USA > North Carolina > The history of North Carolina from the earliest period, Volume I > Part 17
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On the 18th of September, 1710, general Nicholson sailed from Boston, with thirty-six sail, for the reduction of Port Royal : he arrived on the 24th, and landed his troops without opposition : the French threw shells and bombs from the fort, while the English were making preparation for the attack, and a bomb ship in the New England fleet plied on them with her shells. On the first day of October, Subercase, the French governor, was summoned to surrender; a cessation of arms was obtained, and terms of capitulation were agreed upon and signed on the next day : the government of the country was given to colonel Vetch, and the fleet returned to Boston : the name of the town was altered from Port Royal to Annapolis, in honor of the queen.
A statute was this year passed by parliament, for es- tablishing a general post office at New York, for the N. CARO. 31
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plantations on the continent : the preamble states, that posts had been established on the main land in North America, that in her majesty's plantations, Ports. mouth, in the province of New Hampshire, the north- ernmost, and Charleston in that of Carolina, the south- ernmost town, are mentioned in the statute. (9 Anne, c. 10.) A statute was also passed for the preservation of white and other pine trees, growing in the provinces of New England, New York and New Jersey, for the masting of the royal navy. (9 Anne, c. 17.)
In the following year, the society for prop gating the gospel in foreign parts, sent the reverend Mr. Umstead, and the reverend Mr. Rainsford, to North Carolina: the formier took his residence in the precinct of Chowan, and the latter in that of Currituck.
Chalmers -- History of South Carolina-Records,
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THE Indians did not always remain idle or uncon- cerned spectators of the feuds and dissentions that so long prevailed among the whites. The successive and regular encroachments on their plantations and hunting grounds, which an increase of European population did occasion, had not been always submitted to, without a murmur. Although the natives had been at first pleased with neighbors, from whom they could procure spiritu- ous liquors and other articles, which tended to the gra- tification of their real or imaginary wants, they had viewed with some jealousy the frequent accessions of new comers, requiring at first the surrender of larger and larger portions of their domains, and at last, the re- moval of families and tribes, from the neighborhood of the bones of their ancestors, to more distant and less valuable tracts of land. Other courses of animosity and ill will had not been wanting : they were determined on securing the opportunity of attacking the whites, while their dissentions rendered them more easily vulnerable. In the beginning of September, they concerted the plan of a sudden and simultaneous attack of every settlement in the colony.
The Tuscaroras were the principal and the most nu- merous of the tribes that joined in the conspiracy : they undertook the attack on the plantations on Roanoke, and
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from that river to that of Pamplico : the Indians who lived on that river, and from whom it received its name, were charged to fall on their more immediate white neighbors : the Cothechneys, who dwelt in that part of the province now known as the county of Greene, en- gaged to come down and join the Cores, in an irruption on the settlers along Neuse and Trent rivers : and the Mattamuskets and Matchapungos undertook to fall on the plantations in the neighborhood of the town of Bath. Notwithstanding the very great number of individuals, of different tribes, to whom these arrangements must have been made known beforehand, the secret was not betrayed by any. The Tuscaroras, whose principal town had been surrounded by a high pallisade, sent thither their women and children. From thence, on the day preceding the new moon, twelve hundred war- riors secretly marched in numberless divisions : de- tached individuals were sent to reconnoitre, and en- tered the habitations of the intended victims, under the mask of friendship : towards right, larger squads appeared, seemingly in quest of provisions. Pre- tending to be offended. they abused the planters, and at the first, and often before the least, sign of resent- ment, gave a whoop, and being instantly joined by others from the neighboring woods, began, in indiscriminate slaughter, murdering the grandsire and the father. the aged granddame, the lad, the virgin, and the sucking infant that clang to the bleed- ing bosom of the mother. One hundred and thirty persons, thus fell on the eleventh of September, in the settlement on Roanoke. Most of the Swiss and palatines, who had flattered themselves with having found, in the deserts of the precinct of Craven.
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an asylum against distress and oppression, fell under the tomahawk or the knife. The French Hugue- nots, in the town of Bath, and the planters around it, were inhumanly slaughtered : the hoases and cabins were set on fire, and by the glare of the conflagration the unrelenting foe sought for new victims ; with a lighted pine knot in one hand. and the tomahawk in the other, the Indians of each party marched through the woods to a common center, hunting, in drunken gambols, for the few white men who had es- caped the desolation of their settlements ; they di- vided themselves into new parties, and scoured the country to the east of Chowan river, and the north of Albemarle sound : the carnage was continued for three days, and did not finish till draakenness and fatigue disabled the savage foc from further action.
The few colonists, whom fortune favored in their escane, assembled, and for a long time, under arms, guarded their women and children. till assistance could be procured from the southern part of the province, and the neighboring one.
A few days before the massacre, the baron of Graaffenreidt and Lawson left Newbern, attended by a negro, with a view to ascend the river Neuse, to explore the land on its banks : having proceeded to a small dis- tance, they landed to pass the night, and were approach- ed by two Indians, who were soon after joined by about sixty more, well armed : this induced them to return to the boat, to proceed farther up, where they were follow- ed by the Indians, who took from them their arms, pro- visions and baggage, and compelled them to march with them all night to a considerable distance from the
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river, where they were given up to the chief of a village : a council was held, and it was determined to sum- mon the inhabitants of the villages in the vicinity, to de- cide on the fate of the prisoners. About two hundred Indians met, and forty of them were chosen to compose the council, who strictly examined them on the ob- ject of their excursion : they answered, that their in- tention was to seek a better and shorter road to the plantations of the whites in Virginia, that on the north side of Albemarle sound being distant and bad. The Indians complained much of the conduct of the Eng. lish, and particularly of Lawson, who, as surveyor general, was instrumental in depriving them of their land. Finally, the council determined on his liberation, and that of Graaffenreidt. However, on the next day, an Indian, who understood English, complained to the others, that the prisoners had spoken disrespectfully of the Indians, and three or four of them fell on them, beat them in a furious manner, and forcibly dragged them back to the village, where the council sat again, and determined on putting them to death.
On the following day, the victims were taken to a large field for execution; their wigs were thrown into a large fire, and they were stripped and compelled to sit down before it : flowers were strewed on them. In this situation, they were kept the whole day and succeeding night : at sunrise, a great number of Indians were col- lected, to the amount of three hundred; behind the prisoners was a party who guarded them, and on each side sat the chief's in two rows; behind these, were the rest of the Indians, jumping and dancing like so many devils, and cutting a variety of infernal and obscene
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capers The council again deliberated, and Graaffen- reidt turning to them, asked them whether no mercy could be shown to the innocent, and with what propriety they could put to death the governor of the palatines : one of the Indians made a long and vehement harangue, which softened the hearts of a majority of the council, and it was determined to spare the baron. Lawson and the negro were now put to death, with incredible tor- tures : bis spared companion was detained five weeks in captivity, and at last released.
On the first intelligence of this sad calamity at Charleston, the legislature. with a cheering alacrity, equalled only by the necessity which called it into action, appropriated eighty thousand dollars to the relief of their suffering brethren. Six hundred mi- litia, and about three hundred and sixty Indians, were detached, under the orders of colonel Barnwell.
Governor Spotswood, of Virginia, on the first ac- count of the disaster, sent a detachment of the mi- litia to the tributary Indians of his province, to pre- vent them joining in the war; and understanding that the Indians, in some of the Tuscarora towns, had refused to march against the whites, sent messen- gers to invite them, with the rest of the friendly tribes, to a conference. at the Nottoway line, on the southern border of Virginia. where he met them on the 7th of November. He had drawn together at that place the militia of the three southern counties, amounting together to sixteen hundred men. Three of the 'Tuscarora chiefs arrived just as he was mus- tering this force, and was not a little surprised to find such a large body of men, in good order and disci- pline. The governor, after entering into some con-
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versation with the chiefs, had the pleasure to find the report which his messengers had made, from their observations, while in the Tuscarora towns, that they were very desirous of continuing in peace, and were greatly concerned, that any of their nation should have joined in the massacre. He then proposed to them to carry on the war, against the Indiaus who had commenced it, and to join the queen's subjects in North Carolina, for the cxtirpation of the assassins ; and that for the purpose of giving some assurance for their future good behaviour, they should deliver two children of some great n.en in cach towe, who should be educated in the college. The chiefs re- plied. that they were not authorized to conclude any thing, without the consent of the rest of the nation ; they desired time to inform their towns, and promised to return on the 20th. The legislature of Virginia, which sat soon after this. addressed the governor. to request that war might be immediately declared against the Indians who had been concerned in the massacre, and voted twenty thousand pounds for car- rying it on; and the queen's council unanimously advised, that the necessary preparations should be made for carrying on the war: and that if the Tusca- rora chiefs returned. as had been promised at Notto- way, their alli nce and co-operation should be accepted. 'The chiefs were detained. by the badness of the weather, and the indisposition of two of them, be- yond the appointed time : the governor entered into a conference with them, at which the house of burgesses was present. "The chief-, after accounting for the delay that occurred. expressed the desire of the In- dians of their towns, to continue in strict friendship
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with the whites, and assist them in chastising the au- thors of the late disorder.
But now an unfortunate difference arose between the governor and the house of burgesses, the latter insisting on the passage of a bill for raising an army in Virginia, withont trusting to the sincerity of the profession of the Tuscarora chiefs. The governor refusing to accede to this proposition, the house de- clined to co-operate in his plans. The dispute ended by a dissolution of the assembly.
Governor Spotswood, in his report of this trans- action, to the lords commissioners of trade and plan- tations, charges the house with want of sincerity, in their proffer of aid to the sister province. " Had they," said he, "really intended to carry on the war against the Indians, they could not have done it in a more frugal way, than by the treaty I concluded with the Tuscarora chiefs. Although this was entered into at the instance of their own house, they have made no provision for enabling me to perform the terms of it. Indeed, some of that house, since the dissolution, owned more freely. than they would do while sitting, that most of the irregularity of their proceedings are owing to some rash votes, passed without foresight, which they could not afterwards get over, without breaking the rules of their house : and so they chose rather to let the country suffer, than to own themselves in an error. "The conduct of the late assembly will, in all probability, give a new turn to the humour of the people, and make them choose for their representatives men of more generous and disinterested principles: but I shall first see
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some sign of this disposition, before I call a new assembly."
The baron and Indians entered into a treaty of peace, by which it was stipulated that, in case of war between the English and the Indians, the palatines should remain neutral : that no land should be taken up for, or by, the baron, without the consent of the Indians : that there should be a full freedom to hunt in the open country : and that a commercial treaty be entered on, so that justice might be done to the In- dians, in the trade carried on with them.
Graaffenreidt was five weeks a prisoner, and du- ring that time the palatines were called out, to defend the country, from Edenton. He was, however, soon after retaken, and carried to Virginia.
Apprehensions were entertained that the French, who traded among nations of Indians, not very re- mote. would find means to unite these Indians with the Tuscaroras, and furnish them with arms and am- munition. The province was ill supplied with the means of encountering an enemy, not otherwise to be reduced, than by a continued pursuit through the woods and deserts ; a fatigue which the people were not able long to endure, without the conveniency of tents, to secure them from the weather.
Governor Hyde called out as much of the militia of North Carolina as he could command, but the people had been so long accustomed to resist govern- ment, that few could be brought to any order or discipline.
Colonel Barnwell, with his small army, expedi- tiously crossed the extensive and dismal wilderness.
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which then separated South and North Carolina. On his arrival on Neuse river, be was joined by such a portion of the militia of the colony as could be spared from the necessary service of guarding the helpless part of the inhabitants. The Indians, on the first intelligence of the approach of this succour, had chiefly collected their strength into one body. Colonel Barnwell soon came up with them, and pursued them to the upper part of the present county of Craven, where they erected a strong wooden breastwork, on the shores of Neuse river, at the distance of about eighteen miles to the west of the towa of Sewbern. After a short stay there, having received sume reinforcement to their number, they marched out to some distance, but were attacked with much bravery by the forces of South Carolina, and defeated with great slaughter. Upwards of three hundred of them were killed, and one hundred made prisoners. The number of the wounded was not ascertained. The rest retired into their strong hold, where they were surrounded. and after sustaining great loss, sued for peace, which, it is said, was too precipitately granted by colonel Barnwell.
"In all probability," said a gentleman in high authority, in an official communication to the lords proprietors, two years afterwards, " if colonel Barn- well had done his part, though some of his Indians left him, the war would have been at an end before this time : for colonel Mitchell, a Swiss gentleman, who came in with the baron de Graaffenreidt, having continued to draw the trenches within eleven yards of the Indian fort, raised a battery. in which he had placed two large guns, and collected a quantity
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of light wood and brush between the end of the trenches and the pallisade of the fort. The Indians within, who were all those concerned in the massacre, would have surrendered uncon litionally, if a shame- ful capitulation had not taken place.
. " The storming of this fort, which contained the greatest part of our enemies, would have so much dispirited the rest, that they would have complied with our own terms, and abandoned the country, and our people would have been encouraged by the cap- ture of so many slaves."
Colonel Barnwell returned to Charleston soon after the surrender of the fort. It was called after him; and the remains of it, which are at this day visible, still retain his name.
In the month of May, governor Hyde received his commission from Henry. duke of Beaufort, the pala- tine, bearing date the 24th of January preceding, and he was qualified under it on the 9th of May. His in- structions required him "to use with all gentleness those who were deluded, and with a little severity those who were concerned in the late disorders, as was consistent with law and justice. And, as it must of necessity have happened. that. during the commo- tions, some unfortunate persons should have suffered . much in their estates. the lords proprietors desired that restitution might be made to them, if possible, to the full, and if that could not be, as far as the governor could." He was further required to send to the lords proprietors as exact an estimate as he could make of the sufferings of the people. He was au- thorized to dispose of vacant land, in tracts of six hundred and forty acres each, at the rate of one pound
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sterling for every hundred acres, subject to a quit rent of oue stilling. He was directed to forward copies of all the proceedings of his government to the lords proprietors, by the way of the province of- Virginia, or the island of Barbadoes. His title was governor of that part of the province of Carolina, which lies to the north and cast of the river of cape Fear.
The other principal officers of the province were, at this time, Christopher Gale, chief justice, Edward Benwick, attorney general, Daniel Richardson, re- ceiver general. Anthony Stafford. surveyor general, and Tobias Knight, secretary of the province.
The expenses of government did not cost the pro- prietors more than three hundred and eighty pounds sterling a year ; two hundred of which were paid to the governor, sixty to the chief justice, and forty to each of the attorney general and secretaries in the province and in England.
In pursuance to his instructions, governor Hyde issued a proclamation of pardon, in favor of all per- sons concerned in Carey's rebellion, except Thomas Carey, Emmanuel Law. John Porter, Edmund Por- ter, and William Tittel.
The assembly sat on the 12th of March. A mes- senger was sent to the Sapona Indians. to procure them to join the province against the Indians in arms, and to promise them protection in the mean while for their women and children. Forts were directed to be built at Core Sound and at a Mr. Reading's. on Tar river : the first was to have a garrison of thirty men. and be called Fort Hyde, the second to be garrisoned by ten men only.
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On the application of governor Spotswood, the In- dians, in whose town in Virginia the baron de Graaffen- reidt was detained as a prisoner, released him, and he was permitted to return to Newbern : the palatines and Swiss, who had escaped the massacre, were permitted to join him, after he had engaged his word, that he and they would remain perfectly neutral during the war: he lived undisturbed by the Indians, but was persecuted by the whites, for not breaking peace with their common enemy : yet, they would not supply him with provisions or ammunition, though no doubt was entertained of his willingness to carry on the war, if the means were sup- plied, for it were madness in him to expose himselfand his countrymen to the fury of the savages, without some better assurance of help, than that which the confused state of the colony held out, as the Indians would soon destroy his settlement, or compel him to abandon it, by killing his cattle and preventing the planting or raising any corn. The colony, however, derived great advan- tage from his neutrality, as it enabled him to discover and communicate any plan of attack, at the risk of paying dear for it.
On the 12th of June, James Fenton was sent to Charleston, to solicit a further aid.
In the summer, disease added its horrors to the dis- tresses of the war : an epidemic, of the kind of those which have since ravaged, in the summer, the sea port towns of the United States, and are known by the ap- pellation of the yellow fever, scourged the few inhabit- ants who remained ; men fell like leaves in autumn : on the eighth of September, governor Hyde became a victim of it.
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On the 12th, the lords proprietors' deputies made choice of Thomas Pollock, the deputy of lord Carteret, as president and commander in chief. This gentleman, in his first official communication to their lordships, after his election, describes the situation of the country in the following words :
" The people of this government are greatly empove- rished ; the inhabitants of Pamplico and Neuse have most of their houses and household goods burnt, their stock of cattle, horses and hogs, killed or carried away, and their plantations laid waste by the Indians ; they are obliged to secure their families in forts, and we, who live on the south and south-west of Chowan river, are un- der the same necessity. The farmers of the county of Albemarle have to supply the whole of the county of Bath with grain, not only for the use of the inhabitants, but also for the support of their own militia, which they have sent thither, and of the forces that are come from South Carolina. By this mean, their trade is ruined, and the vessels, that are come into Albemarle sound, of late, have not been able to procure an y loading, except a few barrels of tar, so that the people have not wherewith to pay their debts; few can procore clothing for their families.
" The province is very largely in debt, for the pay of the militia, which has been kept in actual service, for arms, ammunition, provisions, and the expenses of sending expresses to the neighboring governments ..
" The war with the Indians still rages ; disobedience to the constituted authorities, and intestine divisions, still prevail among us. The want of the means of discharg- ing the arrearages of pay due to the men who are out, is a serious cause of discontent, perhaps the greatest mis-
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chief of all : for albeit, an act was passed by our legisla- ture, at their last session, imposing a penalty of five pounds on those who refuse to march against the In- dians, when called out, yet few men could be induced to leave their homes ; and although governor Hyde, a short time before his death, attempted to levy this penalty, he found but few persons willing to assist in putting the law into execution.
" We have now no more than from one hundred and thirty to an hundred and forty men on Neuse river, un- der the orders of colonel McKee and colonel Mitchell : these officers cannot attempt any thing with this handful of men. they, however, expect a reinforcement from South Carolina.
" Some of the Tuscarora chiefs have lately been with governor Spottswood of Virginia, and pretend a great inclination to peace : they are again to be with him on the 26th of this month : we are to send two agents to meet them there, Mr. Tobias Knight and major Chris- topher Gale, not from any expectation that the governor will make any treaty for us, for that would be dishonora- ble to your lordships, and make us appear contemptible in the eyes of the Indians, but with a view to hear what they have to propose. I believe, however, that this pre- tended desire for peace is only a scheme, to gain time until they can gather their corn, secure it in their forts, and see whether they are to have any assistance from the five nations.
" Your lordships may see," continues the president, " what difficulties we are placed in : our enemy strong, numerous, and well provided with arms and ammuni- tion : our people poor, dispirited, undisciplined, timo- rous, divided, and generally disobedient, without arms
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