es, and beating time to the tom-toms with their feet, they gestured
wildly with their arms. As a participant became weary, another took his
place and this exhibition, first stimulating in its activity, then
soothing in its cadence, carried far into the night, as, one by one, the
audience of white men and natives drifted off to the hurdles that served
as beds, and to sleep.

When the weather broke, and before the colonists resumed their journey,
they likely were entertained by their hosts in a deer-hunt staged
according to the Indian custom. Several Indian runners left, early in
the morning, to drive up the deer and herd them on a narrow peninsula,
of which there are many between the James and the York Rivers and
elsewhere in Tidewater Virginia. Canoes, with native hunters and their
white men guests, awaited in the waters nearby, and when the drivers,
pursuing the deer, forced them into the water, the frightened animals
were slaughtered in numbers. Ladened with the spoils, hosts and guests
returned to the bark houses to cook and feast upon their game.

Firearms played an important part in all celebrations in the seventeenth
century as every planter possessed one or more "pieces" which were used
to give dash to the frolics. A proclamation, issued in 1627, warns
against "spending powder at meetings, drinkings, marriages and
entertainments." Thus, it is certain that the colonists were wont to
assemble and celebrate as occasions warranted.

One of the most colorful of these occasions took place at Middle
Plantation (later Williamsburg) in 1677; Sir Herbert Jeffreys, having
been sent over with 1000 English soldiers to look into the state of
affairs in Virginia and to put an end to the Rebellion led by Nathaniel
Bacon, found Bacon dead and the Rebellion over. Shortly thereafter,
Governor Sir William Berkeley, who had caused so much grief by hanging
Bacon's chief associates, was summoned back to England, whereupon
Jeffreys ordered a celebration. The King's birthday provided the
occasion which he promoted, not only to honor the Sovereign but to
assemble the people, to heal the wounds and promote peace with the
Indians. Not only the colonists and the English troops gathered, but all
the leading Indian chieftains and queens of Tidewater and their retinues
were invited, and attended in ceremonial regalia. That there was not
only formal recognition of the important day, but much firing of arms,
drinking and hilarity on the side ma