This story is taken from Mary Johnston's novel, _To Have and to
Hold_, which describes the early settlement of Virginia. The most
important event of this period was the Indian massacre of 1622. For
some years the whites and Indians had lived in peace, and it was
believed that there would be no further trouble from the savages.
However, Opechancanough, the head chief of the Powhatan
confederacy, formed a plot against the white men and suddenly
attacked them with great fury. Hundreds of the English settlers
were slain. The author of the novel, taking the bare outline of the
massacre as given in the early histories, has woven around it the
graphic story of Captain Ralph Percy and his saving of the colony.
Percy, unlike Miles Standish, is not a historical character.