Governor Tucker's rule was harsh. The colonists included many criminals and convicts from English jails, so a merciless discipline seemed to him necessary. The severest penalties were enforced, executions, brandings and whippings were frequent. Negro slaves were introduced from Virginia in the endeavor to make money for the proprietors, with the resultant vices leaving their trail to this day. Progress was made in building the town of St. George. Roads and fortifications were constructed and the land planted with tobacco and semi-tropical fruits. Tucker was replaced by Nathaniel Butler in 1619, but after securing his title to property rather doubtfully acquired, returned to Bermuda where he died in 1632. It was probably during Butler's term that the first stone dwellings began to appear, replacing the earlier thatched roofed cedar houses. "The history of the colony from 1620, when the first Assembly met, until 1684, or 1685, when the Company was ousted of its charter by _quo warranto_ in the King's Bench in England, is made up of the struggles of the Company in London to make as much out of the colonists as possible; of the struggles of the colonists to remove restrictions on trade with others than the Company, imposed upon them by the proprietaries; and of the efforts of the Governors sent out to the islands to maintain order, enforce the rules of the Company and defend their authority and exercise too often arbitrary power."--(_William Howard Taft._) From 1685 on, the island became self-governing and was largely left to its own devices by England. Agriculture was neglected or left in the hands of ignorant slaves, while the white islanders were occupied in such maritime pursuits as whaling, fishing and shipbuilding, and were dependent to a great extent on the mainland of America, with which they were in constant contact. The outbreak of the American Revolution brought divided opinion on the islands as on the mainland. There is, however, little doubt but that there was great sympathy for the cause of freedom in the American colonies. Secret aid was given and commercial relations were resumed with America before the close of the war. If the Continental Congress had possessed a considerable navy, or if the islands had lain closer to the mainland, they might this day have been part of the United States. As it was, they remained ostensibly loyal to the mother country.