t unto them if it be inhabited with good
people."

If ever Mother England seriously thought of moving Virginia into
Bermuda, the idea was now given over. Spain, suspending the sword until
Virginia "will fall of itselfe," saw that sword rust away.

Five years in all Dale ruled Virginia. Then, personal and family matters
calling, he sailed away home to England, to return no more. Soon his
star "having shined in the Westerne, was set in the Easterne India." At
the helm in Virginia he left George Yeardley, an honest, able man. But
in England, what was known as the "court party" in the Company managed
to have chosen instead for De La Warr's deputy governor, Captain Samuel
Argall. It proved an unfortunate choice. Argall, a capable and daring
buccaneer, fastened on Virginia as on a Spanish galleon. For a year
he ruled in his own interest, plundering and terrorizing. At last the
outcry against him grew so loud that it had to be listened to across the
Atlantic. Lord De La Warr was sent out in person to deal with matters
but died on the way; and Captain Yeardley, now knighted and appointed
Governor, was instructed to proceed against the incorrigible Argall. But
Argall had already departed to face his accusers in England.

CHAPTER VII. YOUNG VIRGINIA

The choice of Sir Edwyn Sandys as Treasurer of the Virginia Company in
1619 marks a turning-point in the history of both Company and colony. At
a moment when James I was aiming at absolute monarchy and was menacing
Parliament, Sandys and his party--the Liberals of the day--turned the
sessions of the Company into a parliament where momentous questions of
state and colonial policy were freely debated. The liberal spirit of
Sandys cast a beam of light, too, across the Atlantic. When Governor
Yeardley stepped ashore at Jamestown in mid-April, he brought with him,
as the first fruits of the new regime, no less a boon than the grant of
a representative assembly.

There were to be in Virginia, subject to the Company, subject in its
turn to the Crown, two "Supreme Councils," one of which was to consist
of the Governor and his councilors chosen by the Company in England.
The other was to be elected by the colonists, two representatives or
burgesses from each distinct settlement. Council and House of Burgesses
were to constitute the upper and lower houses of the General Assembly.
The whole had power to legislate upon Virginian affairs within the
bounds of the colony, but the Governor