as deputy governor.  Instead of obeying his instructions he continued the common slavery under one pretence or another, and even plundered the company of all the servants and livestock belonging to the “common garden.”  He censured Yardley for permitting the settlers to grow tobacco, yet brought a commission for himself to establish a private tobacco plantation, “Argall’s Gift,” and laid off two other plantations of the same nature.

In April, 1618, the company, incensed at Argall’s conduct, despatched the Lord Governor Delaware with orders to arrest him and send him to England, but Delaware died on the way over, and Argall continued his tyrannical government another year.  He appropriated the servants on Lord Delaware’s private estates, and when Captain Edward Brewster protested, tried him by martial law and sentenced him to death; but upon the petitions of the ministers resident in the colony commuted the punishment to perpetual banishment.[5]

Meanwhile, Sandys, who had a large share in draughting the second and third charters, was associated with Sir Thomas Smith in preparing a document which has been called the “Magna Charta of America.”  November 13, 1618, the company granted to the residents of Virginia the “Great charter or commission of priviledges, orders, and laws”; and in January, 1619, Sir George Yardley was sent as “governor and captain-general,” with full instructions to put the new government into operation.  He had also orders to arrest Argall, but, warned by Lord Rich, Argall fled from the colony before Yardley arrived.  Argall left within the jurisdiction of the London Company in Virginia, as the fruit of twelve years’ labor and an expenditure of money representing $2,000,000, but four hundred settlers inhabiting some broken-down settlements.  The plantations of the private associations—­Southampton Hundred, Martin Hundred, etc.—­were in a flourishing condition, and the settlers upon them numbered upward of six hundred persons.[6]

Sir George Yardley arrived in Virginia April 19, 1619, and made known the intentions of the London Company that there was to be an end of martial law and communism.  Every settler who had come at his own charge before the departure of Sir Thomas Dale in April, 1616, was to have one hundred acres “upon the first division,” to be afterwards augmented by another hundred acres, and as much more for every share of stock (L12 6s.) actually paid by him.  Every one imported by the company within the same period was, after the expiration of his service, to have one hundred acres; while settlers who came at their own expense, after April, 1616, were to receive fifty acres apiece.  In order to relieve the inhabitants from taxes “as much as may be,” lands were to be laid out for the support of the governor and other officers, to be tilled by servants sent over for that purpose.  Four corporations were to be created, with Kecoughtan, Jamestown, Charles City, and Henrico as capital cities in each, respectively; and it was announced that thereafter the people of the colony were to share with the company in the making of laws.[7]