last, when "brought to great distress"
through hunger, they broke through the encircling English with their
wives and children, and vanished into the forest. Making their way up
the Maryland side of the river, they crossed over to Virginia, and
began a series of raids upon the frontier plantations on the upper
Rappahannock and Mattapony rivers.

Within a few days they had killed sixty persons. The fortunate ones
were those who fell at the first volley, for the miserable captives
were subjected to tortures that would have baffled the imagination of
a Dante. "Some they roast alive, offering their flesh to such English
prisoners as they keep languishing by a lingering death, pulling their
nails off, making holes and sticking feathers in their flesh. Some
they rip open and make run their guts round trees."

For the moment the old spirit which had made him so ardent a fighter
in the English Civil War and in the battles against Opechancanough
flared anew in Governor Berkeley. Calling together a force of horse
and foot, he placed them under the command of Sir Henry Chicheley with
orders to pursue the murderers. But when all was ready and Chicheley
was expecting the order to march Berkeley changed his mind, withdrew
his commission and disbanded his forces.

This sudden change has long puzzled historians. Berkeley himself had
taken the lead in carrying the war to the enemy following the massacre
of 1644; why did he hang back now? It may have been the offer of peace
from the new chief of the Susquehannocks, which Sir William was
willing to accept but which the Indians themselves ignored. It may
have been the fear that Chicheley's men might not discriminate between
friend and foe and by attacking some of the allied Indians involve
them in the war. He stated later that he would have preserved those
Indians so that they could be his "spies and intelligence to find out
the more bloody enemies." Certainly in this he was foreshadowing the
policy followed by his successors for more than a century. But it did
not justify leaving the frontier open to attack, while the murders and
torturing continued.

It is not necessary to accept the accusation of Bacon and his
followers that Berkeley adopted this policy so as not to interfere
with the beaver trade. It might have been effective had not the
Pamunkeys, the Appomatox, and other nearby tribes been dissatisfied
and resentful. As it was, the governor was soon obliged to abandon it.
"As s