There was also
Mr. William Drummond, who will be met with in the account of Carolina. He
was a "sober Scotch gentleman of good repute" -- but no more than Lawrence on
good terms with the Governor of Virginia.
On a morning in June, when the Assembly met, it was observed that Nathaniel
Bacon was not in his place in the Council -- nor was he to be found in the
building, nor even in Jamestown itself, though Berkeley had Lawrence's inn
searched for him. He had left the town -- gone up the river in his sloop to
his plantation at Curles Neck "to visit his wife, who, as she informed him,
was indisposed." In truth it appears that Bacon had gone for the purpose of
gathering together some six hundred up-river men. Or perhaps they
themselves had come together and, needing a leader, had turned naturally to
the man who was under the frown of an unpopular Governor and all the
Governor's supporters in Virginia. At any rate Bacon was presently seen at
the head of no inconsiderable army for a colony of less than fifty thousand
souls. Those with him were only up-river men; but he must have known that
he could gather besides from every part of the country. Given some initial
success, he might even set all Virginia ablaze. Down the river he marched,
he and his six hundred, and in the summer heat entered Jamestown and drew
up before the Capitol. The space in front of this building was packed with
the Jamestown folk and with the six hundred. Bacon, a guard behind him,
advanced to the central door, to find William Berkeley standing there
shaking with rage.
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