[5] He traveled around Europe (Germany, Italy, Switzerland, France, Netherlands) in 1663–1664 with the celebrated naturalist John Ray and fellow pupils Francis Willughby and Philip Skippon.

[6] At the end of April 1664, in Naples, Ray and Skippon took ship for Messina, to continue their expedition together to Sicily, leaving Willughby and Bacon to return north to Rome.

[13] Before the "Virginia Rebellion" (as it came to be called) began in earnest in 1674, some freeholders on the Virginian frontier demanded that Native Americans, including those in friendly tribes living on treaty-protected lands, should be driven out or killed.

[14] Following a raid by Doeg Indians in Stafford County, Virginia, which resulted in the deaths of two white settlers associated with a trader named Thomas Mathew (whom later reports found regularly "cheated and abused" Indians), a group of Virginia militiamen raided settlements of the Susquehannock tribe, instead of the Doeg tribe, including some across the Potomac River in Maryland.

Maryland militia under Major Thomas Trueman then joined Virginia forces (now led by John Washington and Isaac Allerton), and attacked a fortified Susquehannock village.

The Pamunkey queen Cockacoeske passionately reminded the Governor's Council of the deaths 20 years ago of her husband and 100 warriors whom they had provided in a similar situation.

Bacon's followers were unmollified, accusing Berkeley of refusing to authorize retaliation against natives to protect his own fur-trading investments and the monopolies which he had granted to his favorites.

After a number of verbal altercations, including a quarrel in a Jamestown street, Berkeley retreated to his plantation and signed the military commission Bacon demanded.

[23] Scouting parties accordingly set out to requisition supplies, as well as to kill and enslave Indians, prompting protests from citizens of Gloucester County who were subject to the militia's exactions.

[citation needed] On July 30, 1676, Bacon and his makeshift army issued a Declaration of the People,[17] which criticized Berkeley's administration, accusing him of levying unfair taxes, appointing friends to high positions, and failing to protect outlying farmers from Indian attack.

They also issued a 'Manifesto' urging the "extirpation" of all Indians, asserting that they did not deserve legal protections because they "have bin for these Many years enemies to the King and Country, Robbers and Thieves and Invaders of his Majesty's Right and our Interest and Estate".

Bacon himself focused on the Pamunkey in Dragon Swamp; his forces seized 3 horse-loads of goods, enslaved 45 Indians and killed many more, prompting the queen Cockacoeske (who narrowly escaped with her son) to throw herself on the mercy of the Governor's Council.