cause of the late troubles there." Colonel Jeffreys, who was
commissioned by the King to investigate the causes of the uprising,
put the blame, not on the Indian war, but upon Philip Ludwell and
Robert Beverley, who "were the great advisors of Berkeley, and as it
may be proved were the chief causes of the miseries that befell the
country in the rebellion."

Governor Notley, of Maryland, stated that "whatever palliations the
great men of Virginia may use at the Council board in England ... yet
you may be sure ... much ... if not every tittle of the accusations
against them is truth." If the new governor, Colonel Herbert Jeffreys
should "build his proceedings upon the old foundation, 'tis neither
him nor all his Majesty's soldiers in Virginia will either satisfy or
rule those people. They have been strangely dealt with by their former
magistracy." Just two days later Nicholas Spencer wrote that though
the rebellion was over, "the putrid humors of our unruly inhabitants
are not so allayed but that they do frequently vent themselves ... and
were they not awed by the overruling hand of his Majesty would soon
express themselves by violent acts."

As for Bacon, he had been in command of the frontier forces but a few
days when he sent messengers to every part of the colony to blast
Berkeley's misgovernment. The Council reported to the Board of Trade
that he had traduced the governor "with many false and scandalous
charges." Later, in manifesto after manifesto, Bacon assailed the
corruption, the inefficiency, and the injustices of Berkeley's regime.
"We appeal to the country itself what and of what nature their
oppressions have been, and by what cabals ... carried on." By taking
on himself "the sole nominating" of civil and military officers he had
made himself master of the colony. He had permitted his favorites "to
lay and impose what levies and impositions upon us they should or did
please, which they for the most part converted to their own private
lucre and gain." As for seeking relief by petitioning the Burgesses,
he said: "Consider what hope there is of redress in appealing to the
very persons our complaints do accuse."

Thomas Mathews tells us that it was "the received opinion in Virginia"
that the Indian war was the excuse for Bacon's Rebellion rather than
the cause. Since Mathews took part in the uprising and later wrote an
account of it, he should know. He even goes so far as to say that it
was Thomas Lawrence, not