THE BEGINNING, PROGRESS, AND CONCLU-
SION OF BACON'S REBELLION, 1675—1676

To the Right Honorable Robert Harley, Esqr.¹ Her Majties Prin-
     cipal Secretary of State, and One of her Most Honoble
     Privy Council.

Sr.

     The great Honour of Your Command obliging my Pen to
step aside from it's habituall Element of Figures into this little
Treatise of History; which having never before Experienced,
I am like Sutor ultra crepidam, ² and therefore dare pretend
no more, than (nakedly) to recount Matters of Fact.

    Beseeching your honour will vouchsafe to Allow, that in
30 Years, diverse occurences are laps'd out of mind, and other
Imperfectly retained.

     So as the most solemn Obedience Can be now paid, is to
pursue the Track of barefac'd Truths, as Close as my Memory
can Recollect, to have seen, or believed, from Credible Friends,
with Concurring Circumstances;

     And whatsoever your Celebrated Wisdom shall find amisse
in the Composure my intire dependance is upon your Can-
dour favourable to Accept these most Sincere Endeavours of
                                     Your Honours
                                                          Most Devoted humble Servt

T. M.

The 13th. July 1705

The Beginning, Progress and Conclusion of Bacons Rebellion
                             in Virginia in the Years 1675 and 1676.

     ABOUT the year 1675 appear'd three Prodigies in that
Country, which, from th' attending Disasters, were Look'd
upon as Ominous Presages.

     The One was a large Comet every Evening for a Week, or

1 The noted statement of Queen Anne's reign, afterward Earl of Oxford.
2 The shoemaker away from his last.

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