A raid on the right bank of the York also ended in failure. Berkeley decided to send Captain Hubert Farrill with a strong force to surprise the garrison at King's Creek. It was planned to drive in the sentries and to "enter pell mell with them into the house." But they were met by such a deadly fire that they fell back under the shelter of the outbuildings, and then fled to their boats. Farrill was left dead, his commission "dropping wet with blood in his pocket."
But the colony was now in a deplorable condition. Many plantations had been deserted, others had been plundered by the rebels, Ingram had not been able to keep order, there was no money to meet governmental expenses, the desertion of servants and slaves to the rebels, and the absence from the fields of so many small farmers had caused a shortage of the tobacco and corn crops, many houses had been burned, the courts in some of the counties were closed. The rebel officers could not restrain their rough soldiers from wanton destruction--throwing down fences, destroying crops, burning barns. Soon the longing for peace and order became general. Time was working for the governor.
However, it was known that Colonel Herbert Jeffreys with 1000 men had been ordered to go to Virginia to suppress the rebellion, and their arrival was expected at any moment.
In the meanwhile the tobacco ships began to come in with needed supplies of clothing, cloth, medicines, etc. The planters still had some hogsheads of tobacco on hand, and were anxious to resume trade with the merchants, but when Berkeley issued a proclamation threatening to denounce as a rebel anyone who traded with the Western Shore the shippers held back. So the planters realized that the weapon of economic pressure, of which Goode had warned Bacon, was to be applied against them.
And they must have been discouraged when, in November, the ship _Concord_ of 500 tons, armed with 30 guns and commanded by Thomas Grantham, entered through the capes and anchored in the York river. Lawrence wrote Grantham a letter telling him that the people had been grievously oppressed and begging him and the merchants to remain neutral. Otherwise they were determined to burn their tobacco. Grantham replied that he would not treat with men who had taken up arms against the royal authority.