1675-1676. Three Ominous Presages--Siege of Piscataway--Colonel John Washington--Indian Chiefs put to death--Fort evacuated-- Indians murder Inhabitants of Frontier--Servant and Overseer of Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., slain--The People take up Arms--Bacon chosen Leader--His Character--Solicits Commission from Berkley --He proclaims the Insurgents Rebels--Pursues them--Planters of Lower Country revolt--Forts dismantled--Rebellion not the Result of Bacon's Pique or Ambition--He marches into the Wilderness--Massacre of friendly Indians--Bacon returns-- Elected a Burgess--Arrested--Released on Parole--Assembly meets--Bacon sues for Pardon--Restored to the Council-- Nathaniel Bacon, Sr.--Berkley issues secret Warrants for arrest of the younger Bacon. "ABOUT the year 1675," says an old writer, "appeared three prodigies in that country, which, from the attending disasters, were looked upon as ominous presages. The one was a large comet, every evening for a week or more at southwest, thirty-five degrees high, streaming like a horse-tail westward, until it reached (almost) the horizon, and setting toward the northwest. Another was flights of wild pigeons, in breadth nigh a quarter of the mid-hemisphere, and of their length was no visible end; whose weights broke down the limbs of large trees whereon these rested at nights, of which the fowlers shot abundance, and ate them; this sight put the old planters under the more portentous apprehensions because the like was seen (as they said) in the year 1644, when the Indians committed the last massacre; but not after, until that present year, 1675. The third strange phenomenon was swarms of flies about an inch long, and big as the top of a man's little finger, rising out of spigot holes in the earth, which ate the new-sprouted leaves from the tops of the trees, without other harm, and in a month left us."[283:A] The author of this account, whose initials are T. M., says of himself, that he lived in Northumberland County, on the lower part of the Potomac, where he was a merchant; but he had a plantation, servants, cattle, etc., in Stafford County, on the upper part of that river; and that he was elected a burgess from Stafford in 1676, Colonel Mason being his colleague. T. M., perhaps, was Thomas Matthews, son of Colonel Samuel Matthews, some time governor. He owned lands acquired from the Wicocomoco Indians in Northumberland, and it is probable that his son, Thomas Matthews, came into possession of them.[284:A] He appears to have lived at a place called Cherry Point, probably on the Potomac, in 1681.[284:B]