thirty-seven pounds and ten shillings; in some cases, they ran to a figure as high as one hundred and seventy-five pounds. Noblemen and the companies of London subscribed five thousand of the eighteen thousand pounds sterling collected.[1]
During the time that Gates and Dale were in control in Virginia, the martial laws, drawn from the military administration of the Low Countries, were in operation, and were particularly effective in ensuring the preservation of the imported supplies. These supplies appear to have been still in the keeping of a Cape Merchant. Among those who were named by Lord Delaware as having been appointed by himself in the previous year to positions under him, no Cape Merchant is mentioned, although the clerks who were required to be associated with him are referred to.[2] By the martial laws, the fullest regulations were established for the guidance of such an officer, and for his punishment in case he misappropriated the stores placed under his charge;[3] if he embezzled, sold, or gave away any article belonging to these stores, or made out a false account when he presented his report to the Governor, he rendered himself liable to the penalty of death. If any private person carried off the victuals or arms, linen or woollen clothing, hose or shoes, hats or caps, instruments or tools in the care of the Cape Merchant, he exposed himself to the same extreme punishment. That this was not a provision designed in terrorem simply, is revealed in the fact that
- ↑ Circular Letter of the Virginia Council, Lists of Subscribers, Brown’s Genesis of the United States, pp. 463-469.
- ↑ Council in Virginia to the Virginia Company, Brown’s Genesis of the United States, p. 408. Two clerks, Daniel Tucker and Robert Wild, were appointed by Delaware on his arrival in the Colony.
- ↑ Lawes, Divine, Morall and Martiall, p. 13, Force’s Historical Tracts, Vol. III.
