sed, that upon so slight grounds, they would make choice of a
leader they hardly knew, to oppose a gentleman that had been so long and
so deservedly the darling of the people. So that in all probability
there was something else in the wind, without which the body of the
country had never been engaged in that insurrection.

Four things may be reckoned to have been the main ingredients towards
this intestine commotion, viz., First, The extreme low price of tobacco,
and the ill usage of the planters in the exchange of goods for it, which
the country, with all their earnest endeavors, could not remedy.
Secondly, The splitting the colony into proprieties, contrary to the
original charters; and the extravagant taxes they were forced to
undergo, to relieve themselves from those grants. Thirdly, The heavy
restraints and burdens laid upon their trade by act of Parliament in
England. Fourthly, The disturbance given by the Indians. Of all which in
their order.

Sec. 93. First, Of the low price of tobacco, and the disappointment of all
sort of remedy, I have spoken sufficiently before. Secondly, Of
splitting the country into proprieties.

King Charles the Second, to gratify some nobles about him, made two
great grants out of that country. These grants were not of the
uncultivated wood land only, but also of plantations, which for many
years had been seated and improved, under the encouragement of several
charters granted by his royal ancestors to that colony. Those grants
were distinguished by the names of the Northern and Southern grants of
Virginia, and the same men were concerned in both. They were kept
dormant some years after they were made, and in the year 1674 begun to
be put in execution. As soon as ever the country came to know this, they
remonstrated against them; and the assembly drew up an humble address to
his majesty, complaining of the said grants, as derogatory to the
previous charters and privileges granted to that colony, by his majesty
and his royal progenitors. They sent to England Mr. Secretary Ludwell
and Colonel Park, as their agents to address the king, to vacate those
grants. And the better to defray that charge, they laid a tax of fifty
pounds of tobacco per poll, for two years together, over and above all
other taxes, which was an excessive burden. They likewise laid
amercements of seventy, fifty, or thirty pounds of tobacco, as the cause
was on every law case tried throughout the country. Besides all t