Old Virginia and her neighbours

BACON'S REBELLION. 61evidently the Susquehannocks bad joined in thework in retaliation for the unfortunate mistakecommitted by Colonel Mason's men.At the close of the conference Major Trumancalled to Colonel Washington, asking if these werenot impudent rogues to deny the murders theyhad done, when at that very moment the corjjsesof nine of their own tribe were lying unburied atHurston's plantation, where in a fight the defendersof the place had just slain them. As theenvoys jDcrsisted in denying that these dead Indianswere Susquehannocks, Washington suggestedthat they shoidd be taken to Hurston'sand confronted with the bodies. So Tru- of the-,• 1 1 r.men marched away with the fiveman senvoys.envoys, and presently put them to death, " w*^^was occation," says one of the Virginian witnesses,*'y* much amaized & startled us & ou^ Comanders,being a thing y* was never imagined or expected." ^The killing of these envoys was in violation ofa rule that holds in all warfare, whether savage orcivilized, and Truman was impeached for it in theMaryland assembly; but owing to an obstinatedisagreement between the two houses as to the1 In describing this affair I have relied chiefly upon the affidavitsfrom the records of Westmoreland County, reprinted byDr, L. G. Tyler, in his admirable William and Mary CollegeQuarterly, ii. 39-43. The affidavits were taken by NicholasSpencer and Richard Lee, son of the Richard Lee mentioned inthe preceding chapter, la Browne's Maryland, p. 131, an attemptis made to throw the blame for killing the envoys upon theVirginians, but the affidavits seem to me trustworthy and conclusive.It is not likely that there was or is any discernible differencebetween human nature in Virginia and in Maryland,and public opinion in both colonies condemned Truman's conduct.