The assembly went on to provide for the Indian war, and made Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., general and commander-in-chief, which was ratified by the governor and council. An act was also passed indemnifying Bacon and his party for their violent acts; and a highly applausive letter was prepared, justifying Bacon's designs and proceedings, addressed to the king and subscribed by the governor, council, and assembly. Sir William Berkley at the same time communicated to the house a letter addressed to his majesty, saying: "I have above thirty years governed the most flourishing country the sun ever shone over, but am now encompassed with rebellion like waters, in every respect like that of Massaniello, except their leader." Massaniello, or Thomas Anello, a fisherman of Naples, born 1623, exasperated by the oppressive taxes imposed by Austria upon his countrymen, at the head of two thousand young men, armed with canes, overthrew the viceroy, seized upon the supreme power, and after holding it for some years, fell by the hands of assassins in 1647. Some of the burgesses also wrote to the king, setting forth the circumstances of the outbreak. The amnesty extended from the 1st day of March to the 25th day of June, 1676, and excepted only offences against the law concerning the Indian trade.[296:A] The assembly did not restrict itself to measures favorable to Bacon. According to the letter of the law, at least, he had been guilty of rebellion in assuming a military command and marching against the savages without a commission, and he had so acknowledged. Yet he was not more guilty than the bulk of the people of the colony, and probably not more so than a majority of the assembly itself; and the popular movement seemed justified by an urgent necessity of self-defence, and an intolerable accumulation of public grievances. On the other hand, Sir William Berkley had violated his solemn engagement to grant the commission. Besides, it did not escape the notice of the assembly that the term of ten years for which, it was believed, he had been appointed, had expired; and this circumstance, although it might not be held absolutely to terminate his authority, served at the least to attenuate it. The assembly adopted measures with a view at once to vindicate the supremacy of the law; to heal the wounded pride of the aged governor; to protect the country; to screen Bacon and his confederates from punishment, and to reform the abuses of the government.