USA > North Carolina > The history of North Carolina from the earliest period, Volume I > Part 18
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or ammunition ; the few who are willing to turn out, unable to procure their pay, cannot obtain necessary clothing, to support the severity of the weather in the woods; if the legislature of South Carolina had not assisted us with their militia and Indians, Neuse and Pamplico would be entirely deserted, and probably a great part of the county of Bath."
The communication concludes, by conjuring their lordships to consider, that " the people, who undergo these distresses, are Christians, the subjects of the queen and the tenants and vassals of the lords proprietors, ven- turing their lives and spending their estates in the defence of the province, and to lose no time in forwarding a supply of arms and ammunition. "
In a letter of a later date, to lord Craven, one of the lords proprietors, president Pollock attributes the calami- ties that desolated the country, to " the machinations of the Quakers."' " Our divisions," saye he, " chiefly oc- casioned by the Quakers and some other ill disposed persons, have been the cause of all our troubles : for, the Indians were informed by some of the traders, that the people who live here are only a few vagabonds, who had run away from other governments and settled here of their own accord, without any authority ; so that, if they were cut off, there would be none to revenge them. This, with their seeing our differences rise to such a height, that we, consisting of two counties only, were in arms one against another, encouraged them to fall upon the county of Bath, expecting it would have no assist- ance from this, nor any other of the English plantations. 'This is the chief cause, that moved the Indians to rise against us, as far as I understand."
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" The Quakers, with their adherents, have been a great occasion of the war : for they, with two or three persons, (not in such posts of profit or trust in the government as they desire) have been the chief cause that the war has not been carried on with the vigor it ought to, by their disobedience to the government, and the encouragement they gave others to imitate them. In some of the precincts, being the most numerous in the election fields, they chose such members of the assem- bly as would oppose what was necessary to carry on the war. The generality of the people, seeing that the Qua- kers, from their disobedience and opposition to the go- vernment, rose actually in arms, and attacked the gover- nor and council, without any manner of punishment, were emboldened to do the like, and seemed to want a leader only, to raise another insurrection,"
President Pollock, a few days after his election, re- ceived information from Charleston, that the legislature had directed governor Craven to send one thousand In- dians and fifty white men, to the relief of the inhabitants of the county of Bath, under the orders of colonel James Moore, a son of the late governor Moore, of South Carolina: governor Craven, in conveying this intelli- gence to president Pollock, assured him he was so anxious to expedite this succour, that he would march with it, as far as the boundary of the two settlements.
The legislature of the province of Virginia appropri- ated a sum of three thousand five hundred pounds, to be laid out under the direction of governor Spotswood, in assisting the people of Carolina in carrying on the war ; and a further sum of six hundred pounds, was ordered to be invested in blankets and coarse woollen clothes, to be immediately forwarded for the use of their troops.
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Tom Blunt, the headman of the Tuscaroras, with the chiefs who were to meet the commissioners of North Carolina, at governor Spotswood's, instead of attending there, came to president Pollock, to induce him to con- sent to a termination of hostilities, and the restoration of trade. The president utterly refused to listen to him, unless he would engage to bring Hancock, a chief of his nation and his kinsman, who had been one of the contrivers of the late massacre, and cut off and bring the scalps of six other Indians, who had been uncommonly active in it. He promised to do so, and begged some ammunition for that purpose. The president refused to supply him with any, unless he would bring twelve hostages, from each of his towns or forts. He appeared satisfied with this proposal, and said he was sure of the assent of some of his towns, and hoped for that of all. He went away, promising to be back by the middle of October, when he would accompany the colony's agents to Virginia.
At the appointed time, he appeared with fifteen of his men, saying, he had been in pursuit of a party of the Cothechney Indians, on the north side of Pamplico river ; that one of his men had seen Hancock there, but accom- panied with such a number of his adherents, as pre- cluded the hope of securing him ; that he was going with a large party in quest of him, and would hunt with them in his company, in order to catch the opportunity of finding him alone, and after he had secured and brought him, he would go to Virginia. The president gave little credit to the promises of a man capable, from his own account, of acting with so much treachery to one of his own nation, his kinsman too, but concealed bis distrust, lest the Indian, finding that he had nothing
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to hope, should join the rest of the Tuscaroras, against the whites.
On the 25th of November, however, preliminary arti- cles of peace were entered into, between the president and council, and Tom Blunt, Saroonah and four other headmen of the Tuscaroras.
The Tuscaroras promised to make war against the Cothechneys, Core, Neuse, Bear river, and Pamplico In- dians, and not to give quarter to any male individual of either of these tribes, above the age of fourtren, to capture and sell to the English, all those of and under that age ; and that as soon as these tribes were destroyed, or sooner, if it were desired, they would join the English in an attack on the Matchapongos.
They engaged to surrender all the prisoners, arms, horses and negroes, taken from the English, and to forbear hunting or ranging near the plantations or stocks of the English, without leave, or with it, in a larger number than three at any one time, and to relinquish all claims to the land on the south side of Neuse river, below Co- thechney and Bear creeks, on the north side of Pamplico river.
They bound themselves to pay, after a general peace, such a tribute, as should be agreed on, and that, in the meanwhile, no further injury should be the cause of hostilities, that should not be redressed by satisfaction, assessed by persons appointed for that purpose.
They agreed to deliver, at the house of the president, before the next full moon, six of the principal women and children from each town, as hostages, unless, before that time, they had destroyed the enemy.
Lastly, they promised to endeavour to bring alive to some of their towns, ten Indians named in the treaty,
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who had been the foremost in the massacre, and to send runners to fort Reading, who were to give two whoops and show a white cloth, as a signal, and to pilot such persons, as might be sent from the garrison, to see execution done on these murderers.
The reinforcement from South Carolina. under the orders of colonel Moore, reached Neuse river a few days after the signature of these preliminaries : the provisions in that neighborhood being quite exhausted, the presi- dent requested the colonel to march his men into the county of Albemarle, where they could refresh them- selves and wait till supplies could be sent round. This increase of numbers, in the northern part of the colony, was productive of great inconvenience and murmur ; the planters loudly complained of their inability to pro- vide for their guests. The South Carolina Indians grew so unmanageable, that many of the inhabitants of the county of Albemarle showed more disposition to turn their arms against those troublesome allies, than to march with them against the common enemy.
With the view of ascertaining whether any depend- ence could be placed on the promises of Tom Blunt, no order was given for the march of the troops into the county of Bath, until the middle of January.
On their way thither, they stopped at Fort Reading, on the south side of Pamplico river, where they were detained, by a very heavy fall of snow, till the 4th of February. The enemy, on the first intelligence of colo- nel Moore's approach, sought their safety in flight, and finally entrenched themselves in Fort Nahucke, which they had built, at no great distance from the spot, on which the court house, of the county of Greene, now stands. On the 20th of March, the colonel laid siege
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to, and in a few days became master of it. On its surrender, eight hundred prisoners were made. The loss of the Indians, in killed and wounded, was great; but no materials exist, by which it could be ascertainred. Colonel Moore had twenty-two whites, and thirty-six Indians, killed, and twenty-four whites, and fifty-six Indians, wounded. The South Carolina Indians, se- cured as many slaves among the Indian prisoners, as they could, and made the best of their way towards Charleston. One hundred and eighty of them only, remained with their commander. Colonel Moore, in making his report of the siege, to the president, tendered him the continuance of his services, and offered to retain his small force, in the settlement on Neuse river. The president judged it of the utmost importance, that the blow should be vigorously followed up, to the utmost of the power of the colony, till the enemy was compelled to submit, which was likely to happen soon, as the In- dians were greatly dispirited by their late defeat ; and were now convinced how little dependence they could place in their forts. He called a meeting of the council, for the 15th of April, and requested colonel Moore to attend, in order to afford them the benefit of his senti- ments.
This year, a violent storm opened a new inlet, about a mile south of the old one, (Currituck) since which, the latter river entirely choaked up, and grew smaller and smaller every day.
On the meeting of the council, it appeared that the stock of provisions in the possession of the colony, consisted of only eight hundred bushels of corn, and thirty-two barrels of meat. The most sanguine did not believe, that the greatest efforts could procure more
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than fourteen hundred bushels of corn; in addition thereto, governor Craven had written that he would send two or three hundred Indians more. This force, added to that under the orders of colonel Moore, was not sufficient to pursue the Indians with effect; and if a greater number could be obtained, there was no proba- bility, that the colony could afford them subsistence; few farmers having corn enough for the use of their families till harvest. The council were of opinion. that the colony being unable to enter into a new campaign, it was best to make an honorable peace, if possible, while the smart of the last blow was still fresh.
The definitive treaty was, accordingly, concluded. Tom Blunt was, in consequence of his fidelity, and the services rendered to the English, made and acknow- ledged, king and commander in chief of all the Indians, on the south side of Pamplico river, under the protec- tion of government ; and a firm and lasting peace, with him, and all the tribes that might acknowledge him as such, was declared. On his part, he engaged to deliver up twenty of the chief contrivers of the massacre, to be named by government. He promised to pursue to destruction, the Cothechneys, Matchapangos, and all other tribes, at war with the English, and bound him- self to attend the next legislature, with three hostages from each of his towns.
The council obtained from him information that the Indians who were not in Fort Nahucke, had retreated to Fort Cahunke; at the distance of about forty miles to the south west of the former, and hearing of the sur- render of Fort Nahucke, had abandoned the fort and had scattered; the greater part of them going up Roa_ noke river. Conaquani, a Tuscarora chief who had
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lately returned from Albany, where he had attended a meeting of the English commissioners, was endeavor- ing to dissuade Tom Blunt from making peace, telling, him the English were amusing him with fair words, to keep him from doing any mischief ; but that, when they would have destroyed the rest of his nation, they would in turn, fall upon him. The desire of having on the frontiers, friendly Indians, who might guard the distant plantations, from the insults of straggling par- ties ; and the consideration, that, if Tom Blunt attended the legislature, according to his promise, and the treaty was confirmed by them, there would only be the Cothechneys, Core, and Matchapungos to reduce, the motives that induced the council to offer these terms.
A party of the Matchapungoes, in the last days of the month of April, fell on the western part of the precincts of Currituck, ou Alligator river, and killed twenty white inhabitants : and colonel Moore sent a party of his In- dians to protect that settlement.
The legislature met early in the month of May. Tom Blunt, attended with his hostages, and the treaty made with him, by the president and council, was con- firmed. In settling the claims on the public treasury, to which the war had given rise, the ordinary resources of the colony appeared quite insufficient. Recourse was had to the press: an emission of bills of credit, to the amount of eight thousand pounds, was issued, and a law was passed, making the bills, then already in cir- culation and those now to be emitted, a tender in dis- charge of all sums, due on contract, for rated com- modities.
This is the first emission of a paper currency, in North Carolina ; and there are no means of ascertaining.
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whether the bills that were in circulation, before this time, were some of those that had been emitted in the southern part of the province, since the year 1706, after the return of the expedition against St. Augustine. 'It appears that the bills were not made a tender in all pay- ments, bat only in che of contracts, made in rated com- modities. The extreme scarcity of the precious metals, had thus early taught the inhabitants, to substitute the contract of barter for that of sale, and rate the principal articles of the produce of the country, by a legal tariff, so that payment might, in all cases of barter, be effected by the delivery of any kind of produce, the debtor might offer. Contracts, for the payment of money, were not affected by the new act. From that day to the present, the experience of one century has not enabled the people to carry on ordinary dealings between man and man, without the aid of paper money.
Immediately after the adjournment of the legislature, colonel Moore sat off for Pamplico, in order to collect his Indians, whom he had ordered to range on the lands of the Tuscaroras, with a view to watch their motions, and to obtain the earliest intelligence, in case of their embodying for a new attack. The colonel marched with them against the Matchapungoes, who occupied that part of the country, which is now known as the county of Hyde ; and president Pollock sent a body of militia by water, to effect a descent on their lands. On the approach of these forces, the Indians sought a shel- ter in the Dismal Swamp, a vast desert, one hundred miles in length, and of considerable breadth, full of lakes and quagmires, in which it was impossible for the whites to follow them: they had with them, portable canoes, with which they reached its most distant extremities.
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Colonel Moore's Indians were of peculiar service on this occasion : they hunted out the foe, made several prisoners, and brought a considerable number of scalps.
From thence, the militia and allied Indians, marched to that part of the country, near which, the present town of Beaufort stands, where they vigorously attacked and despatched a party of the Core Indians, who were lurking about on the south side of Neuse river, occa- sionally destroving the settlers, about the town of New- bern, or crossing the sound, joined the Matchapungoes, in their irruptions on that of Bath. Colonel Moore destroyed a great number of canoes, which they had collected, burnt their town and laid their plantations waste.
In the latter part of June, the Tuscaroras, who had again occupied Fort Carunche, evacuated it and joining the rest of the nation, on Roanoke river, abandoned Car- olina. They migrated northerly. towards Canada, near the south east end of lake Oneida, on the shores of which they settled. They were admitted into the con- federacy of the five nations, which, from this time, were known by the appellation of the Six Nations : the Tus- caroras becoming the sixth member in the union.
Of the thousand Indians, who had accompanied colo- nel Moore from Charleston, one hundred only, were now with him. In the latter part of the month of Au- gust, the Matchapungoes and the Cores, having sued for peace, Tom Blunt, and the few individuals of his nation, who had remained behind, continuing tranquil, and forming a sufficient barrier between the back settle- ments and the Cothechneys, colonel Moore returned by water, to Charleston.
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" The differences and divisions among the people," said president Pollock, in a letter to lord Carteret, of the 15th of October, " have, in a manner subsided; most of our enemy Indians killed, taken, submitted, or fled. so that there are, but forty or fifty individuals hovering on our frontiers, that we can hear of. The Quakers, though very refractory under president Glover's and go- vernor Hyde', administrations, since I have been en- trusted with the government, I must needs acknowledge, have been as ready, in supplying provisions for the. forces, as any other inhabitants of the province."
Chalmers-History of South Carolina-Records.
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CHAPTER XIV.
Ox the 30th of March, 1713, peace was concluded between England and Frauce. Louis XIV. recogniz- ed the succession of the British throne in the protec- tant line. The bay of Hudson was declared to belong to Great Britain, a titre de restitution, and Nova Sco- tia, hitherto called Acadia, Newfoundland and the ad- jacent islands, a titre de nouvelle acquisition. The exclusive right of fishing on the coast of Nova Scotia was given to Great Britain. The French retained l'isle Royale and that of Cape Breton. Commission- ers were agreed to be appointed to settle the limits of the American dominions of both nations.
Peace was at the same time made with Spain. She ceded to Great Britain Gibraltar and the island of Minorca. Independently of these two very valuable acquisitions, Great Britain acquired two very impor- tant advantages, el picio de el assiento de negros, and an implied recognition of their claim to the log- wood trade.
El pacto de el assiento de negros, was a contract which secured the British the privilege of supplying, in exclusion of Spanish subjects, several parts of Spanish America, with negroes, This privilege had at first been enjoyed by the French Guinea Company, under a convention, which began the Ist of Septem-
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ber 1701, and ended on the same day, in the year 1712. The British had applied themselves to thwart the operations of that company, which was inclined by its losses to quit that service. The British obtain- ed it on the 20th of March 1713. The treaty be- tween France and Spain, however, left some share of it to the French, but as the British had obtained better prices than those given to the French, the latter were soon evicted. This traffic, although to be confined to the islands, opened the way to the main, and to the commerce that it facilitated, was one of the motives of the war which the peace of Utrecht terminated.
The clause of uti possidetis in the treaty between Great Britain and Spain, in the year 1670, which al- lowed. in the opinion of the former, the right of the English to cut logwood in the bay of Campeachy was recognized, and confirmed, "without any pre- judice, however, to any liberty or power, which the subjects of Great Britain enjoyed before, either through right, sufferance or indulgence."
On the 13th of July, the duke of Beaufort, pala- tine of Carolina, granted a commission to Charles Eden, as governor of North Carolina. He arrived in the spring of the following year, and qualified on the 28th of May. His instructions differ very little from those of governor Hyde. He was directed not to allow the survey of land, at a greater distance than twenty miles from the rivers Cape Fear and Trent. The quit rents were now fixed at ten shillings sterling for every thousand acres. The expenses of government were now encreased: they amounted this year to up- wards of nine hundred pounds sterling. The salary of the chief magistrate was raised to three hundred
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pounds. The sale of land and the collection of quit rents did not produce to the treasury much more than eleven hundred pounds, and the net revenue was one hundred and sixty-nine pounds, seven shil- lings and ten pence. One half of a century had alrea- dy elapsed since the lords proprietors had obtained the king's charter, for perhaps the most unexampled concession of land. They had spent considerable sums of money in peopling and governing their province, and yet, at this very late hour, it hardly yielded a reve- nue of twenty pounds a year, to each of the eight proprietors.
Governor Eden found the part of his province in a state of incipient convalescence. He visited its precincts and was every where received with marks of cordiality and respect. He found every where the planters returned on their farms, endeavoring to re- trieve, by agricultural labours, the losses which they had sustained during the war.
It does not appear that there was any meeting of the legislative body during the first year after the gov- ernor's arrival. It is believed there was none, as there was one on the preceding year, and the sessions of that body were biennial.
On the 24th of May, Henry, duke of Beaufort, the palatine, died, and was succeeded in that dignity by John, lord Carteret.
On the Ist of August, queen Anne died, and in the fall George I. was proclaimed, as the lawful sove- reign of the British empire, and of the province of Carolina.
In the month of February, the governor and coun-
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cil concluded a treaty of peace with the Core and MatchapungoIndians. The two tribes were so reduc- ed in numbers that they united in one settlement, and lands were allotted to them near Mattamuskeet lake, in the precincts of Hyde. An agent was ap- pointed to reside in their neighborhood.
The storm, that had just subsided in the northern part of Carolina, now broke out with increased fury in the south. All the tribes of Indians, from Cape Fear to Florida entered into a confederacy for the destruction of the whites. The principal tribe of the Yamassees, who dwelt on the back of Port Royal island, acted in this tragedy the same part which the Tuscaroras had performed four years before on Roanoke. On the 25th of April, about break of day the cries of war gave universal alarm, and in a fewy hours about ninety persons were massacred in Poco- taligo and the neighboring plantations. A captain of militia, escaping to Port Royal, alarmed the town, and a vessel happening to be in the harbour, the in- habitants repaired precipitately on board, sailed to Charleston, and thus providentially escaped a massa- cre. A few families of planters on the island, not having timely notre of the danger, fell into the hands of the savages. While the Yamassees were thus fall- ing on Port Royal, the Sauras, Saponas and Sissipa- haw tribes who dwell towards the river of Cape Fear ran down upon the plantations, between that stream and Charleston. The city itself trembled for its peri- lous situation. In this hour of terror, although there were not on the muster roll of this part of the pro- vince, more than twelve hundred men fit to bear arms.
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the governor resolved on collecting as much of this small force as he could to march against the enemy. He proclaimed martial law, and laid an embargo on all ships to prevent either men or provisions from leav- ing the country. The Indians having murdered a family on a plantation to the north of Charleston, at the distance of about fifty miles, captain Barker, at the head of a party of ninety horsemen, marched towards the foe; but, being compelled to confide in an Indian guide, was treacherously led in an ambuscade, where he was slain, with the greater part of his men: the rest retreated in confusion. A party of about four hundred Indians came down on lower Goose creek, where seventy men and forty negroes had sur- rounded themselves with a breastwork, with the re- solution of maintaining their post. Discouraged, how- ever, about as soon as attacked, they rashly agreed to terms of peace; but, on admitting the enemy within their works, they were barbarously murdered. The Indians now advanced towards Charleston, but were repulsed by governor Craven, at the head of the militia. The Yamassees, in the mean while, with the tribes hear them, had spread desolation through the parish of St. Bartholomew, and proceeded down to Stono. Governor Craven's men, advancing with cau- tious step, dispersed their stravyling parties, until he reached the Saltcatchers, wherethe Indians had pitch- ed their main camp. Here was fought a severe and bloody battle, from behind trees and banks; the Indi- ans, with their terrible war whoop, alternately retreat- ing and returning with redoubled fury to the charge. "The governor, undismayed, pressed closely on with
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