Tribe Against Tribe Scenario:
Wolstenholme Towne
James River, Virginia
22 March, 1622
It is a frigid March morning on the James River, 1622. Over the past 15 years the English have
slowly planted themselves here in their New World, and now have settlements up and down this
stream as far up as the Falls at Richmond, some gotten with great trials and bloodshed, others
with relatively little trouble. There is no Potosi here, no seven cities of Cebu, no rich sugar
plantations or brazilwood groves, but there is land, plenty of it, in fertile, warm estate for most of
the year, and fit for planting the best exported tobacco, a lucrative commodity indeed; and
although the malaria and bloody flux is killing, yet new English - indentured servants, free
husbandmen and cadet gentry alike - do keep arriving with each ship for this kingly prize.
The proud Powhatan Indians who once inhabited here, now "live not in great numbers together,
but dispersed, and in small companies; and where most together, not above two hundred, and
that very rare, in other places fifty or forty, or thereabouts" (Kingsbury III: 554-555). The last
war, wherein Lord de la Warre, Sir Thomas Gates, Sir Thomas Dale and the rest had wrought
such execution and plunder, so that the English might eat without work, very nearly ruined
Powhatan's empire, and displaced his people from many of their towns. Now under his son
Opechancanough, they bow submissively, and any Englishman may travel and inhabit freely
among them and trade with them without escort or ambassador. The old forts by the riverbanks
lie largely vacant as the new settlers, no longer idle soldiers but now farmers and husbandmen
truly, some with their women and children, have dispersed about the land to farm the tobacco
weed and truck in peace and lordly isolation, rather to benefit from than to fear intercourse with
the Indians. A few have even thought it safe to begin the ostensible mission of this colony, to
convert and civilize the Powhatan, though only a few are so diligent.
"On the Friday morning (the fatal day) the 22 of March," the routine began as though it were any
other. Some of the English went about the work of hoeing up the soil for Spring planting, others
were at hewing wood and making bricks for fences, sheds and new habitations; some milking
cows and goats and tending vegetable gardens, others merely at their breakfast tables
entertaining the Indian guests who have been coming daily to help in the work, with "Deere,
Turkies, Fish, Furres, and other provisions, to sell, and trucke with us, for glasse, beades, and
other trifles," or else to read scripture or merely to share the latest from the lodges [Kingsbury
III: 551].
"[Y]et were the hearts of the English ever stupid," the Colony's secretary Edward Waterhouse
bitterly lamented later (Kingsbury III: 553), for today the visitors had an altogether darker
purpose in mind. Coming in amongst the English unarmed as ever,
immediately with their owne tooles and weapons, eyther laid downe, or standing
in their houses, they basely and barbarously murthered, not sparing eyther age or
sexe, man woman or childe; so sodaine in their cruell execution, that few or none
discerned the weapon or blow that brought them to destruction… they well
knowing in what places and quarters each of our men were, in regard of their
daily familiarity, and resort to us for trading and other negotiations, which the
more willingly was by us continued and cherished for the desire we had of
effecting that great master-peece of workes, their conversion. And by this meanes
that fatall Friday morning, there fell under the bloudy and barbarous hands of
that perfidious and inhumane people, contrary to all lawes of God and men, of
Nature & Nations, three hundred forty seven men, women, and children, most by
their owne weapons[.]" (Kingsbury III: 551).
It was an astonishing feat of surprise and planning for such a supposedly broken empire as
Opechancanough's to pull off, happening simultaneously 140 miles up and down both banks of
the James. Even more shocking to the survivors was the macabre spectacles their former friends
and neighbors had made of the English dead that greeted them when they came to learn what had
happened.
[N]ot being content with taking away life alone, they fell after againe upon the
dead, making as well as they could, a fresh murder, defacing, dragging, and
mangling the dead carkasses into many pieces, and carrying some parts away in
derision, with base and bruitish triumph" (Kingsbury III, 551).
It seems truly, the latent anger of fifteen years of gunpoint bargaining, bloody war, tribute and
subservience, crops ruined by wandering English livestock, land lost to armed squatters, and the
depredations of unpunished criminals had at last brought Opechancanough, for years the witness
of his father's slow humiliation at English hands, to extract his most bitter revenge.
Now, Wolstenholme Towne was the central settlement of Martin's Hundred, the plantation that
suffered the highest toll from the Massacre, with perhaps 58 colonists dead and as many as 20
women and children carried off as captives by the war party of 22 March out of the plantation's
original population of 140 (Hume 258).
This scenario reenacts the panic of those moments after the alarm had been raised and the settlers
ran for the fort, to hold out, besieged, for the rest of the day until the Indians had finished their
looting, with the possibility of sorties to rescue those in danger nearby. Though Martin's
Hundred did suffer the highest losses, most of the real massacre has been assumed to have
happened on the isolated outlying plantations - by their concentration and proximity to the
stockade the 30- to 40-odd colonists at Wolstenholme Towne proper at least had a chance.
I have written the scenario for my own miniatures rules Why Must We Fight Tribe Against
Tribe? because I understand that system best (having written it), but in truth this fight would
work as well using Jon Lundberg's Matchlocks on the Warpath, or some modification of Chris
Feree and Patrick Wilson's B'hoys!, the latter on account of the scarcity of weapons.
Terrain:
General Scene:
It's an early morning in March, in the so-called "Little Ice Age" too, so the scene is generally still
a little frigid with patches of snow or frost here and there, the surrounding trees bare of leaves
and the corn- and pease fields no more than furrowed soil awaiting sowing.
At Wolstenholme Towne, there was a palisaded fort enclosing the house of the governor of
Martin's Hundred plantation, with a firing step and two flanking angles, though probably they
were not large enough to mount ordnance, and outside it a company storehouse and workshop
building, a church, a barn, and probably five houses.
The Fort:
The Fort consisted of a palisade 7 feet 6 inches high with an earth parapet all around the inside, 2
ft. 9 in. wide, the floor of which would haven been 2 ft. 10 in. above ground level, held up to the
height of the parapet on the inside by a strong fence of split pales and horizontal rails. Diagonal
wooden beams on the inside provided additional supports about every 8 feet. There were two
small flanking angles, the landward one of which formed the base for a watch tower, which may
have been roofed with thatch (Hume 220-224).
For Why Must We Fight Tribe Against Tribe? I should consider the palisades a high wall, hard
cover for shooting purposes, and crossable at a cost of 10 inches of movement prior to melee
contact, during which the defenders may shoot at will at them for however many turns it takes.
Inside the walls was a large irregular half-timbered thatched house roughly 40 ft. x 15 ft., with a
light shed of some sort attatched about 10 ft. x 25 ft., two other smaller outbuildings, and a well
(Hume 220-221). Hume's team called this tentatively the "governor's house," though it seems
likely the plantation's governor William Harwood was in Jamestown until after the massacre.
Figures:
English Figures:
English Civil War Militia and civilians or "Three Musketeers"-era peasants or town mob would
probably be best for most of the English, especially the refugees. Old Glory and Redoubt make a
good selection of these. For the guards and other figures once armed, I use Essex 80 Years War
Dutch and Foundry Thirty Years War generic musketeers, though English Civil War figures and
some raggedy Elizabethan calivermen in floppy hats or helmets would work just as well.
Powhatan Figures:
The Eureka Miniatures Powhatans are probably your best bet for this in 25mm, but the old "Dogs
of the Hot Moon" line for the Minnesota Sioux Uprising in the same scale once made by J & T
Miniatures included some very interesting Indian figures with farm tools looting which might
make good conversion-fodder for an ambitious modeller who can find them.
Deployments:
The English:
The English count as Indians with non-steel melee weapons with the additional ability to fire
muskets if they can find them; the women likewise but unarmed to begin, unable to shoot even
with a musket (though they may load), and with a close-combat penalty; and the children as
completely helpless noncombatants. Bear with me: it sounds gamy, but under these conditions, I
think either side would have behaved much the same.
Recorded
{ Proposed starting totals for the scenario }
Casualties
{
In Town
Refugees
}
Men and boys
53
{
24
41
}
Women and girls
16
{
8
12
}
Small children
9
{
4
7
}
_______________________________________________________________________
Total persons:
78
{
36
60
} Why these
numbers?1
Out of the 36 in town, one is Lieutenant Richard Kean, left in charge of the plantation in
Governor Harwood's absence, stationed somewhere at the Fort and counting as an average
principal chief; one is Master Thomas Boise, the other Master John Boise, both numbered
among the slain with their households and next in rank to Kean. For the purposes of the game,
Master Thomas will start at or in the Church building and Master John at the Company
storehouse plot, each counting as a poor subsidiary chief and armed like everyone else with
makeshift non-steel weapons.2
In Town:
These English are "deployed" first, by the Games Master, in a sort of pastoral diorama, most of
the men out tending to animals and mending fences, ploughing or hoeing up the thawed ground
for the Spring maize crop, the women in their houses or yards milking the cows and doing the
washing, a few men bartering furs with Indians in front of their houses and six guards on the
fort's walls, armed and ready with muskets watching the proceedings. In general, the English
should be generally dispersed and carrying on "business as usual."
Refugees:
From their 3rd turn onward, the English roll two 6-sided dice of differing colours each movement
phase for random refugees streaming to the table from outlying farms. One die is for determining
the entry zone, the other for how many appear. Do this three times per movement phase. Thus:
Placement Die
1 = Entry Zone A
2 = Entry Zone B
3 = Entry Zone C
4 = Entry Zone D
5 = Entry Zone E
6 = roll again
Numbers Die
pips = refugees in the party.
Roll a "6" and two of the figures have muskets and swords
Then roll again - on a "5" or "6" one of the
musketeers is a subsidiary leader (chief)
Roll a "4" and one of the figures has a musket, two a sword each
Roll anything else and the figures are either unarmed women and
children or men with improvised weapons (count as non-steel)
Half of a refugee group may always be adult men. Include the rarer (armed, female, or infant)
types only until they run out (see table on previous page).
Once on-table, the Refugee groups behave normally as all the other English.
The Powhatan
Having the advantage of surprise, the Powhatan may deploy second. I suggest giving them a
small war party of 30 braves and 3 subsidiary chiefs at Wolstenholme Towne - 1 Bold, 2 Poor.
Another Bold principal chief with 20 braves will appear later as reinforcements from Entry Zone
A to join the same war party.
Most of the 33 Indians at the beginning must start from Entry Zones A and D, with a minimum
of at least six figures needing start from Zone A. All these are armed in the usual fashion with
bows, monocock wooden swords, etc. Why these Numbers?3
The rest are infiltrators of a number determined by each chief rolling a six-sided die, halved
and rounded up. These braves may start deployed singly or in groups of any size in any of the
buildings they like except the Church and the fort, with the restrictions (a) that there must also be
one adult Englishmen present within 2 inches of each infiltrator or group of infiltrators together,
and (b) that none of them may have bows.
At least of one of each party of the infiltrators must be at the outset locked in melee with their
English "escort" in the first turn, both sides counting as having only melee weapons, with any
free braves being able to either join the combat or do something else as command and control
dice dictate.
Powhatan Reinforcements:
On their 6th turn the Indian players receive a reinforcement of 19 braves and a Bold Principal
chief, armed with improvised hand-to-hand weapons and fresh from the killings on the outlying
farms. These enter from Entry Zone A.
Victory Conditions:
In many ways this is something of a Turkey shoot for the Indians - a massacre, after all. Seen this
way the Indian's goal is to destroy all they can before casualties oblige them to retire. However,
there are two restrictions: the Indians must avoid losses, and try to capture enemies rather than
kill them when possible.
To win, the Indians have to gain 50 points. Whenever they do, they may retire and it's their
game. If they cannot, or retire because of casualties before then, they lose.
Powhatan Victory Points:
Each Englishman killed:
Each English woman or child killed:
Each Indian killed:
Each Englishman killed and his scalp taken:
Each Englishman killed and his corpse mangled:
Each English captive taken:
Lieutenant Kean captured:
Master Boise or the Deacon captured :
The fort stormed and burnt:
Special Rules:
+1
-3
-5
+2
+3
+4
+10
+5
+10
Did they really care?4
Did they really care?5
Captives and Noncombatants:
All adults on the table are considered armed with improvised weapons unless they have picked
up something better (although Englishwomen have a -1 in close combat, no matter what); the
children are always unarmed.
Captured Englishmen move at the same speed as Indians, but the women and kids only as fast as
European Regulars in Close Order.
The English players, once they have armed enough men, may attempt to take back (recapture)
prisoners being dragged away by the Powhatan.
To capture or recapture an unarmed figure, assuming no opposition from enemy warriors, a
warrior need merely walk up to within 4” it without fighting or shooting, becoming its guard
next turn.
To capture an armed figure, one of these two circumstances must occur:
1. The figure is beaten by 4 or more in a close combat roll.
2. A group is completely surrounded and fails its morale check
A guard must be within 4” of the captives to control them. Each can handle at most 24, treating
young men and captured warriors as six ordinary figures. He may not fight or fire his weapon.
If on any turn there are more captives than the guards can handle and there is any chance at all of
them getting away, the captive figures farthest from the guard beyond his maximum each roll a
die at the beginning of the movement phase to see if they can escape. On a 5 or 6 they do, and
may be moved by the nearest enemy player for the rest of the game or until recaptured, using his
command dice. Otherwise they do as the other captives in the group. If there is no guard, the
prisoners all escape for free.
Only English adult men captured by the Powhatan may be executed, though he need not really
take them at all to win. To execute prisoners takes a number of figures equal to the number of
prisoners a melee phase in base to base contact with them. No need to roll.
Stored Weapons:
All of the English weapons not in use by the guards, who have 6 muskets, are stored in the
buildings as follows:
In the Governor's
house within the fort
In the main storehouse
on the Company plot
In each cottage
Swords Muskets
3
6
2
3
1
1
To pick up and make ready a stored musket, an English figure must stand in the builiding for 3
moves (or 1 move if merely fetching a sword) uninterruptedly, doing nothing else.
(Note: Only Englishmen may fire muskets, women, children, and Indians not knowing how.
Anybody but children may use a sword. Without a sword, English and Indian figures have a "-1"
in melee combat, as though "Indians fighting only with stone, wooden, and bone weapons.")
Scalping:
Figures who kill an opponent in melee may scalp them by remaining by the body for an entire
turn and doing nothing besides defending themselves if attacked. If they are not killed or driven
off they have taken the scalp of the dead figure. This is faster and gives victory points to the
Indians, but does not cause the English a morale check.
Mangling Corpses:
In the real massacre, Waterhouse recorded,
not being content with taking away life alone, they fell after againe upon the dead, making as
well as they could, a fresh murder, defacing, dragging, and mangling the dead carkasses into
many pieces, and carrying some parts away in derision, with base and bruitish triumph
(Kingsbury III, p. 551).
And indeed, Ivor Noël Hume's archaeological team did find some suggestions of this at Martin's
Hundred, including a buried English corpse lashed to a post fully clothed without a coffin (Hume
241), and another skull showing what might be evidence of scalping (Hume 285).
To ritually disembowel a dead figure, have two warriors (one to hold the body, one to do the
hacking) in base-to-base contact with the dead Englishman for 1D6 -1 turns, for a minimum of
one turn. If the disemboweled figure is a leader, any English who can see the act performed have
to take a morale check at the end of it, bolting on a “6” on a figure-by-figure basis. If the
disemboweled figure is not a leader, this only applies within 6 inches.
Generally however, women and children were not killed but rather carried off as captives or
slaves by the Powhatan.
Melee
-
-
All figures, Indians or English, count as having non-steel weapons unless they have found a
sword. Women start as completely unarmed, although one may take up a sword or
improvised weapon. (Figures with non-steel weapons fighting those with steel ones in the
regular rules have a modifier of -1 in melee resolution.)
Women are also penalized when armed with a -1 modifier additionally.
Unarmed figures are treated under the "Captives and Noncombatants" rules above.
English leaders act as though Indian chiefs.
Figures inside the fort defending the parapet count as defending an obstacle once the
attackers close.
Nobody counts as armored for gameplay's sake and because the English at Martin's Hundred
appear not to have had time to harness themselves in the event.
Morale
English:
As normal for Indians, save that routing figures will not flee the table but head for the nearest
cover and "hide" (see Hiding rules under Visibility in Why Must We Fight Tribe Against Tribe?)
not to get up until a leader has rallied them.
Indians:
As normal, but when calculating the 50% Break Rule, calculate as though the war party started
with 53 instead of 33, for the reinforcements count as part of the same band; that is to say, 27
casualties breaks the war party and ends the game.
What Really Happened:
There is no gentle way to say it -- Martin's Hundred took it in the teeth. Seventy-eight colonists
were reported dead; lost at any rate for rumors kept reaching the Plantation for a year afterwards
that they were being held prisoner somewhere, but they were not found. Lieutenant Kean and the
Masters Boise had bought it, and the buildings were in ashes, only two dwellings and part of the
settlement's church left standing. The 62 survivors shortly after abandoned the settlement and
sought shelter at Jamestown, only 20 returning to try again the next year, the rest shipping home.
With disease hitting hard and scant interest left in the burnt-out plantation, the colonists at
Martin's Hundred still numbered only 30 by 1625, even with Governor Harwood's return with his
household (Hume 66). The Martin's Hundred Society's acrage remained in occupation
throughout the 17th century as Martin's Hundred and later Merchant's Hundred Parish, but little
documentation survives of the extinct parish beyond a few land deeds, until the next major
colonial development on the site, the Carter's Grove Mansion was built in 1755 (Hume 251).
Meanwhile, for the remainder of 1622, with most of the wares pillaged and the year's crop spoilt,
the colony and the plantation once again faced famine. Richard Frethorne, an indentured servant
who arrived at Martin's Hundred a year after the massacre, described the bleak scene he found in
a request to a London friend for succor:
…those servants that were there before us were allmost Pined, and then they fell
to feedinge soe hard of our provision that itt killed them that were ould Virginians
as fast, as the scurvie & bloody fluxe did kill us new Virginians: for they were in
such a Case by reason of the murder done all over the land that they Could not
plant anythinge att all, and att everie Plantacion all of them for the most part
were slaine and theyr howses & goods burnt. some, the Indians kept alive and
tooke them awaie with them, and nowe theise two Indians that they have taken
doe tell us that the Indians have 15 alive with them… thus through theyr Roguery
the land is ruinated and spoyled, and itt will not bee soe stronge againe not this
12 yeares, for att our Plantacion of seavenscore, there was butt 22 lefte alive, and
of all theyr houses there is butt 2 lefte and a peece of a Church, and our master
doth saye that 3000 pounds will not make good our Plantacion againe, And the
Marchaunts lost by itt the last yeare[.]
- Richard Frethorne, "Letter to Mr. Bateman" March 6, 1622/23 (Kingsbury IV, 41).
Nevertheless, whatever the young servant's despair, the massacre would not result in the
complete expulsion of the English that Opechancanough had hoped for, though by 1625 the
repercussions of the scandal would cause the dissolution of the Virginia Company and the
reversion of the colony's administration to the Crown. James Fort remained intact, the massacre
had not been complete, and the ships kept coming. The English, far from giving up, now put
away Paul's Epistles on converting the heathen and took up rather Joshua and Kings, now ready
finally to return to the brutality of martial law and the feedfight that had so crippled the Powhatan
in 1609-14. This time there would be no John Rolfe and Pocohantas to marry the problem away,
and for Opechancanough's people, all that lay in store was ten more years of merciless war,
pushing his people ever closer to their final extinction. Virginia would yet flourish, but without
the Powhatan.
But this is Certaine I never felt the want of ffather and mother till now, but now
deare ffrende full well I knowe and rue it although it were too late befere before I
knew it.
- Richard Frethorne, "Letter to his Father and Mother," March 20, Apr. 2 and 3, 1623.
(Kingsbury IV: 62)
Persons slaine at Martins-Hundred some seaven miles from James-Citie.
[includes also those taken captive]
Lieutenant Rich: Kean. Edward How, his Wife, his
Master Tho: Boise, & Mistris Childe.
Boise his wife, & a sucking A child of John Jacksons.
Childe. 4 Men-seruants.
4 of his men. Josua Dary, his Wife, A Man.
A Maide. Ralphe Digginson, his Wife.
2 Children. Richard Cholfer.
Nathanael Jefferies wife. George Jones.
Margaret Davies. Cisly Cooke, his Wife.
Richard Staples, his wife, and David Bons,
Childe. John Bennet.
2 Maides. John Mason.
6 Men and Boyes. William Pawmet.
Walter Davies, & his brother. Thomas Bats.
Christopher Guillam. Peter Lighborrow.
Thomas Combar. James Thorley.
3. Seruants. Robert Walden.
Master John Boise his Thomas Tolling.
Wife. John Butler.
A Maide. Edward Rogers.
4 Men-seruants. Maximilian Russel.
Laurence Wats, his Wife. Henry a Welchman.
2 Men-seruants.
Timothy Moise, his Man.
Henry Bromage, his Wife, his
Daughter, his Man.
(Waterhouse, in Kingsbury III, p. 570).
1
Why these Numbers of English at Wolstenholme Towne:
Archaeological work indicates that only about 30 to 40 colonists lived in the town itself, the rest scattered in isolated
farmsteads over the surrounding 21,500 acres (Hume 256), one of which has been found. How many were men, and
how many women or children is difficult to guess (the passenger lists do not say and the earliest census or "muster"
is not until 1624/25), but judging by the list of those killed or captured by the Powhatan in the massacre and
assuming (however dubiously) that the casualties were representative of the Martin's Hundred population, and that
many of the ones far off would have been surprised and had no opportunity to reach anywhere near the fort before
they were cut down, I have suggested the following starting totals.
Recorded
{ Proposed starting totals for the scenario }
Casualties
{
In Town
Refugees
}
Men and boys
53
{
24
41
}
Women and girls 16
{
8
12
}
Small children
9
{
4
7
}
__________________________________________________________________
Total persons:
78
{
36
60
}
Arms:
The colony generally was caught woefully unprepared for war, and the "Sums totall" of arms for the various
Virginia plantations in early March 1619/20 (Julian/Gregorian years) list 686 working "pieces Snaphances &
Matchlockes besides pistols" in the entire colony, 30 of which were apparently at Henricus, and 516 swords. Later
that year, the new plantation of Berkeley Hundred received another ten muskets, 6 calivers, and 15 swords (Tisdale
155-156), but no word of any more arms shipments to Martin's Hundred appear until after the massacre. There being
1240 persons resident in the colony in March 1622 (Tyler 362n), and 140 at Martin's Hundred (Hume 258) I perform
the following (rather silly) proportions to guess what their "average" quota of arms might have been:
140 Martin's Hundred colonists
1240 Total Colonists


(79.25) Martin's Hundred longarms
702 Total Longarms
140 Martin's Hundred colonists
1240 Total Colonists


(60) Martin's Hundred swords
531 Total swords
Of these say, 80 guns and 60 swords, we know assuming the same absurd distributional perfection used above, one
could postulate 20 guns and 16 swords for the people in the town dispersed among the various dwellings (indeed,
Hume's team unearthed barrels for three muskets apparently discarded just after the massacre, two at the Company
plot and one at the fort [Hume 147, 200]) and the remaining 60 guns and 44 swords at the homesteads off-table,
though these latter would as likely be in Indian hands as English.
(I should note also that the 1624/5 Muster lists for Martin's Hundred 20 men, 4 women and 3 small children, in
posession of 26 muskets and 31 swords, i.e. more arms than men [Virtual Jamestown]. We should remember,
however, that this was after nearly 3 years of war, in which time a very large arms shipment had come to the colony
from the Royal Armories, and most of the population of Martin's Hundred had died by Indian blows, famine, or
disease or had quit Virginia.)
For this game, however, all the English except for say, 6 guards at the fort, armed with muskets and swords, start
with only improvised weapons - scythes, shovels, axes, brickbats, broomsticks and so on. The small children, are, of
course unarmed and always stick close to their mothers. To pick up any weapons will take time and is done as an
action during the game.
2
Minister at Martin's Hundred?
I was unable to find who ministered at the earliest church at Martin's Hundred, but the Martin Hundred Society's
revised patent of January 30, 1621/22, certainly required the "adventurers" to employ one:
And lastly the said Aduenturors their heires and Assignes shall place and mayntaine or cause to be placed and
maintayned from time to time a sufficient Minister and Preacher of the word of God amongst the Inhabitants of their
said particular Plantacion with allottment and allowance of such gleabe and lands and other proffitts for his liberall
mayntenance as the said Treasuror and Companie by their charters haue appointed or shall appointe (Kingsbury
III: 598).
In the Court Book of 24 October, 1621, it is recorded,
Mr Chamberlyne recomended unto the Company one mr. Staples a preacher who haveinge a brother in Virginia
that had given him good encourragment to come thither was desirous to goe ouer; Wheruppon some of Martins
Hundred seemed to be willinge to entertaine him for their hundred. (Kingsbury I, 535)
However, Mr. Staples had obviously not yet arrived by 8 May 1622, when the Court Book records,
M’ Staples Minister recommended by mr Abra: Chamberlen and by Certificate under the hands of well neare 20
Divines continuinge still his earnest request unto the Companie for some allowance towards the transport and
furnishinge out of himselfe his wife and Child to Virginia where he hath a Brother lyvinge which moues him the
rather to goe, for which allowance he is contented to put himselfe wholly [upon] their free bounty, the Court takinge
it into consideracion did at length agree that although their Stocke was spent they would strayne themselves to give
him 20li to pay for his said passage and to furnish him with necessaries and for that it was moved that he might give
some testimony of his sufficiencie by a Sermon as is usuall he was desired to preach vpon sonday come sennight in
the Afternoone in St Scyths Church which he promised to performe (Kingsbury I, 635).
3
Documentary Support for Small Indian Numbers:
Indian numbers are anybody's guess, not given by anybody for Martin's Hundred specifically, but they were not
likely very great at any one settlement, according to Waterhouse's report at least:
[T]hese wyld naked Natives live not in great numbers together, but dispersed, and in small companies; and where
most together, not above two hundred, and that very rare, in other places fifty or forty, or thereabouts… These small
and scattered Companies (as I have said) had warning given from one another in all their habitations to meete at
the day and houre appointed for our destruction, at all our severall Townes and places seated upon the River; some
were directed to go to one place, some to another, all to be done at the same day and time, which they did
accordingly: some entring their Houses under colour of trucking, and so taking advantage, others drawing our men
abroad upon faire pretences, and the rest suddenly falling upon those that were at their labours (Kingsbury III:
554-555).
4
Documentary Support for the Custom of Sparing Women and Children:
John Smith learned of the Powhatan he met in 1607, "They seldome make warre for lands or goods, but for women
and children, and principally for revenge…Yet the Werowances, women, and children, they put not to death, but
keepe them Captives" (A Map of Virginia, 105-106).
At a mock battle staged for Smith at Nonsuch at the same time, Smith recorded,
Having thus pitched the fields; from either part went a Messenger with these conditions, that whosoever were
vanquished, such as escape, upon their submission in 2 daies after, should live, but their wives and children should
be prize for the Conquerers (A Map of Virginia, 106).
William Strachey reported a real expedition by Wahunsonacock (Powhatan) against his enemies on the Piankatank
river to the north 1608, saying:
Twenty-four men they kild outright (the rest escaping by fortune and their swift footmanship); and the long haire of
the one side of their heads,with the skin cased off with shells or reedes, they brought away to Powhatan. They
surprised also the women and childrene and the Weroance, all whome they presented to Powhatan (36).
The minutes of the Virginia Council for 11 November 1619 included a discussion of an invitation that had reached
them on 25 October from Opechancanough, the same sachem who supposedly engineered the 1622 Massacre, to say
he
required from the governor some 8 or tenn Engleshe with ther Armes to assiste hime in battell against a people
dwelinge about a daies Jornye beyond the ffalls Called Massituppamohtnock to bee revenged of hime for
murtheringe certaine woemen of his Contrary to ye law of Nations, offeringe to furneshe our people wth Indyan
shooes to march and to Carry thire Armor for them tell they should haue occatyon to use yt as lickwise to share all
the booty of male and female Children: of Corne and other things and to devide the Conquered land into two equall
parts betweene us and them (Kingsbury 228).
Most immediately, we know that on 1 April, 1623, Christopher Best wrote to a Mr. John Woodall, "There are none
but women in Captivitie with th'Indians for the men that they tooke they put them to death" (Kingsbury IV: 238).
Finally, it is Hume's opinion that the prisoners taken by the Powhatan in 1622 were written off with the dead on the
official casualty lists, and that those captured made up most of the total of women and children (258).
5
Documentary Support for Powhatan Reluctance to take Losses on 22 March:
According to John Smith's Generall Historie of Virginia (1624):
Another of the old company of Captaine Smith, called Nathaniel Causie, being cruelly wounded, and the Salvages
about him, with an axe did cleave one of their heads, whereby the rest fled and he escaped: for they hurt not any that
did either fight or stand upon their guard. In one place, where there was but two men that had warning of it, [they]
defended the house against sixty or more that assaulted it. M. Baldwin of Warraskoyack, his wife being so wounded,
she lay for dead; yet by his oft discharging of his peece, saved her, his house, himselfe, and divers others… (A
Generall Historie, 360).
At Wariscoyack, Smith continues, "Harisons Boy finding his Masters peece loaded, discharged it at randome, at
which bare report the Salvages all fled," while nearby Captain Ralph Hamor "retired to his new house then a
building from whence he came; there onely armed with spades, axes, and brickbats, he defended himselfe and his
Company till the Salvages departed" (A Generall Historie, 361).
Indeed, Waterhouse lamented of the colonists,
never griefe and shame possessed any people more than themselves, to be thus butchered by so naked and cowardly
a people, who dare not stand the presentment of a staffe in manner of a Peece, nor an uncharged Peece in the hands
of a woman, from which they flye as as so many Hares (Kingsbury 556)[.]
However Captain Smith, who copied so much of Waterhouse's report for his Generall Historie, interjects here, "But I
must tell those Authors, though some might be thus cowardly, there were many of them had better spirits" (A
Generall Historie, 364).