8  SMITHSONIAN    MISCELLANEOUS    COLLECTIONS  VOL.    96 
Act  II  was  "  An  act  concerning  Indian  trade  and  traders."  This 
prohibited  trade  with  the  Indians  and  then  continued : 
Provided  nevertheless  that  it  shall  and  may  be  lawfull  that  such  Indians  who 
shall  serve  the  English  in  the  warr,  and  onely  such  be  supplied  to  the  vallue 
of  their  wages  and  pay  for  the  takeing  prisoners  in  such  necessary  things  as 
they  shall  want,  armes  and  ammunition  wholy  excepted,  and  it  is  hereby  intended 
that  our  neighbour  Indian  ffriends  bee  not  debarred  from  fishing  and  hunting 
within  their  owne  limmits  and  bounds,  useing  bowes  and  arrowes  onelie.  Pro- 
vidcd  also  that  such  neighbour  Indian  ffriends  who  have  occasion  for  corne  to 
releive  their  wives  and  children,  it  shall  and  may  be  lawfull  for  any  English 
to  employ  in  fishing  or  deale  with  fish,  canooes,  bowles,  matts  or  basketts,  and 
to  pay  the  said  Indians  for  the  same  in  Indian  corne,  but  noe  other 
commodities  .  .  ." 
This  is  of  the  greatest  interest  in  proving  that  the  EngHsh  made 
use  of  dugout  canoes  obtained  from  the  Indians,  and  also  pottery 
vessels,  rush  mats,  and  baskets  made  in  the  Indian  villages.  The  use 
by  the  colonists  of  such  material  of  Indian  make  was  probably  general 
throughout  the  English  settlements.  It  is  likewise  evident  that  fish 
were  obtained  by  the  English  from  the  Indians,  and  much  game  may 
have  been  procured  from  the  native  hunters,  who  continued  to  use 
their  bows  and  arrows. 
During  the  meeting  of  the  assembly,  June  1676,  when  forces  were 
being  gathered  for  the  intended  expedition  against  the  "  barbarous 
Indians  ",  it  was  ordered  that  "  the  forte  in  Rappahannack  countie 
commanded  by  major  Lawrence  Smith,  which  was  settled  or  in- 
tended to  be  settled  by  vertue  of  a  late  act  of  assembly,  be  forthwith 
deserted  ..."  The  troops  were  to  be  ordered  to  other  posts  on 
the  frontier  where  conditions  were  more  serious.  This  was  only 
3  months  after  the  order  had  been  given  for  the  erection  of  the 
frontier  "  ffort  or  place  of  defence  ",  and  if  ever  erected,  which  is 
doubtful,  it  would  probably  have  resembled  the  palisaded  structures 
so  characteristic  of  the  wilderness  far  beyond  the  mountains  a  century 
later. 
By  the  autumn  of  1677  the  growing  importance  of  trade  with  the 
neighboring  Indians  was  acknowledged  by  the  burgesses,  and  acts 
were  passed  setting  forth  the  manner  in  which  it  was  to  be  conducted. 
On  October  10,  1677,  the  Grand  Assembly  met  at  the  house  of  Capt. 
Otho  Thorpe,  at  Middle  Plantation.  Act  III  of  that  date,  "  An  act 
lycensing  trading  with  Indians  ",  was  of  great  importance.  It  read 
in  part : 
Forasmuch  as  the  totall  prohibition  of  tradeing  with  Indians  is  experimented 
and  found  hurtfull  and  prejudiciall  to  his  majesties  colony  and  the  inhabitants 
'"  Hening,  op.  cit.,  vol.  2,  p.  350. 
