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.