red caps on their heads, and rode on beasts like
horses, but with much longer ears. These people were probably the
Spaniards. Sir William Berkley prepared to make an exploration with
fifty horse and as many foot,[211:A] but he was disappointed in this
enterprise.

At this period the settlement of all the New England States had been
commenced; the Dutch possessed the present States of New York, New
Jersey, and part of Connecticut, and they had already pushed their
settlements above Albany; the Swedes occupied the shores of Pennsylvania
and Delaware; Maryland was still in her infancy; Virginia was
prosperous; the country now known as the Carolinas belonged to the
assignees of Sir Robert Heath, but as yet no advances had been made
toward the occupation of it.[211:B]

Upon complaint of the necessities of the people, occasioned by barren
and over-wrought land, and want of range for cattle and hogs, permission
was granted them to remove during the following year to the north side
of Charles (York) and Rappahannock rivers.[211:C]

The congregation of dissenters collected by the three missionaries
before mentioned from Massachusetts, amounted in 1648 to one hundred and
eighteen members. They encountered the continual opposition of the
colonial authorities. Mr. Durand, their elder, had already been banished
by the governor; and in the course of this year their pastor, Harrison,
being ordered to depart, retired to New England. On his arrival there he
represented that many of the Virginia council were favorably disposed
toward the introduction of Puritanism, and that "one thousand of the
people, by conjecture, were of a similar mind."[211:D] The members
of the council at that time were Captain John West, Richard Kempe,
secretary, Captain William Brocas, Captain Thomas Pettus, Captain
William Bernard, Captain Henry Browne, and Mr. George Ludlow. When the
prevalence of Puritanism in the mother country is considered, and the
numerous ties of interest and consanguinity that connected it with the
colony, the estimate of the number favorably disposed toward Puritanism
does not appear improbable. John Hammond afterwards gave an account of
the proceedings against the Puritans in Virginia.[212:A] According to
him, during the reign of Charles the First, Virginia "was wholly for
monarchy." A congregation of people calling themselves Independents
having organized a church, (probably in Nansemond County,) and daily
increasing, several cons