In a tight-lipped rage he issued a proclamation and sent it after them.

They and their leader were acting illegally, usurping military powers that belonged elsewhere! Let them disband, disperse to their dwellings, or beware action of the rightful powers! Troubled in mind, some disbanded and dispersed, but threescore at least would by no means do so.

Nor would the young man "of precipitate disposition" who headed the troop.
He rode on into the forest after the Indians, and the others followed him.

Here were the Falls of the Far West, and here on a hill the Indians had a "fort." This the Virginia planters attacked.

The hills above the James echoed to the sound of the small, desperate fray.