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MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA.
growth, and, but for the lofty pines that cover it, would pass for a Lybian desert. In the midst of this wide waste of sand stands the American home of Flora MacDonald, a city in the wilderness, an Oasis in a sandy desert. The life of no female in the history of any country was ever more deserving the attention of the historian. Her adventurous deeds in the service of the unfortunate prince have been celebrated by almost every poet of the age, and have, more than any single subject, infused a spirit of love and war into the minstrelsy of her own poeti- cal country.
NOTES.
NOTES.
NOTES TO CHAPTERS FIRST AND SECOND.
THE Journals of Amadas and Barlowe may be found in Hakluyt, commencing with the 301 page, to which the reader is referred for authori- ties. The dinner party described in the second chapter is scarcely any thing more than a copy of the text in Hakluyt. It was, by the way, a much better dinner than I myself have sometimes enjoyed on Roanoke Island ; and I trust that my friend Mrs. Mekins will excuse me for asserting the superiority of the good Indian woman over any of the housewives of the Banks.
NOTE TO CHAPTER THIRD.
The original design of these memorials was simply to sketch the begin- ning and the end of the authority of England over the Colonies. They appeared in the New-York Mirror, and might have been continued had not the criticisms of newspapers diverted me into the field of controversy. The two first chapters sketch the origin of the dominion of England, and the third celebrates its downfall ; for, whatever may be said of the Mecklenburg Declaration by the philosophers of Virginia, it was the " Beginning." " In the beginning was the word, and the word was " Independence.
For freedom's battle once begun, Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son, Though baffled oft, is ever won.
On the subject of the Mecklenburg Declaration I have much yet to pub- lish. I have collected much material for a sketch of the lives of the heroes of the 20th of May, and I have, besides, much additional evidence of the authenticity of the paper to bring before the world. It has been intimated to me by a friend, that the present Envoy Extraordinary of the government of the United States near the throne of England had been entrusted with
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a commission to explore the archives of the Colonial Office for evidence against the Mecklenburg Declaration. Under whose superintendence and advice this " exploring expedition " was got up it does not behove me to say, but 1 can certainly wish its worthy commander whatever success he may deserve. He may depend upon his deserts being fairly and thoroughly can- vassed whenever the fruits of his expedition shall have been disclosed to the public. While on this subject I beg to make one remark in my own behalf, viz. that no one should mistake my warmth for bitterness. I assert, that no citizen of North Carolina can study her history without imbibing a deep feeling against the character of Mr. Jefferson. Let him look at the high place of the Stale before his elevation, and then go on and see where she was a few years afterwards, and he will find other grounds of hostility than his notorious abuse of her history.
NOTE THIRD-THE POTATO.
There is some authority for the tradition that the potato was carried to Ireland from Roanoke. I have seen it in very many books of modern date, and have never lost an opportunity of searching for its truth. I remember to have canvassed the matter with my excellent friend Mr. Bancroft, while he was engaged in the composition of the first volume of his beautiful his- tory of the United States. I agreed with him in his conclusion that the authorities in its favor did not entitle it to a place in his work. Hariot, in his account of Roanoke Island, describes several kinds of roots which may have been what is commonly called the Irish Potato. I here extract his ac- count of two of them :
" Openank are a kind of roots of round form, some of the bignesse of wal- " nuts, some farre greater, which are found in moist and marsh ground, grow- " ing many together one by another in ropes, as though they were fastened " by a string. Being boiled or sodden, they are very good meat.
" Kaishucpenank. A white kind of roots, about the bignesse of hennes " eggs and near of that form. Their taste was not so good to our seem- "ing as of the other, and therefore their place and manner of growing not so " much cared for by us; the inhabitants, notwithstanding, used to boil and eat " many."
Some years ago I called the attention of my lamented friend H. B. Croom to this subject, and entreated his co-operation in the labors of in- vestigation. Poor fellow, he was too soon lost in the sad shipwreck of the Home on the coast of North Carolina, and with him perished many a bright hope. He was so accomplished, so zealous, and then his genius was as beautiful and as various as the flowers whose nature and whose history he
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had so assiduously studied. North Carolina lost in him what she could not well spare-an accomplished and affectionate son, whose heart was wholly hers, and whose bright genius would some day have adorned her history. But I have strayed from the subject of this note. The potato, it is supposed, was carried to Smerwick, in Ireland, by John White, governor of the city of Raleigh, on his return to England in 1587. There is a legend, too, that Sir Walter Raleigh caused them to be planted in his garden on his Irish estate. In conclusion, I beg to say that I esteem it quite as well authenticated as most of the facts in the history of that age, and that I confidently expect in the course of a few years to establish beyond controversy that the Irish Potato was a native of Roanoke Island.
NOTE FOURTH-TOBACCO
Was first carried to England, not Europe, from Roanoke. Its Indian name was Uppowoc, and is thus described by Hariot :
" There is an herbe, which is sowed apart by itself, and is called by the " inhabitants Uppowoc. In the West Indies it hath divers names, accord- " ing to the several places and countries where it groweth and is used. The " Spaniards generally call it Tobacco. The leaves thereof being dried and " brought into powder, they used to take the fume or smoke thereof, by suck- " ing it thorow pipes made of clay into their stomache and head; from " whence it purgeth superfluous fleame and other grosse humours, and open- " eth all the pores and passages of the body ; by which means the use " thereof not only preserveth the body from obstruction, but also (if any be " so that they have not been of too long continuance) in short time breaketh " them, whereby their bodies are notably preserved in health, and know not "many grievous diseases, wherewithall we in England are oftentimes " afflicted.
" This Uppowoc is in so precious estimation amongst them, that they " think their gods are marvellously delighted therewith ; whereupon some- " time they make hallowed fires, and cast some of the powder therein for " a sacrifice ; being in a storme upon the waters, to pacify their gods they " cast some up into the air and into the water ; so a weare for fish being " newly set up, they cast some therein and into the air ; also after an escape " from danger they cast some into the air likewise, but all done with strange " gestures-stamping, sometimes dancing, clapping of hands, holding up of " hands, and staring up into the heavens, uttering therewithall and chatter- " ing strange words and noises."
Hariot says that men and women of great calling, and learned physicians also, used it freely upon its introduction into England.
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NOTE FIFTH-RELIGION OF THE ROANOKE INDIANS.
Mantoac was the word which comprised all their gods. They believed, however, in one great God existing from all eternity. When God conceiv- ed the plan of the world, he made other gods to assist him in its erection and its government; and these subordinate deities they conceived were represented in the sun, moon, and stars. A woman was first created ; and the obvious necessity of peopling the newly-created world justified an in- trigue with some lascivious god, and thus the first of the children of the forest were brought forth. They called the temples which they built to their gods, Machicomacks. The most distinguished of their petty gods was called Kewas.
NOTE SIXTH-GOLD MINES.
I do not place much reliance upon the authority of any of the old voy- agers on the subject of the precious metals, but it is somewhat singular that the Raleigh colonies should have heard of their existence in that very section of the new world where it has been since so abundantly found. Sir Ralph Lane made a voyage in small boats in 1586 up the Albemarle Sound, and penetrated four days' journey up the Roanoke (Moratock) river in quest of information as to a country called Chaunis Temoatan, where, from the accounts of the Indians, there was an abundance of the precious metals. This country was described as being above twenty days' journey west of the sea-coast, and to have been subject to the incursions of the Mangoaks, a powerful tribe of Indians who occupied the immediate interior of the con- tinents. The savages described accurately enough the art of mining in its rudest state, but it was perhaps the cataract of golden waters which excited the zeal of Sir Ralph Lane. In his voyage up the Moratock (Roanoke), he was hourly expecting a view of the South Sea, and was fretted with an apprehension that the Pacific Ocean would break upon his view be- fore he could realize the golden stories of the Indians. Leaving, however, every reader to the exercise of his own faith or skepticism, I shall proceed to arrange the authorities upon which I assert the theory, that the golden treasures of her mountains had been explored by a race of people more inge- nious and civilized than the savages of the American wilderness.
The first gleamings of light upon this point of history are from the jour- nals of the French Hugonots, who in 1562 settled at St. Helena, Beaufort, S. C. The genius, foresight, and liberality of Coligny founded the enter- prise which is even now distinguished for having originated the name of Carolina, and as having been the first to seek a home in the new world, in
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quest, not of the golden treasures of the savages, but of the still more pre- cious blessings of the freedom of conscience.
In the interesting work of Laudonniere (Hakluyt, vol. 3, pp. 369, 70, 71, &c.) allusion is frequently made to the existence of gold in a country to the north-west, and all the accounts he records tend to strengthen the theory that at about thirty or forty leagues in that direction from St. Helena, there was a splendid city, the metropolis of a wealthy and warlike people. In the 376 page he alludes to an account which he received from the savages of the country of Chiquola, which, as far as he could judge, was "a very faire citie." " For they said unto me, that within the enclosure there was a " great store of houses, which were built very high, wherein there was an " infinite number of men like unto themselves, which took no account of ".gold, of silver, nor of pearles, seeing they had thereof in abundance.
" I began then to show them all the parts of heaven, to the intent to learne " in what quarter they dwelt, and straightway one of them stretching out " his hand, shewed me they dwelt towards the north."
Again, in 382 page, in describing a visit to an Indian king, he says, « Af- "terwards he gave them a certain number of exceeding faire pearles, and " two stones of fine crystal and certain silver oare. Our men forgot not to "give him certain trifles in recompense of those presents, and required of him " the place where silver oare and the crystal came. He made them answer " that it came ten days' journey from his habitation up within the country, " and that the inhabitants of the country did dig the same at the foote of cer- " tain high mountains, where they found of it in very good quantitie."
On page 408 he again introduces the subject of the exceeding wealth of the mountains to the north-west, and records the account of an Indian who knew the passes of the Apalachi Mountains, where the sandy bottoms of rills were dug up with hollow canes or reeds, and grains of precious me- tals secured. His whole work, however, teems with rumours of gold, and immense power and splendour, to the north and north-west of the sea-coast, about the latitudes of 32, 31, and 30 ; and here leaving Rene Laudonniere's authority to the discretion of the reader, I shall introduce testimony of a more wonderful as well as of a more pertinent character.
Pedro Morales was a Spaniard, whom Sir Francis Drake, in 1586, on his return home from his famous West Indian cruise, caught along the coast of Florida ; and he related that three score leagues to the north-west of St. Helena were the mountains of gold and crystal, and that there was a great city sixteen or twenty days' journey in the same direction, called by the Spaniards La Grand Copal -- " very rich and exceeding great."
But the most wonderful account of the metallic richness of the country to the north-west of St. Helena, (Beaufort, S. C.) is given by one Nicholas Burgoignon, alias Holy, who was likewise found by Sir Francis Drake on
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the coast of Florida. He, too, spoke of the city of La Grand Copal, and described its magnificence in " golden and diamond terms." Crystal, gold, rubies, and diamonds glittered from every corner of its paths. A Spaniard obtained there a diamond worth five thousand crowns, which was worn by the governor of St. Augustine. This same Nicholas Burgoignon likewise testifies that the mountains of North Carolina shone so brightly with their immense masses of crystals, rubies, gold, and diamonds, that he could not behold them and keep his sight, and therefore he had to travel by night. I am very sorry to say that these mountains afford at this time no such ob- stacles to the comforts of a traveller, and that it now requires a vast expen- diture of labor and money to get a sight of any of these aforesaid jewels, even in the sunniest days.
Nicholas likewise saw, some fifty leagues from St. Helena, up towards La Grand Copal, Indians with long golden rings in their ears and nostrils. He likewise saw herds of oxen, but they did not wear gold in their ears and nostrils. Both Pedro Morales and Nicholas describe the Wateree as a river which comes from the north-west, and appear to have travelled that way. Hakluyt intimates that it was the same as the river Waren, (Cape Fear.)
So much for French and Spanish authority. Let us now return to the annals of the Roanoke colony. They found prevailing on the coast of North Carolina, rumours of a still more definite character, as to the geogra- phical position of a country of immense mineral wealth. It was twenty days' journey due west from the sea-board, and the ways and means of obtaining the metal were accurately described. (See Hakluyt, p. 315, vol. 3.) Was- sador was the general name of all metals. The country was called Chaunis Temoatan, and over the browling rocks of the streams the golden sands were caught in bowls and skins. The territory north and north-west of St. He- lena (Beaufort, S. C.) will be found to be the same as that west of Cape Hatteras; and the distances from the respective points of calculation are sufficiently correct for the indulgence of a mere speculative inquiry.
Having thus exhausted the ancient authorities in support of the theory that the gold mines of North Carolina were formerly worked by a race of people of superior genius to the common herd of American savages, I shall now proceed to detail a few modern facts bearing directly on the sub- ject. The gold, though not sought after by a regular mining system until within the last twenty years, was still known to exist. At distant and vari- ous periods of our history, suspicions of wealthy deposites of gold in certain spots of land would arise ; and I have a will, dated 1787, in which the gold mines, which may be discovered on a particular plantation, are reserved to the heirs generally, and not to the particular legatee, to whom the estate was bequeathed. As far back as 1774, gold was sent to Governor Josiah Martin, (the last Royal Governor of North Carolina,) from the county of
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Guilford ; and this was perhaps the first appearance of a specimen in modern times. It should be recollected that civilization is not now a century old as far westward in the interior of North Carolina as the river Yadkin, beyond which the richest deposites of gold are found ; and that the long night which reigned over that golden region, from the age of Elizabeth to that of George II. was sufficient to have buried, all history and tradition.
Modern enterprise has, however, contributed one argument in favour of the antiquity of the gold mines, which, as an authority, is worth every other tes- timony. In the sinking of shafts, the earth exhibits indisputable evidences of having been disturbed before ; and a few years ago, an carthen crucible and several other implements of mining operations were found sixty and seventy feet below the surface of the earth.
Mr. Humphrey Bissell, of Charlotte, North Carolina, a gentleman of great scholarship, of the most polite and diversified attainments, and of the most independent habit of criticism, is of the opinion that the mines were worked ages ago ; and I consider his testimony as of great weight and value. He is, as far as I have had an opportunity of observing, the only man who has observed with a scientific eye the mining operations of the state. What ordinary Mineralogists and Geologists have pretended to do in the course of a single tour, Mr. Bissell has made the work of years ; and I doubt whe- ther any state in the Union can boast of a citizen so thoroughly taught in the mysteries of her mineralogical wealth as North Carolina.
The speculative reader may indulge in whatever theories his fancy can suggest. Whether in the thousand years of past ages a civilized and refin- ed people may not have existed, whose very name the calamities of war and pestilence may not have swept from the land of their nativity; and if he is fond of dreams and poetical illusions, he may draw upon his imagina- tion for the golden streets of La Grand Copal, and find, perhaps, the very ruins of the walls that protected it in the phenomenon of the natural bulwarks * of Rowan.
NOTE SEVENTH.
The second colony which Sir Walter sent out to Roanoke, sailed from Portsmouth on the 26th of April, 1587, under the command of John White, who was commissioned as governor of the " citie of Raleigh." I propose to make a few extracts illustrative of the history of Roanoke.
* The Natural Wall found in old Rowan is, I suppose, called natural be- cause no one remembers when it was built. It has, I believe, never been exa- mined by a man of science. By the slightest excavation it may be traced many miles.
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" The 13th of August, our savage Manteo, by the commandment of Sir " Walter Raleigh, was christened in Roanoke, and called Lord thereof and " of Dassamonguepeak, in reward of his faithful service.
" The 18th, Elenor, daughter to the Governor and wife to Ananias Dare, " one of the assistants, was delivered of a daughter in Roanoke, and the " same was christened there the Sunday following; and because this child " was the first Christian born in Virginia, she was named Virginia.
A few days after these two remarkable events, Governor White returned to England to obtain further supplies ; and here closes all certain knowledge of the Raleigh colonists. Governor White afterwards visited Roanoke Island as late as the year 1590, but he could not or would not find them. Perhaps his followers were mutinous and would not follow him; but be that as it may, he finally abandoned his daughter, the little Virginia Dare, and his countrymen, to a cruel and an unknown fate.
After a variety of embarrassments in the waters about the island, he finally succeeded in finding the place, where, three years before, he had left his colony. I here extract from his journal :
"Our boats and all things fitted again, we put off from Hatorask, being "the number of 19 persons in both boats; but before we could get to the " place where our planters were left, it was so exceeding darke that we over- "shot the place a quarter of a mile. There we espied, toward the north end " of the island, the light of a great fire thorow the woods, to which we pre- " sently rowed. When we came right over against it we let fall our grapnel " near the shore, and sounded with a trumpet a call, and afterwards many " familiar English tunes of songs, and called to them friendly ; but we had no " answer. We therefore landed at day-break, and coming to the fire, we " found the grass and sundry rotten trees burning about the place.
" From thence we went thorow the woods to that part of the island di- " rectly over against Dassamonguepeak, and from thence we returned by " the water side round about the north point of the island, until we came to " the place where I left our colony in the year 1587. In all this we saw in " the sand the print of the savages' feet of 2 or 3 sorts, trodden in the night. " As we entered up the sandy bank, upon a tree under the very browe there- " of were curiously carved those fair Roman letters CRO ; which letters we " presently knew to signifie the place where I should find the planters seated, " according to a secret token agreed upon between them and me at my last " departure from them ; which was, that in any ways they should not fail to " write or carve on the trees or posts of the doors the name of the place " where they should be seated, for at my coming always they were prepared " to remove from Roanoke, 50 miles in the maine.
" Therefore at my departure from them, in Anno Dom. 1587, I willed them, "that if they happen to be distressed in any of those places, then they
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" should carve over the letters or name a crosse (+) in this form ; but we found " no such signe of distress. And having well considered of this ; we passed " towards the place where they were left in sundry houses, but we found the " house taken down, and the place very strongly enclosed with a palisado of " great trees, with cortynes and flankers very fort-like ; and one of the chief " trees or postes at the right side of the entrance had the bark taken off, and " 5 foote from the ground, in fayre capital letters, was graven CROATOAN, " without any cross or sign of distress.
" This done, we entered into the palisado, where we found many bars of " iron, two pigges of lead, four iron foulers, iron, sackin, shotte, and such like " heavy things thrown here and there, almost overgrown with grasse and " weeds."
So much of extracts. Governor White found his own chests, his armour, and various other articles, all, however, nearly ruined by the rains. He re- turned to his ships, hoping to get up an expeditionto Croatan ; but impediments and embarrassments again intervened ; and after all his painful labours he was compelled to return to England without having done his duty either to his children or his countrymen.
The fate of these poor colonists was indeed melancholy. Tradition has given us but a faint gleam of their future career. Lawson, in his history of North Carolina, says, that for comfort and society they amalgamated with the Hatteras Indians. The Hatteras Indians in his time, he says, boasted of the descent, saying, that their ancestors could talk out of a book.
Croatan, the place to which they removed, was the birth-place of the generous Manteo, who was a man of great power among the different tribes ; and he no doubt became their most efficient friend and protector.
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