The conditions of the charter were homage and rent, the rent being one-fifth of the net produce of gold and silver, and of copper one-fifteenth. The supreme government was vested in a council residing in England; local government alone was permitted to the colonists themselves. The members of the supreme council were nominated by the king, and even over the colonial councils the king preserved a control, being able to nominate and remove according to his royal pleasure. In all respects the king was the supreme head; the legislative and executive power lay in his hands; the colonists had no power of self-government. This first charter granted to an English-American colony was merely a simple charter for commercial purposes. The English government cherished through the whole scheme the hope of a considerable revenue from its colonies in Virginia; a duty to be levied on vessels trading to the harbours was to be applied to the use of the colony for one and twenty years, after which time it should lapse to the king. The code of laws also for the colony was drawn up by the king; religion was strictly enjoined to be according to the teachings of the English church; no emigrant might withdraw his allegiance from the king nor dissent from the royal creed. Dangerous tumults and seditions were punishable by death, as well as murder, manslaughter, and adultery. All civil causes involving corporal punishment, fine or imprisonment, were to be determined by the president and council, who were appointed by the king. There was not an element of popular liberty in the whole stipulated form of government. It was, however, worthy of the peddling, narrow policy and kingcraft of the British Solomon. The only element of enlightenment which it contained was the injunction of kindness to the savage, and the employment of all proper means for his conversion. The Plymouth company, on receiving their grant, despatched a vessel of discovery, which, however, was taken by the Spaniards. A second went out, and returning, made the most favourable report of the country; the following year, therefore, 1607, a hundred colonists were despatched under the command of George Popham. They landed at the mouth of Kennebec River, west of the Penobscot, and about one hundred and thirty miles north-east of where Boston now stands. Here they erected a few rude huts, threw up slight fortifications, and built a storehouse. The settlement was called St. George. They had landed in the autumn, and the winter was intensely severe; their sufferings were extreme, not only from the severity of the climate and the season, but from want of provisions, their storehouse having been destroyed by fire. Their president also died; and in the following year, disheartened by so disastrous a beginning, they returned to England. This terminated the efforts of the Plymouth company.