Not far from where now rises Washington the Susquehannocks had taken
possession of an old fort. These Indians, once in league with the Iroquois
but now quarreling violently with that confederacy, had been defeated and
were in a mood of undiscriminating bitterness and vengeance. They began to
waylay and butcher white men and women and children. In self protection
Maryland and Virginia organized in common an expedition against the Indian
stronghold. In the deep woods beyond the Potomac, red men and white came to
a parley. The Susquehannocks sent envoys. There was wrong on both sides. A
dispute arose. The white men, waxing angry, slew the envoys -- an evil deed
which their own color in Maryland and in Virginia reprehended and
repudiated. But the harm was done. From the Potomac to the James Indians
listened to Indian eloquence, reciting the evils that from the first the
white man had brought. Then the red man, in increasing numbers, fell upon
the outlying settlements of the pioneers.
In Virginia there soon arose a popular clamor for effective action. Call
out the militia of every county! March against the Indians! Act! But the
Governor was old, of an ill temper now, and most suspicious of popular
gatherings for any purpose whatsoever. He temporized, delayed, refused all
appeals until the Assembly should meet.
Dislike of Berkeley and his ways and a growing sense of injury and
oppression began to quiver hard in the Virginian frame. The King was no
longer popular, nor Sir William Berkeley, nor were the most of the Council,
nor many of the burgesses of that Long Assembly.
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