The Eastern Shore was opened up for trade in 1619 by Ensign Thomas Savage who was one of the earliest professional factors in the Chesapeake tidewater. He had spent several years as a youthful hostage with Chief Wahunsonacock of the Powhatan Confederacy after having been left with this old Powhatan in 1608 by Captain Christopher Newport. During that time young Savage became a favorite of the natives and learned much about the dialects and customs of the tribes in the tidewater country. Later, when his services as an interpreter came to be in demand by Virginia officials, he was commissioned an “Aunchient,” or ensign, on the staff of the Master of Ordnance at Jamestown. It was in this capacity on expeditions of discovery in the Potomac and Patuxent Rivers and on the Eastern Shore that he began bartering on his own account. Like Captain John Smith before him, Ensign Savage learned of the great trade in furs being had by the Frenchmen on the “backside of Virginia.” In 1621 his account of their deeper penetration of the hinterland reached the Virginia Company Council in London. At the same time the company received reports of Dutch traders operating along the Virginia coasts. A detailed account of this competition was rendered by Thomas Dermer, the New England fur trader, who in addition to having paid the visit to Jamestown went into the Delaware and Hudson Rivers. He reported that in both those rivers he had “found divers ships of Amsterdam and Horne who yearly had there a great and rich trade in Furrs.” The Dutch encroachments prompted a special letter, too, from the governor and his council at Jamestown. They urged the company to undertake “so certaine and gainefull” voyages for pelts as might be made “to their infinite gaine” in the Delaware and Hudson, both of which they pointed out were “within our lymits.” The Dutch interlopers on the coasts were almost as challenging to the Virginians, now that they themselves were well rooted, as was the possibility of French competition creeping down the rivers that flowed into Chesapeake Bay from the northern hinterland. Almost--but not quite as challenging. For one thing, the settlers on the James at this time had neither the ships to trade coastwise nor the trade goods necessary to compete with the Dutch. More importantly, however, right at their back door was the vast tidewater of the bay and, beyond that, great stretches of lake country in the north, all fertile with fur bearers to be had for the taking--provided they got there before the French. This could be accomplished with home-made shallops and less fancy trade goods than were needed to compete with the Dutch. So it came about that the Virginians left any exploitation of the Delaware and Hudson Rivers to the merchants in England and, individually with their more limited resources, extended their own trading operations in their “Bay of Virginia.”