The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-06-30
JAMES CITY, VA.
odds and Ends of Its Early His
 tory.
state Directory.

tory.
 (Concluded)
 During Lord Berkely's administra- Kion. treaty was made with the In- iians by which they were to pay three arrows and beaver skins e(pole tax) Tor protection from their enemies :. These beaver skins were a great source of revenue to the colonial officers, as they were 8 valuable commodity of ex- change. hats being made of them. This treaty was one of the underlying causes Of Bacon's Rebellion. The In- dians soon learned the hold that this gave them on the mercenary spirit of many of the colonial sofficials. and mur- Gerous raids on the ,remoter plantations became of frequent occurrence. The Indians found that the lonely planters could not defend them selves, and the officials at Uamestowns would not. for fear of reducing the supply of. beaver skins. This condition lasted, for seV- eFai yeats. and. with other abuses, .graduaily wneaed tkes fwbales pobdia- ton lntn Q state 0f wrath and indignR4 ton. In vain, Baco and others tried Co get commission proceed against the Indians, but Lord Berkely and his party ruled with an iron hand which they did not take the trouble to covsr with a velvet glove. The people were
 
 treason. in those days and 1t was only small band of adventurous spirits that came out in to the open and braved Lord Berkely and the court An old chronicler states that one of the com mand under Bacon was minister who laid down the mitre and took up the sword" This was possibly Roger Green. who. with the sons of Governor Yeardley, had explored the Roanoke region some years before. It it not within the scope of these notes to give Q history of that wonderful outburst of public spirit under a great leader. The early histories of Virginia give the best account--that of T. Ms manu- script, written by contemporary and sent to London: also the narrative of Mrs Cotton. Who T. M. was is only surmised, not known; but outside of these, little has been complied; 1t waits the touch of some future writ CTS. Ellis. in his Indian Wars, gives an eloquent defense of Bacon.
 The under current Of the whole affair is subtly mysterious. a tragic masque- rade with a noble purpose.
 One of the curious things in the very scanty accounts given of the Rebellion is the way that, outside of Jamestown, the forces of planters organizedsagainst Bacon, melted away before the rebels aproaehed. Their leaders ''mistook or- ders or missed the road" Another of these is the White Apron episode Be- con has been accused of .unchivalrous conduct In forcing the wives of the Kings men" to shield his soldiers when they were making Notifications. Can any one at this day suppose that those pioneer women, who had braved every danger of frontier life, went with real unwillingness to such work, and that their gallant husbands stood by and twirled their mustaches at the in- dignity? Shades of our Virginia an- cestorsl Never! Both men and women were with Bacon at heart. The force used was part of the game. The atti- tude of the women of Virginia Is too clearly shown fin the General Assembly acts against them, and 1t was but a creature of Berkley. It is pathetic that one woman was excepted from the list of pardons enacted after the rebellion Why she merited this severity did not learn. but all honor should be given to the first patriot of her sex in America, Sarah, wife of Col. Thomas Grendon.
 A number of such facts are to be found and show that the people had no real desire to fight Bacon. It was Berkefy and his official circle only that were active against him. There was one fact concerning the burning of Jamestown (done by Bacon's ordersl that has not been suf1cientlys made known. Drummond and Richard Law renee owned the two finest houses in the town, and when the order was given to burn the place. they took torches and set fire to their own homes first of all. No doubt there were oth- CTS, who placed this burnt offering on the altar of liberty, but they will probably never be known.
 It is also noteworthy that Bacon's watchword was Carolina" at a time when a rebellion was in action in that State. The immediate failure of Bacon was no doubt his death Lawrence, his friend and confdenate, who vas probably Quarker. as there is no rec ord of his fighting, was with him in his illness, and Ingram with Walklete, who were lieutenants under Bacon, assumed the command Neither seemed to be a man of any calibre or initiative and the affair practically failed at Sa. cons death. The Kings men" had the royal authority behind them and on the other side was treason" that word for which many of the elder Virginlans had suffered and this brilliant but hopeless protest against legalized in justice was over.
 The adherents of Bacon were prose cuted with brutal severity. Seventeen men whose names I did not learn, were hanged. Drumond was executed, three hours after his capture, by Lord , Berkeiy, who said that to do so gave him great pleasure" The number of