USA > North Carolina > The history of North Carolina from the earliest period, Volume I > Part 2
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The Indians came daily from the surrounding shores, with leather, coral, several kinds of dye stuffs, bucks,
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rabbits, hares, fish, melons, cucumbers, and various rovisa
An acquaintance having been thus contracted, by mintual beneficence and kindness, Amidas ventured, 'with a party of seven men, up the sound, now called Pumplico, then Occam. He reached, on the following day, an island, then, and still called Roanoke, now in the county of Currituck ; and went up to a small vil- lage, consisting of nine houses, one of which, was that of Granganameo. It was large, divided into several apartments, built of cedar, and fortified around with sharp pieces of timber. The village itself, was sur- rounded by a high pallisade, which had a gateway, guarded by a sort of turnstile. The chief was from home, but the visitors were received and entertained by his wife, with courteous hospitality. She despatched some of her people to draw up the boat of her guests, and bring the oars to the house: she washed their feet in warm water, and conducted them into an inner room, laid before them boiled venison, roasted fish, and hominy; melons, baked roots, and various fruits, were afterwards offered. In the evening, the English retired to their boat, and putting a little off the shore, lav at anchor. She seemed concerned at the distrust which this caution seemed to manifest. Her attention to their comfort was not, however, lessened. She had their supper brought to the shore, and made several Indians, remain there as a guard, during the whole night.
The English were informed, that on the main land, on the shores of the great river Occam ( Pamplico sound) stood a large town called Pomecock, (supposed to be near the mouth of Gibbs' creek, in the present county of Hyde) and at the distance of six days march, another,
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called Skihoah, They were told also of a river called Cibo, which fell into Occam, in which were large quan- tities of muscles, bearing pearls.
Wingina's dominions extended westward, as far as Chowanock river, and southerly, to Secotan, a town equi-distant from Neuse, Tar river and Pamplico sound. There began the dominions of Piamancum, king of the Nussocks, whose chief town was called Pomonick. The Wingadocea and Nussock Indians had lately con- cluded a peace, which had terminated a very long and bloody war, occasioned by the treachery of the latter, who, having invited the inhabitants of the town of Secotan to a feast, had slain the men, and detained the women as prisoners.
Amidas returned to the shipping the next day. With a view to try the strength of the soil on the island before which they lay, they had committed to the ground a few peas; after ten days, they had risen to the height of fourteen inches.
The English being too small in number to attempt a settlement, and the present being only a voyage of dis- covery, a few days were spent in obtaining the best information respecting the neighbouring continent, and trafficking with the natives, who daily came on board to barter their rude productions, for the commodities of the English, especially for their iron and other useful metals: after which the vessels sailed for England, where they arrived on the 15th of September. Two of the na- tives, Manteo and Manchefe, voluntarily accompanied Amidas.
Queen Elizabeth was so much pleased with the splendid description, which the adventurers gave of the climate, the soil, and the productions of the country
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they had visited, that, flattered with the idea of pos- sessing a territory abounding with such advantages, she gave it the name of Virginia, as a memorial of its having been discovered under the auspices of a virgin queen.
Sir Walter, anxious to take possession of so valu- able a property, fitted out, early in the following year, seven small ships laden with arms, ammunition, and pro- visions, with the view of carrying thither a sufficient number of colonists, to effeet a permanent settlement. Hle gave the command of this small fleet to Sir Richard Grenville, his kinsman, whom he had interested in the enterprise ; who left Plymouth on the tenth of April, taking the southern route. He spent some time cruising against the Spaniards in the West Indies, and did not arrive on the continent till the latter part of June; and landing on both the islands of Ocracock and Roanoke, visited the shores of the continent along Pamplico and Albemarle sound, and a great lake called Paquinip, now Mattamukec. Parties of his men went out northerly, as far as the bay of Chesapeake ; westerly, to the Chowanocks, up Weapomcie river, (Albemarle sound) on the shores of which, were the towns of the Pasquenocks, Pasquotanks, and Chepawry, in that part of the country now known as the county of Perquimans, Muscamung, the westernmost town of Wingadocea; thence along Chowanock (Chowan) river; they went to the town of Mavaton, on the eastern bank of that river, near the spot on which Canon's ferry has been established, and higher up that of Opanock, on the opposite bank, a little below the confluence of Meherrin and Nottoway rivers. The Indians in this settlement were very numerous, and in time of need were able to send forth seven hundred warriors: the
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English found about half way between Roanoke and Tar rivers, the town of Wanjoacks and that of the Pananarocks on the latter.
Sir Richard, next proceeded to cape Hatteras, where he was visited by Granganameo, who came to renew his acquaintance with the English; this was the last time they saw that chief, who died a few days after.
On the 25th of August, Sir Richard, sailed for England, leaving a colony of one hundred and eight persons, under the orders of Ralph Lane. The choice of this spot was not fortunate, the island being in a bleak sound, and destitute of a convenient harbour.
The chief, as well as the most beneficial object of the attention of the colonists, after providing the means of subsistence, ought to have been the attainment of an accurate knowledge of the country around them; to this they were not absolutely inattentive, neither were their labors altogether unsuccessful. Gold, however, was the principal inducement that tempted Europeans to visit America; and towards the discovery of mines were the thoughts of the adventurers incessantly bent. They had persuaded themselves that the country of which they were in possession, could not be destitute of precious metals, with which, America was imagined to abound.
With a view to realize the fond hopes which they entertained, the colonists reconnoitred the neighbouring continent. 'The Indians soon discovered the object which the English sought with so much avidity: and Menotoscon, king of the Chowanocks, amused gover- nor Lane, with tales of rich mines in the western parts of the country, which they had not yet explored. He spoke of a copper mine, and a pearl fishery; and gave an
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account of the river now called Roanoke, which, he described as rising from a rock so near the sea, that, during high winds, the surge beat over the spring. The governor sanguinely concluded this sea to be the gulf of Mexico, the Pacific Ocean, or some arm that opened into it. Their heads being filled with these chinerical ideas, the English formed various schemes, and undertook a fatiguing and hazardous journey up that river, at the instigation of Wingina, to visit the Moratuck Indians, the great nation called the Morjoacks, a number of other warlike tribes, and a great king, who dwelt at some days journey from the head of the river. So eager were they, and so resolutely bent on discovery, that they could not be induced to return, as long as they had a pint of corn a man, left, and two mastiff dogs, (which they boiled with sassafras leaves) that might afford them sustenance on their way back. However, after several days, having vainly undergone great hardship and danger, they at last returned, and joyfully reached their habitations on Roanoke island.
The death of Granganameo had caused a great altera- tion in the affairs of the colony. His credit with Win- gina, his brother, and the interest of Ensenore, their father, had restrained the king's malice and perfidy within some bounds; but, on the death of Granganamco, he changed his name to that of Pennissassan, and be- came a secret, but a bitter enemy to the English. To his machinations, were chiefly owing the hardships they had undergone in their journey to the Chowanocks. He had given secret intelligence to those Indians, of the approach of governor Lane; and had sown seeds of dis- cord, between the white and red people. But a rumor being spread, that governor Lane and his party were all
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slain, or starved in their journey up Monattuck, he began to blaspheme the God of the English, and endea- voured, by all the devices in his power, to annoy and distress them.
Ensenore, his father, the best friend the English, had, after the death of Granganameo, lost all his ability to serve and assist them. But their return with the son of Menatonon, (one of the greatest Indian kings) as a prisoner, joined to the testimony of Manteo, and the other Indians who had accompanied them, showing how little the English valued any people they met with, or regarded toils, hunger or death, restrained, for a while, his devices, and brought Ensenore again into credit and esteem.
The king of the Chowanocks, soon after, sent a present of pearl to governor Lane, and Okisko, king of the Weapomeaks, who possessed all the country between Chowan river and Albemarle sound, up to the bay of Chesapeake, came, attended with twenty of his chief- tains, who, with their king, acknowledged their subjec- tion to the king of the English. This circumstance, and the persuasions of Ensenore, induced Wingina to seek, at least in appearance, the friendship of the English. He came with his people, planted their fields, and made weirs for them, when they were near famish- ing. This good understanding was not, however, of long duration. The death of Ensenore put an end to it. For Wingina, under pretence of celebrating his father's funeral rites, laid a scheme of assembling sixteen or eighteen hundred Indians. With this force he intend- ed to cut off all the English at once. But his design was discovered to governor Lane, by his prisoner Okisko, the son of a king of the Chowanocks. The
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governor in his turn, endeavored to seize on all the canoes on Roanoke, with the view to secure the Indians on the island. They took the alarm, and a small skirmish ensued, in which five or six Indians were slain, and the rest effected their escape. A mu- tual distrust succeeded, until Wingina, being entrap- ped by the English, and killed, with eight of his men, the Indians were intimidated into a peaceable demeanor.
The colonists having been inattentive to the culture of the ground, and the provisions which they had brought from England, being nearly exhausted, they found themselves under the necessity of imitating the natives, and resorting for food to the precarious supplies afforded them by the water and woods. This re- source proved insufficient; and governor Lane sent parties of his men in different directions, to procure subsistence. Some went to the main to support themselves on roots and oysters. Twenty men were sent, under the orders of captain Strafford, towards the Croatans, a nation of Indians then living on the southern shore of cape Lookout; and a Mr. Prideaux, went with twenty others, to cape Hatteras, to shift for themselves, and espy any sail passing by the coast, from which relief might be expected.
These two detachments had not been long out, when one of captain Strafford's men returned to the island, bringing information of the approach of a fleet of twenty- three sail; and on the following day, the captain himself came, and handed to governos Lane, a letter from Sir Francis Drake. The adu ir was on his return from a successful expedition against the Spaniards, in South America, having taken Carthagena and the capital city of Hispaniola, burnt the forts of St. Augustine and St. N. CAROLINA. 3
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Helena, on the coast of Florida, and done much other injury to the enemy. He had been ordered to visit, on his return, the colony of Virginia, and to afford it pro- tection and assistance. He agreed to supply governor Lane with one hundred men, a small vessel, and provi- sions for four months. But, before he could afford this relief, his scheme was defeated by a sudden and violent storm, which forced out to sea, among many other ships, that, on board of which were the men and provi- sions, destined for the colony.
Discouraged by this misfortune, and worn out with fatigue and famine, the colonists unanimously deter- mined on abandoning the country in the summer; or as soon as the discoveries they could make, would justify their return.
For this purpose, a ship of one hundred and seventy: tons, with sufficient provisions, was detached from the fleet; but, as she was of too great a burden to lie, with safety, in any of the harbors of the colony, and there was too great a danger in suffering her to ride in an open road, they prevailed on Sir Francis to take them on board of the fleet, which sailed for England on the 19th of June; and they landed in Portsmouth, in the latter part of the following month; the colonists having re- mained about one year in Virginia.
Such was the inauspicious result, of the first attempt to plant an English colony, on the continent of North America. The nation derived from it no other advan- tage, than some knowledge of the country and its inha- bitants, and of the introduction into England of a nutri- tive root, the cultivation of which, has since been won- derfully extended, principally in Ireland; and which furnishes now, a welcome dish to the table ot the wealthy.
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and a cheap food on that of the poor: and that of a weed of singular strength and power, tobacco, the use of which, gradually extended itself to every class of society and the demand for which has become almost universal.
HI iriot, a man of science and observation, who ac- companied governor Lane, published, on his return, a short treatise, in which, he described with great accuracy, the climate, soil, and productions of the country.
According to his account, the natives were generally well proportioned, straight and tall, their eyes black, or of a dark hazle, the white part streaked with red; their complexion was tawney, their bodies being kept daubed with bear's grease, blackened with burnt coals, or red- dened with the powder of a root, which they obtained from the Indians, who dwelt in the hilly part of the country.
They believed in one eternal Supreme God, the crea- tor of the world, and in the immortality of the soul. They had an idea of a future state of rewards and pun- ishments, and imagined that there were Gods of an infe- rior order, who had assisted the Supreme one, their crea- tor, in the foundation of the world : and that mankind had sprung from a woman, who had conceived in the em- braces of one of the Gods. They founded these doctrines, on the authority of two persons, who had risen from the dead. The influence of these tenets, however, on their priests and chiefs, was much weaker than on the common people. The former, like the great in civilised countries, freeing their consciences from the shackles of a creed, and their actions from the restraints of religion, and sometimes of morality.
They were not, however, so firm in these opinions, as to close up their minds against information. They
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admired the watches, compasses, guns, burning glasses, and other instruments of the English, and thought they were the work of the Gods, or at least, that the Gods had taught the English how to construct them. Hence they listened with great attention, to conversation on religious subjects. Wingina himself joined the colo- nists in their prayers; and when he was sick, attributing his situation to some offence given to the God of the white people, he would beg them to pray for him, and intercede that he might dwell with him after death. Once, when a long drought had withered their corn, they considered their misfortune, as the punishment of their ill conduct towards the English; and they promis- ed them a portion of their corn, if they would pray to their God to cause it to ripen.
The estimation in which they held the English, was considerably heightened, by a curious accident, An epidemical disease visited the country; the English were free from it; and it fell with greater violence on some Indian tribes, against whom they had causes of complaint. The Indians thought it was the work of the God of the whites, or that the English shot invisi- ble bullets at their enemies; while others, noticing that they had no women of their own, and appeared not to care for any of theirs, imagined they were not immedi- ately born of women, but were individuals of a past generation, risen to immortality ; that there were more of them still, in the air, as yet invisible; and who, at the entreaty of the others, made Indians die by shooting invisible bullets at them.
The English, in their intercourse with the Indians, acquired a relish for their favorite employment of smoking tobacco. The plant grew spontaneous in the
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country ; the natives called it Uppewock: they cured and dried the leaf, and ground it into powder, which they put into earthen tubes and drew the smoke through the mouth; it was in so high an estimation among them, that they had a tradition, that the Gods them- selves delighted in the use of it. They sometimes lighted fires, into which they threw powdered tobacco as a sacrifice ; and when they were caught in a tempest in crossing Occam, the wide sound of Pamplico, they imagined the angry deities could be appeased by throw- ing it into the air and on the water. They implored the blessing of good luck upon their new nets, by casting some of it upon them; and when they had escaped some eminent danger, they threw some of this dust in the air, with antick gestures, stamping the ground in time, and cadence, clasping their hands, and throwing them up with discordant cries.
Divided into small, independent tribes, each under its particular chief, they were much addicted to plun- der, and for that reason, frequently engaged in conten- tion and strife. A regard to mutual defence, had produced alliances among them.
Deriving their principal subsistence from the chase and the water, they bestowed very little attention on agriculture; they seemed to have no idea of any other than national property in land. They were accustomed frequently to change their abode, finding it convenient to wander from one place to the other, according as they were invited by the abundance of the game or fish: unrestained in their migrations by the cares of hus- bandry, or the possession of any property in cattle or land.
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They were much addicted to theft and rapine : and their notions of meum and tuum, were so limited, that a disregard of them could not be considered as a crime.
Inhabiting, for the most part, marshy, or low sandy land, they were frequently in great dearth of provisions; and instigated by want and hunger, the strong and the weak could seldom withstand the temptations of vio- lence and fraud. When, in their frequent migrations, a number of them settled in any part of the country, which wide water and extended dismal swamps sepa- rated from the habitations and range of the rest of the tribe, inclination and regard to mutual defence induced them to live together, and avoid as much as possible, any intercourse with the bulk of the tribe, who felt dis- posed to treat straggling individuals as enemies ; and when, in course of time, their multiplication rendered the colony too numerous, for the scanty supplies which the spot afforded, parties went to establish themselves at a distance, without dissolving the connexion, which had subsisted between them, and those they had last left behind.
The tribes were longer on the ground they occupied, as it afforded, by the vicinity of the water, or the abun- dance of the game, an easier subsistence to their mem- bers.
Accounts of the climate, represented it as unfavour- able to health. During the sun mer months, the weather was extremely sultry, so as to render an expo- sure to the heat of the sun dangerous. Even the nights, were said to be seldom so cold as to afford refreshment. In the middle of the day, sudden
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storms overclouded the sky, before clear and serene, and caused such quick alteration in the air as to chill the limbs, still moist with sweat, stopping perspiration, and often occasioning fatal discases. In the fall, notwith. standing the coolness of the air, while the sun was under the horizon, it became oppressively hot when he was at a short distance from his meridian height; and heavy dews and thick fogs, rendered this season fatal. During the winter, an excessive degree of cold was, at times, though rarely, severely felt; but alternate and sudden changes between freezing and hot weather, distressed the colonists. Every shift of wind, brought on a sen- sible alteration in the temperature of the atmosphere. The spring began early, but was considerably retarded in its progress, by the return of sharp and piercing winds, bringing back frost and snow, and the charms of that season were hardly noticed, when the extreme heat of the next was already felt.
The colonists had been surrounded by a number of Indian tribes, some of whom were hostile, and all of them warlike; and neither of whom saw, with much . complacency, a part of their country, occupied by indi- viduals widely differing from them in appearance, man- ners and language. But spirituous liquor, an article which few Indians can taste, without craving more, and more, until it subdues reason , and for which, most will part with any thing they have in the world, rendered them the slaves of their guests; and if there were" any of them who withstood that temptation, knives, hatchets, hoes, and spades, were objects of inappreci- able value in their eyes. Those who ministered, as well to the real, as the imaginary wants of the aborigines,
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could not fail being considered as welcome guests, or desirable inhabitants. The nearer tribes were supplied with the means of rendering themselves terrible in arms, by the use of fire arms ; and the friendship of the whites was courted, with a view to obtain this advantage, or prevent its being afforded to the enemy. By this means, allies were acquired among the neighbouring tribes, and securities against the attempts of distant ones.
On the return of governor Lane, with his colonists, to England, the British were without any establish- ment in America. There was not a single individual of that nation living under British laws, in the new hemisphere ; the possessions of the Spaniards and Por .. tuguese, in South America, were considerable. In North America, the crown of Spain had one or two forts on the coast of Florida, The French had a grow- ing establishment in Canada. We have noticed their progress in those parts as far as the year 1535; in that year, Jacques Cartier, having carried off in his ship one the Indian chiefs; the circumstance so exasperated the 'natives, that, for a very great number of years, they absolutely refused to allow the French any trade in Canada. But towards the year 1581, a bark of thirty tons sailed up the river St. Lawrence, from France, and was permitted to trade. Soon after her return, a ship of eighty tons, was fitted out of the island of Jersey; and in the year of 1583, three large French ships were employed in the trade to Canada; one of one hundred and eighty tons, one of one hundred, and one of eighty.
The British, the French, the Spaniards, and the Por- tuguese, had many ships employed in the codfishery of New Foundland. As early as the year 1577, the
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French had one hundred and fifty, the Spaniards one hundred, and the British and Portuguese fifty ships, fishing there. The I'nglish are said to have had the best ships, and to have there given the law to those of other nations ; and it is said, to account for the small number of their ships in that part of the world, that they employed many in the fishery at Iceland, where the French from Biscay, had twenty or thirty ships, to kill whales for train oil.
Purchas-Smith-Stith-Marshall.
V, CARO.
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Sir Walter Raleigh, in the year 1586, had provided a ship of one hundred tons, to carry succour to gover- nor Lane and his men; she, however, did not sail till the middle of April, and did not reach Virginia, till the latter part of June ; a few days after the departure of the colonists in Sir Frances Drake's fleet. Her comman- der, after having spent some time in fruitless endeavors to discover them, returned to England with his lading,
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