ns. Tottopottomoy, the King of the Pamunkeys,
joined Hill with 100 of his warriors, although only the summer before
his brother had been murdered by an Englishman.

The western Indians had apparently come down to treat with the English
about trade, bringing with them many beaver skins to begin the
commerce. Col. Hill, however, despite the Assembly's command to avoid
the use of force, perfidiously had five of the kings who came to parley
with him put to death. "This unparalleled hellish treachery and
anti-christian perfidy more to be detested than any heathenish
inhumanity," a contemporary wrote, "cannot but stink most abominably in
the nosetrils of as many Indians, as shall be infested with the least
scent of it, even to their perpetual abhorring and abandoning of the
very sight and name of an English man, till some new generation of a
better extract shall be transplanted among them!" In the fight that
ensued Tottopottomoy lost his life fighting bravely for the English.
Despite his fidelity, neither he nor his tribe was honorably treated by
the English, the very land he owned being extorted from him and his
successors.

Hill himself was found guilty by the unanimous vote of the Burgesses and
Council of "crimes and weaknesses" in his conduct of the campaign. He
was ordered suspended from all offices, military and civil, and made
liable for the charge of procuring a peace with the Indians with whom he
had so treacherously dealt.

The disgraceful episode of Hill's campaign may have caused some
soul-searching in the Assembly that met following the event, for, in
addition to censuring Hill, it repealed an act which had made it lawful
to kill an Indian committing a trespass. It pointed out that since the
oath of the person killing the Indian was considered sufficient evidence
to prove the alleged trespass, killing Indians, "though never so
innocent," had come to be of "small account" with the settlers. Since
the colony would probably be involved in endless wars and might "expect
a success answerable to the injustice of our beginning if no act be made
for the future to prevent this wanton and unnecessary shedding of
blood," the Assembly attempted to provide some protection for the
Indians.

That expansion into the Indians' territory continued is shown by the
authorization given by this same Assembly of December 1656 to form the
county of Rappahannock on both sides of the Rappahannock River above
Lancaster County. Confirma