n subjects embraced in
this calendar can by reference see what the office has on file relating
to it, and obtain copies of the documents required, at a much less cost
than a voyage to England. Acting upon this knowledge, the Library
Committee of the Virginia Legislature has made a contract with Mr.
Sainsbury for copies of the titles and copious abstracts of every paper
in the Public Record Office, and other repositories, which relates to
the history of Virginia while a Colony. All of which he proposes to
furnish for about L250, being less than one-half the cost of either of
the missions sent, which have obtained only a small fraction of the
papers which we are to receive. He is performing his work in a most
satisfactory manner; so much is he interested in the task that he has
greatly exceeded his agreement by furnishing gratuitously full and
complete copies of many documents of more than ordinary interest. Yet
notwithstanding the known facilities afforded by the British Government
and its officials, Mr. De Jarnette complains that he was refused
permission to examine the Rolls Office and the State Paper Office (see
his report, Senate Documents Session 1871-'2, p. 12); and further, on
page 15, he informs us that the papers which he obtained "had to be dug
from a mountain of Colonial records with care and labor." His troubles
were further increased by the fact that "the Colonial papers are not
arranged under heads of respective Colonies, but thrown promiscuously
together and constitute an immense mass of ill kept and badly written
records," ib. p. 22.

The reader will infer from the preceding remarks that the State has two
complete copies of the record of the proceedings of the first Assembly
which met at Jamestown, viz: the McDonald and the De Jarnette copies,
and also an abstract furnished by Mr. Sainsbury. Bancroft, the
historian, obtained a copy of this paper, which was printed in the
collections of the New York Historical Society for 1857. We have
therefore been enabled to compare three different versions, and in a
measure, a fourth. The De Jarnette copy being in loose sheets, written
on one side only, was selected as the most convenient for the printer,
and the text is printed from it. Where this differs from either of the
others the foot notes show the differences, and, when no reference is
made it is because all of them correspond.

When these papers were submitted as a part of the report of the
Commissioners on