USA > North Carolina > The history of North Carolina from the earliest period, Volume I > Part 6
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CHAPTER [1810
people had no control. The evil of anarchy had of late been so sorely felt, that the necessity of the change appeared obvious, and the amiable and ·dignified demeanor of the new administrator, ei- ther prevented or silenced the murmurs of those who might not relish the alteration. A number of French- men were brought with the last colonists, for the purpose of cultivating the vine; and considerable hopes were entertained that America would supply the market of London with wine. It is extraordi- nary, that, after the lapse of two centuries, notwith- standing the apparent aptitude of soil and climate, and the very frequent attempts that have followed this very important and costly experiment, and the encouraging success of posterior ones, no prac- tical result has as yet, in any considerable degree realized the fond expectation; por even authorized the belief that the time is much nearer, when those who delight in the juice of the grape, are to be grati- fied by the prospect of an American vintage.
Under the administration of lord Delaware, peace, industry, order and plenty succeeded to an- archy, ill success, confusion and dearth.
Sir George Somers had noticed during his stay at Bermudas, that there were in the woods of that island a great number of hogs, which were suppos- ed to have descended from animals of that species that had escaped from some vessel wrecked near that island. It was deemed prudent to send him thi- ther, in order that he might obtain as many of them as possible, which would make a valuable acquisition to the stock of the colony. After a very tedious passage, he reached the island, but before he could
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accomplish the object of his mission, he departed this life. Mathew Somers, his nephew, who com- manded under him, neglected the execution of his dying will to fulfill the intentions of lord Delaware, and returned to England to carry the corpse; having buried the heart and entrails near the spot on which the principal town of the island has since been built, and called St. George, in honor of the knight.
This year, the earl of Northumberland and forty- four other persons, were incorporated by the name of the "Treasurer and company of the adven- turers and planters of the cities of London and Bristol, for the colony and plantation of New- foundland." and obtained from the king a grant of the country from the 46th to the 52d degree of northern latitude, together with the seas and islands lying within ten leagues from the coast. The preamble states, as one of the inducements to the grant, that " divers of the king's subjects were de- sirous to plant, in the southern and eastern parts of Newfoundland, whither the subjects of this realm have for upwards of fifty years been used annually in no small number to visit, to fish." The parties soon after sent thirty more persons, under the or- ders of John Guy, of Bristol; who began a settle- ment at Conception bay, where they wintered.
Under the administration of lord Delaware, the colony reassumed a promising aspect; but it did not long possess the nobleman, to whom it was in- debted for its restoration. His lordship, finding his constitution daily impaired, by a climate not con- genial to it, sailed on the 28th of March, in quest N. CARO. 10
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of relief, for the island of Nevis, famous in those days for its wholesome waters. The number of colonists, at his departure from Jamestown, was two hundred.
George Percy, who assumed the reins of govern- ment, yielded them to Sir Thomas Dale, who had been appointed to succeed lord Delaware, and who arrived shortly after with three ships, bringing with him three hundred colonists, twelve cows, twenty goats, and abundance of provisions.
A new governor, however, Sir Thomas Gates, arrived in the month of August: with him came a small fleet, consisting of six ships, on board of which were two hundred and eighty men, twenty women, one hundred head of cattle, two hundred hogs, military stores, and provisions.
The colony now began to extend itself up James river, and several new settlements were made. Sir Thomas Dale, with three hundred men, being one half of the colonists, went up James river, and built a town, which, in honor of the prince of Wales, he called Henrico, the ruins of which, according to president Stith, were still visible in 1746. His settlement being some time after attacked by the Appamatox Indians, who dwelt on the river, which to this day preserves their name, he marched against them, drove them off, and took possession of their town, which in remembrance of the island of Bermudas, he called Bermuda Hundred.
In the following year, the company obtained a new charter: its date is of the 12th March. It con- firms their former privileges, and prolongs the time of their exemption from the payment of duties on
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commodities exported by them, and their certain boundary by this grant was extended, so as to in- clude all the islands lying within three hundred miles of the coast: this extension had been solicited with a view of including within the jurisdiction of Virginia. the island of Bermudas and the islands that surround it.
The company, however, disposed immediately of their new acquisition to one hundred and twenty of their own members. who, in honor of the late Sir George Somers, gave these islands the name of Somers' Islands; a name which they have retained on the English charts: on those of other nations, and pretty generally among English mariners, they are still known by the name of Bermudez, the Spanish navigator who is said to have discovered them. The new proprietors, last noticed, sent thither a colony of sixty persons, under the guidance of Richard Moore. They landed in June, and in the following month subscribed certain articles of government, which have been the origin from which civil institutions have, without interruption, been sup- ported in Bermudas to this day: in the course of the year, the colony received an accession of thirty persons.
King James favored the adventurers of the first colony with the permission of raising in England money by a lottery: this is the first instance of any public counte- nance being given to the raising of money in this pernicious way.
Two ships, with eighty men, and a supply of provi- sion. arrived this year in Virginia.
The year 1613 is memorable for the first hostilities between the English and French colonists in America.
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Samuel Champlain, when commencing the settlement of Canada, had found the Adisonkas engaged in an im- placable war with the Iroquois or five nations, a confe- deracy, consisting of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Ononda- gas, Cayugas and Senekas, who had been united from ancient time, had been driven from their possessions near Montreal, and had found an asylum on the south- east border of lake Ontario. The Adisonkas had, in their turn, been coustrained to abandon their lands, situated above the three rivers, and to look for safety behind the straights of Quebec. Champlain had espoused their cause, and accompanying them, on an expedition against the five nations, had discovered the lake to which he gave his name; but which, except among the French, retains at this day its Indian name Ontario. The alliance of the Adisonkas with the French, turned the scale of success, and the allied tribes were defeated in several battles, and reduced to great distress, till procuring fire arms from a Dutch ship, that sailed high up Manhattan river, they became formidable enemies to the Adisonkas and the French.
Madame de Guercheville, a pious French lady, zealous for the conversion of the American Indians, had procured from Dumontz a surrender of his patent, and obtained from Louis XIII. a charter of all the lands of New France, from the St. Lawrence to Florida, with the exception of Port Royal. She sent out Saussaye, with two Jesuit missionaries. He left Honfleur on the twelfth of March, in a vessel of one hundred tons, and on the sixteenth of May, arrived at Lac Acre, or Aca- dia, where he set up a cross, with the arms of Madame de Guercheville, in token of his having taken posses- sion for her. He proceeded next to Port Royal, where
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he found only five persons, whom he took with him, and two Jesuits whom he met there ; with them he proceeded to Mont Depot, an island thus named by Champlain, at the entrance of the river Pentagoet, in forty-four degrees twenty minutes of latitude ; the Jesuits fixed their settle- ment on the eastern end of the island, and called the place St. Lawrence. Saussaye left them a suitable number of colonists.
The settlers were hardly provided with accommoda- tions, before they were attacked by the English of Vir- ginia, under captain Samuel Argal, sent by governor Gates, with seven small vessels, sixty soldiers, and four- teen guns. The French were not in a situation to make any resistance, and yielded to superior force. One of the Jesuits was killed, several of the colonists were wounded, and all made prisoners, excepting four or five, who found their safety in flight. Argal supplied his pri- soners with a fishing vessel, in which they returned to France; he however retained fifteen of them and a Jesuit, whom he brought to Jamestown.
On his arrival there, governor Gates, and the council, resolved to send him back to the coast of Acadia, to raze all the settlements and forts to the forty-sixth degree. An armament of three vessels was immediately put un- der the orders of captain Argal, with which he proceeded to St. Lawrence, where he broke to pieces the cross, with the arms of Madame de Guercheville, and erected another with those of James I., for whom possession was now taken of the country. He next sailed to St. Croix, where he destroyed all the remains of Dumontz's settle- ment, and proceeding to Port Royal, he reduced the buildings erected there to ashes.
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On his return to Virginia, he visited the Dutch settle- ment on Hudson's river, of which he demanded posses- sion. Hendrick Christians, the governor, incapable of resistance, submitted himself and his colony to the king of England, and under him to the governor of Virginia.
Soon after his arrival at Jamestown, captain Argal ac- companied Sir Thomas Gates to Chickahominy, where a treaty was held with the Indians, who solemnly engaged to be faithful to king James.
A proper direction was now given to the activity of the colonists ; it exerted itself in useful industry, and a very important change took place. Hitherto, no sepa- rate or private property had been allowed, either in any part of the soil, or in the produce of it ; the planters had till now labored together, and were fed and supported out of the common stock. The five years during which this imprudent regulation had been enforced, by the king's instructions, were now expired ; the effect of it had not differed from what ought to have been ex- pected ; few and feeble efforts were made, while indus- try was not exerted by the certainty of the exclusive en- joyment of the produce of its labor ; every one sought to remove his shoulder, as much as possible, from the public burden. Three acres were allotted to each man, to be improved as a farm; he was required to work eleven months for the store, out of which he was allowed twelve barrels of corn, and one month was allotted him to make the rest of his provisions.
In the course of the year, five hundred and forty per- sons arrived from England, at Bermudas.
Early in the following year, governor Gates returned to England, and the administration of the affairs of Virginia, devolved on general Thomas Dale.
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A Dutch governor arrived at the settlement of Hud- son river, with a reinforcement, to assert the right of Holland to the country : he refused to acknowledge, as his predecessor had done, the dependence of the colony on the English throne, and put it in a posture of de- fence ; he built a fort on the south end of the island of Manhattan, where the city of New York was afterwards built.
John Smith visited, this year, the northern part of Virginia, ranging the coast from Penobscot, to cape Cod, trading with the natives. From the observations he made on the shores, islands, harbors and headings, be, on his return, formed a map, and presented it to prince Charles, who, in the warmth of admiration, gave it the name of New England.
The allotment of farms to the colonists had, at first, produced a stimulus to industry ; but while these farms were held by a precarious tenure, and he, who bestowed his labor on the ground, had no security for the enjoy- ment of the improvements he erected on it, it could not be expected that agriculture should make rapid ad- vances. It was therefore determined, to grant to every adventurer in the colony, fifty acres of land, in free and common socage, and the same quantity for every person imported into the colony.
In 1616, the government of Virginia was committed to Sir George Yardly. Soon after his arrival, the Chic- kahominies proving refractory, he marched against them with one hundred men; he made twelve pri- soners, who were ransomed for one hundred bushels of corn; and as the price of peace, the Indians loaded three boats with the same article.
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The culture of tobacco, which was introduced about this time, excited the cupidity of the colonists ; for it, they neglected the fields that yielded the more neces, sary, though less profitable kind of produce ; thus, their inattention to raising sufficient supplies of provisions, rendered their means of subsistence more precarious; and a consequent scarcity ensued, which compelled the whites to renew their demands upon the Indians : those people, at first, reluctantly yielded a part of their stores ; but, the frequency of applications soon induced an open refusal ; the English sought to obtain by violence, that which was denied to entreaty : the Indians' antipa. thy and lurking animosities were revived, and they soon began secretly to look for means of revenge.
Captain Argal, who arrived in Virginia as governor, in the following year, found it verging towards its ruin; the public works and buildings neglected, and fallen into decay; five or six private houses only, fit to be in- habited; the state house occupied as a church ; the mar- ket place, streets, and every other spåre place, planted with tobacco; the people dispersed, and their entire number reduced to about four hundred. It was the misfortune of the colonists, that the new administrator did not possess the talents which their situation de- manded.
On the solicitations of the colonists, for a supply of husbandmen and implements of agriculture, the treasurer and company sent out lord Delaware, in a ship of two hundred and fifty tons, with two hundred settlers. His lordship died on his passage, near the bay, which then received, and has to this day retained his title : the ship arrived safely, and soon after, the colony received an accession of forty persons, by another.
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Governor Argal's conduct became unusually rigor- ous; and martial law, which had been proclaimed and ex- ecuted, during the turbulence of former times, was now, in a season of peace, made the common law of the land: he published several edicts, "" which mark the severity of his rule, but some of them evinced his attention to public safety. He ordered that all goods should be sold, at an advance of twenty per cent., and tobacco taken at three shillings per pound, and not more nor less, under the penalty of three years servitude to the colony ; that there should be no private trade nor fami- liarity with the Indians ; that no Indian should be taught to shoot game, under the penalty of death, to the teacher and learner; that no man should shoot, except in his own defence, against an enemy, till a new supply of ammunition was received, on pain of a year's servitude; that every person should go to church, on Sundays and holidays, or be confined the night succeeding the of- fence, and be a slave to the colony the following week; for the second offence, a slave for a month, and for the third, a year and a day."
In the month of April, 1619, Sir George Yardly, who had been appointed governor general of Virginia, reached Jamestown, and, in pursuance of his instruc- tions, issued a proclamation for the holding of a colo- nial assembly, on the 19th of June. On that day, the representatives of eleven boroughs assembled to exer- cise legislative powers ; they sat in the same house with the governor and council, according to the practice of the Scotch parliament.
The fall of this year is remarkable for a dreadful mor- tality in Virginia, not less than three hundred colonists having fallen victims to it.
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Twenty thousand pounds of tobacco were this year, exported from Virginia to England.
The Puritan or Reformed church, in the north of England, had, in the year 1606, on account of its dis- persed state, divided into to two distinct churches : one of which, under the care of John Robinson, finding itself extremely harrassed, on account of its non-con- formity, sought an asylum in Holland : they settled in Amsterdam, and afterwards in Leyden. After residing several years in the last city, various causes induced them to think of a removal to America. In the year 1617, having determined to go to Virginia, they des- patched some of their members to treat with the Vir- ginia company, from which, after several attempts, they. obtained a patent, in the year 1619.
Preparations were instantly made, and in the month of July, of the following year, a part of the church re- turned to England, and on the 5th of August, sat sail from South Hampton, for Virginia, on board the ship Enterprise, of one hundred tons ; and a smaller one, the Speedwell, of sixty: a leak sprung by the latter, com- pelled them to return, and they at last sailed from Ply- mouth, leaving the leaky ship behind, and taking another called the May Flower.
They reached cape Cod, on the 19th of November, and finding themselves more northerly than they wished, they stood to the southward, intending to land towards Hudson river : falling, however, among shoals, encoun- tering severe storms, they were induced, as the winter was rapidly advancing, to abandon their plan, and after coasting for a considerable time in search of a conve- nient spot, the company landed, on the 23d of Decem- ber, and two days after, began to build the first house,
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on the spot where the present town of Plymouth, in the state of Massachusetts, now stands.
A few days after their departure from England, king James had granted a patent to the duke of Lenox, the marquises of Buckingham and Hamilton, the earls of Arundel and Warwick, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and thirty-four other persons, and their successors, under the style of "The council established at Plymouth, in the county of Dover, for the planting, ruling, ordering and governing of New England, in America." The country lies, between forty and forty-eight degrees of north latitude, from sea to sea, was given them in abso- Jute property ; the rest of their charter, differs but little from that of the Virginia company.
In the mean time, eleven ships, with twelve hundred and sixteen persons, had arrived at Jamestown, and soon after, one hundred and fifty girls, either "young and uncorrupt," or " handsome and well recommended, for their virtuous education and demeanor," were sent to the colonists. They were thought too valuable to be gratuitously bestowed : one hundred weight of tobacco, the value of which, in money, was about fifty dollars, was at first insisted upon; but the supply not being equal to the demand, the price advanced fifty per cent. and one hundred dissolute persons were delivered, by the king's command, to the treasurer and company at home, by the knight marshal, and were accordingly sent over as servants.
The culture of tobacco had hitherto exclusively en- grossed the attention of the colonists. It was now di- rected, to more immediate and variegated objects: one hundred and fifty persons were employed in setting up iron works; others were directed to apply them-
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selves to making pitch, tar and potash, to erect some mills, and prepare for the culture of silk : tobacco was, however, still considered the principal staple commodi- ty, and an inspection of it was now ordered,
A Dutch ship arrived at Jamestown, and disposed of twenty negroes: this was the first importation of the kind.
The colony was flourishing ; it had been divided into eleven parishes, and had five clergymen.
In the next year, governor Yardly was succeeded by Sir Francis Wyatt ; seven hundred settlers arrived with the new administrator: he brought an ordinance and constitution of the treasurer, council and company, in England, for settling the government of the colony in a governor, a council of state, or his assistants, and a general assembly. The latter body was to consist of two burgesses, to be chosen by every town, hundred, or particular plantation : the governor had a negative on all laws: but they were not to have any force till ra- tified by the general court, or the company in England, whose orders were, on return, to be of no force, till ap- proved by the general assembly in Virginia.
Provision was made for the establishment of a school in Charles city, and for the support of the clergy throughout the province.
Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who was entrusted with the affairs of the Plymouth company, conceived the design of persuading the Scotch to form a settlement in New England : for that purpose a patent, for the whole coun- try of Acadia, was granted to Sir William Alexander : it was erected into a palatinate, by the name of Nova Scotia, to be holden as a fief of the crown of Scotland, and the proprietor was invested with the accustomed re-
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gal powers, belonging to a county palatine. The attempt to bring over a Scotch colony proved abortive. Sir Alexander divided his palatinate into two districts, call- ing the southern one Nova Caledonia, and the other Nova Alexandria.
This year, George Calvert Lord Baltimore, ob- tained a patent for the south-eastern peninsula, of New- foundland, which, he named the province of Avalon, from Avalonius, a monk, who was supposed to have converted the British king Lucius and all his court, to Christianity. At Ferryland, in the province of Avalon, lord Baltimore built a fine house, and spent two thou- sand five hundred pounds sterling, in advancing his plantation. He appointed Edward Wynne, governor of the colony, and visited it twice in person; but he was SO annoyed by the French, that, though he repulsed and pursued their ships, and took sixty prisoners, yet, he found his province so much exposed to their insults, and the trouble and expense of defending it so very great, that he was obliged to abandon it.
Virginia now made rapid advances in population and wealth. The quantity of tobacco, now exported, was more than sufficient to supply the English market; and the company opening a trade, for the surplus, with the Dutch, considerable shipments were made to Middle- berry and Flushing. This division of wealth, and the consequent diminution of the revenue, which the crown derived, from a duty which had been imposed on the im- portation of tobacco, awoke the attention of the king, who interposed his authority, to check, what he called an illegal innovation. The company invoked, not only their general privileges as Englishmen, to carry their commodities to the best market, but insisted on the full
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benefit of the particular concession, in their charter, by which they contended an unlimited freedom of com. merce was secured to them. This controversy, which is remarkable, as the first between the mother country and one of the colonies, was at last, terminated, by an amicable arrangement. The company obtained the ex- clusive right of importing tobacco into the kingdom, and submitted to the obligation of bringing all its pro- ductions there, and to a duty of nine pence per pound of tobacco.
Extensive settlements were now made, at a consider- able distance from Jamestown, even as far as the Po- tomac; and the situation of the colonists appeared so prosperous, when contrasted with the disastrous state, in which it had lately been, that they suffiered themselves to be lulled with the most dangerous security, and their attention to be entirely taken up, in procuring the lux- uries of civil life ; their martial exercise was entirely laid aside, and every precautionary measure, against the infi- delity and attacks of the Indians, discarded as super- Aluous.
These people had been employed by the whites, in the capacity of menial servants, of fishermen, and hun- ters; they had been allowed the use of fire arms, and had acquired a considerable dexterity in the management of them : those who did not dwell within, or in places contiguous to the habitations of the whites, came into them at all times of the day, and even of the night, and were received as welcome guests, or, at least, as harm- less visitants. This inconsiderate confidence, enabled them to plan, and in a great degree to accomplish, the general slaughter of the whites : the plot was concealed with surprising secrecy, although all the natives within
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