In the meantime, events were bringing matters to a crisis. And, as so singularly happens at times of public calamity and excitement, unusual natural occurrences are regarded as portentous omens, so now a large comet was visible in the sky, the tail of which streamed westward; flights of pigeons, such as had never been since the time of the former Indian wars, and which darkened the whole heavens, together with a fearful plague of flies, prepared the popular mind, as it were, for the calamities which were at hand.
These phenomena, which excited so deeply the superstitious fears of the Virginians, were contemporaneous with those which we have already mentioned as exciting similar feelings in the breast of New England at the commencement of the great Indian war. Here, also, were they attended by the breaking out of an Indian war. The Susquehannah Indians, being driven by the Senecas from the head of the Chesapeake, came down upon Maryland, and the Virginian planters of the Northern Neck aided in their expulsion. Among these planters was John Washington, great-grandfather of the celebrated General Washington, and who, with his brother Lawrence, had emigrated about eighteen years before from England. Washington was colonel of the forces employed against the Indians; and having unfortunately and unjustifiably put to death six Indian chiefs who had come to him to treat of peace, war broke out with tenfold violence. It was now a war of reprisals; the savage was inflamed with vengeance, and the midnight war-whoop was the signal of death to the peaceful and defenceless inhabitants of the frontier. The people rose in terror and demanded means of defence. But Berkeley, who held a monopoly of the beaver trade in Virginia, discouraged the war and disregarded their danger.
The people, irritated by their wrongs, and now incensed at the indifference of the governor to their immediate distress, looked round for a leader, and one was at hand. This insurgent chief was Nathaniel Bacon, a young man not yet thirty, of great wealth and expectations, who had studied law in London. His uncle, of the same name, and to whom he was presumptive heir, was a member of the council; young Bacon also was about to be admitted, though he was suspected by Berkeley of being “popularly inclined.”
This young man was possessed of all the qualities requisite for a popular leader; he had a fine address, was singularly eloquent and persuasive, quick of apprehension, brave, yet discreet in action; “though young, master of those endowments which constitute a complete man; wisdom to apprehend, and discretion to execute.” The people demanded that they should defend themselves as well as assert their rights, and that Bacon should have a commission as their leader. Five hundred men were ready to obey him. Bacon said that if another white man were murdered, he would march against the Indians with no other commission than his sword. Soon after, the Indians fell upon his own people and slew them. This determined him to action. But scarcely had he commenced his march against the Indians, than Berkeley, fearing the result of a leader of Bacon’s influence and address on the minds of an already disaffected people, proclaimed him and his followers rebels, and hired troops to go in pursuit of them. The wealthier portion of Bacon’s followers obeyed the summons to disperse, but he, with a small determined band, pursued his purpose. Meantime an insurrection in another part of the country compelled Berkeley to return to Jamestown, where he was met by the insurgents, who demanded the immediate dissolution of the assembly, which they regarded as the authors of the country’s calamities.
Alarmed by the aspect of affairs, Berkeley acquiesced; the assembly was dissolved, and writs issued for a new election, in which Bacon, now having returned triumphant from his expedition against the Indians, was elected member for Henrico county. The new assembly, spite of the disfranchisement of the freemen, was one of a popular character, and the measures which they immediately introduced were liberal and reformatory, and by no means calculated to please the governor, who still continued to treat Bacon as a delinquent. Bacon, on his part, in order to conciliate the opposite faction, and to satisfy his aged and wealthy relative, acknowledged on one knee, at the bar of the house, his error in having taken up arms without a commission; and on this acknowledgment, Berkeley promised him a commission as commander-in-chief on the following Monday, that being Saturday. The town rang with acclamations, and he was again hailed by the populace as the defender of Virginia.
BACON ADDRESSING THE COUNCIL.
But when, on the Monday, the granting of the commission was deferred by the governor, and so on for several days, Bacon began to apprehend that treachery was intended, which apprehensions also the elder Bacon seems to have seconded. He suddenly, therefore, withdrew from Jamestown, and warrants were secretly issued to seize him.
In a few days Bacon reappeared, at the head of a considerable body of armed men, within a short distance of Jamestown. Berkeley called up his forces to defend the town, but the soldiers were disaffected, half of them were favourable to the popular side. Within four days after the alarm of this second popular outbreak, Bacon, at the head of 600 men, stood before the State-house in Jamestown. Berkeley, in a sort of tragic excitement, rushed out, and, baring his breast, exclaimed, “Here, shoot me! ’Fore God, a fair mark! shoot.”
“No, may it please your honour,” returned Bacon, calmly, “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.”