The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-01-11
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chilling news as fast as he could fly to his master-Rchard Pace, and by his prompt action the full, bloody horor of Opechancanough was largely curtailed.
 Like Fort Mims and all other Indian massacres in America 1t sounded the death-k knell of the Indians.
 The vengeance of the English cannot be defended on any humane or Christian grounds, for they adopted the same ter ribe methods of their savage foes. The oportunity of the white people, owing to the swiftness of the savage and his knowledge of the country were not frc- quent enough to appease the boiling spirit of vengeance The Indian pressed by hunger, or stimulated by the hope of plunder or revenge, would burst from his eoncealment on his enemy, and if outnumbered and pursued. he. vanished amidst the eternal midnight of the for ests and swamps whole days he would lie in breathless silence on his belly--his color not distnguishable from the earth in which he lies. He watches tho moment when he can strike with certainty and his aim is as fatal and unerring as des- tiny. But the English finding their in- feriority in such a game, r-oftcd by their sad experience with this willy son of the forest. and destroyed him at his own game. The Indians were invited from their forest Businesses and given solemn assurance of safety and forgiveness. Con- fiding in those professions. which with them had been sacred and inviolable hitherto. they returned to their habita- tions and resumed their usual avoca- tions and exercise. The moment of re- tribution had arrived, and it's execution was as brutal and sangunary as it's means were impious. The habitatfons of this doomed race were beset at the same moment, and bloody slaughter without re- gard to age or sex held the day Pratt 1iacr inf 1 rid scene terminated by burning the huts and corn of the savages. After this a general policy of determination by gra6- ual means set in which Is followed up to this day.
 Opechancanough, the willy savage, es- capped for a time from the English, but his fate was written down on the crude headstone of every person butchered by his command and craft. The last Indian war followed The Indian met his fate stoically. as 1t Is his nature to meet dan gers and universities.
 The operations of this war which ragged with unabated fury till the death of opechancanough are net detailed by any historian. The early records of the state which might have supplied the defect are silent on the subject. The relation of Beverly, unsatisfactory and imperfect as 1t is contains every particular which has survived the ravages of time .s.
 we are told by all the chronclers that. at this time Opechancanough was so de- crepit with age, as to be unable to walk; but that his spirit rising above the ruins of his body, directed from the litter on which he was carried by the Indians. the onset and the retreat of his warriors This excessive fatigue completed the wreck. His flesh (Beverly) became rnacer- ated; his sinews lost their tone and elas- ticity, and his eyelids were so heavy that he could not see, unless they were lift ed by his attendants. In this forlorn con- dition, he was surprised by Sir w. Berle- ley, who pursued him close with saad- ron of light cavalry. captured and car- ried him in triumph to Jamestown The majestic figure excited pity and respect; they saw the terrible enemy who had been the author of so much murder in Virginia, now captive in their hands, bending under the load of years and shat tered by the hardships of war, and they generously buried the memory of injuries In his present melancholy reverse of for tune. Cdow could they? However, he was basely shot through the back by one of the soldiers appointed to guard him without any other provocation than the memory of injuries, and the fear of es- cape. To the last moment his courage remained unbroken, and the nearer death approached, the greater caution he used in concealing his dejection and preserving the dignity and serenity of his aspect.