had been erected for its accommodation. A private trade sprang up at once between the sailors and the colonists, and between the sailors and the Indians, the colonists acting as factors. A strong complaint was made that the articles which should have gone to the settlers without any charge, were thus disposed of to the private advantage of persons who belonged to the vessels. The hatchets, chisels, mattocks, and pickaxes, forming an important part of the Second Supply, were dispersed among the aborigines. Knives and pike-heads, shot and powder, disappeared into the same hands, a return being made through the secret agency of the colonists, in skins, baskets, and wild animals. One mariner alone is stated to have obtained by this means, furs which netted him thirty pounds sterling in England. The articles sold in an underhand way to the settlers by the sailors of the Second Supply were butter, cheese, beef, pork, biscuit, oatmeal, beer, and aquavitæ. There are indications that a large quantity of wheat was imported in this Supply. It had been deposited in casks as a protection, being intended for food, or, as seems most probable, for seed; this wheat in a few months had either rotted or been consumed by rats which had found their way into Virginia in the English vessels.[1] A part of the Second Supply was also made up of clothing; this was especially needed on account of the destruction of so much private apparel in the fire that broke out at Jamestown during the previous winter. Both in the First and Second Supplies there were doubtless consignments of garments to individual colonists from their relatives in England. In this way, George Percy received in 1608 from his brother, the Earl of Northumberland, articles of dress estimated to be worth about ten pounds sterling, perhaps
- ↑ Works of Capt. John Smith, pp. 121, 127, 128, 155.
