THE TOBACCO COLONIES The purposes of the Virginia Company of London and of the English public which gave it sanction were profit for the investors and aggrandizement for the nation, along with the reduction of pauperism at home and the conversion of the heathen abroad.

For income the original promoters looked mainly toward a South Sea passage, gold mines, fisheries, Indian trade, and the production of silk, wine and naval stores.

But from the first they were on the alert for unexpected opportunities to be exploited.

The following of the line of least resistance led before long to the dominance of tobacco culture, then of the plantation system, and eventually of negro slavery.

At the outset, however, these developments were utterly unforeseen.