There had been some noteworthy passages in the reports which Colonel Francis Nicholson sent to the government at home when he was first governor of Virginia (1690); for he studied his duties in those days with wide-open eyes, and had sometimes written of what he saw with a very statesmanlike breadth and insight. It was very noteworthy, among other things, that he had urged a defensive confederation of the colonies against the French and Indians, under the leadership of Virginia, the most loyal of the colonies. He had made it his business to find out what means of defence and what effective military force there were in the other colonies, particularly in those at the north, conferring with their authorities with regard to these matters in person when he could not get the information he wished by deputy. The King and his ministers in England saw very clearly, when they read his careful despatches, that they could not wisely act upon such suggestions yet; but they knew that what Colonel Nicholson thus openly and definitely advised was what must occur to the mind of every thoughtful and observant man who was given a post of authority and guidance in the colonies, whether he thought it wise to advise action in the matter or not. It was evident, indeed, even to some who were not deemed thoughtful at all. Even the heedless, negligent Lord Culpeper, little as he really cared for the government he had been set to conduct, had suggested eight years ago that all questions of war and peace in the colonies should be submitted for final decision to the governor and council of Virginia, where it might be expected that the King’s interests would be loyally looked after and safeguarded. [Illustration: PLAN OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, 1732]