend of land--not the 500 acres per share that Alderman Johnson
had suggested as a possibility in 1609 but the more modest total of 50
acres. This 50 acres, however, was designated as a first dividend.
Others would follow, for an ultimate total of perhaps 200 acres per
share, as the area in the colony's "actual possession" was enlarged.
Plans were announced for dispatching a new governor to Virginia with
instructions for completing the necessary surveys, and the adventurers
were urged to seize the opportunity to gain a desirable priority in the
location of their shares by contributing L12 10s. toward meeting the
necessary costs. In return for this contribution, the adventurer would
be entitled to an additional 50 acres. The land now to be divided was
that lying along the James River, and only those adventurers who
submitted to the additional levy would be entitled to share in the
division, except apparently for adventurers then living