Sir _Thomas Gates_ was dispatched with six large ships, carrying 300 colonists, 100 cattle, and useful supplies. He arrived in August: and parties were sent out from James-town to form distant settlements. He returned the beginning of 1614, and the administration devolved once more on Sir _Thomas Dale_, to whom the Virginians owe the introduction of landed property. In 1615, fifty acres of land were granted to every emigrant and his heirs, and the same quantity to every person imported by others. Dale sailed for England in the beginning of 1616, giving up the trust to Sir _George Yeardley_, as deputy governor, and in this year the cultivation of tobacco was introduced. It was originally carried from Tobago to England. Mr. _Argal_, a new deputy, arrived in May, 1617. He published a variety of edicts, and was guilty of those wrongs and oppressions, that the treasurer and council appointed _Yeardly_ captain-general, and empowered him to examine into and redress grievances. Sir George arrived April, 1619, bringing with him several instructions favourable to freedom, and soon declared his intention of calling a general assembly, which gave the greatest joy to men, who had been hitherto subjected to the arbitrary orders of their prince, to the interested ordinances of an English corporation, or to the edicts of a haughty governor; and who enjoyed none of those liberties which Englishmen claim as their birth-right. In June, Yeardley, pursuant to his instructions from the company, issued writs for the election of delegates, called burgesses. The colony had been divided into seven hundreds or distinct settlements, which seemed to enjoy some of the privileges of boroughs, and from this circumstance the democratic branch of the assembly has been called to this day the house of burgesses, though composed almost entirely of the representatives of counties. The assembly, formed of the governor and council of state, who were appointed by the treasurer and company, and of the burgesses chosen by the people, met together in one apartment, and transacted affairs like the parliament of Scotland of old, which mode continued till after the restoration of Charles II. Thus convened, and thus composed, the legislature “debated all matters thought expedient for the good of the whole.” The laws were transmitted to England, for the approbation of the treasurer and company, without whose confirmation they were of no validity. The introduction of an assembly was attended with the happiest effects. The emigrants, for the first time, resolved to settle themselves, and to perpetuate the plantation. The assembly thanked the company for their favour, and begged them “to reduce into a compendious form, with his majesty’s approbation, the laws of England proper for Virginia, with suitable additions;” giving as a reason, “that it was not fit that his subjects should be governed by any other rules, than such as received their influence from him.” This year