s considered to have an unquestioned legal right to the land. The
setting aside of a reservation for the Indians into which English
intrusion was forbidden marked the end of the "perpetual enmity" policy
of earlier days. When differences arose, they might still be settled by
peace or by war, but the right of either side to exist would not be
questioned.

Despite the improvement in the status of the Indian nations occasioned
by the treaty of 1646 it proved impossible to preserve their rights in
the face of the enormous increase in English population. The fate of the
eastern Indians proved identical to the fate of their western brothers
in the nineteenth century, when white population increased around the
areas set aside for Indian occupancy. But in Virginia the attempt was
made to establish a fair settlement, and Governor Berkeley honestly and
courageously labored to keep faith with the Indians, even though he lost
popularity and eventually his position as a result.

The Assembly of October 1646 also provided for the maintenance of the
forts built during the war. This was done by granting the land on which
they were built, plus adjoining acres, to individuals who would
guarantee to maintain the forts and to keep a certain number of men
constantly on the place. By this method the valuable forts of the
colony were preserved, yet the people were spared the heavy taxes that
would normally have been necessary to maintain them.

The Assembly made further provision that those who had settled along the
Potomac in Northumberland should not be allowed to avoid taxes as they
had done during the war. The English in this remote area had evidently
ignored the act of the February 1645 Assembly which attempted to tax
them, and followed instead their own interests, free from any effective
control by Virginia's government during the conflict with
Opechancanough.

Finally the October Assembly enacted the strictest and most democratic
voting law ever made in Virginia. Not only were all freemen (as well as
covenanted servants) allowed to vote, but they were fined 100 pounds of
tobacco for failing to do so. This act seems to have continued in effect
until 1655 when the Assembly prohibited freemen from voting unless they
were also householders.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF BERKELEY IN 1647-1648: TRADE AND EXPANSION

Following the war Virginia returned to its two great peacetime
interests--trade and expansion. In the Assembly of April 1647 Be