ut of doors unarmed. Even Jamestown was in danger. The red
men, stealing with furtive glance through the shade of the forest, the
noiseless tread of the moccasin scarce stirring a leaf, prowled around
like panthers in quest of prey. At length the people at the head of
the James and the York, having in vain petitioned the governor for
protection, alarmed at the slaughter of their neighbors, often murdered
with every circumstance of barbarity, rose tumultuously in self-defence,
to the number of three hundred men, including most, if not all the
officers, civil and military, and chose Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., for their
leader. According to another authority, Bacon, before the murder of his
overseer and servant, had been refused the commission, and had sworn
that upon the next murder he should hear of, he would march against the
Indians, "commission or no commission." And when one of his own family
was butchered, "he got together about seventy or ninety persons, most
good housekeepers, well armed," etc. Burk[287:A] makes their number
"near six hundred men," and refers to ancient (MS.) records.

Bacon had been living in the colony somewhat less than three years,
having settled at Curles, on the lower James, in the midst of those
people who were the greatest sufferers from the depredations of the
Indians, and he himself had frequently felt the effects of their
inroads. In the records of the county court of Henrico there is a deed
from Randolph to Randolph, dated November 1st, 1706, conveying a tract
of land called Curles, lately belonging to Nathaniel Bacon, Esq., and
since found to escheat to his majesty. At the breaking out of these
disturbances he was a member of the council. He was gifted with a
graceful person, great abilities, and a powerful elocution, and was the
most accomplished man in Virginia; his courage and resolution were not
to be daunted, and his affability, hospitality, and benevolence,
commanded a wide popularity throughout the colony.

The men who had put themselves under Bacon's command made preparations
for marching against the Indians, but in the mean time sent again to
obtain from the governor a commission of general for Bacon, with
authority to lead out his followers, at their own expense, against the
enemy. He then stood so high in the council, and the exigency of the
case was so pressing, that Sir William Berkley, thinking it imprudent to
return an absolute refusal, concluded to temporize. Some of the le