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 acres for each bowman; and in case the land of any Indian or Indians was included in a patent which had been obtained by a white settler, the latter, if unable or unwilling to purchase the area encroached upon, was to be required to deliver it to its Indian owner. On account quite probably of the fact that the narrow extent of the Eastern Shore placed the tribe inhabiting that part of the Colony more at the mercy of unscrupulous white persons who were anxious to intrude on their hunting grounds, the Assembly exhibited at every period in the seventeenth century unusual care in furnishing them the protection they needed so much. In 1660, the Indians of Accomac complained that they had been deprived of their lands to such an extent that they were now in a straitened condition, and they asked that proper measures be adopted to raise a barrier against the further advance of the English upon their property. The action of the authorities in response to this petition was highly significant. They were not content that the grounds should be laid off for the Accomac tribe by a surveyor of the Eastern Shore. Thinking that such a surveyor might perform the work to the prejudice of the aborigines, instructions were given that the services of a resident of the Western Shore should be obtained, who would have no motive in determining the lands, beyond a desire to execute the task conscientiously. The extent of country to be assigned was to be sufficient to afford the Indians an ample subsistence without regard to what they could earn by hunting and fishing, and they should have no power to alienate it.

A striking proof of the disposition of the Assembly to show the utmost favor to the Indians, in all their transactions with the whites in relation to the soil, is to be