CHAPTER The articles of war," made a part of this act, are sufficiently stringent. Any soldier, "drunk or sober," 1676. who shall blaspheme the name of God," or "deride or contemn God's word or sacraments," is to "run the gauntlet through a hundred men, or thereabouts," and if the offense be repeated, to be "bored through the tongue with a hot iron." Death is to be the punishment of doing any hurt to an officer, or lifting arms against him; of drawing sword to do mischief after watch is set; of making a false alarm in the camp; of shooting off a musket in the night-time; of being found asleep or drunk on the watch; of desertion; "running from his colors;" or giving intelligence to the enemy. Swearing and drunkenness, on the third offense, are to be punished by "riding the wooden horse for an hour, with a musket tied to each foot," and by "asking forgiveness at the next meeting for prayer and preaching." Public prayers are to be duly read in the field every morning and evening. The act winds up by directing that the last Fridays in April and May be set apart as "days of public fasting and humiliation," humbly to implore "the divine assistance and blessing upon our endeavors in this war." And "whereas the country's preparations for war in likelihood may cause a more than ordinary expense of provisions," by another act the exportation of corn is prohibited. A third act makes it death to sell powder and shot to the Indians. The late traders are wholly excluded from any further Indian traffic. Sensible, however, "that such friendly Indians as are among us in peace, if they be not supplied with watch-coats, hoes and axes to tend their corn and fence their ground, must of necessity perish of famine or live on rapine," to prevent this evil, the Assembly authorize a trade by "some sober persons, not exceeding five," in each county, to be nom- CHAPTER inated by the county courts. XV. In the present excited state of the public mind, this 1676. scheme of defense was not satisfactory. The governor was accused of leaning toward the Indians; the forts were denounced as a useless burden; and offensive operations were loudly demanded. This discontented party included "many gentlemen of good condition," "persons of the greatest quality in the province." Bacon, to whom the governor had refused a commission to beat up for volunteers against the Indians, was particularly forward. He gave out that, on news of any further depredations, he should march against the Indians, commission or no commission. An attack upon his own plantation, near the falls of James River, afforded him speedy occasion to carry his threats into effect. Provoked at this disregard of his authority, the governor put forth a proclamation, depriving Bacon of his April. seat in the council, and denouncing as rebels all his company who should not return within a limited day. "Those of estates" obeyed; but Bacon, and fifty-seven others, proceeded onward till their provisions were near spent. Approaching a fort of friendly Indians, they asked provisions, offering payment. The Indians promised fairly, but put them off till the third day, by which time their stores were completely exhausted. Finding themselves in danger of starvation, and suspecting that the Indians had been instigated to their procrastinations by private messages from the governor, Bacon's men waded, shoulder deep, through a stream that covered the fort, entreating victuals, and tendering pay. A shot from the bank they had left presently killed one of their number. Apprehending an attack in the rear, "they fired the palisadoes, stormed and burned the fort and cabins, CHAPTER and, with the loss of three English, slew one hundred XV. and fifty Indians.” Such was Bacon's own account of 1676. this exploit. The governor had marched in pursuit of Bacon, but was soon stopped short by disturbances in the lower counties, instigated by Drummond and Lawrence, residents at Jamestown. "The people drew together by beat of drum, declaring against forts as an intolerable pressure, and of no use;" nor was it found possible to appease these tumults except by dissolving the old Assembly and calling a new one. Bacon was elected a burgess for the county of Henrico; but, as he approached Jamestown in a sloop with thirty armed followers, he was intercepted by an armed ship. Shots being fired at him, he fled up the river, but was presently arrested by the sheriff of Jamestown, and carried prisoner before the governor, with some twenty of his followers. Neither "the ill temper of the new Assembly, which was much infected with Bacon's principles," nor the discontents still prevailing out of doors, would admit of harsh measures; nor does it appear, indeed, that at this moment the governor was inclined to severity. By the intervention of the culprit's uncle and his other friends, a reconciliation was speedily arranged. In consideration of a pardon which the governor had promJune 7. ised, four days after the meeting of the Assembly, Bacon, placed at the bar, confessed, on his knees, "his late unlawful, mutinous, and rebellious practices;" begged pardon therefor; desired the council and burgesses to mediate for him; and proffered his whole estate in Virginia as security for his good behavior. An act was also passed for putting in force the laws of England for the suppression of riots and tumults, of which, as the XV. preamble declares, "there have been many, of late, in CHAPTER diverse parts of this country." All officers, civil and military, were to exert themselves in this behalf to the 1676. utmost; and any persons refusing to aid them when called upon were to be "judged and punished as mutinous and rebellious." The governor, in case of "illdisposed and disaffected people" gathered together, as of late, "by beat of drum," "in a most apparent rebellious manner," should the like disorders occur again, was to raise at once sufficient force, at the public charge, "to suppress the same, and inflict condign punishment on the offenders." Bidding them beware of "two rogues" among themmentioning Lawrence and Drummond by name—the governor directed the burgesses to consider the subject of the Indian war. "Some gentlemen," we are told, "took this opportunity to endeavor the redressing several grievances." A committee was named for that purpose; but this proceeding was interrupted by pressing messages from the governor, "to meddle with nothing till the Indian business was dispatched." Though all Bacon's company had been pardoned, and himself restored to his seat in the council, he soon secretly left Jamestown. A few days after, he reappeared at the head of three or four hundred armed men from the upper counties. Anticipating the York trainbands, for which the governor had sent, Bacon's men occupied all the avenues, disarmed the town's people, “surround the state house (sitting the Assembly), rage thereat, storm for a commission for Bacon, which, upon the earnest importunity of the council and Assembly, was at length obtained, as also an act of indemnity to Bacon and his men for this force, and a high applausive letter to the king in favor of Bacon's designs and proceedings, XV. So CHAPTER signed by the governor, council, and Assembly." says the report of the royal commissioners appointed to 1676. investigate the origin and causes of Bacon's insurrection, and this account agrees sufficiently well with that given by one T. M., who sat in the Assembly as a burgess for Stafford county, and who has left us a graphic history of the session. A planter and merchant of the northern neck, his hands full of his own business, and without "any inclination to tamper in the precarious intrigues of gov ernment," T. M. had been overpersuaded by his friends to stand as a candidate for the Assembly; to which he consented the more readily, as he had suffered severely both in his plantations and his merchandise from the late Indian disturbances, and was, therefore, very anxious to have them brought to an end. But his experience on this occasion of "pernicious entanglements in the labyrinths and snares of state ambiguities" made him resolve that, as this was his first, so it should be his last going astray from "his wonted sphere of merchandise and other private concernments into the dark and slippery meanders of court embarrassments.”. "Upon news," says T. M., "that Mr. Bacon was thirty miles up the river, at the head of four hundred men, the governor sent to the posts adjacent on both sides James River for the militia and all that could be gotten to come and defend the town. Expresses came almost hourly of the army's approaches, who, in less than four days after the first accounts of them, at two of the clock, entered the town without being withstood, and formed in a body, horse and foot, upon a green, not a flight-shot from the end of the state house, as orderly as regular veteran troops." "In half an hour after, the drum beat for the House to meet; and in less than an hour more, Mr. Bacon came, with a file of fusileers on |