But quiet could not last long. The flame was sure somewhere to burst out again whenever any incident for a moment stirred excitement. In North Carolina there was the next year a sudden blaze of open rebellion against the extravagant exactions of William Tryon, the adventurer who was royal governor there; and only blood extinguished it (1771). In Rhode Island, in June, 1772, his Majesty’s armed schooner _Gaspee_ was taken by assault and burned, upon a spit of land where she lay aground. It had been her business to watch against infringements of the navigation laws and the vexatious acts of trade; her commander had grown exceptionally insolent in his work; a sloop which he chased had led him on to the spit, where his schooner stuck fast; and the provincials took advantage of her helplessness to burn her. No one could be found who would inform on those who had done the bold thing; the courageous chief-justice of the little province flatly denied the right of the English authorities to order the perpetrators to England for trial; and the royal commission which was appointed to look into the whole affair stirred all the colonies once more to a deep irritation. The far-away House of Burgesses in Virginia very promptly spoke its mind again. It invited the several colonies to join Virginia in forming committees of correspondence, in order that all might be of one mind and ready for one action against the aggressions of the government in England. The ministers in London had meantime resolved to pay the provincial judges, at any rate in Massachusetts, out of the English treasury, taxes or no taxes; and the Massachusetts towns had formed committees of correspondence of their own, as Mr. Adams bade. [Illustration: INTERIOR OF COUNCIL CHAMBER, OLD STATE HOUSE, BOSTON] [Illustration: PROTEST AGAINST THE LANDING OF TEA] [Illustration: ENTRY JOHN ADAMS’S DIARY] [Illustration: CALL FOR MEETING TO PROTEST AGAINST THE LANDING OF TEA]