use of arms and put him in command whenever soldiers
were needed, as in the expedition to seize Kent Island.
Cornwallis did not always support the proprietor's poli-
cies. He led the Assembly in its battle of 1638 to reject
Lord Baltimore's code of laws and he supported the
Jesuits in their conflicts with the proprietor over the
privileges of the Catholic Church in Maryland. Very
strongly committed to the Catholic religion, he wrote
his lord that "I will rather Sacrifice myself and all that I
have in the defence of Gods Honor and his Churches
right, then willingly Consent to anything that may not
stand with the Good contiens of A Real Catholic." But
despite these disagreements, Leonard Calvert trusted
and relied upon Cornwallis. As the Governor wrote
Lord Baltimore, "though it hath been his fortune and
myne to have had some differences... yet in many
things I have had his faithfull assistance for your ser-
vice." Cornwallis did not try as others did to undermine
the Governor's position.¹⁹

   Cornwallis, in his own words, ran "A Poore younger
brother's fortune" "almost out of breathe" in the in-
vestment he made in Maryland. Over the first ten years
he brought in or acquired sixty-four servants. None of
the first adventurers, including Lord Baltimore,
brought in or sent over more. He put his servants to
work on construction projects that represented long-
term improvements, such as the colony's first mill
(which unfortunately did not work well for lack of
water in the stream). In 1638 he built the first framed
house, "with Chimnies of brick to Encourage others to
follow my Example, for hithertoe we live in cottages."
He raised tobacco—that "Stincking weed of America,"
he called it—and was the leading Maryland tobacco