NO.    4       INDIAN-    SITES    ON    THE    RAPPAHANNOCK BUSHNELL  7 
The  reply  to  a  question  submitted  to  the  Governor  of  Virginia,  by 
the  Lords  Commissioners  of  Foreign  Plantations  in  1670  was :  "  The 
Indians,  our  neighbours  are  absolutely  subjected,  so  that  there  is 
no  fear  of  them."  '  This  referred  to  the  Indians  within  the  colony. 
However,  if  peace  prevailed  within  the  colony,  there  was  always 
much  to  fear  from  beyond  the  frontiers. 
The  Assembly  of  March  1675-6,  anticipating  an  invasion  of  the 
colony  and  attacks  on  the  outlying  settlements,  passed  "  An  act  for 
the  safeguard  and  defence  of  the  country  against  the  Indians."  This 
act,  after  mentioning  the  garrison  to  be  located  on  the  Potomac  in 
Stafford  County,  continued :  "  one  hundred  and  eleven  men  out  of 
Glocester  county  to  be  garrisoned  at  one  ffort  or  place  of  defence 
■at  or  neare  the  ffalls  of  Rapahanack  river,  of  which  ffort  major 
Lawrence  Smith  to  be  captain  or  cheife  comander."  " 
The  acts  passed  "  At  a  Grand  Assemblie,  Holden  at  James  Cittie 
the  fifth  day  of  June,  1676  ",  included  much  of  importance  concerning 
the  Indians  of  the  colony  and  others  who  liA^ed  beyond  the  bounds. 
This  assembly  was  held  while  the  colony  was  dominated  by  Nathaniel 
Bacon  and  his  followers,  and  consequently  the  acts  became  known  as 
Bacon's  Laws.  Act  I  was  "  An  act  for  carrying  on  a  warre  against 
the  barbarous  Indians  ",  which  referred  to  the  Conestoga,  who  had 
harassed  the  Virginia  frontiers  and  had  later  sought  refuge  near  the 
Occaneechi  far  south  in  the  present  IMecklenburg  County,  Va.  The 
act  mentioned  the  number  of  troops  to  be  raised  in  the  several 
counties,  supplies  to  be  collected,  and  other  questions  relating  to  the 
proposed  campaign. 
latter  "gave  his  old  shoes  and  his  mantle  to  Captain  Newport"  (Smith,  op.  cit., 
p.  125).  The  remarkable  specimen  is  now  in  the  Ashmolean  Museum,  Oxford, 
England.  The  ornamentation  was  formed  by  attaching  great  numbers  of  the 
shells,  MargiticUa  virginiana,  to  the  deer  skins  of  which  the  "  habit  "  or  "  mantle  " 
was  made.  As  defined  in  the  Handbook  of  the  American  Indians  (Bureau  of 
American  Ethnology,  Bull.  30)  :  "  Roanoke.  A  name  apphed,  with  several 
variants,  by  the  Virginia  colonists,  to  the  shell  beads  employed  by  the  neigh- 
boring Indians  as  articles  of  personal  adornment  or  media  of  exchange ;  a  case 
of  substitution  of  a  familiar  word  for  one  that  was  ill  understood  and  probably 
more  difficult  to  pronounce.  Capt.  John  Smith  (1612  and  1624)  gives  the  Pow- 
hatan name  for  shell  beads  in  the  form  of  rawrenock  and  rawranoke,  and  Wil- 
liam Strachey  defines  rarenaiv  as  '  a  chain  of  beads.'  The  root  rar  means  to 
'  rub  ',  '  abrade  ',  '  smooth  ',  '  polish.'  The  original  word  may  have  been  rarenazvok, 
'  smoothed  shells  ',  pi.  of  rarenazv." 
'  Hening,  op.  cit.,  vol.  2,  p.  513. 
°Hening,  op.  cit.,  vol.  2,  p.  327. 
