[2] Harrison's _Virginia Land Grants_, 63.
This appeared a reasonably satisfactory compromise of the controversy to both sides. But suddenly in February, 1673, Charles made a grant of all Virginia to the Earl of Arlington and Lord Colepeper to hold for thirty-one years at an annual rent of forty shillings to be paid at Michaelmas. Thus was Virginia rewarded for her faithful loyalty to the Stuarts. When the news came to Jamestown the Colony flamed with resentment and anger; and now Berkeley and his Council were in hearty accord with the wrathful indignation of the Colonists. Even though the King had not intended to interfere with the title of individual planters in possession of their land, his action threw the whole situation, and particularly in the Northern Neck, into turmoil and confusion. Exasperation was directed against the holders of the Charter of 1669 as well as those of 1673 and again the original patentees appealed to the Privy Council for relief. Again the King sought to help them but by this time they had grown weary of the long controversy and indicated their willingness to sell out their rights to the Colony; before an agreement could be reached, Bacon's Rebellion flared up and the whole subject was again in abeyance.
We must now return to the Indians. The Dutch settlements along the Hudson had early developed a very lucrative and active trade with their native neighbours, particularly the Iroquois, who brought to them furs for which they were given European manufactures, especially spirits and firearms and when, in 1664, the English conquered and took possession of these Hudson settlements, they continued the Dutch trade and friendship with the Iroquois. To obtain furs, the hunters and warriors of the Five Nations ranged further and further afield and before long were in bitter conflict with the Susquehannocks who had their headquarters and principal stronghold fifty or sixty miles above the present Port Deposit in Maryland on the east bank of that river from which they derived their name. They were mighty men and warriors, these Susquehannocks. All the early English who mention them pay tribute to their splendid strength and stature. Smith who, it will be remembered, came in contact with them before his skirmish with the Manahoacs, said of them that "such great and well proportioned men are seldom seen, for they seem like giants to the English, yea to their neighbours." And in 1666 Alsop wrote that the Christian inhabitants of Maryland regarded them as "the most noble and heroic nation of Indians that dwelt upon the confines of America.... Men, women and children both summer and winter went practically naked," and adds, among other details, that they painted their faces in red, green, white and black stripes; that the hair of their heads was black, long and coarse but that the hair growing on other parts of their bodies was removed by pulling it out hair by hair; and that some tattooed their bodies, breasts and arms with outlines. Our American soil, from the beginning, appears to have favoured the art of the barber and beauty-shop.