icle who did not hold his letters patent.
By this means the trade was monopolized, the consumers
oppressed, importation diminished, and the London Company of
Virginia traders ultimately ruined. Those who are fond of
excusing the evil acts of one of the worst of English Kings,
pretend to see James' care for his subjects' health and
wealth in these restrictions, totally regardless of the fact
that James cared for neither when the monopoly brought large
sums into his own pocket."

In 1632 Charles I. granted to Sir George Calvert (who about this time
was made Lord Baltimore) the territory now known as Maryland; soon
after receiving the grant he died, when his son took the grant in his
own name. The next year he sailed from England with two hundred
persons and settled in his new possessions. The colony from the first,
prospered far better than the colony of Virginia and soon laid the
foundation of a strong and substantial government. Like the Virginians
they soon engaged in the cultivation of tobacco which seemed as well
adapted to the soil as the other products, corn and English wheat. The
Indians were found here as in the Plantation of Virginia planting
tobacco as they did Indian corn and cultivating little patches of it
near their wigwams choosing the most fertile soil the females of the
tribe being the actual cultivators.

[Illustration: Natives growing tobacco.]

From this time forward both colonies developed into strong and
flourishing plantations and with each succeeding year increased the
cultivation of tobacco which had now become more extensively
cultivated than all the other products combined. Its culture however
was looked upon with the same disapproval by Charles II. who confirmed
the old laws against its sale and cultivation. But notwithstanding the
remonstrances of the Stuarts the plant grew in use and favor and could
not be uprooted even by a kingly hand. The early cultivators of the
plant received a fresh impetus from the importation of a new species
of labor in the form of Negro slaves brought from the West India
islands. They arrived in the Ship Treasurer "being manned by the best
men of the colony who set out on roving in ye Spanish dominions in the
West Indies" and after a successful cruise against the Spaniards
returned with their spoils including a certain number of Negroes.
Rolfe in alluding to the importation of Negroes says:

"About the last of Augus