Chelsea, in King
William County, the residence of Governor Spotswood's eldest daughter.

CHAPTER LII.

1715-1718.

Condition of the Colonies--South Carolina appeals to Virginia
for Succor against the Indians--Proceedings of the Council and
the Assembly--Disputes between them--Dissensions of Governor
and Burgesses--He dissolves them--Blackbeard, the Pirate--
Maynard's Engagement with him--His Death.

THE twenty-five counties of the Ancient Dominion were under a government
consisting of a governor and twelve councillors appointed by the king,
and fifty burgesses elected by the freeholders. The permanent revenue,
established at the restoration, now amounted to four thousand pounds
sterling, and this sum proving inadequate to the public expenditure,
the deficit was eked out by three hundred pounds drawn from the
quit-rents--private property of the king. Relieved from the dangers of
Indian border warfare, and blessed with the able administration of
Governor Spotswood, Virginia, under the tranquil reign of the first
George, advanced in commerce, population, wealth, and power, more
rapidly than any of her sister colonies.

A few of the principal families affected to establish an aristocracy or
oligarchy, and Spotswood, at his first arrival, discovered that it
was necessary "to have a balance on the Bench and the Board." He
subsequently warned the ministers, "that a party was so encouraged by
their success in removing former governors, that they are resolved no
one shall sit easy who doth not entirely submit to their dictates; this
is the case at present, and will continue, unless a stop is put to their
growing power, to whom not any one particular governor, but government
itself, is equally disagreeable."

At a council held at Williamsburg on the 26th day of May, 1715, the
governor presented a letter, received by express, from Governor Craven,
of South Carolina, representing the deplorable condition of that colony
from the murderous inroads of the Indians, the several tribes having
confederated together and threatened the total destruction of the
inhabitants, and requesting a supply of arms and ammunition. The council
unanimously agreed to the request, and, conceiving that Virginia was
also in imminent danger of invasion, desired the Indian Company to
take from the magazine so much ammunition as was necessary for South
Carolina, and to return the same "by the first conveniency, that so