Figure 2. — Charles II. From portrait by J. M. Wright in National Portrait Gallery, London. 



months longer and therefore on my knees I beg his 

 sacred majesty would send a more vigorous Gov- 

 ernor."* 



Not only the Governor of the coIon\- hut the King 

 himself was unable to prevent or control crises in the 

 colonies. The speed with which decisive events fol- 



* William Berkeley to Henry Coventry, June 3, 16 6, Long- 

 leat, vol. 77, folio 103. 



lowed one another in Mrginia required that adequate 

 forces be availaiale in the threatened colony and sub- 

 ject to the direction of oflicials on the spot. Average 

 passage time for ships from Virginia to England was a 



month and a iialf."' but it could be shaved to about a 



^.Arthur Pierce Middleton, Tobacco Coast: A Maritime History 

 of Chesapeake Bay in the Colonial Era, Newport News, Virginia, 



1953, p. 8. 



PAPER 17: THE EFFECT OF B.\CON's REBELLION 



139 



