 | CHAPTER XXII History of Virginia |  |
CHAPTER XXII
FIRST YEARS OF BERKELEY'S SECOND
ADMINISTRATION
The election of Berkeley was a sign that the Virginians
expected the early restoration of Charles to the throne, and
it also demonstrated that the majority of the people still
preferred the monarchical form of government. It is true
that, in choosing Berkeley, the Assembly required of him that
he should acknowledge allegiance to whatever form of
administration should be finally adopted in England; but he
was too impulsive to accept such a condition, prudent as it
was. He refused even to countenance his selection as governor.
He would, he said, receive that honor only from the
hands of his King; and until the crown should be able to
appoint him, he would continue to live as a private citizen.
The Assembly asked him to reconsider his decision. Take the
office on our commission, that body urged, and should the King
be called back to London, then apply to him for the royal
commission. If he should never be brought back to Whitehall,
then there would be no question of the new governor's
right to withdraw from the office.
Berkeley, very naturally, was moved by this persistence,
and he finally consented to serve, on the understanding that,
whether the King or a new Protector was summoned to the
chief seat of authority in England in the near future, the
commission to be granted by the Assembly was to expire just
so soon as that event should occur. He was influenced in this
decision principally by his exaggerated respect for the throne.
Although Charles was still in Holland, Berkeley did not dare
hour after the monarchy should be set up again, as that would
look as if he thought that the Assembly, and not the King, was
the fountain of power. He could only prove the contrary by
withdrawing promptly from the position so soon as Charles
should start for London. The Assembly, he said, arrogated no
power to their body further than the distractions in England
compelled them to do, and whenever those distractions should
end by the restoration of his royal master, the Assembly
would willingly abandon its claim to the right of appointment,
and return to the regulations of the old order.
Charles, after his return to London in May, 1660, renewed
Berkeley's commission. Environed as he was by the former
supporters of the Parliamentary regime, the offense of his
father's old servant in Virginia in taking office from the
Assembly must have seemed small enough, and Berkeley's
exaggerated expressions of apprehension probably tickled his
cynical sense of amusement as he looked around upon so many
courtiers who had only a year before been crooking their
knees to Cromwell. Berkeley exhibited one of the several contemptible
sides of his character in the fawning excuses which
he now offered for his perfectly correct action in a great
emergency. He threw himself at the feet of his sovereign, he
said, in his thankfulness for being still considered worthy of
honor at the royal hands. Did his Majesty think that he had
been guilty of weakness in doing what he had done in taking
office from the Assembly? It could only be called a weakness.
It was no more than to leap over the fold to save his Majesty's
flock, when His Majesty's enemies of that fold had barred up
the lawful entrance in order to shut in the wolves of rebellion,
who were ready to devour all within it.
Berkeley had a remarkable talent for expressing the preposterous
and fantastic loyalty of that day; but he was perfectly
truthful when he wrote Charles that he had more fear
of the King's frown than of the swords and tortures of the
King's enemies. Brave as he was, a shadow of disfavor
far more than the sound of a musket or the rattle of a saber.
The last two, indeed, did not cause him apparently to tremble
at all.
Never was Berkeley's courage more firmly and brilliantly
shown than in the course of the wars with the Dutch, which
took place after the Restoration. The first of these broke out
in 1665. It had its origin in commercial disputes that arose
and went on in Europe, but which jeopardized the Colony's
interests as acutely as if they had had their only scene in
Virginia. So soon as the news of the declaration of hostilities
was received at Jamestown, Berkeley summoned to arms all
the men in the community who were physically able to carry
a weapon; and these as a body were ordered to co-operate with
the merchant ships anchored in the rivers, and also to complement
the crews on board when short of gunners. It was
apprehended that De Ruyter would appear off the capes in
April (1665), and with a view to facing any troops that might
be landed by him, there were held in leash fifteen hundred
dragoons and twenty-five hundred footmen. Berkeley was
convinced that, even if these companies of soldiers were beaten
at first on the banks of any of the rivers, they could retire,
without danger of serious obstruction, to the recesses of the
woods a few miles inland, and after being reformed, return
to the defense.
In the spring of 1666, he marshaled into a single fleet
twenty-six merchantmen then lying in Virginian waters, and
put in command of it an admiral, a vice-admiral, and a rear-admiral;
and yet he was forced to admit that these two dozen
or more vessels, armed though they were, and efficiently officered
also, would not be able to resist successfully three
Dutch men-of-war, should they be encountered in the rivers
of the Colony, or off the western coast of Ireland on the
voyage to England. He urged the English Secretary of
State to provide a strong convoy so soon as the mainland on
the European side was signaled.
Nothing occurred at this time to disturb the peace of the
Colony. Its people, Berkeley reported, were living in the
simple manner of the past age. But for the rumors of a
Dutch invasion, they would have given no thought to anything
except the occupations of their plantations. "As we are
further out of danger than England," he added, "so we
aproach nearer to heaven with our prayers that his Sacred
Majesty's enemies may either drink the sea or lick the dust."
The General Assembly showed their approval of the defensive
measures of the governor by the restoration of the fort at
Jamestown.
In the course of 1667, De Ruyter sailed audaciously up the
Thames and devastated both shores without meeting with any
real resistance. This triumph was repeated in Virginia by
the irruption of four Dutch men-of-war into the waters of the
Bay and the estuary of the James. The number of cannon
aboard of them respectively ranged from eighteen to thirty-three,
and they were also supported by a dogger boat, which
carried eight guns. As this fleet had approached the Capes,
it had come up with Captain Conway's vessel, but was only
able to overhaul it after a fierce battle lasting over six hours.
Soon thereafter, the enemy had captured a shallop, and from
its crew they obtained all the information that they needed
about the strength of the English merchantmen then anchored
in the several rivers. There were twenty of these in all, and
they were supposed to be protected by a guard-ship sent out
by the English Government. When in a normal condition, this
vessel was armed with forty-six guns and manned by a trained
crew; but at present it was lacking in a mast, its hull was
leaking, and its provisions were almost consumed. On the
night of the Dutchmen's arrival, its captain, Lightfoot by
name, had gone on shore, in company with his paramour, to
attend a wedding.
The enemy spent several days in preparing fire ships; and
on June 5 (1667), they sailed slowly up to the point in the
James River where many of the merchantmen were riding
forced the English prisoners whom they had on board to hail
in their own tongue the seamen who were looking on from the
decks of the English ships; and in order to deceive the latter
still more successfully, they ran up English flags at their own
mastheads. But suspecting the presence of a ruse, the English
skippers drew up their anchors and retired under the supposed
protection of the guns of the guardship, which, in reality, was
manned only by thirty sailors. Two of the Dutch vessels
quickly followed and fired a broadside into the man-of-war,
while a third pursued the merchantmen, now attempting to
escape from so dangerous a corner. The majority were soon
overtaken, and the torch was at once applied to six of them.
In the meanwhile, the guardship was also going up in flames.
Had the merchantmen retreated to Jamestown so soon as the
Dutch fleet entered the Capes, not one would have been lost;
but their Captains were so confident of the guardship's ability
to defend them that they quietly remained in the open river.
The disaster to their vessels was so sudden that Berkeley, who
was probably also deceived, did not have time to come to their
rescue.
It happened that there were at this time numerous merchantmen
riding in the York. Informed of the catastrophe
in the James, Berkeley despatched Thomas Ludwell to the
former river to marshal these vessels into a fleet that would
be prepared at once to make an attack; but their commanders
were found to be opposed to such boldness of action, and
Ludwell, in consequence, sent a messenger to Berkeley to
come at once to the scene. Berkeley reached the York in a
few hours, and vehemently remonstrated with the halting
officers, only to have them doggedly reply that, in the absence
of the owners' consent, they had no right to risk their ships
by venturing out against the enemy. The governor offered
to give security for restoration, should loss occur; and this
was accepted, and he at once took public possession of nine
vessels—which was done by affixing a broad arrow on their
captain of each received a bond that assured him against the
damage of a battle. Every sailor who volunteered was promised
indemnity should he lose a limb; and he was to be further
remunerated by receiving a share of the plunder of the Dutch
ships, should they be captured. Four regiments of foot had,
by this time, been called out, and all seamen who happened
to be lacking in employment were impressed for the naval
service. A force of at least one thousand men were thus
gathered up, in addition to the crews of all the merchantmen.
On the decks of the vessels that were assigned to the
attack, the cannon from all the merchantmen were concentrated.
The governor went on board of the flagship, and in
doing so was accompanied by four members of his council and
also by forty of the foremost gentlemen of Virginia. During
three days, the captains of the nine ships impressed gave one
excuse after another for not weighing anchor; Berkeley
stormed at them in his impatience; but instead of obeying, the
recalcitrant skippers endeavored to sap the courage of the
soldiers. Before this underhanded course could be balked and
the fleet moved, the Dutch men-of-war retired from the James
River and sailed out to sea, with thirteen prizes in tow. About
seven other merchantmen had been burnt to the water's edge.
Berkeley was acutely chagrined by the upshot of the enemy's
raid, and it was only the council's earnest opposition to such
a step that prevented him from resigning his commission.
The Dutch incursion of 1672 was more destructive than
that of 1667, for the hostile ships in the former year were
double the hostile ships of 1667 in number. At least three of
the vessels of 1672 bristled each with thirty or forty guns, and
there were several fire-boats to complete their work of devastation.
Watchers were now stationed on the long beach at
Cape Henry, and they were the first to report the enemy's
approach from the sea. In a short while, the hostile anchors
were dropped in Lynnhaven Bay. This was on the twelfth
of July. Captains Gardner and Cotterell, of the two guardships,
eight in all, and they sent off an order to the commanders of
the largest merchantmen to prepare for action. Just at this
moment, the annual tobacco fleet of Maryland was seen coming
down the Bay on its way to the Capes, and the imminent peril
of its position was at once taken in by Cotterell and Gardner.
They recognized that it could only be saved by diverting to
themselves the foe's attention. The two guardships, accompanied
by six of the Virginian merchantmen, made a dead
set towards the Dutch vessels, but before they had sailed far,
four of the merchant ships ran upon shoals; the fifth shifted
its rudder and turned back; while the sixth went on, only to
ground in shallow water in its turn.
But the captains of the guardships refused to slow up—
during three hours, they grappled with and fought the enemy's
men-of-war; at the end of that time, Captain Cotterell's
vessel became temporarily unmanageable; but Captain Gardner
continued the battle alone with unabated energy for a
period of an hour, and only stopped the firing of his guns
when night fell across the waters. His topsail had been shot
away and his supply of ball and powder was nearly exhausted.
While retiring in Captain Cotterell's company, he was able
to bring off all the Maryland fleet except one vessel; and by
his resistance he had given such a leading to the Virginia fleet
that only a few of its ships fell into the enemy's hands. The
Dutch captains, being ignorant of the channel, did not venture
to follow their opponents as they retreated into the broad
reaches of the Elizabeth and James Rivers, but they
despatched three vessels of shallow draught to bring off the
merchantmen that had run on bottom in shoaling water before
the battle with the guardships began. Only one could be
pulled adrift. The rest were set on fire and destroyed.
It was said of this stirring episode that not a single vessel
fell into the enemy's hands except the few that had grounded
unexpectedly; and of these, not more than two were carried
off to sea by the retiring foe.
| CHAPTER XXII History of Virginia | |