ndians. At
length a tribe of friendly Mannakins were found entrenched within a
palisaded fort on the further side of a branch of the James. Bacon
endeavoring to procure provisions from them and offering compensation,
they put him off with delusive promises till the third day, when the
whites had eaten their last morsel. They now waded up to the shoulder
across the branch to the fort, again soliciting provisions and tendering
payment. In the evening one of Bacon's men was killed by a shot from
that side of the branch which they had left, and this giving rise to a
suspicion of collusion with Sir William Berkley and treachery, Bacon
stormed the fort, burnt it and the cabins, blew up their magazine of
arms and gunpowder, and with a loss of only three of his own party, put
to death one hundred and fifty Indians. It is difficult to credit,
impossible to justify, this massacre. The Virginians, a hundred years
afterwards, suspected Governor Dunmore of colluding with Indians. Bacon
with his followers returned to their homes, and he was shortly after
elected one of the burgesses for the County of Henrico. Brewse or Bruce,
his colleague and a captain of the insurgents, was not less odious to
the governor. It was subsequently charged by the king's commissioners
that the malecontent voters on this occasion illegally returned freemen,
not being freeholders, for burgesses.[289:A] The charge was well
founded. It is probable also that others were allowed to vote besides
freeholders and housekeepers. Bacon, upon being elected, going down the
James River with a party of his friends, was met by an armed vessel,
ordered on board of her, and arrested by Major Howe, High Sheriff of
James City, who conveyed him to the governor at that place, by whom he
was accosted thus: "Mr. Bacon, you have forgot to be a gentleman." He
replied, "No, may it please your honor." The governor said, "Then I'll
take your parole;" which he accordingly did, and gave him his liberty;
but a number of his companions, who had been arrested with him, were
still kept in irons.

On the 5th day of June, 1676, the members of the new assembly, whose
names are not recorded, met in the chamber over the general court, and
having chosen a speaker, the governor sent for them down, and addressed
them in a brief abrupt speech on the Indian disturbances, and in
allusion to the chiefs who had been slain, exclaimed: "If they had
killed my grandfather and my grandmother, my father and m