re then fashionable, in which the strongest head or stomach gained the
victory. The moments that could be spared from the bottle were devoted
to cards. Cock-fighting was also fashionable."[495:B] On the same pages
he adds: "I find, in 1747, a main of cocks advertised to be fought
between Gloucester and James River. The cocks on one side were called
'_Bacon's Thunderbolts_,' after the celebrated rebel of 1676."

The pay of the soldiers in 1756 was but eight pence a day, of which two
pence was reserved for supplying them with clothes. The meagre pay, and
the practice of impressing vagrants into the military service, increased
much the difficulty of recruiting and of enforcing obedience and
subordination. Even Indians calling themselves friendly did not scruple
to insult and annoy the inhabitants of the country through which they
passed. One hundred and twenty Cherokees, passing through Lunenburg
County, insulted people of all ranks, and a party of Catawbas behaved so
outrageously at Williamsburg that it was necessary to call out the
militia.

Although Governor Dinwiddie was an able man, his zeal in military
affairs sometimes outstripped his knowledge, and Washington was at times
distracted by inconsistent and impracticable orders, and harassed by
undeserved complaints. It was indeed alleged by some, that if he could
have withstood the strong interest arrayed in favor of Washington, the
governor would rather have given the command to Colonel Innes, although
far less competent, and an inhabitant of another colony, North Carolina.
Dinwiddie's partiality to Innes was attributed, by those unfriendly to
the governor, to national prejudice, for they were both natives of
Scotland.[496:A] Yet it appears by Dinwiddie's letters that he urgently
pressed the rank of colonel on Washington.[496:B] Washington, in
his letters to Speaker Robinson, complains heavily of the governor's
line of conduct, and Robinson's replies were such as would widen the
breach.[496:C] The tenor of the governor's correspondence with
Washington, in 1757, became so ungracious, peremptory, and even
offensive, that he could not but attribute the change in his conduct
toward him to some secret detraction, and he gave utterance to a noble
burst of eloquent self-defence. Dinwiddie's position was indeed trying,
his measures being thwarted by a rather disaffected legislature and an
arrogant aristocracy, and the censures thrown upon him, coming to us
through a discolor