Sequel of the history of Opechancanough--Renewal, by him and Opitchipan,
of the treaty of peace--Finesse by which he extended his dominion over
the Chickahominies--Preparations for War--Causes of it--Profound
dissimulation under which his hostility was concealed--Indian custom of
making Conjurers--Manoeuvres against the English interest--The great
massacre of 1622; circumstances and consequences of it--Particular
occasion which led to it--Character and death of Nemattanow--Details of
the war subsequent to the massacre--Truce broken by the English--New
exertions of Opechancanough--Battle of Pamunkey--Peace of 1632--Massacre
of 1641--Capture of Opechancanough by the English--His death and
character.
Captain Argall brought out from England, among other things, a variety of
presents for Opechancanough, who seems now to have been, notwithstanding
that Powhatan was still living, the chief object of the colony's
apprehension and regard. He lamented as the Indians did universally, the
untimely fate of their favorite princess; but he also expressed himself
satisfied with the care which had been taken of her son. Argall sent
messengers to him immediately on his arrival at Jamestown; and the
chieftain paid him a visit, and received his presents. Tomocomo, who
returned with Argall, had conceived a dislike for Sir Thomas Dale, and he
railed violently against him in particular, as he did against the English
in general; but Opechancanough either was or affected to be convinced,
that his anger and his accusations were equally groundless. On the death
of Powhatan, in 1618, both himself and his royal brother Opitchipan
renewed the ancient league of the emperor with the English; under the
protection of which, we are told, every man peaceably followed his
building and planting without any remarkable accidents or interruption.
[FN]
* * * * *
[FN] Stith.
A transaction which occurred in 1616, furnishes the best comment we can
give upon the character of Opechancanough. It appears, that President
Yeardly at that time undertook to relieve the necessities of the colony by
collecting tribute of the Chickahominies. But for some reason or other,
that warlike people refused to pay it; and even sent him an answer to his
demand, which he construed into an affront. He therefore called upon them,
soon after, with a company of one hundred soldiers, well armed. Some
threatening and bravado ensued on both sides, and a regular battle was the
speedy consequence. The Indians were defeated, and as Yeardly was
returning to Jamestown with his spoil, Opechancanough met him, and
artfully effected an agreement with him, that he (Yeardly) would make no
peace with the Chickahominies without _his_ consent. He then went to that
tribe, and pretended that, he had, with great pains and solicitation,
procured a peace for them. To requite this immense service, as it was now
considered, they cheerfully proclaimed him King of their nation, and
flocked from all quarters with presents of beads and copper. From this
time he was content to be entitled the King of Chickahominy; and thus was
subjected to him, with their own free consent, a brave and resolute
people, who had successfully resisted, for many years, the power of every
savage and civilized foe.
The English historians generally agree in representing Opechancanough as
an inveterate enemy of the English from first to last. Such may have been
the case; and he might have had what appeared to him reason and occasion
enough for his hostility. The character of many of the colonists was but
too well calculated to thwart the best intentions on the part of the
government, however peaceable and just might be _their_ theory of Indian
intercourse. The discontent of Tomocomo might have its effect, too, and
especially among the mass of his countrymen. The pledge of harmony which
had existed in the person of Pocahontas was forgotten. But above all,
Opechancanough was too shrewd a man not to perceive, in the alarming
disproportion which was daily showing itself between the power of the
English and the Indians of Virginia--independently of particular
provocations--a sure indication of the necessity of a new system of
defence.
Subsequent events confirm this conjecture. No better preparation for a war
could have been made on the chieftain's part, than he effected in the
submission of the Chickahominies. It is not unlikely that he himself
instigated, through his satellites, the very insolence whereby they drew
upon themselves that severe chastisement from the colony, which increased
his own influence over them as much as it aggravated their hostility to
the English. We find that, in 1618, they committed several outrages of a
most flagrant character; and although Opechancanough, who was applied to
for satisfaction, promised to send in the heads of the offenders, this
was never done, and it may be questioned, whether he was not privy to, or
perhaps the chief author and contriver of the whole affair. At all events,
historians represent, that his regal authority over the tribe was thereby
"firmly riveted and established."
Still, not only had the artful chieftain given no open cause of offence
or evidence of hostility; but he absolutely succeeded, as we have seen,
in completely quieting the suspicions of the colonists. In 1620, indeed,
we find it recorded in the journal of Mr. Rolfe, that "_now Opechankanough
will not come at vs; that causes vs suspect his former promises._" But
this little uneasiness was wholly done away, on the arrival of Sir Francis
Wyatt, the successor of Yeardly, in 1621. That gentleman immediately sent
messengers to Opechancanough and Opitchipan, who both expressed great
satisfaction at the accession of the new President, and cheerfully renewed
their former leagues with the colony. The former also declared himself
pleased with the idea of the English inhabiting the country. He proposed,
by way of amalgamating the two nations, that some of the white families
should settle among his people, while some of his should settle at
Jamestown. A former promise was confirmed, of sending a guide with the
English to certain mines represented to be situated above the falls. Nay,
so far was the deception carried, that "Mr. Thorpe [the chief messenger]
thought he perceived more motions of religion in Opechancanough than could
easily be imagined, in so great ignorance and blindness. He acknowledged
his own religion not to be the right way; and desired to be instructed in
the Christian faith. He confessed that God loved the English better than
them, and he thought the cause of God's anger was their custom of conjuring
their children, and _making them black boys._" [FN]
* * * * *
[FN] Allusion seems to be made here to a custom which is sufficiently
singular to deserve some description. Smith calls it a yearly sacrifice
of children. A ceremony of the kind which was performed near Jamestown
may best be described in his own words. "Fifteene of the properest young
boyes betweene ten and fifteene yeeres of age, they paynted white. Hauing
brought them forth, the people spent the forenoone in dauncing and
singing about them with rattles. In the afternoone they put those
children to the roote of a tree. By them all the men stood in a guard,
each hauing a Bastinado in his hand, made of reeds bound together. This
made a lane betweene them all along, through which there were appointed
fiue young men to fetch these children. So euery one of the fiue went
through the guard to fetch a childe, each after other by turnes, the
guard firecely beating them with their Bastinadoes, and they patiently
enduring and receiuing all, defending the children with their naked
bodies from the vnmerciful blowes, that pay them soundly, tho' the
children escape. All this while, the women weepe and cry out very
passionately, prouiding mats, skinnes, mosse and dry wood, as things
fitting their childrens' funerals. After the children were thus passed
the guard, the guard tore down the trees, branches and boughs, with such
violence that they rent the body, and made wreaths for their heads, or
bedecked their hayre with the leaues. What els was done with the children
was not seene, but they were all cast on a heape in a valley as dead,
where they made a great feast for all the company. The Werowance being
demanded the meaning of this sacrifice, answered that the children were
not all dead, but that the _Okee_ or Divill did sucke the bloode from
their left breast, who chanced to be his by lot, till they were dead; but
the rest were kept in the wildernesse by the young men till nine months
were expired, during which time they must not converse with any, _and of
these were made their Priests and Coniurors._" Master Pory says, in his
Observations that the Accomacks were a civil and tractable people: "nor
doe they vse that deuillish custome _in making Black Boyes._"
It must have been about this time that Opechancanough took the trouble to
send some of his men to a sachem on the eastern shore, for a quantity of
poison, peculiar to that region, and which he wished to use in his
operations against the English. [FN] This may have been the true object of
the embassy; and it may also have been but a cover for sounding the
disposition of the eastern tribes towards the colony. Accordingly, it is
recorded in the "Observations of Master Iohn Pory, secretarie of Virginia,
in his travels," that Namenacus, the Sachem of Pawtuxent, made an
application to the colony, in 1621, for the privilege of trading with
them. This request was so far attended to, that the English promised to
visit him within six weeks. Now it seems that their commerce with the
Indians at this period was mostly carried on by the aid of one Thomas
Salvage, an interpreter, and the same man whom Smith had left with
Powhatan fourteen years before. The visit took place according to promise,
and it was then ascertained that Opechancanough had employed one of his
Indians to kill Salvage. The pretence was, "because he brought the trade
from him to the easterne shore." The truth probably was, that the
chieftain was jealous of the English influence among the tribes of that
region.
* * * * *
[FN] Stith.
But the storm which had been gathering ever since the death of the
emperor, was at length ready to burst upon the devoted colony.
Opechancanough had completed every preparation which the nature of things
permitted on his part; and nothing remained, but to strike the great blow
which he intended should utterly extinguish the English settlements
forever. The twenty-second day of March, 1622--an era but too memorable in
Virginian history--was selected for the time; and a certain hour agreed
upon, to ensure a simultaneous assault in every direction. The various
tribes engaged in the conspiracy were drawn together, and stationed in the
vicinity of the several places of massacre, with a celerity and precision
unparalleled in the annals of the continent. Although some of the
detachments had to march from great distances, and through a continued
forest, guided only by the stars and moon, no single instance of disorder
or mistake is known to have happened. One by one, they followed each other
in profound silence, treading as nearly as possible in each other's steps,
and adjusting the long grass and branches which they displaced. [FN] They
halted at short distances from the settlements, and waited in death-like
stillness before the signal of attack.
* * * * *
[FN] Burk.
That was to be given by their fellow-savages, who had chosen the same
morning for visiting the different plantations, in considerable numbers,
for the purpose of ascertaining their strength and precise situation, and
at the same time preventing any suspicion of the general design. This, it
should be observed, had recently become too habitual a practice with the
Indians, to excite suspicion of itself. The peace was supposed to be
inviolable. The savages were well known to be in no condition for a war;
and had shown no disposition for one. The English, therefore, while they
supplied them generally with whatever they asked for, upon fair terms,
neglected to prepare themselves for defence. They were so secure, that a
sword or a firelock was rarely to be met with in a private dwelling. Most
of their plantations were seated in a scattered and straggling manner, as
a water-privilege or a choice vein of rich land invited them; and indeed
it was generally thought, the further from neighbors, the better. The
Indians were daily received into their houses, fed at their tables, and
lodged in their bedchambers; and boats were even lent them previous to the
twenty-second, as they passed backwards and forwards for the very purpose
of completing the plan, of extirpation.
The hour being come, the savages, knowing exactly in what spot every
Englishman was to be found, rose upon them at once. The work of death was
commenced, and they spared neither sex nor age, man, woman nor child. Some
entered the houses under color of trade. Others drew the owners abroad
upon various pretences; while the rest fell suddenly on such as were
occupied in their several labors. So quick was the execution, that few
perceived the weapon or blow which despatched them. And thus, in one hour
and almost at the same instant, fell three hundred and forty-seven men,
women and children; most of them by their own arms, and all, (as Stith
observes,) by the hands of a naked and timid people, who durst not stand
the presenting of a staff in the manner of a firelock, in the hands of a
woman.
Those who had sufficient warning to make resistance, saved their lives.
Nathaniel Causie an old soldier of Captain Smith's, though cruelly
wounded, cleaved down one of his assailants with an axe; upon which the
whole party who had surrounded him fled, and he escaped. At another place,
two men held possession of a house against sixty Indians. At Warrasqueake,
a Mr. Baldwin, whose wife was so badly wounded that she lay for dead, by
repeatedly discharging his musket drove off the enemy, and saved both her
and himself. Ralph Hamer, the historian, defended himself in his house,
successfully, with spades, axes and brickbats. One small family, living
near Martin's Hundred, where as many as seventy-three of the English were
slain, not only escaped the massacre, but never heard any thing of it
until two or three days afterwards. Jamestown and some of the neighboring
places were saved by the disclosure of a Christian Indian named Chanco,
who was confidentially informed of the design by his brother, on the
morning of the 22d.
Such was the evidence which Opechancanough gave of his deep-rooted hatred
of the English. And yet, such was his profound dissimulation, that so late
as the middle of March, he treated a messenger sent to him from the
President with the utmost civility, assuring him he held the peace so
firm, that the sky would fall sooner than it should be violated on his
part. Mr. Thorpe, an excellent man, who had taken a peculiar interest in
christianizing the Indians, supposed that he had gained the especial favor
of Opechancanough by building him a very neat house after the English
fashion; in which he took such pleasure, as to lock and unlock his door a
hundred times a day. [FN] He seemed also to be pleased with the discourse
and company of Mr. Thorpe, and expressed a desire to requite some of his
kindness. Nevertheless, the body of this unfortunate man was found among
the slain. Only two days before the massacre, the Indians guided a party
of the English through the woods, and sent home one who had lived among
them to learn their language. On the very morning of the fatal day, as
also the evening before, they came, as at other times, unarmed into the
houses of the English, with deer, turkeys, fish, fruits and other things
to sell; and in some places sat down to breakfast with the same persons
whom they rose up to tomahawk.
* * * * *
[FN] Stith.
The particular occasion--as the historians consider it--of the conspiracy,
is too characteristic to be omitted. There was a noted Indian, named
Nemattanow, who was wont, out of vanity or some unaccountable humor, to
dress himself up with _feathers_ in a most barbarously fantastic manner.
This habit obtained for him among the English the name of
_Jack-of-the-feather._ He was renowned among his countrymen both for
courage and cunning; and was esteemed the greatest war-captain of those
times. But, what was most remarkable, although he had been in many
skirmishes and engagements with the English, he had always escaped without
a wound. From this accident, seconded by his own ambition and craft, he
obtained at length the reputation of being invulnerable and immortal.
Early in 1622, Nemattanow came to the house of one Morgan, who kept and
sold a variety of well-selected commodities for the use of the Indians.
Smitten with a strong desire to obtain some of them, Nemattanow persuaded
Morgan to accompany him to Pamunkey, on the assurance of an advantageous
traffic at that place. On the way, he is supposed to have murdered the
trader. Within two or three days, he returned again to the house of his
victim where were only two stout young men, servants of Morgan, at home.
They, observing that he wore their master's cap on his head, inquired
after him; and Jack told them frankly he was dead.
Confirmed in their previous suspicions by this declaration, they seized
him, and endeavored to carry him before Mr. Thorpe, who lived at a
neighboring settlement. But their prisoner troubled them so much by his
resistance, and withal provoked them so intolerably by his bravadoes, that
they finally shot him down, and put him into a boat, in order to convey
him the remaining seven or eight miles of the way. But the Indian soon
grew faint; and finding himself surprised by the pangs of death, he
requested his captors to stop. In his last moments he most earnestly
besought of them two great favors; first, never to make it known that he
was killed by a bullet; and secondly, to bury him among the English, that
the certain knowledge and monument of his mortality might still be
concealed from the sight of his countrymen. So strong was the ruling
passion in death.
Opechancanough was so far from being a particular friend of Nemattanow
that he had given the President to understand, by a messenger, sometime
before the transaction just related, that he should consider it a favor in
_him,_ if he would take measures to have Jack despatched. The popularity
of the war-captain was the only reason why he forbore to take such
measures himself. Nevertheless, with a consummate wiliness he availed
himself of this same popularity, on the death of his rival--as Jack seems
to have been--the better to inflame and exasperate the Indians against the
whites. He affected to be excessively grieved at his death, and for
sometime was unusually loud in his declarations of resentment and his
threats of revenge. A messenger came from the President, to ascertain what
was intended by these demonstrations of hostility, and again all was quiet
as before; nothing could induce the Sachem to violate the vast regard
which he had always entertained for the English. About the same time he
gave them liberty, by negotiation, to seat themselves any where on the
shores of the rivers, within his dominions, where the natives had no
villages. The treaty he had already made for the discovery of mines, as
well as for mutual friendship and defence, was at his request engraven on
a brass plate, and fastened to one of the largest oaks growing upon his
territories, that it might be had always in remembrance. [FN]
* * * * *
[FN] Belknap's Am. Biog. p. 64, Vol. II.
For several years after the massacre, a war was waged between the
colonists and the savages, so inveterate and ferocious as to transmit a
mutual abhorrence and prejudice to the posterity of both. The former
obtained at this period the name of the Long-Knives, by which they were
distinguished to a very late day in the hieroglyphic language of the
natives. Every precaution and preparation was taken and made upon both
sides, in view of a desperate conflict. Orders were issued by the
government, from time to time, directing a general vigilance and caution
against the enemy who now engrossed all thought; and especially
prohibiting the waste of arms and ammunition. The remnants of the
settlements were drawn together into a narrower compass. Of eighty
plantations all were abandoned but six, which lay contiguous at the lower
part of James river; and three or four others, of which the owners or
overseers, refusing to obey public orders, intrenched themselves, and
mounted cannon for their own separate defence. [FN]
* * * * *
[FN] Purchas V. 1792.
A considerable space of territory between the Virginians and the savage
tribes, was wasted with fire, for the sole purpose of laying bare the
stealthy approaches of the enemy, who, under cover of the long grass and
underwood, and the gigantic shield of the oak and cypress, had heretofore
been able to advance unperceived, and rise up in attack almost from under
the very feet of the English. But even a boundary of fire could not always
restrain the fury, nor elude the skill, of the Indians. Wisely content
with short and sudden incursions, for plunder and revenge rather than
conquest, they frequently succeeded in carrying off the corn and cattle of
the colonists, and sometimes their persons into captivity. They were
themselves, on the other hand, hunted like beasts of prey. No prisoners
were made; no quarter was given.
From the time of the massacre, Opechancanough seems no longer to have
taken the least trouble to conceal his hostility. He returned a haughty
answer to the first demand, made upon him for the redemption of the
English captives; and trampled under foot the picture of the English
monarch, which was sent to him as a compliment. Late in 1622, when Captain
Croshaw was trading on the Potomac, with the only tribe which was now
willing to carry on commerce, he had scarcely landed from his vessel, when
a messenger arrived from Opechancanough to Japazaws, (king of the
Patowomekes,) bearing two baskets of beads as a royal present, and
soliciting the king to murder his new visitants on the spot. He was
assured, that whether he did _his_ part or not, before the end of two
moons, there should not be an Englishman left in the whole country.
Japazaws first disclosed the message to his guest; and then, after
thinking and talking of it two days, made answer that the English were his
friends, and Opitchipan (the Powhatan emperor) his brother; and therefore
there should be no more blood shed between them by his means. The beads
were returned by the messenger.
After this, the colonists had their season of success; and more Indians
are said to have been slain during the autumn and winter of 1622-3, than
had ever before fallen by the hands of the English, since the settlement
of Jamestown. [FN] But the course adopted by the civilized party
sufficiently indicates the desperate state of their affairs. They availed
themselves of a stratagem worse than barbarous in its principle, however
circumstances might be supposed in this case to justify it. A peace was
offered to the enemy and accepted; but just as the corn which the latter
were thus induced to plant, was beginning to grow ripe, the English fell
upon them in all directions at a given hour of an appointed day, killed
many, and destroyed a vast quantity of provisions. Several of the greatest
war-captains were among the slain; and for sometime Opechancanough himself
was reported to be one. This rumor alone, so long as believed, was equal
to a victory; "for against _him,_" says the historian, "was this stratagem
chiefly laid."
* * * * *
[FN] Stith.
Such language furnishes evidence enough of the apprehension which his
movements and reputation had excited. But he gave more substantial reasons
for the respect which he still wrested from his enemy, by his prowess. A
battle took place at his own village of Pamunkey, in 1625, in which the
main body of the savages numbered eight hundred bow-men, independently of
detachments from remote tribes; and though the English, led on by Governor
Wyatt in person, succeeded in driving the enemy from the field, they were
unable to pursue them even as far as Matapony. That town was their
principal depot and rallying point, and the acknowledged inability to
reach it, though but four miles distant, proves that the battle was by no
means decisive. It appears from this affair, too, that all the efforts of
the English, during an inveterate war of three years, had not driven the
tribes even from the neighborhood of their own settlements. What was more
discouraging, Opechancanough was not to be deceived a second time by the
arts of diplomacy. In 1628, the governor's proclamation, which announced
the appointment of commissioners to negotiate with the enemy, declared
expressly an intention to repeat the stratagem of 1622; [FN] but the plan
failed of success, and the Pamunkies and Chickahominies--most immediately
under the influence of Opechancanough--were more troublesome at this
period than ever before.
* * * * *
[FN] Ancient Records of Virginia.
Four years afterwards, the same tribes made an irruption so furious and
alarming, that every twentieth man was despatched, under the command of
the governor, to _parley_ with them--a term in the records which shows
forcibly, as Burk observes, the respect this brave people had inspired.
But Opechancanough was still implacable; and when, in the course of 1632,
a peace was at last formally concluded, so little dependence was placed on
that circumstance, that even while the commissioners on both sides were
adjusting the preliminaries, a proclamation was issued, forbidding the
colonists either to parley or trade with the Indians.
This truce or treaty was understood to be on both sides a temporary
expedient; but the chieftain was the first to take advantage of it. During
nine years he remained quietly making his preparations for the conflict
which his sagacity told him must some day or other be renewed. The hour at
length arrived. The colony was involved in dissensions. Insurrections had
taken place. The governor was unpopular, and the people were unprepared
and heedless. Opechancanough lost not a moment in concerting measures for
effecting at a single blow the bloody, but in his bosom noble design,
which had engrossed the solicitude and labor of so large a part of his
life.
He was now advanced in years, but his orders were conveyed with electric
rapidity to the remotest tribes of the great confederacy associated under
his influence. With the five nearest his own location, and most completely
under his control, he resolved to make the principal onset in person. The
more distant stations were assigned to the leading chiefs of the several
nations; and thus the system of a war that raged from the mouth of the
Chesapeake to the heads of all the great rivers, which flow into it, was
so simple as to render confusion impossible. The whole force was let loose
upon the entire line of the English settlements at nearly the same instant
of time. Five hundred persons perished in the massacre. [FN] Many others
were carried into captivity. The habitations, corn, household utensils,
instruments of farming, every thing essential to comfort, and almost every
thing necessary to life, was consumed by fire. But for circumstances in
the situation of the settlements, over which Opechancanough had no
control, and which he could not guard against, the fate of Virginia had
been decided by this single blow.
* * * * *
[FN] Beverly's History, p. 49.
As it was, every other labor and thought were suspended in the terrors of
an Indian war. The loom was abandoned. The plough was left in its furrow.
All who were able to bear arms were embodied as a militia for the defence
of the colony; and a chosen body, comprising every twentieth man, marched
into the enemy's country under Governor Berkeley's personal command. The
operations of the war, which raged thenceforth without any intermission
until the death of Opechancanough--and that alone was expected to end
it--are detailed by no historian. The early Virginian records which remain
in manuscript are altogether silent respecting this period; and the meagre
relation of Beverly is the only chronicle which has survived the ravages
of time. This circumstance of itself sufficiently indicates the confusion
and dismay of the era.
Opechancanough, whose last scene now rapidly approaches, had become so
decrepit by age, as to be unable to walk, though his spirit, rising above
the ruins of his body, directed, from the litter upon which his Indians
carried him, the onset and the retreat of his warriors. The wreck of his
constitution was at length completed by the extreme fatigues encountered
in this difficult and laborious service. His flesh became macerated; his
sinews lost their elasticity; and his eyelids were so heavy that he could
not see, unless they were lifted up by his faithful attendants. In this
forlorn condition he was closely pursued by Berkeley with a squadron of
horse, and at length surprised and taken. He entered Jamestown, for the
first time in his life, as the most conspicuous figure in the conqueror's
triumph.
To the honor of the English, they treated their distinguished captive with
the tenderness which his infirmities demanded, and the respect which his
appearance and talents inspired. They saw the object of their terror
bending under the load of years, and shattered by the hardships of war;
and they generously resolved to bury the remembrance of their injuries in
his present melancholy reverse of fortune. His own deportment was suitable
to his former glory, and to the principles of an Indian hero. He disdained
to utter complaint or to manifest uneasiness. He believed that tortures
were preparing for him; but instead of any consequent reduction in his
haughtiness, his language and demeanor bespoke the most absolute defiance
and contempt.
But generally he shrouded himself in reserve; and as if desirous of
showing his enemies that there was nothing in their presence even to rouse
his curiosity, and much less to excite his apprehensions, he but rarely
permitted his eyelids to be lifted up. He continued in this state several
days, attended by his affectionate Indian servants, who had begged
permission to wait upon him. But his long life of near an hundred years
[FN] was drawing to its close. He was basely shot through the back by one
of the soldiers appointed to guard him, from no other provocation than the
recollection of his ancient hostility.
* * * * *
[FN] So write some historians, but as he is understood to have been
younger than Powhatan, the estimate is possibly too large by ten or
twenty ears. It is said that Berkeley had proposed taking him to England,
as a living argument to counteract the representations made in that
country as to the unhealthiness of the Virginian climate.
To the last moment his courage remained unbroken. The nearer death
approached, the more care he seemed to use in concealing his dejection,
and preserving the dignity and serenity of his aspect. Only a few minutes
before he expired, he heard an unusual bustle in the room where he was
confined. Having ordered his attendants to raise his eyelids, he
discovered a number of persons crowding round him, for the purpose of
gratifying an unseasonable curiosity. The dying chief felt the indignity,
but disdaining to notice the intruders he raised himself as well as he
could, and with a voice and air of authority, demanded that the _governor_
should be immediately brought in. When the latter made his appearance, the
chieftain scornfully told him that "had it been _his_ fortune to have
taken _Sir William Berkeley prisoner, he should not have exposed him as
a show to his people._" [FN]
* * * * *
[FN] Beverley.
Such was the death of Opechancanough. His character is too well explained
by his life to require any additional comment. His own countrymen were
more extensively and more completely under his influence than they had
been under that of Powhatan himself. This is the more remarkable from the
fact that Opitchipan, whose age and family at least entitled to some
deference, retained the nominal authority of emperor so long as he lived.
Beverley says, that Opechancanough was not esteemed by the Indians to be
in any way related to Powhatan; and that they represented him as the
prince of a foreign nation residing at a great distance somewhere in the
Southwest. He might be an emigrant or an exile from the empire of Mexico,
or from some of the tribes between that region and Virginia. The same
historian describes him as a man of large stature, noble presence and
extraordinary parts. Stith calls him a politic and haughty prince. Burk
entitles him the Hannibal of Virginia.
He was perhaps the most inveterate and troublesome enemy which any of the
American colonies have ever met with among his race. The general causes
which made him so, independently of his inherent talents and principles,
are to be looked for in the situation of the tribes under his command, and
especially in the relations existing between them and the colonists. He
saw, that either the white or the red man must sooner or later establish
an exclusive superiority; and he very reasonably decided upon doing all in
his own power to determine the issue in favor of his country and himself.
But more particular provocations were not wanting. Even after the peace of
1636, great as the anxiety was for its preservation, "the subtle Indians,"
says Beverley, "resented _the encroachments on them by Hervey's grants."_
A late historian expresses himself in warmer terms. It was not enough, he
writes, that they had abandoned to their invaders the delightful regions
on the sea-shore, where their fathers had been placed by the bounty of
heaven--where their days had rolled on in an enchanting round of innocence
and gayety--where they had possessed abundance without labor, and
independence without government. The little that remained to them was
attempted to be wrested from them by the insatiable avarice and rapacity
of their enemies.[FN]
* * * * *
[FN] Burk, Vol. II.