hild, in indiscriminate slaughter, was formed with cold
and unrelenting deliberation. The tribes in the neighbourhood of the
English, except those on the eastern shore of the Chesapeak, who were
not trusted with the plan, were successively gained over; and,
notwithstanding the perpetual intercourse between them and the white
people, the most impenetrable secrecy was observed. So deep and dark
was their dissimulation, that they were accustomed to borrow boats
from the English to cross the river, in order to concert and mature
their execrable designs.

The 22d of March was designated as the day on which all the English
settlements were to be attacked. The better to disguise their
intentions, and to ensure success, they brought, in the preceding
evening, deer, turkies, and fish, as presents; and, even on the
morning of the massacre, came freely among the whites, behaving in
their usual friendly manner, until the very instant which had been
appointed for the commencement of the scene of carnage. The fatal hour
being arrived, they fell at once on every settlement, and murdered
without distinction of age or sex. So sudden was the execution of
their plan, that few perceived the weapons, or the approach of the
blow, which terminated their existence. Thus, in one hour, and almost
in the same instant, fell three hundred and forty-seven men, women and
children; most of them by their own plantation tools.

The massacre would have been still more complete, had not information
been given, the preceding night, to a Mr. Pace, by an Indian
domesticated in his house, and treated as a son, who, being pressed to
murder his benefactor, disclosed the plot to him. He immediately
carried the intelligence to Jamestown, and the alarm was given to some
of the nearest settlements, which were thereby saved. At some other
places, too, where the circumstances of the attack enabled the English
to seize their arms, the assailants were repulsed.

[Sidenote: General war.]

This horrible massacre was succeeded by a vindictive and exterminating
war, in which the wiles of the Indians were successfully retaliated on
themselves. During this disastrous period, many public works were
abandoned; the college institution was deserted; the settlements were
reduced from eighty to eight; and famine superadded its afflicting
scourge to the accumulated distresses of the colony.[36]

[Footnote 36: Robertson. Chalmer. Stith.]

As soon as intelligence of these