13. How did the condition of the colonists differ from ours?
CHAPTER XI.
GOVERNOR DRUMMOND AND SIR JOHN YEAMANS.
A. D. 1663 TO 1667.
1. King Charles II., who thus bestowed this vast dominion upon a few of his friends, was in marked contrast, as a sovereign, to Queen Elizabeth. He was a gay, dissolute, shameless libertine, who despised all that is valuable in human duties, and spent his life in the paltriest amusements. He could be polite and entertaining in conversation, but abundantly justified Lord Rochester's remark that "he never did a wise thing or said a foolish one."
2. Under instructions from the other Lords Proprietors, Sir William Berkeley, in 1663, appointed William Drummond the first "Governor of Albemarle." He was a Scotch settler in Virginia, and was a man who deserved the respect and confidence of the people whom he governed. He was plain and prudent in his style of life, and seems to have given satisfaction to the people who had been previously uncontrolled by law or magistrate.
3. After a stay of three years, Governor Drummond returned to Virginia. A great trouble arose in Virginia at this period, known as "Bacon's Rebellion." A brave young man, Nathaniel Bacon, was at the head of a force resisting the presumption and illegal authority of Governor Berkeley. William Drummond, seeing the justness of the resistance, warmly supported Bacon's cause. Mrs. Sarah Drummond, wife of the Governor, nobly sustained her husband. Bacon died before the close of the "Rebellion," and a large number of the leaders were put to death. Governor Drummond was, by order of Berkeley, hanged within two hours after his capture. The entire property of Mrs. Drummond was confiscated and herself and five children were turned out to starve.
4. This tragic culmination of Berkeley's ruthless cruelties was the occasion of the bitter censure by the king, already recorded. After the death of Berkeley, Mrs. Drummond brought suit against his wife, Lady Frances Berkeley, for recovery of her property, and a verdict in her favor was given by a Virginia jury. Governor Drummond is commemorated by the lake in the Dismal Swamp which still bears his name.
5. It was discovered soon after the king's grant to the Lords Proprietors, that a belt of land extending southward from the present Virginia boundary to a point on a line with the month of Chowan River, and extending indefinitely west, was not included in that charter; so, in 1665 another charter was granted joining this strip of territory to North Carolina.
6. In 1663 there was an expedition formed in the island of Barbadoes, which came to the shores of Carolina and explored to the distance of about one hundred and fifty miles the courses of the northeast branch of the Cape Fear River. This expedition was under command of an experienced navigator named Hilton, who was assisted by Long and Fabian, and returned to Barbadoes in February, 1664.