"Dutch
Plantations."[263:A] The persecution of the dissenters, the restrictions
imposed upon commerce by the navigation act, the low price of tobacco,
and high price of imported goods, so inflamed the discontents of the
poor people as to give rise to a plot, which was well-nigh resulting in
tragical effects in 1663. The conspiracy was attributed to certain
Cromwellian soldiers, who had been sent out to Virginia as servants; but
the real grounds and true character of it can now hardly be ascertained.
The plot was discovered only the night before that appointed for its
execution, (the assembly being then in session,) by one of the
conspirators named Birkenhead, a servant to Mr. Smith, of Purton, in
Gloucester County. Poplar Spring, near that place, was the appointed
rendezvous. As soon as the information reached Sir William Berkley, who
was then at his residence, Green Spring, he issued secret orders to a
party of militia, to meet at Poplar Spring, and anticipate the outbreak.
Only a few were taken, of whom four were hanged. Birkenhead was
rewarded[263:B] with his freedom and five thousand pounds of tobacco;
Beverley[263:C] makes the reward two hundred pounds sterling. The
thirteenth of September, the day fixed for the execution of the plot,
was set apart by the assembly as an anniversary thanksgiving. The news
of this affair being transmitted to the king, he sent orders for the
building of a fort at Jamestown; but the Virginians thinking that the
danger had blown over, only erected a battery of some small pieces of
cannon.

The Indian chief of Potomac, and other northern werowances and mangais,
were required to give hostages of their children and others, who were to
be kindly treated and instructed in English, as far as practicable.
Measures were taken to bring Indian murderers to justice, especially the
hostile Doeggs. The chief of Potomac was inhibited from holding any
matchacomico, or council, with any strange tribe, before the delivery of
hostages.

John Bland, a London merchant, and brother of Theodoric Bland, a leading
man in Virginia, received the thanks of the assembly for goods advanced
for the use of the colony. In this year, 1663, a conference was held, by
royal command, at Mr. Aleston's, at Wicocomico, in Virginia, in May, by
commissioners appointed by Governor Berkley, and Charles Calvert,
Governor of Maryland, for the purpose of devising means of improving the
staple of tobacco. The Virginia commissioner