Old Virginia and her neighbours

212 OLD VIRGINIA AND HER NEIGHBOURS.where the roving peddler sometimes replenishedhis pack on his route through the plantations.Among the legislative acts designed to encouragethe building of towns, three were especially important.The act of 1662 ordered that thirty-twobrick houses should be erected at Jamestown, andforbade the building or repairing of wooden housesthere ; all tobacco grown in the three counties ofJames City, Charles City, and Surry was to besent to Jamestown and stored there for shipping,and the penalty for disobedience of this order wasa fine of 1,000 lbs. of tobacco ; every ship, moreover,ascending the river above Mulberry Island,must land its cargo at Jamestown and nowhereelse, under penalty of forfeiting the cargo. Halfof these fines was to be paid to the town, the otherhalf to the informer.^ The statute of 1680, commonlyknown as the Cohabitation Act, undertookin somewhat similar fashion to establish a town inevery county ; and the attempt was renewed on alarger scale in 1691.^ But all these acts wereeither disregarded or suspended. When the Surryplanter could effect an exchange at his own wharf,without incidental expense or risk, it was uselessto command him to load his crop on shallops andsend it to Jamestown, with a charge for freight, achance of capsizing, and warehouse dues at theend of the journey. The skipper withal had nowish to be saddled with port dues, or to be hinderedfrom stopping and trading wherever a customerhove in sight.1 Hening, ii. 172-176.So skipper and planter hada Hening, ii. 471-478 ; iu. 53-69.