ottoways.[473] The remnants of these
nations had become dependent upon the English, paying them tribute and
looking to them for protection from their enemies.[474] In 1675,
however, these friendly relations were disturbed by a southward movement
of some of the northern Indians. Large bodies of the warlike Senecas,
pressing upon the Susquehannocks at the head of the Chesapeake Bay, were
driving them down into Maryland and Virginia. Here their indigence and
their restlessness became a menace to the whites and an element of
disturbance to their relations with the other tribes.[475]

In the summer of 1675 a party of savages rowed across the Potomac river,
committed several murders and made good their escape into Maryland.[476]
In anger and alarm the planters of Stafford county seized their arms to
protect their homes and to avenge their neighbors. A band of thirty or
more, led by Colonel Mason and Captain Brent, pursued the savages up the
Potomac into the Maryland woods.[477] Coming in the early dawn upon two
diverging trails, "each leader with his party took a separate path". "In
less than a furlong either found a cabin", one crowded with Doeg
Indians, the other with Susquehannocks. The king of the Doegs, when he
saw his hut surrounded by Brent's men, "came trembling forth, and wou'd
have fled". But Captain Brent, "catching hold of his twisted lock, which
was all the hair he wore", commanded him to deliver up the men guilty of
the recent murders. "The king pleaded ignorance and slipt loos",
whereupon Brent shot him dead. At this the savages in the cabin opened
fire, and the Virginians answered with a deadly volley. "Th' Indians
throng'd out at the door and fled." "The English shot as many as they
cou'd, so that they killed ten ... and brought away the kings son." "The
noise of this shooting awaken'd th' Indians in the cabin which Coll.
Mason had encompassed, who likewise rush'd out and fled, of whom his
company shot ffourteen."[478]

This unfortunate affair was the beginning of a deadly war between the
English and the Indians, which brought untold suffering upon the people
of Maryland and Virginia. The Susquehannocks, enraged at the slaughter
of their warriors, became the most implacable enemies of the white men.
Joining with the other tribes in a league against the English, they
began a series of outrages and murders which continued many months, and
cost the lives of hundreds of men, women and children. During the year
1