George Bancroft, History of the Colonization of the United States, Vol. 1, 17th edition.

[121] equally an exclusive right to plant between forty-one

Chap IV.} 1606

and forty-five degrees. The intermediate district, from thirty-eight to forty-one degrees, was open to the competition of both companies. Yet collision was not probable; for each was to possess the soil extending fifty miles north and south of its first settlement; so that neither might plant within one hundred miles of a colony of its rival. The conditions of tenure were homage and rent; the rent was no other than one fifth of the net produce of gold and silver, and one fifteenth of copper. The right of coining money was conceded, perhaps to facilitate commerce with the natives, who, it was hoped, would receive Christianity and the arts of civilized life. The superintendence of the whole colonial system was confided to a council in England; the local administration of each colony was intrusted to a council residing within its limits. The members of the superior council in England were appointed exclusively by the king; and the tenure of their office was his good pleasure. Over the colonial councils the king likewise preserved a control; for the members of them were from time to time to be ordained, made, and removed, according to royal instructions. Supreme legislative authority over the colonies, extending alike to their general condition and the most minute regulations, was likewise expressly reserved to the monarch. A hope was also cherished of an ultimate revenue to be derived from Virginia; a duty, to be levied on vessels trading to its harbors, was, for one-and-twenty years, to be wholly employed for the benefit of the plantation, at the end of that time, was to be taken for the king. To the emigrants it was promised, that they and their children should continue to be Englishmen—a concession which secured them rights on returning