the only hope which the people had for protection. The governor was obliged to yield to the storm. The forts were ordered to be dismantled, and the obnoxious assembly was dissolved, and writs issued for a new election, in which, for the first time, freemen, as distinguished from freeholders, were elected.

In the mean time, Bacon had been very successful in defeating the Indians, destroying their towns, and taking them captive; and was returning leisurely to Jamestown when he heard of the revolution there. This induced him to leave his little army, and, with a few followers, embark for Jamestown; but he was taken on his voyage by Gardiner, who was cruising to intercept him, and sent a prisoner to the governor. Bacon had been elected a member for Henrico in the new legislature, and was pardoned and permitted to take his seat upon his confessing the impropriety and disobedience of his conduct, praying pardon of the governor, and promising future obedience. Credible report says, that he was induced to make this full and humiliating acknowledgment upon a promise by the governor, not only of pardon, but of a commission and, indeed, without supposing it the result of a compromise, it is difficult to account either for this act or his subsequent conduct. The causes which induced his next step are not sufficiently explained by the historians of the times, but it was probably produced by the solicitations of his friends in the legislature, who found that they could gain no redress of grievances. He collected troops in the country, and marched to Jamestown; he surrounded the state house with his enraged soldiers, demanding a commission for him; which, by the earnest solicitation of the council and assembly, was at length obtained from the governor, together with a full act of indemnity for his present conduct, and a letter, highly applauding his designs and his proceedings, addressed to the king, and signed by the burgesses, the council, and the governor.

Thus relieved from all former sources of fear, and provided against future contingencies, Bacon again sallied forth towards the frontier. But the governor had not long been relieved from his presence before he dissolved the assembly, and retiring into Gloucester, again declared Bacon a rebel, and his army traitors, and raised the standard of opposition. Upon being informed of this, Bacon immediately fell back by forced marches upon Gloucester, and compelled his puissant excellency to retreat with precipitation to Accomac. This county was at that time considered as a distinct territory, although under the control of Virginia, and Bacon, taking advantage of this against an unpopular governor, called a convention for the purpose of settling the government, declaring that the governor had abdicated. This convention met at Middle Plantation on the 3d of August, 1676, and declared that the government was vacant by the abdication of Sir William Berkeley, and that, by invariable usage, the council or the people might fill the vacancy until the king's pleasure should be known. Writs were

then issued by five* members of the council for a new election of burgesses. The convention next declared Sir William Berkeley guilty of aiding and abetting certain evil disposed persons in fomenting and stirring up the people to civil war; and that they would aid in discovering all such evil disposed persons, and opposing their forces, until the king be fully informed of the state of the case; and that they would aid Bacon and his army against the common enemy, and in suppressing the horrid outrages and murders daily committed by them.

Bacon having now provided a regular government for the country, proceeded once more against the Indians, who had formed a confederacy and gained several advantages since his retreat. destroyed the Pamunky, Chickahominy, and Mattaponi towns and their corn, in retaliation of the late excesses. The Indians retreated before him, with occasional skirmishes, until they reached their place of general rendezvous near the falls of James River. He there found their whole force posted on an eminence overhanging a stream, which, from the sanguinary nature of the conflict, has been since called Bloody Run. They were protected by a stockade fort, which was stormed by the impetuous ardor of Bacon and his followers, who made great slaughter among them, encumbered as they were with their old men, women, and children. In the mean time, Berkeley had not met with that warm reception which he had anticipated among the loyalists of Accomac; but, on the other hand, he had been presented with a strong and spirited remonstrance against the objectionable acts of Parliament, and a requisition that they should be suspended, at least so far as regarded that portion of the country. How the matter terminated we are not informed.

The governor was not allowed to remain undisturbed in Accomac, until he could again succeed in raising a force which might give trouble. Bacon's party was in possession of all the vessels in the colony, and two of his friends, Giles Bland and William Carver, went with their force to cut off supplies from the governor, or, as his friends surmised, to surprise him. But if such was their object they were defeated, for Captain Larimore, from whom one of the vessels had been taken, gave intimation to the governor's friends that he would betray his vessel into the hands of a party sufficiently strong to keep possession. The proposal was acceded to, and at midnight six and twenty men, obeying Larimore's signal, were along side of his ship, and had possession almost before the crew were aroused from their slumbers; the other vessels were then easily taken. Thus, Sir William finding himself in possession of the whole naval force of the colony, while Bacon was absent on his expedition against the Indians, he collected together

* Burke, vol. II, p. 179, says, "by Bacon and four other members of the council," but the member of the council was Nathaniel Bacon, sen., and the general was Nathaniel Bacon, jun., delegate for Henrico.-Hening, vol. II. p. 544–5:

a force of some six hundred men, consisting mostly of aristocratic gentlemen and their servile dependents, and took possession once more of Jamestown. As usual, his first act in returning to power, was to disavow his acts in favor of Bacon as made under duress, and again to declare him a rebel, and his soldiers traitors.

Bacon was on his return from his successful campaign when this news reached him; most of his followers had dispersed, but he hastened on with the remainder, without regard to their fatigues in the recent campaign. He arrived before Jamestown late in the evening, fired his artillery and sounded a defiance, and then coolly dismounted and laid off his trenches. His men that very night, by the aid of trees, earth, and brushwood, formed a tolerable breastwork, and the next morning advanced to the palisadoes of the town, and fired upon the guard, without loss. Sir William Berkeley, well knowing that time would increase the force of his adversary, while it diminished his own, next resolved to try the effects of a sally; and some of his men at first behaved with some show of courage, but the whole body soon retreated in disorder before the well-directed fire of Bacon's men, leaving their drum and their dead as trophies to the victors. Bacon would not allow the victory to be followed up, as it would have placed his men under the range of the guns of the shipping. To prevent the use which might be made by this auxiliary, he planted several great guns so as to bear on the ships, which served also to alarm, though they could not annoy the town.

Now the marked difference which existed between the character of Bacon's troops and those of the governor was exhibited, and that, too, in a manner well calculated to exhibit the character of Bacon's proceedings. Berkeley's troops, consisting principally of mercenary wretches, whom he had scraped together by the hopes of plunder, deserted every day when they found that the governor was determined to defend the place, and that they were likely to get more blows than booty in the contest, until at last the governor was left with little more than twenty gentlemen, whose sense of honor would not allow them to desert his person. Bacon's troops, on the other hand, were daily reinforced by accessions from the country people, who clearly considered him as an intrepid soldier, who had delivered them from the butcheries of the savages; and a patriot, who was now endeavoring to put down an odious and oppressive government.

The governor, finding his followers reduced to so small a number that it would be madness to attempt to defend the place, at length yielded to the earnest solicitations of those about him, and deceiving his adversaries as to his real design, by exhibiting evidences of a contemplated attack, he went on board a ship at midnight, and was seen next morning riding at anchor, beyond the reach of the guns in the fort at Jamestown. Bacon, with his followers, after their week's siege, marched into the empty town the next morning, the governor and his party having carried off or

B

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destroyed every article of value. The possession of Jamestown, in this situation, was of no advantage to Bacon or his followers. The men who had left their homes to defend their country from the incursions of the Indians, could not remain together for the purpose of defending the capital from their hostile governor, who was quietly waiting in the river for them to depart, in order that he might again resume possession. What could be done with a town which could not be defended, and, if defended, was of no value to the possessors; but which was all-important to the enemy? The answer to this question was manifest, and Bacon's proposal for its destruction was received with acclamation; several of his followers, who owned the most valuable houses, applying the firebrand with their own hands to their own property. The sight of the flames started Sir William Berkeley on a cruise to Accomac; and Bacon having overcome all opposition to the government established by the convention, dismissed the troops to their homes.

We have little account of Bacon's proceedings after this successful termination of his labors; we presume he did not do much, as he was ill of a disease caught by sleeping exposed in the trenches before Jamestown, which in a short time terminated his existence. He died at the house of a Mr. Pate, in Gloucester county. Thus died the distinguished individual, who overcame both the foreign and domestic enemies of his country, and left it enjoying the blessings of a free government. Had he lived precisely a century later, he would have been one of the distinguished heroes of the revolution, and historians would have delighted as much in eulogizing his conduct, as they have, under existing circumstances, in blackening his character. He accomplished all which it was possible for him to do. He never opposed the British government, but only foreign enemies, and domestic mal-administration, which he succeeded in defeating. He seems always to have acted by the consent and wish of the people, and never to bave sought self-aggrandizement. It was manifestly impossible for him to elevate himself to absolute power in Virginia, without the consent of the government of England, and the people of Virginia; and the idea of resisting both of these powers was absurd. For all the evils which accrued to the country after his death, and the restoration of Sir William Berkeley, he has been unjustly made responsible, while he has received no credit for his good conduct, or the beneficial acts passed by the legislature during his ascendency. In short, we can see no difference between his course, and that pursued in the previous expulsion of Sir John Harvey from the government, or the subsequent treatment of Lord Dunmore, and many other royal governors, at the commencement of the revolution. The only difference between the patriots of 1676 and 1776, was in the establishment of a free government, subject to the general control of Great Britain, which was all that could be done in 1676, and the establishment of a free government independent of Great Britain, which was accomplished in 1776. The unfortunate death of Bacon, and the power of the mother country, destroyed in a great measure the benefit of the exertion of the little band of patriots of the first period, while the benefits of the latter have continued to exist. The loyal writers, after the re-establishment of Berkeley, sought to hide his pusillanimity by extolling his virtues, and blackening his adversary, in which they have been blindly followed by other writers, who have attributed the subsequent misery to the previous rebellion, instead of to the avarice, malignity, and revenge of the governor and his party, seeking to overawe and suppress popular indignation, and break the strength of the popular party, by the forcible exertion of arbitrary authority, as well as to avenge themselves for the indignities to which their own folly subjected them. On the other hand, the patriots of the revolution have only received the just reward of their merit, in the lavish praises of a grateful posterity; and the loyal party of their day has been justly handed down to universal execration.

The death of Bacon, by leaving the republicans without a head, revived the courage of the governor so far, that he ventured in his ships to move about upon the bay and rivers, and attack the inhabit

con.

ants wherever he could find them defenceless, and snatch a little plunder to gratify his needy followers; always retiring when the opposite party appeared to oppose him. This predatory species of warfare preventing the quiet pursuit of agricultural labors, and destroying all the comfort and happiness of society, without producing any beneficial result, soon grew wearisome to both parties. Sir William Berkeley, whose cruelties, especially to his prisoners, had gone far to keep up the enthusiasm of popular excitement, finding that his name had ceased to strike that awe which habitual respect for one high in authority had formerly given it, and that his punishments excited indignation rather than terror, felt disposed to take advantage, by milder means, of the returning pacific disposition on the part of a people whose stubborn tempers could not be brought into obedience by force. With this view, he treated his prisoners with more liberality, published an act of general indemnity, and proposed a treaty of peace to Ingram and Walklate, the principal leaders of the opposing party since the death of BaSo anxious were the people to be relieved from the present confusion and anarchy, and the governor once more to rule with uncurbed sway, that a treaty was speedily concluded, only stipulating, on the part of the governor, a general oblivion, and indemnity of past offences; and, on the part of his opponents, a surrender of their arms, and a restoration of such property as they had taken. Thus easily did these unfortunate men deliver themselves again into the lion's power, after having defeated him at all points, and inflicted deep and irremediable wounds upon his inflated vanity, and pompous mock-dignity. The governor, when he had his enemies in his power, instead of trying to heal the wounds of the bleeding state by mildness and conciliation, only added to its sufferings by a bloody retribution for all the trouble which he had been made to endure. Fines and confiscations, for the benefit of his excellency, became the order of the day, and an occasional execution, as an extra treat to his vengeance. He at first attempted to wrest the honest juries of the county to his purpose, but in vain, ―ten prisoners were acquitted in a single day. Finding that his enemies were thus likely to escape his grasp, by the unflinching integrity and sense of justice prevailing among the people, he determined to avoid the use of a court constituted upon principles of the English constitution, which he found so little subservient to his will, and tried his next victims under martial law. He here found a court of more congenial spirits. The commissioners of the king give an account of some of these trials, such as they were carried on even after their arrival, which mark well the spirit of the times. "We also observed some of the royal party, that sat on the bench with us at the trial, to be so forward in impeaching, accusing, reviling, the prisoners at bar, with that inveteracy, as if they had been the worst of witnesses, rather than justices of the commission; both accusing and condemning at the same time. This severe way of proceeding represented to the