Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/405

 There are indications that shelter was given to sows with litters of young pigs, the tobacco houses being thrown open to them for this purpose. It was acknowledged in an Act of Assembly, passed in March, 1662, that the crime of stealing and killing hogs was rarely punished, although it was very frequently committed, a proof that swine had now increased to large numbers, and that they were the cause of no expense to their owners on account of the facility with which they discovered food while running wild in the forests and marshes. It was thought necessary to make the hog-stealer suffer for his disregard of the rights of others, but instead of defining his act as a felony, the law simply mulcted him one thousand pounds of tobacco, and if he was unable to pay such an amount, compelled him to go into the service of the owner of the hog which had been stolen, for a period of twelve months. This enactment had so small an effect in curing the evil to be removed, that it was provided at a later date that for the second offence of hog-stealing, the guilty person should be placed in the pillory for two hours with his ears nailed to the beam, and at the end of that time they should be cut loose with a knife. This severe punishment was prescribed a few years after the suppression of the Insurrection of 1676, which, as has been pointed out, had been highly destructive of all kinds of live stock. It is to be noted, however, that not until the third offence had been committed was the act declared to be a felony. As the Indians were very much disposed to kill the swine of the colonists, and it was difficult to detect them, it was provided that all persons of that race should be considered competent to give testimony when they had been witnesses of the crime. Every tribe owning hogs was