[205:A] Cohonk, the cry of the wild-geese, was an Indian term for winter.
[206:A] Toward the end of 1641 he had petitioned the governor for permission to visit his kinsman, Opechancanough, and Cleopatre, his aunt.
[209:A] Hening, i. 252.
CHAPTER XXIII.
1648-1659.
Beauchamp Plantagenet visits Virginia—Settlement of other Colonies—Dissenters persecuted and banished from Virginia—Some take refuge in Carolina; some in Maryland—Charles the First executed—Commonwealth of England—Virginia Assembly denounces the Authors of the King's Death—Colonel Norwood's Voyage to Virginia—The Virginia Dissenters in Maryland—The Long Parliament prohibits Trade with Virginia—A Naval Force sent to reduce the Colony, Bennet and Clayborne being two of the Commissioners—Captain Dennis demands surrender of Virginia—Sir William Berkley constrained to yield—Articles of Capitulation.
During the year 1648 Beauchamp Plantagenet, a royalist with a high-flown name, flying from the fury of the grand rebellion, visited America in behalf of a company of adventurers, in quest of a place of settlement, and in the course of his explorations came to Virginia. At Newport's News he was hospitably entertained by Captain Matthews, Mr. Fantleroy, and others, finding free quarter everywhere. The Indian war was now ended by the courage of Captain Marshall and the valiant Stillwell, and by the resolute march of Sir William Berkley, who had made the veteran Opechancanough prisoner. The explorer went to Chicaoen, on the Potomac, and found Maryland involved in war with the Sasquesahannocks and other Indians, and at the same time in a civil war. Kent Island appeared to be too wet, and the water was bad.[210:A]
In the month of March, 1648, Nickotowance, the Indian chief, visited Governor Berkley, at Jamestown, accompanied by five other chiefs, and presented twenty beaver skins to be sent to King Charles as tribute. About this time the Indians reported to Sir William Berkley that within five days' journey to the southwest there was a high mountain, and at the foot of it great rivers that run into a great sea; that men came hither in ships, (but not the same as the English;) that they wore apparel, and had red caps on their heads, and rode on beasts like horses, but with much longer ears. These people were probably the Spaniards. Sir William Berkley prepared to make an exploration with fifty horse and as many foot,[211:A] but he was disappointed in this enterprise.
