work in the field, and kept their arms close at
hand. No man left his door without taking his musket. Even Jamestown was
in danger, for the woodland stretched nearly to its dwellings, and the
lurking red men, stealing with noiseless tread through the forest
shades, prowled from the mountains almost to the sea, like panthers in
search of prey.

At that time there was a man of great influence in Virginia, named
Nathaniel Bacon. He was a new-comer, who had been in America less than
three years, but he had bought a large estate and had been made a member
of the governor's council. He was a handsome man and a fine speaker,
and these and other qualities made him very popular with the planters
and the people.

Bacon's plantation was near the Falls of the James River, where the city
of Richmond now stands. Here his overseer, to whom he was much attached,
and one of his servants were killed by the Indians. Highly indignant at
the outrage, Bacon made up his mind that something must be done. He
called a meeting of the neighboring planters, and addressed them hotly
on the delay of the governor in coming to their defence. He advised them
to act for themselves, and asked if any of them were ready to march
against the savages, and whom they would choose as their leader. With a
shout they declared that they were ready, and that he should lead.

This was very much like taking the law into their own hands. If the
governor would not act, they would. As a proper measure, however, Bacon
sent to the governor and asked for a commission as captain of the force
of planters. The governor received the demand in an angry way. It hurt
his sense of dignity to find these men acting on their own account, and
he refused to grant a commission or to countenance their action. He went
so far as to issue a proclamation, in which he declared that all who did
not return to their homes within a certain time would be held as rebels.
This so scared the planters that the most of them went home, only
fifty-seven of them remaining with their chosen leader.

With this small force Bacon marched into the wilderness, where he met
and defeated a party of Indians, killing many of them, and dispersing
the remainder. Then he and his men returned home in triumph.

By this time the autocratic old governor was in a high state of rage. He
denounced Bacon and his men as rebels and traitors, and gathered a force
to punish them. But when he found that the whole colony was on