tinued for a number of years before it was finally relaxed. Strict
regulations were instituted to curb the abuses of administrators of
deceased persons and orphans. Because of the trouble and charge to
plaintiffs and defendants of coming to Jamestown to attend the General
Court, county courts were allowed power to try all causes at common law
and equity. The tradition that appeals should lie from county courts to
the General Court and from the General Court to the Assembly was
reaffirmed. General poll taxes, which had been reintroduced, were
abolished on the grounds that they were "inconvenient" and had "become
insupportable for the poorer sorte to beare." All levies were ordered to
be raised "by equall proportions out of the visible estates in the
collony." Exemptions from taxation extended to members of the Council
were canceled for the duration of the war. It is not hard to imagine the
praise that would have been heaped on the initiator of such reforms, had
it seemed that they were the result of a democratic uprising.

In March 1646 the Assembly met again. The policy of building forts had
evidently been considered successful enough to encourage the Assembly to
order another, Fort Henry, constructed at the falls of the Appomattox
for the defense of the inhabitants on the south side of the James River
and to deprive the Indians of their fishing in the area. The war had
been going on for a year and a half and the enemy forces were still not
destroyed. The Assembly, considering the vast expense that the conflict
had caused and considering "the almost impossibility of a further
revenge upon them, they being dispersed and driven from their townes and
habitations, lurking up and downe the woods in small numbers, and that a
peace (if honourably obtained) would conduce to the better being and
comoditie of the country," authorized Capt. Henry Fleet, the colony's
interpreter, and sixty men, to go out and try to make a peace with
Opechancanough. If they could not make such a peace, they were to erect
a fort on the Rappahannock River or between it and the York.

The "break" in the war came with the daring capture of Opechancanough
himself by Governor Berkeley. Berkeley, who frequently led the troops of
the colony in the field, was apprised of the Indian leader's
whereabouts, and with characteristic boldness led a troop of men in a
raid on his headquarters. The raid was successful: Opechancanough was
captured and brought back to J