1676.
Bacon, with an armed Force, enters Jamestown--Extorts a
Commission from the Governor--Proceedings of Assembly--Bacon
marches against the Pamunkies--Berkley summons Gloucester
Militia--Bacon countermarches upon the Governor--He escapes to
Accomac--Bacon encamps at Middle Plantation--Calls a
Convention--Oath prescribed--Sarah Drummond--Giles Bland
seizes an armed Vessel and sails for Accomac--His Capture--
Berkley returns to Jamestown--Bacon exterminates the Indians.
WITHIN three or four days after Bacon's escape, news reached James City
that he was some thirty miles above, on the James River, at the head of
four hundred men. Sir William Berkley summoned the York train-bands to
defend Jamestown, but only one hundred obeyed the summons, and they
arrived too late, and one-half of them were favorable to Bacon.
Expresses almost hourly brought tidings of his approach, and in less
than four days he marched into Jamestown unresisted, at two o'clock
P.M., and drew up his force, (now amounting to six hundred men,) horse
and foot, in battle array on the green in front of the state-house, and
within gunshot. In half an hour the drum beat, as was the custom, for
the assembly to meet, and in less than thirty minutes Bacon advanced,
with a file of fusileers on either hand, near to the corner of the
state-house, where he was met by the governor and council. Sir William
Berkley, dramatically baring his breast, cried out, "Here! shoot
me--fore God, fair mark; shoot!" frequently repeating the words. Bacon
replied, "No, may it please your honor, we will not hurt a hair of your
head, nor of any other man's; we are come for a commission to save our
lives from the Indians, which you have so often promised, and now we
will have it before we go." Bacon was walking to and fro between the
files of his men, holding his left arm akimbo, and gesticulating
violently with his right, he and the governor both like men distracted.
In a few moments Sir William withdrew to his private apartment at the
other end of the state-house, the council accompanying him. Bacon
followed, frequently hurrying his hand from his sword-hilt to his hat;
and after him came a detachment of fusileers, who, with their guns
cocked and presented at a window of the assembly chamber, filled with
faces, repeating in menacing tone, "We will have it, we will have it,"
for half a minute, when a well-known burgess, waving his handkerchief
out at the window, exclaimed, three or four times, "You shall have it,
you shall have it;" when, uncocking their guns, they rested them on the
ground, and stood still, till Bacon returning, they rejoined the main
body. It was said that Bacon had beforehand directed his men to fire in
case he should draw his sword. In about an hour after Bacon re-entered
the assembly chamber, and demanded a commission, authorizing him to
march out against the Indians. Godwyn, the speaker,[294:A] who was
himself a Baconian, as were a majority of the house, remaining silent in
the chair, Brewse, (or Bruce,)[294:B] the colleague of Bacon, alone
found courage to answer: "'Twas not in our province, or power, nor of
any other, save the king's vicegerent, our governor." Bacon,
nevertheless, still warmly urged his demand, and harangued the assembly
for nearly half an hour on the Indian disturbances, the condition of the
public revenues, the exorbitant taxes, abuses and corruptions of the
administration, and all the grievances of their miserable country.
Having concluded, and finding "no other answer, he went away
dissatisfied."
On the following day the governor directed the house to take measures to
defend the country against the Indians, and advised them to beware of
two rogues among them, meaning Lawrence and Drummond, who both lived at
Jamestown. But some of the burgesses, in order to effect a redress of
some of the grievances that the country labored under, made motions for
inspecting the public revenues, the collector's accounts, etc., when
they received pressing messages from the governor to meddle with nothing
else till the Indian business was disposed of. The debate on this matter
rose high, but the governor's orders were finally acquiesced in.
While the committee on Indian affairs was sitting, the Queen of
Pamunkey, a descendant of Opechancanough, was introduced into their
room. Accompanied by an interpreter and her son, a youth of twenty
years, she entered with graceful dignity. Around her head she wore a
plait of black and white wampum-peake, a drilled purple bead of shell,
three inches wide, after the manner of a crown. There is preserved at
Fredericksburg a silver frontlet, purchased from some Indians, with a
coat of arms, and inscribed "The Queen of Pamunkey," "Charles the
Second, King of England, Scotland, France, Ireland, and Virginia," and
"Honi soit qui mal y pense." She was clothed in a mantle of dressed
buckskin, with the fur outward, and bordered with a deep fringe from
head to foot. Being seated, the chairman asked her "How many men she
would lend the English for guides and allies?" She referred him to her
son, who understood English, being the reputed son of an English
colonel. But he declining to answer, she burst forth in an impassioned
speech of a quarter of an hour's length, often repeating the words,
"Totopotomoi dead," referring to her husband, who, as has been seen, had
fallen while fighting under Colonel Hill, the elder. The chairman,
untouched by this appeal, roughly repeated the inquiry, how many men she
would contribute. Averting her head with a disdainful look she sate
silent, till the question being pressed a third time, she replied in a
low tone, "Six." When still further importuned she said "Twelve,"
although she had then one hundred and fifty warriors in her town. She
retired silent and displeased.
The assembly went on to provide for the Indian war, and made Nathaniel
Bacon, Jr., general and commander-in-chief, which was ratified by the
governor and council. An act was also passed indemnifying Bacon and his
party for their violent acts; and a highly applausive letter was
prepared, justifying Bacon's designs and proceedings, addressed to the
king and subscribed by the governor, council, and assembly. Sir William
Berkley at the same time communicated to the house a letter addressed to
his majesty, saying: "I have above thirty years governed the most
flourishing country the sun ever shone over, but am now encompassed with
rebellion like waters, in every respect like that of Massaniello, except
their leader." Massaniello, or Thomas Anello, a fisherman of Naples,
born 1623, exasperated by the oppressive taxes imposed by Austria upon
his countrymen, at the head of two thousand young men, armed with canes,
overthrew the viceroy, seized upon the supreme power, and after holding
it for some years, fell by the hands of assassins in 1647. Some of the
burgesses also wrote to the king, setting forth the circumstances of the
outbreak. The amnesty extended from the 1st day of March to the 25th day
of June, 1676, and excepted only offences against the law concerning the
Indian trade.[296:A] The assembly did not restrict itself to measures
favorable to Bacon. According to the letter of the law, at least, he had
been guilty of rebellion in assuming a military command and marching
against the savages without a commission, and he had so acknowledged.
Yet he was not more guilty than the bulk of the people of the colony,
and probably not more so than a majority of the assembly itself; and the
popular movement seemed justified by an urgent necessity of
self-defence, and an intolerable accumulation of public grievances. On
the other hand, Sir William Berkley had violated his solemn engagement
to grant the commission. Besides, it did not escape the notice of the
assembly that the term of ten years for which, it was believed, he had
been appointed, had expired; and this circumstance, although it might
not be held absolutely to terminate his authority, served at the least
to attenuate it. The assembly adopted measures with a view at once to
vindicate the supremacy of the law; to heal the wounded pride of the
aged governor; to protect the country; to screen Bacon and his
confederates from punishment, and to reform the abuses of the
government.
It is remarkable that the resolutions, instructing the Virginia
delegates in Congress to declare the colonies free and independent, were
passed in June, 1776, and that the assembly, under Bacon's influence,
met in June, 1676. The first act of this session declared war against
the hostile Indians, ordering a levy of one thousand men, and
authorizing General Bacon to receive volunteers; and if their number
should prove sufficient, to dispense with the regular force; Indians
taken in war to be made slaves; the forces divided into southern and
northern, and such officers to be appointed to command these divisions
as the governor should commission. An act was then passed for the
suppressing of tumults, the preamble reciting that there had of late
"been many unlawful tumults, routs, and riots, in divers parts of this
country, and that certain ill-disposed and disaffected people of late
gathered, and may again gather themselves together, by beat of drum and
otherwise, in a most apparent rebellious manner, without any authority
or legal commission, which may prove of very dangerous consequences,"
etc. The act for regulating of officers and offices, shows how many
abuses and how much rapacity had crept into the administration. By this
act it was declared that no person, not being a native or minister,
could hold any office until he had resided in the colony for three
years. The democratic spirit of this assembly displayed itself in a law
"enabling freemen to vote for burgesses;" and another making the church
vestries eligible by the freemen of the parish, once in three years.
Representatives were to be chosen by the people in each parish to vote
with the justices in laying the county levy, and in making by-laws. The
county courts were authorized to appoint their own collectors; and
members of the council were prohibited from voting with the justices. An
act for suppressing of ordinaries, or country taverns, suppressed all
except three, one at James City, and one at each side of York River, at
the great ferries; and these were prohibited from retailing any liquors,
except beer and cider. Lieutenant-Colonel Hill, and Lieutenant John
Stith, both of the parish of Westover, and County of Charles City, were
disabled from holding office in that county, for having fomented
misunderstandings between the honorable governor and his majesty's good
and loyal subjects, the inhabitants of the Counties of Charles City and
Henrico, and having been instrumental in levying unjust and exorbitant
taxes.[297:A] In evidence of the excitement and suspicion then
prevailing, it was observed that some of the burgesses wore distinctive
badges; a hundred years afterwards the opposite parties walked on
opposite sides of the street.
In a few days the assembly was dissolved by the governor, who, seeing
how great Bacon's influence was, apprehended only further mischief from
their proceedings. A number of the burgesses, intending to depart on the
morrow, having met in the evening to take leave of each other, General
Bacon, as he now came to be styled, entered the room with a handful of
papers, and, looking around, inquired, "Which of these gentlemen shall I
interest to write a few words for me?" All present looking aside, being
unwilling to act, Lawrence, Bacon's friend, pointing to one of the
company, (the author of T. M.'s Account,) said: "That gentleman writes
very well," and he, undertaking to excuse himself, Bacon, bowing low,
said: "Pray, sir, do me the honor to write a line for me;" and he now
consenting, was detained during the whole night, filling up commissions
obtained from the governor, and signed by him. These commissions Bacon
filled almost altogether with the names of the militia officers of the
country, the first men in the colony in fortune, rank, and influence.
His vigorous measures at once restored confidence to the planters, and
they resumed their occupations. Bacon, at the head of a thousand men,
marched against the Pamunkies, killing many and destroying their towns.
Meanwhile the people of Gloucester, the most populous and loyal county,
having been disarmed by Bacon, petitioned the governor for protection
against the savages. Reanimated by this petition, he again proclaimed
Bacon a rebel and a traitor, and hastened over to Gloucester. Summoning
the train-bands of that county and Middlesex, to the number of twelve
hundred men, he proposed to them to pursue and put down the rebel
Bacon--when the whole assembly unanimously shouted, "Bacon! Bacon!
Bacon!" and withdrew from the field, still repeating the name of that
popular leader, the Patrick Henry of his day, and leaving the aged
cavalier governor and his attendants to themselves. The issue was now
fairly joined between the people and the governor. Francis Morryson,
afterwards one of the king's commissioners, in a letter dated at London,
November 28th, 1677, and addressed to Secretary Ludwell, says: "I fear
when that part of the narrative comes to be read that mentions the
Gloucester petitions, your brother may be prejudiced, for there are two
or three that will be summoned, will lay the contrivance at your
brother's door and Beverley's, but more upon your brother, who, they
say, was the drawer of it. For at the first sight, all the lords judged
that that was the unhappy accident that made the Indian war recoil into
a civil war; for the reason you alleged that bond and oath were
proffered the governor, intended not against Bacon but the Indians,
confirmed the people that Bacon's commission was good, it never being
before disavowed by proclamation, but by letters writ to his majesty in
commendation of Bacon's acting, copies thereof dispersed among the
people."[299:A] According to another authority[299:B] the people of
Gloucester refused to march against Bacon, but pledged themselves to
defend the governor against him, if he should turn against Sir William
Berkley and his government, which they hoped would never happen. From
the result of this affair of the Gloucester petitions, we may conclude
that either they contained nothing unfavorable to Bacon, or if they did,
that they were gotten up by designing leaders without the consent of the
people. It is certain that now, when Bacon's violent proceedings at
Jamestown were known, the great body of the people espoused his cause
and approved his designs.
Bacon, before he reached the head of York River, hearing from Lawrence
and Drummond of the governor's movements, exclaimed, that "it vexed him
to the heart, that while he was hunting wolves which were destroying
innocent lambs, the governor and those with him should pursue him in the
rear with full cry; and that he was like corn between two mill-stones,
which would grind him to powder if he didn't look to it." He marched
immediately back against the governor, who finding himself abandoned,
again, on the twenty-ninth of July, proclaimed Bacon a rebel, and made
his escape, with a few friends, down York River and across the
Chesapeake Bay to Accomac, on the Eastern Shore. A vindication of Sir
William, afterwards published, says: "Nor is it to be wondered at that
he did not immediately put forth proclamations to undeceive the people,
because he had then no means of securing himself, nor forces to have
maintained such a proclamation by; but he took the first opportunity he
could of doing all this, when Gloucester County, having been plundered
by Bacon before his going out against the Indians, made an
address."[300:A]
Bacon, upon reaching Gloucester, sent out parties of horse to patrol the
country, and made prisoners such as were suspected of disaffection to
his Indian expedition; releasing on parole those who took an oath to
return home and remain quiet. This oath was strict in form but
practically little regarded.
About this time there was detected in Bacon's camp a spy, who pretended
to be a deserter from the opposite party, and who had repeatedly changed
sides. Upon his being sentenced to death by a court-martial, Bacon
declared that "if any one in the army would speak a word to save him, he
should not suffer;" but no one interceding, he was put to death. Bacon's
clemency won the admiration of the army, and this was the only instance
of capital punishment under his orders, nor did he plunder any private
house.
Having now acquired the command of a province of forty-five thousand
inhabitants, and from which the crown derived a revenue of a hundred
thousand pounds, he sate down with his army at Middle Plantation, and
sent out an invitation, subscribed by himself and four of the council,
to all the principal gentlemen of the country, to meet him in a
convention at his headquarters, to consult how the Indians were to be
proceeded against, and himself and the army protected against the
designs of Sir William Berkley.[300:B] Bacon also put forth a reply to
the governor's proclamations, demanding whether those who are entirely
devoted to the king and country, can deserve the name of rebels and
traitors? In vindication of their loyalty, he points to the peaceable
conduct of his soldiers, and calls upon the whole country to witness
against him if they can. He reproaches some of the men in power with the
meanness of their capacity; others with their ill-gotten wealth; he
inquires what arts, sciences, schools of learning or manufactures they
had promoted; he justifies his warring against the Indians, and
inveighs against Sir William Berkley for siding with them; insisting
that he had no right to interfere with the fur-trade, since it was a
monopoly of the crown, and asserting that the governor's factors on the
frontier trafficked in the blood of their countrymen, by supplying the
savages with arms and ammunition, contrary to law. He concludes by
appealing to the king and parliament.
In compliance with Bacon's invitation, a great convention, including
many of the principal men of the colony, assembled at his quarters in
August, 1676, at Middle Plantation. In preparing an oath to be
administered to the people, the three articles proposed were read by
James Minge, clerk of the house of burgesses: First, that they should
aid General Bacon in the Indian war; second, that they would oppose Sir
William Berkley's endeavors to hinder the same; third, that they would
oppose any power sent out from England, till terms were agreed to,
granting that the country's complaint should be heard against Sir
William before the king and parliament. A "bloody debate" ensued,
especially on this last article, and it lasted from noon till midnight,
Bacon and some of the principal men supporting it, and he protested that
unless it should be adopted he would surrender his commission to the
assembly. Some report[301:A] that Bacon contended in this debate
single-handed against "a great many counted the wisest in the country."
With what interest would we read a report of his speech! But his
eloquence, like Henry's, lives only in tradition. In this critical
conjuncture, when the scales of self-defence and of loyalty hung in
equipoise, the gunner of York Fort brought sudden news of fresh murders
perpetrated by the Indians in Gloucester County, near Carter's Creek,
adding that a great number of poor people had taken refuge in the fort.
Bacon demanded, "How it could be possible that the chief fort in
Virginia should be threatened by the Indians?" The gunner replied, "That
the governor on the day before had conveyed all arms and ammunition out
of the fort into his own vessel." This probably took place on the
twenty-ninth of July. Dunmore removed the gunpowder a century
afterwards. The disclosure produced a deep sensation, and the
convention now became reconciled to the oath. Among the subscribers on
this occasion were Colonel Ballard, Colonel Beale, Colonel Swan, and
'Squire Bray, of the council; Colonels Jordan, Smith, of Purton,
Scarburgh, Miller, Lawrence, and William Drummond. He had been recently
governor of North Carolina. It has been supposed that he was a
Presbyterian. He was a Scotchman; but the command of a colony would
hardly at that time have been intrusted to a Presbyterian.[302:A] Writs
were issued in his majesty's name for an assembly to meet on the fourth
day of September; they were signed by the four members of the council.
The oath was administered to the people of every rank, except servants,
and it was as follows: "Whereas, the country hath raised an army against
our common enemy, the Indians, and the same, under the command of
General Bacon, being upon the point to march forth against the said
common enemy, hath been diverted and necessitated to move to the
suppressing of forces by evil-disposed persons raised against the said
General Bacon purposely to foment and stir up civil war among us, to the
ruin of this, his majesty's country. And whereas, it is notoriously
manifest that Sir William Berkley, Knight, governor of the country,
assisted counselled, and abetted by those evil-disposed persons
aforesaid, hath not only commanded, fomented, and stirred up the people
to the said civil war, but failing therein hath withdrawn himself, to
the great astonishment of the people and the unsettlement of the
country. And whereas, the said army raised by the country for the causes
aforesaid remain full of dissatisfaction in the middle of the country,
expecting attempts from the said governor and the evil counsellors
aforesaid. And since no proper means have been found out for the
settlement of the distractions, and preventing the horrid outrages and
murders daily committed in many places of the country by the barbarous
enemy; it hath been thought fit by the said general to call unto him all
such sober and discreet gentlemen as the present circumstances of the
country will admit, to the Middle Plantation, to consult and advise of
re-establishing the peace of the country. So we, the said gentlemen,
being, this 3d of August, 1676, accordingly met, do advise, resolve,
declare, and conclude, and for ourselves do swear in manner following:
First, That we will at all times join with the said General Bacon, and
his army, against the common enemy in all points whatsoever. Secondly,
That, whereas, certain persons have lately contrived, and designed the
raising forces against the said general and the army under his command,
thereby to beget a civil war, we will endeavor the discovery and
apprehending all and every of those evil-disposed persons, and them
secure until further order from the general. Thirdly, And whereas, it is
credibly reported, that the governor hath informed the king's majesty
that the said general and the people of the country in arms under his
command, their aiders and abettors, are rebellious and removed from
their allegiance, and that upon such like information, he, the said
governor, hath advised and petitioned the king to send forces to reduce
them: we do further declare, and believe in our consciences, that it
consists with the welfare of this country, and with our allegiance to
his most sacred majesty, that we, the inhabitants of Virginia, to the
utmost of our power, do oppose and suppress all forces whatsoever of
that nature, until such time as the king be fully informed of the state
of the case by such person or persons as shall be sent from the said
Nathaniel Bacon, in the behalf of the people, and the determination
thereof be remitted hither. And we do swear that we will him, the said
general, and the army under his command, aid and assist
accordingly."[303:A]
Drummond advised that Sir William Berkley should be deposed, and Sir
Henry Chicheley substituted in his place; his counsel not being approved
of, he said: "Do not make so strange of it, for I can show from ancient
records, that such things have been done in Virginia," referring
probably to the case of Sir John Harvey. But it was agreed that the
governor's withdrawal should be taken for an abdication. Sarah Drummond,
a patriot heroine, was no less enthusiastic in Bacon's favor than her
husband. She exclaimed, "The child that is unborn shall have cause to
rejoice for the good that will come by the rising of the country."
Ralph Weldinge said: "We must expect a greater power from England that
would certainly be our ruin." But Sarah Drummond remembered that England
was divided into two hostile factions between the Duke of York and the
Duke of Monmouth. Picking up from the ground a small stick and breaking
it, she added: "I fear the power of England no more than a broken
straw." Looking for relief from the odious navigation act, she declared:
"Now we can build ships, and, like New England, trade to any part of the
world;" for New England evaded that act, which her people considered an
invasion of their rights, they not being represented in parliament.
Bacon also issued proclamations, commanding all men in the land, in case
of the arrival of the forces expected from England, to join his standard
and to retire into the wilderness, and resist the troops, until they
should agree to treat of an accommodation of the dispute.
There was a gentleman in Virginia, Giles Bland, only son of John Bland,
an eminent London merchant, who was personally known to the king, and
had a considerable interest at court. He was, as has been seen, also a
generous friend of Virginia. His brother, Theodorick Bland, sometime a
merchant at Luars, in Spain, came over to Virginia in 1654, where,
settling at Westover, upon James River, in Charles City County, he died,
in April, 1671, aged forty-five years, and was buried in the chancel of
the church, which he built, and gave, together with ten acres of land, a
court-house and prison for the county and parish. He lies buried in the
Westover churchyard between two of his friends, the church having long
since fallen down. He was of the king's council and speaker of the house
of burgesses, and was, in fortune and understanding, inferior to no man
of his time in the country. He married Ann, daughter of Richard Bennet,
sometime governor of the colony.[304:A] When John Bland sent out his son
Giles Bland to Virginia to take possession of the estate of his uncle
Theodorick, he got him appointed collector-general of the customs. The
governors had hitherto held this office, and it was in 1676 that a
collector of the revenue was first sent over from England under
parliamentary sanction, and it is therefore probable that the
appointment of Bland diminished the perquisites of Governor Berkley.
Giles Bland, in his capacity of collector, had a right to board any
vessel whenever he might think it proper. He was a man of talents,
education, courage, and haughty bearing, and having before quarrelled
with the governor, now sided warmly with Bacon. There happened to be
lying in York River a vessel of sixteen guns, commanded by a Captain
Laramore, and Bland went on board of her with a party of armed men,
under pretence of searching for contraband goods, and seizing the
captain, confined him in the cabin. Laramore, discovering Bland's
designs, resolved to deceive him in his turn, and entered into his
measures with such apparent sincerity that he was restored to the
command of his vessel. With her, another vessel of four guns, under
Captain Carver, and a sloop, Bland, now appointed Bacon's
lieutenant-general, sailed with two hundred and fifty men for Accomac,
and after capturing another vessel, appeared off Accomac with four sail.
This peninsula, separated from the main land of Virginia by the wide
Chesapeake Bay, was then hardly accessible by land, owing to the great
distance and the danger of Indians. The position was therefore
geographically advantageous for the fugitive governor; but as yet few of
the inhabitants had rallied to his standard. They indeed shared in the
general disaffection, and availed themselves of this occasion to lay
their grievances before Sir William Berkley, who found himself unable to
redress his own. Some of the inhabitants of the Eastern Shore at this
time were engaged in committing depredations on the estates of the
planters on the other side of the bay, just as the adherents of Lord
Dunmore acted a century afterwards. Upon the appearance of Bland and his
little squadron, Sir William Berkley, having not a single vessel to
defend him, was overwhelmed with despair; but at this juncture he
received a note from Laramore, offering, if he would send him some
assistance, to deliver Bland, with all his men, prisoners into his
hands. The governor, having no high opinion of Laramore, suspected that
his note might be only a bait to entrap him; but upon advising with his
friend Colonel Philip Ludwell, he knowing Laramore and having a good
opinion of him, counselled the governor to accept the offer as the best
alternative now left him, and gallantly undertook to engage in the
enterprise at the hazard of his life. Sir William consenting, Ludwell,
with twenty-six well-armed men, appeared at the appointed time alongside
of Laramore's vessel. Laramore was prepared to receive the loyalists,
and Ludwell boarded her without the loss of a man, and soon after
captured the other vessels. According to T. M.'s Account, Captain Carver
was at this time, upon Sir William's invitation, holding an interview
with him on shore. Bland, Carver, and the other chiefs were sent to the
governor, and the rest of the prisoners secured on board of the vessels.
Bland's expedition appears to have been very badly managed, and the
drunkenness of his men probably rendered his party so easy a
prey.[306:A] The greater part of the prisoners screened themselves from
punishment by entering into the governor's service. When Laramore waited
on the governor, he clasped him in his arms, called him his deliverer,
and gave him a large share of his favor. In a few days the brave old
Carver was hanged on the Accomac shore. Sir William Berkley afterwards
described him as "a valiant man and stout seaman, miraculously delivered
into my hand." Sir Henry Chicheley, the chief of the council, who, with
several other gentlemen, was a prisoner in Bacon's hands, afterwards
exclaimed against this act of the governor as most rash and cruel, and
he expected, at the time, to be executed in the same manner by way of
retaliation. Bland was put in irons and badly treated, as it was
reported.
Captain Gardner, sailing from the James River, went to the governor's
relief with his own vessel, the Adam and Eve, and ten or twelve sloops,
which he had collected upon hearing of Bland's expedition. Sir William
Berkley, by this unexpected turn of affairs, raised from the abyss of
despair to the pinnacle of hope, resolved to push his success still
further. With Laramore's vessel and Gardner's, and sixteen or seventeen
sloops, and a motley band of six hundred, or, according to another
account, one thousand men in arms, "rogues and royalists," the governor
returned in triumph to Jamestown, September 7th, 1676, where, falling
on his knees, he returned thanks to God, and again proclaimed Bacon and
his adherents rebels and traitors. There were now in Jamestown nine
hundred Baconites, as they had come to be styled, under command of
Colonel Hansford, commissioned by Bacon. Berkley sent in a summons for
surrender of the town, with offer of pardon to all except Drummond and
Lawrence. Upon this, all of them retired to their homes except Hansford,
Lawrence, Drummond, and a few others, who made for the head of York
River, in quest of Bacon, who had returned to that quarter.
During these events Bacon was executing his designs against the Indians.
As soon as he had dispatched Bland to Accomac, he crossed the James
River at his own house, at Curles, and surprising the Appomattox
Indians, who lived on both sides of the river of that name, a little
below the falls, (now Petersburg,) he burnt their town, killed a large
number of the tribe, and dispersed the rest.[307:A] Burk[307:B] places
this battle or massacre on Bloody Run, a small stream emptying into the
James at Richmond, but he refers to no authority, and probably had none
better than a loose tradition. The Appomattox Indians, it appears,
occupied both sides of the river in question, and it is altogether
improbable that Indians still inhabited the north bank of the James
River near Curles. Besides, if they had still inhabited that side, it
would have been unnecessary to cross the James before commencing the
attack. Curles was a proper point for crossing the James with a view of
attacking the Indians on the Appomattox.
From the falls of the Appomattox, Bacon traversed the country to the
southward, destroying many towns on the banks of the Nottoway, the
Meherrin, and the Roanoke. His name had become so formidable, that the
natives fled everywhere before him, and having nothing to subsist upon,
save the spontaneous productions of the country, several tribes
perished, and they who survived were so reduced as to be never
afterwards able to make any firm stand against the Long-knives, and
gradually became tributary to them.
FOOTNOTES:
[294:A] Hening, ii. 606.
[294:B] Breviarie and Conclusion, in Burk, ii. 250. T. M. calls him
Blayton.
[296:A] Hening, ii. 363.
[297:A] Hening, ii. 341, 365.
[299:A] Burk, ii. 268.
[299:B] Narrative of Indian and Civil Wars, 14.
[300:A] Burk, ii. 261.
[300:B] T. M. says: "Bacon calls a convention at Middle Plantation,
fifteen miles from Jamestown."
[301:A] Narrative of Indian and Civil Wars, 18.
[302:A] Bancroft, ii. 136; Anderson's Hist. of Col. Church, ii. 519, in
note.
[303:A] Beverley, B. i. 74.
[304:A] Bland Papers, i. 148.
[306:A] Bacon's Proceedings, 20; Force's Hist. Tracts, i.
[307:A] History of Bacon's Rebellion, in Va. Gazette for 1769.
[307:B] Burk, ii. 176.