He urged a varied planting and the making of pitch and tar, pipe-staves, potashes, iron, and bay-salt, and warned the planters against "building their plantation wholly on smoke." It was observed, however, that Charles was receiving a large sum of money from customs on tobacco,[35] and it was not likely that his advice would be taken while the price was 3s.6d.a pound.

Indeed, it was chiefly under the stimulus of the culture of tobacco that the population of the colony rose from eight hundred and ninety-four, after the massacre in 1622, to about three thousand in 1629.[36] In March, 1629, Captain West went back to England, and a new commission was issued to Sir John Harvey as governor.[37] He did not come to the colony till the next year, and in the interval Dr.John Pott acted as his deputy.

At the assembly called by Pott in October, 1629, the growth of the colony was represented by twenty-three settlements as against eleven ten years before.

As in England, there were two branches of the law-making body, a House of Burgesses, made up of the representatives of the people, and an upper house consisting of the governor and council.

In the constitution of the popular branch there was no fixed number of delegates, but each settlement had as many as it chose to pay the expenses of, a custom which prevailed until 1660, when the number of burgesses was limited to two members for each county and one member for Jamestown.[38] In March, 1630, Harvey arrived, and Pott's former dignity as governor did not save him from a mortifying experience.