ish law throughout the seventeenth century maintained the
doctrine that between Christians and infidels there could exist nothing
but perpetual enmity, a view which was a hangover from the period of the
Crusades, wars against the Turks, and expansion by militant Christian
nations into heathen lands during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
It is true that practical co-operation and on-the-spot recognition of
Indian rights had developed in Virginia in the early years. The massacre
of 1622, however, gave Virginians an excuse for abandoning all forms of
co-operation with, and respect for, the Indians. Deceit and breach of
faith were elevated into acknowledged instruments of policy. The right
of the Indians even to occupy the land of their forefathers was denied.
They were admitted to exist and to hold land _in fact_, but the English
refused to recognize _in law_ either their existence or their title to
land. Total extirpation was resolved against those Indian nations which
had taken part in the massacre. "Marches" were periodically ordered
against the various tribes with the purpose of destroying or seizing
their corn, burning their shelters, and killing as many members of the
tribe as possible.

Governor Harvey reversed this policy and made peace with the Indians
against the advice of Dr. Pott and other Councilors. He also attempted
to see that some measure of equity was extended to Indian-white
relations. As a result, the more aggressive planters accused him of
promoting a second massacre.

What really set off the revolt against Harvey, however, was the
injection of the hottest issue of the day into the controversy: whether
Harvey was "soft" on Catholicism. This issue was brought to a head
because of the grant of a portion of Virginia's original territory to
George Calvert, first Lord Baltimore. Harvey had extended a helping hand
to Baltimore's colonists. Although his actions in this regard were
specifically required of him by the King, and although he received
especially warm commendation from the English government for doing so,
the Virginia colonists objected. The King's grant, for one thing, had
been carved out of the Virginia Company's old bounds which had been left
undisturbed when the Company lost its right to govern the area. Already
Virginians were beginning to eye the benefits of settlement in the
northern reaches of Chesapeake Bay. One, Colonel William Claiborne,
Secretary of the colony, had obtained a ro