to make his purchases with bills of exchange which he had brought with him; thus in 1668, John Keele presented to Nathaniel Cooke of that island, three instruments of this character calling for payment in sugar, amounting in the aggregate to nearly five thousand pounds.[1] Disputed accounts arising in the course of this trade were carried to the General Court in Virginia for decision, and were ordered to be settled in kind, and not in coin or tobacco. An instance of this nature occurred in 1673, when this body, in a suit by Mr. Edmund Cowles against the attorneys of Mr. William Marshall, required the latter to deliver two hogsheads of muscovado sugar, one puncheon of rum, and eighty-five gallons of molasses.[2]
Tobacco and grain were not the only articles used in procuring the commodities of Barbadoes; in 1686, the sloop Happy transported from Lancaster County to that island, two firkins of butter, two barrels of pork, and twenty-two sides of tanned leather, in addition to one hundred and forty-four bushels of Indian corn.[3]
Many instances might be given of persons who were either residing in Virginia or who were visiting it for the special purpose, being invested with a power of attorney by merchants of Barbadoes who had disposed of goods there. In 1665, Edwin Thomas, who was on the point of setting out for the Colony from that island, was appointed the factor of Giles Hall, with the authority to gather together the different amounts in the form of pork and beef which were due him for West Indian goods, delivered some time previously.[4] A power of attorney is
