Part 20 (1/2)
Bacon himself hastens to Henrico, ”where he bestirs himself l.u.s.tily in order to a Speedy March against the Indians”. It was his intention to renew his attack upon the Occaneechees and the Susquehannocks, but for some reason he gave up this design to turn against the Pamunkeys.
Hastening across from the James to the York, Bacon met Colonel Gyles Brent, who brought with him reinforcements from the plantations upon the upper waters of the Rappahannock and Potomac. Their united forces marched to the extreme frontier and plunged into the wilderness.
Discovering a narrow path running through the forest, the English followed it to a small Pamunkey village situated upon a neck of land between two swamps. As Bacon's Indian scouts advanced upon the place they were fired upon by the enemy. Whereupon the English came running up to a.s.sault the village. But the Pamunkeys deserted their cabins and fled into the adjacent swamps, where the white men found it impossible to pursue them. All made good their escape except one woman and one little child.[630]
Continuing his march, Bacon stumbled upon an old squaw, the nurse of the Pamunkey queen, whom he ordered to act as his guide. But the woman, unwilling to betray her people, led him far astray, many miles from the Indian settlements. The English followed her ”the remainder of that day & almost another day” before they discovered that they were being deceived. When sure of her treachery, ”Bacon gave command to his soldiers to knock her on the head, which they did, and left her dead on the way”.[631] The army now wandered around at random in the woods, following first one path and then another, but could not discover the enemy. The appointed time for the new a.s.sembly was approaching, and it was imperative for Bacon to be at Jamestown to open the session. He was resolved, however, not to return to the colony until he had struck a decisive blow at the Indians. Sending a message to the people ”that he would be with them with all possible speed”, he resumed his discouraging quest.[632]
But the Indians still eluded him. It seemed a hopeless task to discover their villages amid the dense woods and treacherous swamps. His men became discouraged. ”Tyred, murmuring, impatient, hunger-starv'd”, many begged him to lead them back to the plantations. But Bacon would not abandon the expedition. He would rather die in the woods, he said, than disappoint the confidence reposed in him by the people. Those that felt it necessary to return home, he would permit to depart unmolested. But for himself, he was resolved to continue the march even though it became necessary to exist upon chincapins and horse flesh.[633] Whereupon the army was divided, one part setting out for the colony, the other resuming the search for the savages.
That very day Bacon runs upon the main camp of the Pamunkeys and immediately attacks them. The savages are encamped upon a ”piece of Champion land”, protected on three sides by swamps, and covered with a dense growth of ”small oke, saplings, c.h.i.n.kapin-Bushes and grape vines”.
As the English charge in among them they offer little resistance, but desert their habitations and flee. Some are shot down, many are captured. Bacon takes possession of all their goods--”Indian matts, Basketts, Match cotes, parcells of Wampameag and Roanoke, Baggs, Skins, ffurs”, etc.
The poor queen fled for her life with one little boy, and wandered fourteen days in the woods, separated from her people. ”She was once coming back with designe to throw herself upon the mercy of the English”, but ”happened to meet with a deade Indian woman lying in the way, ... which struck such terror in the Queen that fearing their cruelty by that ghastly example, shee went on ... into the wild woodes”.
Here she was preserved from starvation by eating part of a terrapin, found by the little boy.[634] After this victory, Bacon secured his plunder and his captives, and hastened back to the plantations.
In the meanwhile the expedition against Accomac had ended in disastrous failure.[635] Carver and Bland had been given instructions to capture the Governor, and Bacon proposed, if ever he got him in his power, to send him to England, there to stand trial for his misgovernment and his betrayal of the people to the barbarous Indians.[636] Even though it was quite probable that the King would send him back, the colony would for a time be rid of his troublesome presence.
Upon the arrival of the little fleet off the coast of Accomac, it was decided to send Carver ash.o.r.e under a flag of truce, to treat with the Governor.[637] Leaving Bland to guard the fleet with a force not superior in number to the English sailors, Carver set out in the sloop ”with the most trusty of his men”.[638] In the meanwhile Captain Larrimore and his sailors, who resented their enforced service with the rebels, were plotting to betray them to the enemy. In some way Larrimore contrived to get a message to Berkeley, requesting him to send out a party of loyal gentlemen in boats, and promising to deliver his s.h.i.+p into their hands.[639] The Governor at first was loath to venture upon such a hazardous undertaking.[640] The whole thing might be a snare to entrap his men. Yet his situation was desperate; he must take desperate chances.
Placing a party of twenty-six men in two small boats, he sent them out under the command of Colonel Philip Ludwell, to surprise the s.h.i.+p.[641]
Fearing that Carver might return before the capture could be effected, Berkeley ”caressed him with wine”, and detained him with prolonged negotiations. Upon reaching the s.h.i.+p, Ludwell and his men rowed up close under her side, and clambered in at ”the gun room ports”. ”One courageous gentleman ran up to the deck, and clapt a pistoll to Bland's breast, saying you are my prisoner.”[642] The rest of the company followed upon his heels, brandis.h.i.+ng their pistols and swords. Captain Larrimore and his crew caught up spikes, which they had ready at hand, and rushed to Ludwell's a.s.sistance. The rebels, taken utterly by surprise, many no doubt without arms, ”were amazed and yielded”.[643]
A short while after, Carver was seen returning in the sloop from his interview with the Governor. ”They permit the boat to come soe neere as they might ffire directly downe upon her, and soe they alsoe commanded Carver on Board & secured him. When hee saw this surprize he stormed, tore his haire off, and curst, and exclaimed at the Cowardize of Bland that had betrayed and lost all their designe.”[644] Not long after he was tried for treason by court martial, condemned, and hanged.[645]
Elated by this unexpected success, the Governor determined to make one more effort to regain his lost authority. The rebels were now without a navy; they could not oppose him upon the water, or prevent his landing upon the Western Sh.o.r.e. With the gentlemen that had remained loyal to him, the troops of Accomac, many runaway servants and English sailors he was able to raise a force of several hundred men.[646] Embarking them in Captain Larrimore's s.h.i.+p, in the _Adam and Eve_, and sixteen or seventeen sloops, he set sail for Jamestown.[647]
In the meanwhile the appointed date for the convening of the a.s.sembly had come. It is probable that the members were arriving to take their seats when the news of the Governor's approach reached the town.[648]
Bacon was still absent upon the Pamunkey expedition. There seems to have been no one present capable of inspiring the rebels with confidence, or of leading them in a vigorous defense. When the sails of the Governor's fleet were seen, on the seventh of September, wending their way up the river, the place was thrown into the wildest confusion. Sir William sent a message ash.o.r.e, offering a pardon to all, with the exception of Lawrence and Drummond, that would lay down their arms and return to their allegiance.[649] But few seem to have trusted him, ”feareing to meet with some afterclaps of revenge”.[650] That night, before the place could be fully invested, the rebels fled, ”every one s.h.i.+fting for himselfe with no ordnary feare”.[651] ”Collonell Larence ... forsooke his owne howse with all his wealth and a faire cupbord of plate entire standing, which fell into the Governour's hands the next morning.”[652]
This was the unwelcome news which greeted Bacon upon his return from the Indian expedition. So many of his soldiers had left for their homes before the final defeat of the Pamunkeys, that he now had with him less than one hundred and fifty men.[653] Yet he resolved to march at once upon Jamestown to attack the Governor. His little band gave him enthusiastic a.s.surance of loyal support. He knew that he had the well wishes and prayers of the people, while his opponents were ”loaded with their curses”. Berkeley's men, although so much more numerous than his own, he believed to be cowards that would not dare appear against him in the field. Victory would be easy and decisive.[654]
So, after delaying a short while to gather reinforcements from New Kent and Henrico, he marched with extraordinary swiftness down upon the enemy.[655] Everywhere along the route he was hailed by the people as their deliverer. The sight of the sullen Indian captives that he led along with him ”as in a Shew of Triumph”, caused enthusiastic rejoicing.
Many brought forth fruit and other food to refresh his weary soldiers.
The women swore that if he had not men enough to defeat the Governor, they themselves would take arms and follow him. All prayed for his success and happiness, and exclaimed against the injustice of his enemies.[656]
Before Berkeley had been in possession of Jamestown one week, Bacon was upon him. On the evening of September the thirteenth, the little rebel band arrived at Sandy Bay, driving before them a party of the Governor's horse.[657] With singular bravado, Bacon himself rode up to the enemy, fired his carbine at them, and commanded his trumpets to sound their defiance.[658] Few thought, however, he would attempt to capture the town, for the Governor's position was very strong. The narrow isthmus, by which alone the place could be approached, was defended by three heavy guns planted behind strong palisades.[659] Upon the left, ”almost close aborde the sh.o.r.e, lay the s.h.i.+ps, with their broadesides to thunder” upon any that dared to a.s.sault the works. The loyal forces had recently been augmented to a thousand men, and now outnumbered the rebels three to one. Yet Bacon seems to have meditated from the first an attack upon the place, and was confident of success.[660]
Although his men had marched many miles that day he set them immediately to work within gun-shot of the enemy, building an entrenched camp.[661]
All night long, by the light of the moon, the soldiers toiled, cutting bushes, felling trees and throwing up earthworks. But it soon became apparent that their utmost efforts would not suffice to complete the trenches before dawn, when the enemy's guns would be sure to open upon them. In this dilemma, Bacon hit upon a most unmanly expedient to protect his men at their work. Sending out several small parties of horse, he captured a number of ladies, the wives of some of Berkeley's most prominent supporters. ”Which the next morning he presents to the view of there husbands and ffriends in towne, upon the top of the smalle worke hee had cast up in the night, where he caused them to tarey till hee had finished his defence.”[662] The husbands were enraged that the rebels should thus hide behind the ”white ap.r.o.ns” of their innocent wives, but they dared not make an a.s.sault.
When, however, the ladies were removed, ”upon a Signall given from ye Towne the s.h.i.+pps fire their Great Guns and at the same tyme they let fly their small-Shott from the Palaisadoes. But that small Sconse that Bacon had caused to be made in the night, of Trees, Bruch, and Earth soe defended them that the Shott did them noe damage at all, and was returned back as fast from the little Fortresse.”[663]
Fearing that this cannonade will be followed by an a.s.sault upon his works, Bacon places a lookout on the top of a near-by brick chimney, which commands a view of the peninsula. On the sixteenth, the watchman announces that the enemy are preparing for an a.s.sault, and the rebels make ready to give them a warm reception. The Governor's forces, six or seven hundred strong, dash across the Sandy Bay, in an attempt to storm Bacon's redoubts.[664] Horse and foot ”come up with a narrow front, pressing very close upon one another's shoulders”. But many of them fight only from compulsion, and have no heart for their task. At the first volleys of shot that pour in upon them from the rebel army, they throw down their arms and flee. They marched out, as one chronicler says, ”like scholars going to school ... with heavy hearts, but returned hom with light heels”.[665] Their officers were powerless to stem the rout, until they were safe under the protection of the palisades.[666]
The Governor's losses in dead and wounded were very small, but the moral effect of his defeat was great. The rebels were so elated at their easy victory, and so scornful of their cowardly opponents, ”that Bacon could scarce keep them from immediately falling to storm and enter the Towne”.[667] On the other hand, the loyal troops were utterly discouraged. Many of them, that had been ”compelled or hired into the Service”, and ”were intent only on plunder”, clamored for the desertion of the place, fearing that the victorious rebels would soon burst in upon them.[668]
”The next day Bacon orders 3 grate guns to be brought into the camp, two whereof he plants upon his trench. The one he sets to worke against the s.h.i.+ps, the other against the entrance into the towne, for to open a pasage to his intended storm.”[669] Had the rebels delayed no longer to make an a.s.sault it seems certain they could have carried the palisades with ease, taken many of the enemy, and perhaps captured the Governor himself. The loyal soldiers were thinking only of flight. ”Soe great was the Cowardize and Basenesse of the generality of Sir William Berkeley's party that of all at last there were only some 20 Gentlemen willing to stand by him.” So that the Governor, ”who undoubtedly would rather have dyed on the Place than thus deserted it, what with (the) importunate and resistless solicitations of all was at last over persuaded, nay hurried away against his will”.[670] ”Takeing along with him all the towne people, and their goods, leaveing all the grate guns naled up, and the howses emty”, he left the place a prey to the rebels.[671] ”So fearful of discovery they are, that for Secrecy they imbarque and weigh anchor in the Night and silently fall down the river.”[672]
Early the next morning Bacon marched across the Sandy Bay and took possession of the deserted town.[673] Here he learned that the Governor had not continued his flight, but had cast anchor twenty miles below, where he was awaiting a favorable opportunity to recapture the place.[674] At the same time, news came from the north that Colonel Brent, Bacon's former ally, was collecting troops in the counties bordering upon the Potomac River, and would soon be on the march to the Governor's a.s.sistance, with no less than a thousand men.[675] Should this new army, by acting in concert with the fleet, succeed in blocking Bacon up at Jamestown, the rebels would be caught in a fatal trap. The peninsula could hardly be defended successfully against superior forces by land and water, and they would be crushed between the upper and nether millstones. On the other hand, should they desert the town, in order to go out against Brent, Berkeley would undoubtedly return to take possession of it, and all the fruits of their victory would be lost.