44 Assembly Proceedings, April — May 1666.

U.K.
Journal
1659-98

reasonable time to produce other Manufactures for their
Encouragement to visitt this Province & supply Us with such
Necessarys as We from time to time shall want So that by the
means of a Cessation in Maryland & Virginia our Trade will
be for a long time obstructed, Merchants usually trading this
Way will settle their Trade in other parts, And We shall there-
by in all probability be wholly deserted by Shipping, our Country
ruined, Ourselves Wives & Children Exposed to little better
than a Pagan & Salvage manner of living

p. 110

3 Seamen shall not be got to come for these parts for any
other Commodity than Tobacco, in regard it pays a great
Custom, an Excise & freight which commonly Seamen save &
put into their Purses which is their only Invitation to these
parts, their Employment when they arrive here being so very
much slavish is well Compensated by the Gain they have by
Tobacco, the which other Commoditys will never afford them
Therefore they will decline this trade which will be a great
Occasion to deterr Merchants from the Trade of these parts also
4. A Cessation shall invite or rather Constrain all Freemen
or the greatest part of them to go out of this Province, & seek
out these parts where they may freely make use of their
Labours without Restraint by which means this Province will
be in danger of Depopulation & young Freemen being the
greatest Strength of this Province their Departure from hence
will very much weaken us & render us a Prey to our salvage
Enemys
5 The Quantity of Tobacco doth not lessen the Price here but
the want of Ships to fetch it away which are not to be exported
till the Lord pleaseth to remove the Scourges of War & Pesti-
lence from our native Nation of England which War & pesti-
lence is the only principal Cause not only of the Contemptible-
ness of our principal Commodity tobacco at present but of all
other Commoditys in America of what nature or kind soever
The af^d Reasons being well weighed & Considered We
hope will give plenary Satisfaction to the Upper House & to
all good men & unbyassed Persons
W^m Bretton

The House Adjourned for half an hour
The House met again Present as before

Then went a Member of this House to the Lower to tell
them that the reply to their Reasons against the Cessation will
be too late for the Clerk to copy over to night for the Lower
House's Perusal, therefore ordered that it be fair written & sent
in the morning
JG:

The House Adjourned till nine of the Clock in the Morning