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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

MEMORIALS

OF

NORTH CAROLINA

BY J. SEAWELL JONES,

OF SHOCCO.

NEW- YORK
1838.

New-York:
Printed by Scatcherd & Adams,
No. 38 Gold Street.

TO THE
HONORABLE WM. COST JOHNSON,
AS A SLIGHT BUT MOST SINCERE TOKEN
OF ADMIRATION FOB HIS GENIUS,

RESPECT FOR HIS CHARACTER,
AND GRATITUDE FOR HIS FRIENDSHIP,
THIS WORK
IS INSCRIBED,
BY HIS OBLIGED AND AFFECTIONATE SERVANT,
SHOCCO.

PREFACE.
The chapters comprised in this volume were pub
lished some years ago in the literary Gazettes of
the day, and are all, excepting the one signed "Paci
ficator," from the same pen. They all relate to
periods of the history of North Carolina, which, un
til a few years ago, were buried and forgotten ; and
they are now published to keep alive the memory of
those times. The bitterness of controversy has at
least the good effect of signalizing historical events ;
and many a hurried student will perhaps pause to
observe in what great matter it is that the skepti
cism of an Irving or a Jefferson is deemed vicious
and reprehensible.

MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA.

CHAP. I.
THE LANDING OF SIR WALTER'S COLONY.
" They were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea." COLEHIDGB,
On the 4th of July, 1584, two English ships hove
in sight of the coast of North Carolina, somewhere
about Cape Fear. They were the vessels of Sir
Walter Raleigh, and were on a voyage of discovery,
to take possession of some portion of the new world
in the name of the crown of England. The day on
which they first beheld the shores of our country has
since become the great political holiday of the age,
and is now distinguished as the anniversary, not of the
origin, but of the downfall of the authority of Eng
land over the United States. The commanders of
these two ships were Philip Amadas and Arthur
Barlowe ; and the ceremony which they performed
upon the coast of North Carolina, and which I am
now about to celebrate, is perhaps one of the most
memorable events in the history of mankind. The
fortunate results of the dominion of England over

8 MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA.
the territory of our Union are as innumerable as are
the stars; and the free Anglo-American, in whatever
forests he may be found, will turn reverently to the
spot consecrated as its birth-place. The two ad
venturers loitered along the coast of North Caro
lina, in full view of the shore as it sweeps in a curve
from Cape Look Out to Cape Fear. There was
scarcely wind enough to ruffle the plumage of the
two ships as they lay their gentle course, and the
mild land-breeze was so fragrant, that the voyagers
exclaimed that they seemed to be in the midst of
some delicate garden, abounding with all kinds of
odoriferous flowers. Thus making their liquid way,
on the 13th of July, 1584, we find the two ships at
anchor in the roads of Ocracock inlet, within a few
hundred yards of the island which lies to the south,
and which the Indians called Wokokon. And this
is the spot, of all the fair lands of our wide-spread
country, which was first occupied by old mother
England !
About mid-day on the 13th, when there was not a
film of a cloud in the heavens, nor a breath of air to
break the sea ; when the tides were still, and the
sunshine danced along the glittering sand-banks
from Hatteras to Look Out ; when the whole scene
was so intensely tranquil, that those ships looked
like "painted ships," and that ocean a "painted
ocean ;" when the crew stood about the decks in si
lent wonderment at the vast and solitary world be
fore them — no scudding skiflF, no rising smoke, no
distant sound : at this hour, when solitude was most

MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA. 9
awful and most sublime, the sound of prayer broke
the enchantment, and the first words of Christian
suffrage were uttered in returning thanks to God
that the lion flag of old England was about to
be planted upon the coast of the new world. The
boats were then manned, and the two captains, at
tended by the most notable gentlemen of the expedi
tion, were pulled toward the shore ; and as the boats
grated upon the sand, they sprang upon the beach,
and Captain Amadas shouted in a loud voice : —
" We take possession of this land in the right of
the queene's most excellent majestie, as rightfull
queene and princesse of the same, to be delivered
over to the use of Sir Walter Raleigh, according to
her Majestie's grant and letters patent, under her
highnesse's great seale,"
This, then, was the birthday, and here, then, was
the birthplace, of our great Anglo-American empire !
And bow fortunate was it for the cause of civil and
religious freedom all over the world that England,
and not Spain, France, or Portugal, colonized our
splendid domain ! Look to the South American
states, already in the decrepitude of old age ; theii ^
moral, intellectual, and physical condition alike un
improved ; their governments unsteady and tyran
nical ; their private, estates insecure; and the very
liberty which, but a few years ago^ they so proudly
achieved, already degraded into popular despotism.
Spanish blood corrupted the new world. The seeds
of civil and religious despotism were sown, broad
cast, from the city of Mexico to Cape Horn ; and
2

10 MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA.
after a revolution of three hundred years, Spanish
America can boast of but little that is either grand
or sublime, in all her history, excepting the monu
ments of Montezuma's magnificence and the victo
ries of Bolivar.
But how different has been the career of the An
glo-American race ! The seed which was planted
on Wokokon Island has given birth to a new genus
of men. Another and a hardier race than even
the Anglo-Saxon has sprung into existence, and
are now bearing onward to the Pacific, as they
leap from the Alleghany to the Rocky mountains,
the language and the liberty of their forefathers.
The great principles of human government have
been simplified ; the liberty of the people, and their
right to self-government, immoveably established ;
a free, happy, and powerful republic, under the con
stitution and laws of which the rights of individuals
are as inviolably sustained as is the glory of the na
tional faith, now covers the fairest portions of the
new world ; and, what is the proudest result of all,
this new-born nation, in the purity of its government
and in the happiness of its people, is now sending
back, across the sea, to regenerate and to reform the
old world, the sublime lessons of her own experience.
Happy, proud Anglo- America ! She has given to
the world the great principle of a free government.
She has extended the provinces of liberty, civiliza
tion, and of law. " The lightning of the heavens
could not resist her philosophy, nor the temptation
of a throne seduce her patriotism."

MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA. 11
Let US now return to the voyagers. As soon as
they had performed the ceremony of occupation, the
company penetrated a few miles into the interior,
and, on reaching the summit of an eminence, they dis
covered that they were on an island, and not on the
continent. " They behelde the sea both sides of them
to the north and to the south, having no end any of
both ways." They were on an island clad with
vines, which reeled so full of grapes, " as that the
very beating and surge of the sea had overflowed
them, of which we found such plentie, as well there
as in all places else, both on the sand as on the
green soil, on the hills as in the plains, as well as on
every little shrubbe, as also climing towardes the
tops of high cedars, that I thinke in all the worlde
the like abundance is not to be found." From the
eminence which they had gained, they beheld the
valleys replenished with goodly cedar trees, and
having discharged their harque-buz shot, a flock of
cranes (the most part white) arose under them, with
such a cry, redoubled by many echoes, as if an army
of men had shouted all together." The island is
again described as having " many goodly woods, full
of deer, conies, hares, and fowle, even in the midst
of summer, in incredible abundance. The woods
are not such as you find in Bohemia, Moscovia, or
Hercynia— barren and fruitless, but the highest and
reddest cedars in the world, far better than the cedars
of the Azores, of the Indies, or of Lybanus."
The extracts which I have made, are taken from
the report ofthe two captains, Amadas and Barlowe,

12 MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA.
made to Sir Walter Raleigh on their return to Eng
land. The description is not too highly wrought, for
we must remember that the ravages of man and of
the ocean have, for more than two centuries, desolat
ed and changed Wokokon Island. The beautiful
name of Virginia was first applied to the islands of
North Carolina, and I have seen in the earliest maps
and charts of the state at present bearing that name,
Roanoke and Wokokon Islands laid off to the south,
imder the somewhat boasted title of " Old Virginia."
This, at least, was the Virginia of Sir Walter Raleigh,
and of the Fairy Q,ueen of England. His name is
identified with no other section of our Union, and
the name of the capital of North Carolina best be
tokens her proud remembrance of the character of
her founder.
The two captains, after having surveyed Wokokon
Island, returned to their ships, and there remained
for two days before they encountered the natives.
It is not my design in this number to follow them in
their adventures among the savages; I would rather
ask the reader to come with me to the consecrated
spot, and see how it now looks after a revolution of
two hundred and fifty years.
I have myself stood upon such an eminence on
Wokokon Island as that described by the voyagers,
but I sought a more poetical hour than mid-day, and
I had, too, the benefit of a blustering March wind,
which threw the waters all into a rage, and brought
down the waves of the Pamlico all the way from
Roanoke Island, as heavy as if they had been bom

MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 13
in the Gulf Stream. It was a clear, cold day ; and
with the history of these voyagers fresh in my me
mory, I had wandered about the island, and at sunset
I placed myself as near as possible on the very emi
nence on which they had stood centuries ago. The
view before me was indeed wild and startling. The
glorious sunset gilded the crested waves of the Pam
lico, as they broke in boundless succession afar to the
west and to the north, and the narrow island that
curves around to the north-east from Ocracock to Hat
teras, all covered as it was with the mellow teints of
the sun, resembled a rainbow resting on the face of
the sea. The opposite towns of Portsmouth and Ocra
cock, and old Shell Castle, stood before me amid the
noisy waves, as if they had arisen to earth from the
convulsive throes of the excited sea, and then there
was the narrow island, with its naked woods and
vines, and the waves bursting and thundering upon
its shores, combing their foam higher and higher on
each return, as if in the wantonness of their strength
they would clap their hand over the very spot on
which I stood. To me there is something especially
fascinating in the scenery about Ocracock Inlet. I
love it for its very bleakness ; and historical associa
tion, too, hallows it in my memory. It is indeed a
place of storms, for nature has there provided every
thing which can give fury to the winds, and, come
from what quarter they will, they bring noise and
strife. An easterly wind arouses the whole Atlantic,
and the waves dash through the narrow straits, re
treating from the fury of the storm ; and then a west-

14 MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA.
erly wind arises, aud, sweeping over the Pamlico,
sends them all back to their ocean mother. A north
east gale will bring down from the banks of Hatteras
sand enough to create an island ; and oftentimes a
ship riding at her anchorage, is enveloped in a whirl
pool of saiid, and lifted high and dry out of the sea ;
but then a southern storm will send its ministers
to the rescue, and the briny waves will soon ply
their strength, undermine it, and sweep the ship
away.

MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 15

CHAP. II.
" The gentle children of an isle,
Who knew but to worship and to love." Russell.
For two days our adventurous voyagers saw no
signs of man. The vine-clad and flowery isle before
them seemed to have bloomed away its existence un-
enjoyed by man, and their minds were filled with the
sublime thought — that in this virgin world the cla
mour of war had never been heard, nor the silence of
its shores ever violated, save by the thunders of the
waves and of the clouds of heaven. On the third
day, however, this dream was broken. A solitary
boat, with three savages, turned the northern point
of Wokokon, and gliding into an indenture in the
shore, one of the party sprang upon the beach, and
coming directly opposite the anchorage of the ships,
he walked up and down along the water's edge, seem
ingly in wonder at what he saw. When Captain
Amadas and three other gentlemen approached him
in a boat, he made them a speech of much length,
in his own barbarous tongue, and then firmly step
ping into their boat, he manifested by signs his de
sire to visit their ships. How brave is innocence !
It goes wheresoever it will, and triumphs where guilt

16 MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA.
would fall. It has survived the fiery furnace, and
once walked upon the stormy sea, as upon the plains of
the earth.
The name of this Indian was Manteo; and the
whole domestic history of England cannot boast a
more perfect character. He was alike the firm friend
of the English, and the stern patriot and defender of
his tribe ; and whenever a strife arose among them,
he held out the olive-branch, and made peace upon
the principles of justice. His savage birth and life
were indeed but additional embellishments of his
character; and while he restrained the inhuman
vices of his tribe, he checked the not less odious
avarice of his new and more civilized associates.
On some future occasion I shall celebrate his hu
manity, his generosity, and his valour. At present I
have only space thus briefly to introduce him to the
reader, and to announce the more astonishing cir
cumstance of his life — that he was honoured with
the reverence, the obedience, and the gratitude of the
whites. On reaching the ships, Manteo wandered about the
decks, examining every part of them with the curio
sity of ignorance ; and having tasted of their meat
and of their wine, and received a present of a hat and
some other trifles, he departed again to his own boat
and attendants. He then put off into the water and
" fell to fishing, and in less than half an hour he had
laden his boat as deep as it could swim ;" and then
he came back to the shore, divided his fish between
the two ships, and departed.

MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA. 17
The next day Granganameo, the king's brother,
with a fleet of canoes, entered Ocracock inlet ; and
leaving his boats, as Manteo had done, in a small cove,
he came down to the water's edge near the ships.
He was attended by forty or fifty men, " very hand
some and goodly people, and in their behaviour as man
nerly and civil as any of Europe ;" and they spread
down upon the sea-shore a long mat or carpet, upon
which Granganameo was seated, and " at the other
ende of this matte four others of his company did
the like — the rest stood about him somewhat afar
off." He showed no signs of fear or mistrust as the
English, dressed in full array of armour, approached ;
but he sat perfectly unmoved, and bade them, by
signs, to be seated near hitn, and then he made them
" all figures of joy and welcome — striking on his
breast and on his head, and afterwards on ours, to
shew we were all one — smiling and making shewe
the best he could, of all love and familiaritie." Af
ter this welcome, Granganameo made them a long
set speech, to which Captain Amadas replied by
presenting him with divers things, which he joyfully
received; and during the whole ceremony none of
the company of attendants spoke a word audibly, but
each in the other's ear very softly.
During this visit the voyagers learned that the coun
try was called Wingandaceo, and that the king was
named Wingina, and that his majesty had recently
had a fight, in " which he was shot in two places
through the body, and once clear through the thigh
3

18 MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA.
— by reason whereof, and for that he lay at the chief
town of the country, which was five days' journey
oflf, they saw him not at all." Thus, by the illness
of the king, Granganameo was in authority, and
when the Captain went around making presents to
the company of attendants, he rose from his seat and
took them all away, and indicated to the voyagers
that all things should be given to him, and that the
men around were but his servants and his followers.
In a few days the voyagers commenced trading
with the savages for skins, and such other commo
dities as they possessed ; and on showing all their
merchandise, the article that most took the fancy of
Granganameo was a large, bright tin dish, which he
seized, and " clapt it before his breast, and after made
a hole in the brim thereof and hung it about his neck,
making signs that it would defend him against his ene
mies' arrows ; for these people maintain a deadly
and terrible war with the people and king adjoining.
They exchanged the tin dish for twenty skins, worth
twenty crowns, and a copper kettle for fifty skins,
worth fifty crowns."
A few days after this, the captains gave a collation
on board the ships, and Granganameo came with all
his retinue, and they drank wine and ate of their meat
and of their bread, and were exceedingly pleased ;
and in a few days more he brought his wife, his
daughter, and two or three children on board the ships.
His wife is represented as having been a most beau
tiful and modest woman. She wore a long black
cloak of leather, with the fur-side next to her skin ;

MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 19
her forehead was surmounted with a band of white
coral, and from her ears swung, even down to her
waist, bracelets of precious pearl. Her raven hair
was streaming down from her coral crown, and in
tertwisting itself with her ear-rings of pearl, flowed
gracefully back over her jetty robe in wild and un
shorn luxuriance. Granganameo, too, on this occa
sion, was dressed in state. A crescent of unpolished
metal, much resembling gold, surmounted his head ;
and this he would neither remove for their inspec
tion, nor would he even stoop or bend that they
might touch it. A band of white coral ran around
his head, passing over his forehead immediately at
the bow of the crescent, as if it had been its border ;
and this, with the tuft of hair on the summit of his
scalp, completed his head-dress. His body was robed
in a black cloak similar to the one worn by his wife,
and this seemed to be the uniform of those whom the
voyagers denominated the nobles of the land- The
young daughter of Granganameo was distinguished
by an extraordinary cluster of ear pendants, an un
commonly beautiful head of richly flowing auburn
hair, and a pair of bright chestnut eyes. Such
were the fashions of the savages of North Carolina.
The civility and kindness of the voyagers were
well appreciated by Granganameo and his wife;
and they spread around the country such reports of
their good-will, that " a great store of people" came
down to Wokokon to see the strangers, and to trade
away skins, pearls, coral, and dyes. During all this
intercourse nothing occurred to give dissatisfaction on

20 MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA.
either side, and in a few days we find Captain Bar
lowe, with seven comrades, at Roanoke Island on a
visit to Granganameo. The particulars of this visit
deserve to be specially detailed, to illustrate not more
the manners and customs, than the hospitality of the
uncorrupted American savage.
On the north point of Roanoke Island there stood
an Indian village of nine houses. Several were very
large and commodious dwellings, being built of the
best cedar, and containing as many as five rooms.
The town was fortified by a circle of pickets, and
the entrance through this, into the interior of the vil
lage, was over a turnpike-path, which wound around
from the water's edge, and entered the fortification
through an avenue of these picketed trees. This
was the town of Granganameo ; and as Captain
Barlowe and his company approached it in their boats,
the wife of the good savage, being in the entrance
near the water's edge, saw and welcomed them cheer
fully and friendly.
Granganameo not being at home, the civilities of
the tribe devolved upon his wife — and generously
did she acquit herself She ordered a number of
men to draw the boats out of the water, others she
appointed to carry the voyagers on their backs, and
when they were brought in the outer room, she gave
them seats around a large fire. Their outer gar
ments, which had been wet in a rain, were taken off,
quickly washed and dried, and the women of the
village came and brought warm water and bathed
their feet. My reader, I have drawn this picture

MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA, 21
not from my imagination, but from history; nor have
I purloined from classic annals a description of the
Golden age, and thrown it amid the scenery of Roa
noke Island ; but this good Indian woman deserves
to live renovvned in the history of North Carolina
as the good Samaritan, who ministered to the sorroAvs
of the weary and distressed.
But Granganameo's wife was not satisfied even
with these cordial attentions. She had prepared, in
the words of Captain Barlowe, " a solemn banquet,"
wherewithal to refresh them ; and as soon as they
had dried themselves, and reassumed their outer gar
ments, they were ushered into an inner room to en
joy the feast. The tables were set all around against
the walls of the house, and on them were placed
" some wheate like furraentie ; venison, sodden and
roasted ; fish sodden, boiled and roasted ; melons,
rawe and sodden ; roots of divers kinds, and divers
fruites." Their drink was wine, made of the grapes
of the island, and ginger-cinnamon and sassafras-
water. Captain Barlowe exclaims — " We were en
tertained with all love and kindness, and with as
much bountie, after their manner, as they could
possibly devise. We found the people most gentle,
loving, and faithful, and such as live after the man
ner of the Golden age."
The house of Granganameo comprised five rooms.
The hall in which the voyagers first entered, the ban
quet-room, and then came two sleeping-chambers,
and in the rear of them all was the sanctum, in
which they kept an idol to bend before and to wor-

22 MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA.
ship, and " of whom they spoke incredible things."
The feast went off gloriously. The voyagers gave
many signs of their pleasure and gratification, and
the good woman implored them to tarry for the
night ; but the prudent Captain Barlowe preferred
lounging in an open boat near the shore during a
rainy night, lest there might be some miscarriage.
She, however, sent them mats to cover with, and
brought down to the boat, with her own hands, some
supper put in pots ; and Captain Barlowe concludes
his account of the feast by declaring, that a more
kind or loving people cannot be found in the world.
Let us now see what information, as to the geo
graphy of the country, these voyagers acquired.
The Indian name of the Albemarle Sound was Occam,
and into it flowed a river called JVomopana, and
near the mouth of this river was a town called Cho-
wanook, and the name of the king thereof was Poo-
neno. The Pamlico shores of the county of Carte-
rek were called Secotan, and those of Craven, Po-
monick. Secotan was under the king of Wingan
daceo, and Pomonick under an independent king,
named Piamacum. In the interior, toward the set
ting sun, the country was called Newsiok, and
through it coursed the river Neus. The king of this
country was in alliance with Piamacum, and had
aided him in a war against the Secotans. The jour
nal of Captain Barlowe speaks, too, of a river called
Ciijo, which flowed into the Occam, in which were
found " great store of muscles" producing pearls,
and constant allusion is made to a great town call-

MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA. 23
ed Shicock, which was said to be five days' journey
from the banks of the Occam.
There was a tradition about Secotan, that, some
years before the arrival of the voyagers, a ship had
been wrecked on the coast, and the unfortunate
strangers had been preserved by the savages. They
remained ten days on the southern cape of Wokokon
Island, and afterwards put to sea in a rudely-con
structed craft, and were seen no more. Some weeks
after their boat was found wrecked on a contigu
ous island, and these were the only people " well
apparelled and of white colour" of whom the Indians
had ever heard.
I will here conclude my notices of the voyage
of Captains Amadas and Barlowe. The report
which they made to Sir Walter Raleigh gave a
powerful impulse to the adventurous spirit of the
whole Briti&h nation, and was distinguished at that
day as the very beginning of the authority of Eng
land over the present territory ofthe United States.
A rich bracelet of pearl was carried home and worn
by Sir Walter as an erablem of his new dominions ;
and Manteo and Wauchese, two of the native sava
ges, were passengers back to England, where they
became the companions of the noble Lord Proprie
tor of Virginia.

24 MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA.

CHAP. III.
THE MECKLENBURGH DECLARATION OF INDE
PENDENCE.
" A glorious people vibrated again
The lightning of the nations — liberty." Shelley.
In the first chapter of this work I celebrated the
adventures of the first voyagers of Sir Walter Raleigh,
and I pointed to the first spot consecrated by the
flag of England. I there claimed for the territory of
North Carolina the distinction of having been the
mother-earth of our Anglo-American empire ; and I
detailed, with some enthusiasm, the blessings which
had resulted to all mankind from the circumstance
that England, and not Spain, France, or Portugal
first occupied our shores. I now approach an event
in the history of North Carolina, alike interesting in
its occurrence, alike important in its consequences,
as fatal to the authority of England as it was glo
rious for the sovereignty of the American people.
After a revolution of nearly two hundred years, the
flag which, on the 13th of July, 1584, had been
planted on the coast of North Carolina, began to
wane, the unfitness of the government of England
for the condition of her American colonies became

MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA. 25
every year more obvious ; and amid the commotions
and throes of an excited and an indignant nation,
the people of Mecklenburgh county signalized the
20th of May, 1775, as the last day of the power
of England over a portion of the original domain of
Sir Walter Raleigh. On that memorable occasion
Araerican independence was first asserted ; and it is
curious to observe, that the annals of a single state
should contribute the two great events in the history
of the present age — the alpha and the omega of the
dominion of England over her old North American
colonies. When the first continental congress met in Phila
delphia, in September, 1774, the people of the colo
nies could not have been said to have been united
on any other principle of opposition to the crown
than the mere right of taxation without representa
tion. American independence was a treason not to be
spoken of in the sunshine of open day ; and I believe
I may point to the narae of my countryman, William
Hooper,* as the only member of that illustrious body
who had openly predicted independence, and who
had already cast the horoscope of his infant country.
Always ahead of his contemporaries in the career of
liberal principles, we find him urging independence,
while others were contending for the stale right of
petition, under the banner of reconciliation. He had
been the favourite pupil of Jaraes Otis of Massachu
setts, and caught from him the fire of freedom.
* See Letter to James Iredell, 24th April, 1774, third part of the De
fence of North Carolina. 4

26 MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA.
In North Carolina, for at least ten years before
the meeting of the continental congress, the great
struggle had been directed against the oppressions of
the provincial government. The tyrannical legisla
tion of parliament had never been felt, and an annu
al protest against the right to tax was the only at
titude of hostility ever assumed by the assembly
against the crown of England. Our sufferings were
altogether internal. Arbitrary taxes were levied,
not for the crown, but for the support of the Gover
nor and his party ; and when Mr. Burgwyn, one of
the auditors of the government, made his famous re
port in 1772, stating, that although money enough
had been collected from the people to have liquidated
the debt of the province, still that that debt was not
liquidated, the house of assembly promptly repealed
the special tax-law, and when the Governor vetoed
their bill, they then, in a series of resolutions, recom
mended to the people to pay no more such taxes.
If any reliance can be placed upon the political
signs of that day, it is not venturing too much to as
sert, that had not the provincial congress been con
vened, the people of North Carolina, before the close
of the year 1774, would have been in a state of open
rebellion ; and with an unanimity, too, which would
have ensured the overthrow of the royal governraent
of the province, and have commanded the admira
tion of every true American heart. But, although she
was thus independent in her actions, as well as in the
wrongs under which she writhed, she was not want
ing in all due sympathy with her sister colonies, and

MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 27
especially with old Massachusetts, the native land
of William Hooper, who, indeed, in that day stood as
the Colossus of the Whig party of the province.
As soon, however, as the proposition to convene a
continental congress had been proclairaed in North
Carolina, the hostility which had been for so long a
time directed against the provincial government,
catching additional fury from the prospect of a nation
al union, now sought a nobler object for its aim ; and
with the crown of England in full view, the people
lost sight of the petty Governor and his mercenary
minions. The fever of a general revolt spread from
Hatteras to the remote west ; and so rapid and so
eager was this feeling, that in less than five raonths
after the first thought of a continental congress, the
whole province was in a state of the strictest orga
nization, each county with its commitee busily en
gaged in accumulating the materials for war.
Such, then, was the state of public feeling in
North Carolina for sorae months previous to the
20th of May, 1775; and the reader will here re
member, that at that time Boston was in the pos
session of British troops. Our North Carolina go
vernor had been routed from the palace at New-
Berne, and was daily threatening our shores with the
long-expected armament of Sir Peter Parker, which
was to spread havock and desolation over the whole
province. He had stirred up the Scotch population
to oppose the Whig cause — he had spread dissentions
among the people along the southern borders — he
had excited the slaves to a midnight massacre of the

28 MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA.
wives and daughters of the land — and the news which
flew into the interior from the sea-board, was, that
the ocean itself was covered with the canvass of En
gland, bearing on to our shores her victorious arras.
Dark, however, as was the hour, our countrymen did
not falter. The county committees were regularly
in session, deliberating on the state of the province ;
and it was just at this excited crisis of affairs when
Colonel Thomas Polk, of Mecklenburgh, at the in
stance of many gentlemen of that county, ordered the
election of two delegates from each of the districts of
old Mecklenburgh, then including Cabarrus, to meet
in convention at Charlotte, on the 19th day of May,
to consult for the public safety.
But before the time appointed for the meeting of
this convention had arrived, the clamour of war was
heard from the far north, and the people of Mecklen
burgh were started up, as it were from a dream, by
the clank of arms and the shouts of victory, which
now reached them from the battle-field of Lexing
ton. On the morning of the 19th of May, the whole
county was up in arms ; and along the winding paths
of the hills and the valleys, were everywhere to be
seen squadrons of armed men on their reeking steeds,
dashing on to Charlotte. The whole population of
the county was there concentrated, each man busi
ly engaged in gathering the details of the battle —
such as the number and the names of those who had
fallen, and if they had fallen with a glory worthy of
their cause. The matrons of Mecklenburgh, too,
were that day at Charlotte, counselling with the

MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA. 29
patriarchs of the land, and urging on their beardless
boys to a preparation for the, tented field of war.
A cloud Qf darkness seeraed to hang over the des
tinies of our country, as if the smoke of that battle
field had been swept onward by the gale, and now
enveloped the wild forests of freedom's land. In the
midst of all this excitement, the convention met. It
was just such an hour as that which precedes a vol
canic burst, when the mountain now reels and groans,
and then endures silently its tremendous agony; and
as that immense concourse of people stood under the
silence of an e;xcitement too intense for words,
watching the every action and syllable of the assem
bled patriarchs, a motion was made to declare inde
pendence, and the mountain goddess of American
liberty flashed into existence, amid the shouts of the
multitude, ready and equipped for battle, like Pallas,
from the head of Jove.
A comraittee was then appointed to prepare reso
lutions expressive ofthe sense of the convention, and
then they adjourned to meet the next day. On the
20th of May, 1775, immediately after the organiza
tion of the convention, Ephraim Brevard, the chair
man of the committee, rose, and read the famous
Mecklenburgh declaration of independence. It was
then unanimously adopted, and proclaimed to the
world as the future political creed of the people of
Mecklenburgh. This state paper, although wanting
in many of the requisites of a finished composition,
surpasses, in the boldness of its principles and in the
energy of its language, any document of the age in

30 MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA.
which it was produced. Its tone is the emphasis of
freedom — its great principle was as the first ray of
light from heaven — and it sprung from the excited
and troubled mind of it author as irradiant as light
ning frora a cloud. The late John Adams, when
first he saw the Mecklenburgh declaration, pronounc
ed upon it his judgment, that the feelings of America
at that period were never so well expressed ; and
he tortured the vanity of Mr. Jefferson, by saying to
him, in the same letter, " besides, too, it was actually
fifteen raonths before your declaration." Previous to
it, reconciliation was the ultimatum — compromises
were spoken of — wc were to be represented in par
liament — we were to have a race of nobles, created
from among our own people ; but all these schemes
the patriots of Mecklenburgh dashed aside as a poi
soned chalice, and, claiming the right to think for
themselves, tliey pointed to national independence
as the great end of the struggle with the mother
country. The electricity of heaven never gleamed
more brilliantly over her mountains of gold than
did that fire of independence as it spread over her
hills and her valleys, all glowing from Concord to the
banks of the beautiful Catawba.
This remarkable event in the history of North
Carolina, although noticed at the time by a procla
mation from the royal Governor, was thrown into the
dark by the hard fighting which immediately suc
ceeded it. The battle of Bunker's Hill — the military
organization ofthe province — the establishment ofthe
Whig government — the battle of the Great Bridge,

MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA. 31
and the conflagration of Norfolk — in both of which
our North Carolina troops were engaged — the battle
of Moore's Creek — and, finally, the unanimous adop
tion of a resolution in favour of independence by the
assembled congress of the province, were but a few of
the important events which occurred before the first
anniversary of the Mecklenburgh declaration. Nor
should I here fail to record, that this unanimous
vote in favour of independence was on the 13th day
of April, 1776, more than a month previous to the
famous resolutions of that neighbouring state which,
until a few years past, arrogated to herself the ho
nour of having first moved the ball of independence.
When Mr. Adams first sent to Mr. Jefferson the IVIeck-
lenburgh declaration, and the latter gentleman saw
therein all the opinions and much of the language
of the national declaration, he rebelled and writhed
as if the great secret sin of his whole life had been
exposed to the full glare of day. He seized his pen
— denounced not only the document, but all the
names appended to it, as a mere hoax ; and in the im
petuosity of his malignant wrath, declared that Wil
liam Hooper was the rankest Tory in congress ; and
that this Mecklenburgh declaration was like " the
North Carolina volcano," of which he remembered
once to have heard.
The Mecklenburgh declaration had, in faith, been
buried by the North Carolina volcano of war and
bloodshed which succeeded it ; but the excavations
have been made, and the precious jewel has been
brought to light, and it will stand as the great era

32 MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA.
in the future histories of our republic. Au eminent
Neapolitan, sorae ycars agt), wrote a book to prove
that the ancients wcre unacquainted A\'ith the use of
glass as applied to the windows of dwellings, and
only a few wa^cks after its publication (he excavations
at Pompeii disclosed an edifice adorned w ith just
such glass windows as a modern villa ; and so it has
been with the researches which have been made iuto
the buried history of North Carolina — the JMcckicn-
burgh declaration and the hidcpvinlviwc resolutions
have been disclosed, and the history of the state of
Virginia is like the Neapolitan's book.
But it is not our revolutionary annals only which
have been misrepresented. Thc name of Sir VVaKer
Raleigh, so intimately associated with the early his
tory of North Carolina, is fiimiliariy clainicil as one
of the stars of Virginia; and so very generally has
this impression been stamped upon the literature of
the age, that a distinguished foreigner, Mr. Tyrt)ne
Power, in his notices of the town of Petersburgh, en
thusiastically exclaims, "this is the Eldorado of Sir
Walter Raleigh." He might as well have pronounced
the river Appamattox the river Euphrates, and the
country around him the site of the garden of hAlen.
Still Mr. Power is not to be censured. The illite
rate scribblers and orators of Virginia have boasted
as much of the name of Sir Walter as if he had ac
tually kept the old Raleigh tavern at Williamsburgh.
The famous John Randolph, of /?oano/£e, condescend
ed to purloin from the annals of a state which he
sometimes affected to despise, the only dignity of his

MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA. 33
name ; and I saw last winter, in the columns of the
Richmond Enquirer, (from the pen, as I have since
understood, of a Charlottesville professor,) a some
what personal attack upon rae for having asserted,
in a volume of history, the notorious fact, that the
name of Virginia was originally applied to the islands
of the coast of North Carolina. Very well, Mr. Pro
fessor Tucker, your swaggering at Saratoga, not
withstanding. " Catalince gladios contempsi non
tuos pertimescam."

34 MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA.

CHAP. IV.
" Let's quarrel about these matters. It will make us better friends.
Seeing that we shall know each others' thoughts and rights." Blackwood.
To the, Editor of the, N. Y. American :
The two articles which I herewith enclose, ap
peared — the one in the American, the other in the
Evening Star — some three weeks since. I beg that
you will re-publish them, and that you will allow"
me the use of your columns to vindicate " m,y as
sumptions for JVorth Carolina."
\_From the New- York American,]
The last Mirror contains an article on the Meck
lenburgh Declaration of Independence, from the
" Memorials of North Carolina, by Jo. Seawell
Jones"— from which I extract the following sentence,
to reply to which I beg the use of your columns :
" But it is not our revolutionary annals only
which have been misrepresented. The name of Sir
Walter Raleigh, so intimately connected with the
early history of North Carolina, is familiarly claim
ed as one of the stars of Virginia ; and so- very gene
rally has this impression Ijeen stamped upon the lite
rature of the age, that a distinguished foreigner — Mr.

MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA. 35
Tyrone Power — in his notices of the town of Peters
burg, enthusiastically exclaims — ' this is the Eldo
rado of Sir Walter Raleigh.' He might as well
have pronounced the river Appomatax the river Eu
phrates, and the country around him the site of the
garden of Eden. Still Mr. Power is not to blame.
The illiterate scribblers and orators of Virginia have
boasted as much of the name of Sir Walter, as if he
had kept the old 'Raleigh Tavern' at Williams
burgh." Now, Mr. Editor, that Jamestown was settled
under the immediate auspices of Sir Walter Raleigh,
and that the country was called by him Virginia, in
honor of the virginity of Q,ueen Elizabeth, I never
heard denied before. Mr. Jones, whose character I
sincerely respect, is entirely at fault in this matter ;
and he will find himself — in his assumptions for
North Carolina — at war with Irving, Paulding, and
all the learning of the country. A Subscriber.
\_Prom, the Evening Star.]
Mr. Jones op North Carolina and Virginia.
Mr. Editor. — Your proverbial affection for the
character and principles of Mr. Jefferson has attach
ed to your name the best feelings of the South, and I
therefore send you this for the columns of the Evening
Star, having no doubt but that it will meet your ap
probation. The name of Jefferson has been of late
years the subject of so much vituperation, that many

36 MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA.
reasonable people, who never examine for themselves,
conclude, from the number of his assailants, that some
great sin in his life has been but recently brought to
light. The last N. C. Mirror contains an extract
from the Memorials of North Carolina by Mr. Jones
of that State ; and we there see that that gentle
man continues his abuse of Mr. Jefferson under the
guise of defending his own State. He hates Mr.
Jefferson for his principles, and hates Virginia be
cause she is proud of her native sage of freedom.
According to hira, Mr. Jefferson stole "all the opi
nions and rauch of the language" of the Declaration
of Independence frora the Mecklenburgh Declaration.
According to him. Sir Walter Raleigh was not the
Lord of the sacred shore at Jamestown ; and accord
ing to him the name of Raleigh is connected with no
other territory of the Union but that of North Caro
lina. All these are new and startling points, and
contradicted by every historian of any note ; and
this historical Revolutionist cannotT expect Virginia
to sit quietly and witness the degradation and insult
of her proudest feelings.
Mr. Jones sneers, too, at Mr. Randolph's title of
" Roanoke," and says he purloined it from the annals
of North Carolina. But how this is, he does not tell
us. The river Roanoke is in the State of Virginia,
and sweeps over a much wider extent of that State
than it does of North Carolina. The estate of Mr.
Randolph was directly upon its banks, and there he
was born, and from there he had as much right to
take a name, as Mr. Jones had to take the name of

MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA. 37
Shocco from the spot of his birth. The spirit with
which Mr. Jones assails Virginia, and every thing con
nected with her history, convinces me he must have
some latent, concealed reason for his bitter hatred ;
and so long as he does not misrepresent the facts
of our history, he may justify hiraself in the eyes of
many ; but I could not permit his claim to Sir Walter*
Raleigh as the founder of North Carolina to pass
uncontradicted, nor let even the occasion pass with
out saying a word of defence for the lamented Jeffer
son and Randolph. .- A Virginian.
When I first saw these two articles, it did not ap
pear to me as at all necessary that I should reply to
any thing they contained. In the first place they
were anonymous communications, and I did not con
sider the editors of either paper in any wise respon
sible for their contents. Besides, too, I had supposed,
that if there was any point of American history set
tled and altogether beyond controversy, it was the
fact that the coast of North Carolina had been colo
nized under the auspices of Sir Walter Raleigh ; and
that Roanoke, and the contiguous islands of that
State, were known under the name of Virginia for
more than twenty years before the settlement of
Jamestown. But it seems I am not to be permitted
to repose upon this conviction. I ara denounced as
an " Historical Revolutionist," because I record the
undoubted events of the history of our country, and
because the mere record of those events assails the
originality of the history of Virginia. With an en-

38 MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA.
lightened public, denunciations of this kind can have
no effect. If I have assuraed too much for the his
tory of North Carolina, convict me by an appeal to
the authorities of history; and if "A Virginian"
wishes to illustrate his own ignorance more fully
than he has already done, he cannot do better than
to devote himself to such a task ; and as his primal
effort in such a cause, I challenge him to reply to
this comraunication.
The only two points involved in this controversy
important for me to notice, are,
1st. The claim of the late Mr. Randolph to the ti
tle of Roanoke ; and,
2d. " Was Jamestown settled under the imme
diate auspices of Sir Walter Raleigh ; and was the
country adjacent thereto called by him Virginia, in
honour of the virginity of Q^ueen Elizabeth V
On the subject of Mr. Randolph's claim to the title
of Roanoke, it is necessary to state that the river
which now bears that name, was known in Indian
history under the name oi Moratuck ; and that it did
not receive its present appellation until at least a
century after the first settlement of the island. The
raeaning of the word Roanoke is Pearl ; and such
was its renown in Indian tradition, that the main
river which fed the Occam, or Albemarle Sound, by
degrees received the compliment of its name. All
the glorious associations of the word, however, belong
exclusively to the island. It was there where the
good Indian woman, the wife of Granganameo, en
tertained the first voyagers of Sir Walter. In its wa-

MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 39
ters the generous Manteo was baptized a Christian ;
and it was on its soil where he was invested, by the
command of Raleigh, with the title of nobility, and
created Lord of Roanoke. It was in the deep recess
es of its vine-clad groves that the first Anglo-Ameri
can saw the light of heaven. There the foundation
of the ancient " citie of Raleigh " was laid ; and it
was there where an English people lived, suffered,
and died.
Mr. Randolph had caught some vague idea of the
fame of the word in Indian tradition, and ignorantly
supposing that the small streara at his feet, or at
least that portion of the main river which lies in the
state of Virginia, might be the heir to all its glorious
associations, he did not scruple to adopt it as a part
of his own name — leaving the world to infer that
there was some probable connection between his an
cestry and the Pearl Island of the savage lord of
Roanoke. Besides, too, he claimed to be descended
from an Indian princess ; and in his crazy ambition
for the empty sound of a title, he embraced the op
portunity to complete his aboriginal pedigree by
purloining from the peerage list of North Carolina
the almost forgotten nobility of one of her native sa
vages. But what does the correspondent of the Evening
Star mean by asserting that " the river Roanoke is
in the State of Virginia, and that it sweeps over a
much wider extent of that State than it does of North
Carolina ?" Has he ever even so much as looked at
a map of North Carolina ? Has he ever studied one

40 MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA.
of the state of Virginia — or was he ever at school at
all? A more " illiterate scribbler " than he is can no
where be found; and I doubt very much whether even
Professor Tucker himself, in his forthcoming Memoirs
of Jefferson, will be able to exhibit any thing more
striking in the way of blundering arrogance and igno
rance. The river Roanoke in the state of Virginia !
I wonder the gentleman did not claim the Mississippi
because the Kenawha happened to be in Virginia.
The truth is — and if the reader will refer to the map
of Virginia he will find it is so — the Roanoke, as it
starts from the junction of the Dan and Stanton, does
not continue in the State of Virginia for more than
forty miles; and then, entering North Carolina in the
county of Warren, it sweeps over a fertile section of
that State of more than one hundred and fifty miles
in extent. So much for the geographical knowledge
of " A Virginian." Let us now try hira upon ano
ther point of the local history of his own State.
" Mr. Randolph's plantation then was directly upon
the banks of this river Roanoke, which is in the State
of Virginia, and which sweeps over a much wider
extent of that State than it does of North Carolina."
Now, with all due deference, I think this too is a
mistake, though not one of so much importance as
" A Virginian" usually makes. Mr. Randolph lived
in the county of Charlotte, which, I am sure, is some
fifty miles from the junction of the Dan and Stanton,
away up towards the mountains ; and I am very sure
the Roanoke does not turn about and run up the
Stanton Hills all the way to Mr. Randolph's estate ;

MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA. 41
and then retracing its course, turn, as it were, reluc
tantly towards North Carolina. If that noble stream
had ever achieved such a triumph over the laws of
nature, " A Virginian" would have been at least in
the neighborhood of truth in asserting "that it
sweeps over a much wider extent of Virginia than
of North Carolina."
Mr. Randolph's plantation, then, .yras not upon
this stream, and remembering his ridiculous squeam-
ishness as to the title of Roaiioke, the vvorld may
well exclaim, where then was ii% ' It was on a creek
which courses through the county of Charlotte,
emptying its waters into the Stanton, and which
said creek has been dignified with the name of
" Little Roanoke River." Such was Mr. Randolph's
claim to the title which he assumed, and the reader
will not fail to remember the story of the 4th of July
orator in Rome, New- York, who boasted that the
village around him had been the city of the Caesars,
nor of the lunatic of Sparta, in Georgia, who insist
ed that he was the countryman of Lycurgus and of
the heroes of Thermopylae.
I will now corae to the second point of this con
troversy, viz -.--Was Jamestown settled under the
immediate auspices of Sir Walter Raleigh, and was
the country adjacent thereto called by him Virginia
in honor of the virginity of Queen Elizabeth 1 .. The
correspondent ofthe American is a lady distinguish
ed for her love of letters ; and her personal as well
as mental' chairms are, in my view, more than poeti
cal. No man yields toJier more of the homage of
6

42 MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA.
his heart than myself; but it would be unbecoming
in me to sacrifice the history of my country to
the enthusiasm of my feelings. She has enclosed
to me an extract from a recent publication of Wash
ington Irving, Esq. which fully sustains her in the
position she lias taken against rae ; and it being ad
verse to my principles to war against a beautiful
woraan, I shall accept the substitute she has offered,
and thus welcome the strife.
The extract from the work of Mr. Irving is the
second paragraph of the Creole VUlage— ^a. contribu
tion from his pen to the Magnolia for 1837, and is
as follows : — " In the phraseology of New England
might be found many an old English provincial
phrase — long since obsolete in the parent country
— with some quaint relics of the Round-heads, lohile
Virginia cherishes peculiarities character i^slic of the
days of Queen Elizabeth and Sir IValter Raleigh."
Mr. Irving miglit as well have said that Virginia
cherished peculiarities characteristic of the days of
Herodiasand .lohn the Baptist; for if she retains any
memorials of Clueen Elizabeth and Sir Walter
Raleigh, it would puzzle even Mr. Irving's profound
reading to tell how she obtained them. The Q,ueen
died on the 24th of March, 1603, and the very first
expedition for the settlement of Virginia sailed from
England on the 19th of December, 1606, — nearly fbur
years after the death of that famous princess. (See
Smith's History of Virginia, vol. 1, p. 150.) Sir
Walter Raleigh, too, was entirely out of the way of
imparting any peculiarities to Virginia at the date

MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA. 43
of her earliest settlement, for he had been convicted
of treason on the 17th of November, 1603, and was
sent to the Tower, where he remained, (if in political
durance, still in literary glory,) for the space of twelve
years. How then is it possible that Virginia should
have any memorials of the days of Q,ueen Elizabeth
and Sir Walter to cherish 1 A more gross assault
upon the truth of history can no where be found
than in this short sentence of Mr. Irving, which is
the less excusable in him, from the fact that he de
voted many years of painful study to the composi
tion of a work which has linked his name with the
discovery and settlement of the whole continent of
America ; and it is difficult to conceive how a scholar
of such maturity of research, could have studied so
closely the history of that age witliout retaining, as
the fixed stars of his memory, those great events in
the life of the noble Sir Walter, which have indisso-
lubly connected his name with the history of the
Anglo-American race.
If Mr. Irving is curious on the subject of peculia
rities characteristic of the days of Q,ueen Elizabeth
and Sir Walter Raleigh, he should go to North Caro
lina. I will ensure hira a riqh field for the exertion
of his antiquarian zeal : and there, too, he can ope
rate without any apprehension of mistaking the date
of Elizabeth's existence, for the shores of that State
were really occupied in the name of the Q,ueen and
of Sir Walter on the 13th of Jidy, 1584.— [See Hak-
luyt, vol. 3, p. 246.] — If, therefore, in the course of
his researches, he should perceive any fashions

44 MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA.
among the people of North Carolina, bearing the re
motest resemblance to the age of Queen Bess, he
raight very plausibly set them down as " peculiari
ties characteristic," &c. ; for in that case the good
Queen would not have been dead some four years,
nor the gallant Knight in the Tower sorae three
years, previous to the very existence of a colony.
The truth is, North Carolina is full of feeling for
the meraory of Sir Walter, and it would be irapos
sible for the raost inattentive traveller to put his foot
upon the shores of that State without hearing from
the first islander he might encounter, the fact that
the country around him was sacred to the services
of Raleigh. He would be reminded of it by the thou
sand traditionary stories he would hear — by the very
names of the hills, the valleys, and the streams
arouijd him ; and I may venture to assert that there
is no portion of the whole Union so illustrious in le
gendary lore as Roanoke Island — illustrious, indeed,
from the very fact that it is linked with the magic
name of Raleigh. His memory sparkles o'er the fountain,
The meanest rill — the mightiest river
RoUs — mingled with his name forever.
There is the beautiful tradition of Sir Walter
Raleigh's Ship, which has descended from the ear
liest history of the island, and which is still cherished
with a religious veneration by the good matrons of
the land. There is the capital of the State, situated
in the centre of a county named in honor of a beauti-

MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA. 45
ful woman, Miss Esther Wake — constituting perhaps
the most appropriate memorial of her founder ; and
if Sir Walter himself could revisit the earth, and be
hold the magnificent palace which now crowns the
summit ofthe city of his name, his ambition to be re
membered as the Romulus of a new people would
be fully realized.

To the Editor of the JVeic- York American :
Sir, — In one of your late papers I observe a long
article from the able pen of Mr. Joseph Seawell Jones
of Shocco, by which I find that worthy and excellent
historian to be involved in much vexatious contro
versy with certain writers of Virginia, on the subject of
the claims of their respective States to associate the
names of Queen Elizabeth and Sir Walter Raleigh
with their early history. As this controversy is ar
riving at that unhappy point where hard names and
bitter epithets begin to fly about, let us try, Mr. Edi
tor, whether you and I cannot accommodate the
matter, and restore the parties to harraony.
According to Mr. Jones, the coast of what is. now
called North Carolina was colonized under the au
spices of Sir Walter Raleigh on the 13th of July,
1584, and Roanoke and the contiguous islands of that
State were known under the name of Virginia for
more than twenty years before the settlement of
Jamestown. On this he appears to found the claims of North

46 MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA.
Carolina to a monopoly of the " glorious associations "
before mentioned.
Now, it appears to me that these " glorious asso
ciations," though a very valuable and substantial
property, and well worth quarrelling about, are ca
pable of being rauch dilated and extended, especially
when connected with the shifting boundaries of ill-
defined discoveries, and the fluctuating fortunes of
early colonies. Let us try, then, if we cannot stretch
them in the present instance so as to satisfy the rea
sonable wants of both parties, and so put an end to
this unhappy controversy.
As to the expeditions fitted out under the auspices
of Sir Walter Raleigh, they embraced a wide extent
of coast, frora the West Indian Islands to Newfound
land; for we find his step-brother. Sir Humphrey
Gilbert, at St. Johns, in June, 1583, with ships partly
fitted out by Sir Walter Raleigh, when he takes pos
session of Newfoundland and its fisheries for the Bri
tish Crown.
It was a year afterwards that another expedition,
sailing under the auspices of Sir Walter Raleigh,
swept the West Indian Islands and the coast of Flo
rida, and colonized the coast of North Carolina, as
aforesaid. So much for the scope of Sir Walter Raleigh's ex
peditions. Now, as to the extent of country original
ly known as Virginia. This really appears at first
to have been indefinite, and to have extended even
to the northern limits of what has since been called
New England.

MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA. 47
In 1602 Bartholomew Gosnold sailed for the
" northern part of Virginia," and when that worthy
navigator was baffling and perplexing hiraself with
cruizing about Cape Cod, Point Garamon, Onky
Tonky,* Buzzard's Bay, and other places of classic
name, he evidently considered himself coasting the
country called after the Virgin Queen, and brought to
light by the enterprises of Sir Walter Raleigh.
Furthermore, we find James I. of England, by let
ters patent, dividing that part of America lying be
tween the 34th and 45th degrees of north latitude
into North and South Virginia ; the latter including
all the coast between 34° and 40*^.
In 1630 further modifications took place affecting
the names of these regions. In that year Charles I.
granted to Sir Robert Heath all the territory be
tween 30*^ and 36'^ north latitudp, under the name
of Carolina. This, in 1761, was subdivided into
North and South Carolina.
It would appear frora all these premises, Mr. Edi
tor, that North Carolina, after all, forms but a sraall
portion of the vast country originally called after the
Virgin Queen, and considered as discovered by the
enterprises set on foot by Sir Walter Raleigh. If,
therefore, we would observe strict justice in portion
ing out these " glorious associations " exclusively
claimed for North Carolina, we ought not merely to
give Virginia a full share, but to extend them far
along the coast to the north, so that the remote rays
* Since vulgarized into Uncle Tim'm'y. — Ed. N. Y. Amer.

48 MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA.
might even gild the names of Cape Cod, Point Gam
mon, Buzzard's Bay, and Onky Tonky.
I must confess, Mr. Editor, I was somewhat sur
prised, in reading the article of Mr. Jones, to find Mr.
Washington Irving mixed up in the unhappy contro
versy, and that gentleman charged outright with " a
gross violation of the truth of history." I was at a
loss to imagine how Mr. Irving had run foul of these
litigated points, and how he had made himself ame
nable to so heavy a charge ; whether in his history of
the voyages of Columbus, or in his history of the Dutch
dynasty of the Manhattoes. In both I knew he had
much to do with questions of discovery and coloniza
tion, and that in both he laid claim to the most scru
pulous attention to historic truth. I found, however,
that it was in none of his historical works, but in a
paragraph of a comic sketch called the " Creole Vil
lage," published in one of the late Annuals.
Now, I have no idea of taking up the gauntlet for
Mr. Irving. If he will write comic sketches without
profound historical research, and, above all, will at
tempt to give them the weight and authority of one
of those grave depositories of learned lore, the Annu
als, let him be outlawed beyond the pale of courtesy,
and abandoned to the mercy of all aggrieved histo
rians. But, as his offence seems, in sorae measure,
connected with the question in dispute, let us ex
amine it more particularly.
Mr. Irving stands clearly convicted of having said,
in his comic sketch aforesaid, " that the State of Vir
ginia cherishes peculiarities characteristic of the

MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 49
days of Queen Elizabeth and Sir Walter Raleigh."
This, to be sure, points to no precise historic date or
event, and seems to be a mere general observation
on the state of society. Mr. Jones, however, indig
nantly denounces it as "a gross violation of the
truth of history," and demands of Mr. Irving how
Virginia "could obtain such peculiarities'?" — the
Queen having been dead nearly three years, and Sir
Walter Raleigh being in prison at the time of the
settlement of Jamestown (in 1607).
Now, really, Mr. Editor, though Queen Elizabeth
had been dead, and Sir Walter was in prison at the
time, it does not follow that the peculiarities cha
racteristic of their days had either expired with
the one or been shut up in the prison of the other.
But how did Virginia obtain them ? Perhaps
they were imported in the early expeditions to James
town. The first expedition, commanded by the gal
lant Captain Smith, and which founded that town,
was set on foot by an association of nobleraen, gen
tlemen, and merchants who had flourished under the
reign of Elizabeth : on board of Smith's ship sailed
Percy, a brother of the Earl of Northumberland.
Several young gentlemen, accustomed to polite and
genial life, and whose hands, unused to labor, blis
tered on wielding the axes, sailed on this expedition.
In a subsequent expedition, in 1609, we find the
names of Lord De la Warre, Sir Thomas Gates, Sir
George Somers, Sir Thomas Dale, and others, — men
of rank and distinction, who had been subjects of
Queen Elizabeth, and ^^ ere contemporaries, if not
7

50 MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA.
associates, with Sir Walter Raleigh. These men
held distinguished stations in the enterprise to Vir
ginia : but there are many others, not specifically
named, cavaliers cf sanguine teraperaraent and swel
ling hope, who had caught the romantic views of
Sir Walter Raleigh, and expected to find a perfect
El Dorado in the wilds of Virginia. These were
the men from whom Virginia obtained peculiarities
characteristic of the days of Elizabeth and Sir Wal
ter Raleigh; these were the men that may have
stamped the Virginian character with that open, ge
nerous, hospitable, dashing spirit, which it retains to
the present day. I do not, therefore, see, after all,
that Mr. Irving has committed the gross outrage upon
history of which he stands accused.
But, says Mr. Jones, " if Mr. Irving is curious on
the subject of peculiarities characteristic of the days
of Queen Elizabeth and Sir Walter Raleigh, he
should go to North Carolina."
Wishing Mr. Irving a pleasant journey, and a
merry Christmas into the bargain, if he should arrive
about this time, we will now see how North Carolina
" obtained " those peculiarities 1 Was it from the
colony formed upon her coast in 1584, by the expe
dition fitted out under the auspices of Sir Walter
Raleigh ? Hardly, Sir. The whole term of exist
ence of that colony was not above half a dozen
years. Some of the colonists were slain by the In
dians ; others returned, disheartened, in their ships ;
of the fate of others nothing was ever heard. In
1590 the place was found in ruins, the houses demo-

MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA. 51
lished, part of the stores buried in the earth, the
colonists gone. Sir Walter Raleigh himself gave
the matter up as desperate, and turned his thoughts
to other enterprises.
In subsequent years, when Jamestown, in Virginia,
had been settled, an expedition was sent from thence
to see if any thing remained of the colony of Sir
Walter Raleigh; but no traces were to be found.
While Virginia went on to increase and multiply
her settlements, North Carolina appears to have re
mained a perfect wilderness. The first permanent
settlement from which her population took its rise,
was founded, we are told, about the year 1650 on
Chowan River, principally by emigrants from, Vir
ginia ; and the proprietors of the Carolina grant au
thorized Berkeley, the Governor of Virginia, to take
the settlement under his government and protec
tion. It would appear, therefore, that the characteristics
of the days of Queen Elizabeth and Sir Walter
Raleigh, which Mr. Irving is invited to go to North
Carolina to study, must have been derived at second
hand from Virginia, and actually imported from En
gland by the way of Jamestown.
Thus, I trust, Mr. Editor, we have without any
profound research, settled the matter, not merely to
our own satisfaction, but to the satisfaction of the
belligerent parties ; and that the North Carolinians
being offsets, as it were, from the generous stock of
Virginia, and inheritors, tlirough her, of the peculiari
ties characteristic of the days of good Queen Bess

52 MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA.
and Sir Walter Raleigh, will not flout their parent
State ; but that both parties will divide in peace
that inheritance of glorious associations, so justly
prized by Mr. Joseph Seawell Jones, of Shocco;
but which, if much more harped upon, will become
in the public ear as a " sounding brass and a tink
ling cymbal." Your constant correspondent. Pacificator.

To the Editor of the American :
I beg the use of your columns to rejoin to some
animadversions in your last Saturday's paper over
the signature of " Pacificator" in which the history of
North Carolina is misrepresented, for the especial pur
pose of sustaining Mr. Irving's Virginian "peculiarities
characteristic ofthe days of Queen Elizabeth and Sir
Walter Raleigh." I myself, too, as the historian of
North Carolina, am threatened with " « sounding brass
and tinkling cymbal," if I dare say any thing more
about the absurdity of these aforesaid peculiarities ;
and we are gravely told by the apologist of Mr. Irving
— although Queen Elizabeth had been dead, and Sir
Walter had been in prison some years before the settle
ment of Virginia— that still the peculiarities characte
ristic of their days had neither expired with the one
nor been shut up in the tower with the other; and that
of course it was to certain straggling peculiarities-r^
certain ghost-like characteristics — which had surviv-

MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 53
ed the death and the encasement, and which had
been stained and corrupted by a four years' amalga
mation vvith the Scotch hirelings of Jaraes the First,
that the author of the Creole Village alluded, when
he said " Virginia cherishes peculiarities characteris
tic of the days of Queen Elizabeth and Sir Walter
Raleigh." This, then, is the defence of Mr. Irving, founded,
the reader will perceive, upon the ancient doctrine of
the transraigration of souls ; for it plainly intimates
that the spirit of Queen Bess animated the reign of
her Scotch successor, and, in defiance of the strong
contrast between their characters, carried out the
" peculiarities characteristic " of her own days. But,
unfortunately, the history of England contradicts the
defence on this point. The characteristics of the
reign of James are utterly at variance with those of
the days of the Queen ; and so this eccentric appli
cation of the doctrine of Pythagoras to historical re
search is another outrage upon history.
So — I beg the gentleman's pardon— I must insist
that the " peculiarities characteristic," &c. did expire
with the death of Elizabeth and with the imprison
ment of Sir Walter ; and I appeal to the history of
England. Raleigh was, indeed, the very personification
of the great characteristics of the reign of the Queen.
In his gallantry every where — ^in the field as well
as the ocean — he was ever the best representative
of the ambition and the courage of his sovereign.
In his frequent captures of the fleets and the island
cities of Spain, he was but ministering to the bitter

54 MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA.
national hatred of his raistress. In his literary pur
suits, her desire to be surrounded by men of letters
was realized; and the magnificence of his dress
crowned the completeness of his personification of
alraost every peculiarity characteristic of the age of
Queen Elizabeth. But still, so unsuited, from the
very gallantry of his whole life, was this hero of his
age, to the tame, pedantic, and cowardly genius of
the Scotch king ; so perfectly uncongenial were
those splendid characteristics which were embodied
in the character of Raleigh, with the low duplicity
and insolent bigotry of James ; that in less than one
year after the succession of the latter to the throne,
the gallant Knight was in the tower in disgrace,
with all the laurels which the hand of his fairy Queen
had bound about his brows, faded and " withered as
if in the dark and silent grave."
The position of Mr. Irving is altogether untenable.
The whole history of the English monarchy does
not present a stronger contrast of character than be
tween James and Elizabeth ; and the idea of disco
vering, in a colonial establishment of the former, any
" peculiarities characteristic" of the latter, is really
too preposterous for serious consideration.
But, says the gentleman, speaking of certain ad
venturers in Virginia — " These were the men from
whom Virginia obtained her peculiarities character
istic, «Stc. ; these were the men who may have
stamped the Virginian character with that open, ge
nerous, hospitable, dashing spirit, which it retains to
the present day !" It has been so long a profitable

MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 55
investment of pen, ink, paper, and unmeaning servile
language, wherewith to scribble flattery to the lead
ing politicians of Virginia, by ascribing to thera
these (in the United States) very coraraon virtues,
that I shall express no surprise at their present
abused application. We have heard alraost as much
of the frankness, the generosity, hospitality, &c. of
the .Virginians, as if they were the only people in the
Union inclined to the cultivation of the kindnesses
of polite intercourse ; and lo ! here we have them
paraded before the public as those grand " peculiari
ties characteristic" of Queen Elizabeth and Sir
Walter Raleigh, which was discovered by Washing
ton Irving, Esq. — illustrated by the soft lullaby of
his apologist, and which Mr. Jo. Seawell Jones, of
Shocco, had the impudence to mock, deride, and
condemn, as outrages upon the truth of history. —
The Virginians are no more remarkable for these
household virtues than the people of Massachusetts
or any other state. They are the common qualities
of every American gentleman, and exceptions are
as numerous in Virginia as any where else.
But I am told that the memorials of Sir Walter
Raleigh, in Nortli Carolina, " were derived at second
hand from Virginia, and actually imported from En
gland by the way of Jamestown." This is a question
which I can very easily settle, and if the apologist
of Mr. Irving had been capable of " any very pro
found researches," he might have done so himself.
I mentioned expressly the legend of " Sir Walter
Raleigh's ship," which is one of the most striking

56 MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA.
and beautiful memorials of the Raleigh colony, and
which is worth more than all the mongrel " pecu
liarities characteristic," &c. which Mr. Irving could
discover, were he to become as profound in the life
of Sir Walter as he undoubtedly is in that of our dis
tinguished countryman, John Jacob Astor. This
legend of Raleigh's ship is noticed by Lawson, the
first edition of whose history was publishedin 1809,
and is brought up in connection with the tradition of
the Hatteras tribes of Indians, that they were de
scended from the white people of Sir Walter, who
were left on Roanoke Island and afterwards aban
doned by Governor White. The poor colonists were,
doubtless, throughout their whole lives, expecting
one of Sir Walter Raleigh's ships as their only
means of relief; and as by degrees they amalga
mated with the savages, the rising raixed generation
caught the hope, and handed it down to the days of
Lawson. The Hatteras Indians, in 1703, were a
mixed and somewhat more civilized race, and the
practice of intermarrying with the whites continued
at that day. After a most rigid scrutiny into their
subsequent history, I have achieved one remarkable
fact—that in thus gradually losing the "peculiarities
characteristic" of American savages, they brought
down with thera the tradition of " Sir Walter
Raleigh's ship," and perpetuated it upon the very
spot of its birth.
. This, then, is one memorial of Sir Walter in North
Carolina, which could not have been imported from
Jamestown. Let us now try another.

MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 57
When Governor White left the Raleigh colony on
Roanoke Island in 1587, he enjoined it upon them,
that in case they removed, they should carve
upon a tree the name of their new place of abode.
On his return, in 1590, he found the island abandon
ed ; but, on reaching the tree, he found the word
Croatan carved without the sign of the cross, which
had been agreed upon as a secret signal of distress.
I have collected much curious matter as to the ve
neration of the Indians for this tree, which I cannot
here throw out ; and it is sufficient at present to
state, that I have encountered two persons of very
advanced years who remembered and deplored its
death ; and to this day the last remains of its stump
are pointed to you, and the poor Islander — ignorant
he may be of every thing else — tells you proudly
that it was Sir Walter's Tree.
I could point out numberless memorials of Raleigh
in North Carolina which could not possibly have
been imported from Jamestown. The apologist of
Mr. Irving might as well have said that old Ply
mouth obtained its pilgrim memorials second-hand
from Virginia ; or that the ruins of the Raleigh co
lony, now visible and tangible on Roanoke Island,
were like the "peculiarities characteristic," &c. of
Mr. Irving, transmigrated through the souls of the
Scotch king and a batch of his flatterers, via the
city of Jamestown to North Carolina.
When Sir Walter, on the 7th of March, 1589, as
signed his interest in the discoveries made under his
letters patent, he styled himself " chief governor of
8

58 MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA.
Assamacomoe — alias Wingandaceo — alias Virginia ;"
and as these Indian names embraced but a small
portion even of North Carolina, it appears that he
did not consider Virginia so comprehensive an ap
pellation as it afterwards came to be, and that it did
not then include the present state ofthat name.
It is a great mistake to suppose that because Bar
tholomew Gosnold saw fit to call nearly the whole
of North America Virginia in the year 1602, that
ergo Sir Walter had done so in 1594 ; for we find
that Sir Richard Grenville, in his first voyage to
Roanoke in 1585, calls the country between Cape
Fear and Cape Lookout, Florida ; and so, after all,
if Virginia did extend to " Uncle Timmy" to the
north, it did not go any further south than about the
site of the present town of Beaufort, not raore than
one hundred railes frora the island. If Pacificator
will look into Smith's History of Virginia too, he will
see Roanoke and the adjacent islands laid off on a
map under the narae of "Old Virginia." So that it
appears that even Smith did not consider himself in
the proper place. The truth i&, the name of Virginia
was extended from Roanoke (by voyages subsequent
to the Raleigh colony,) first to the north, and after
wards the southern coast much further south than
Cape Fear, received the name. I cannot refrain from
commending to the studious perusal of Pacificator, a
work which he seeras never to have read, viz. Smith's
History of Virginia. In this very old and interesting
account of Virginia he would learn one important
fact, viz. that the first expedition which sailed for

MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLIN.4. 59
James's River, and which settled Jamestown, was not
commanded by Captain John Smith as he seems to
think. "But," says Pacificator, "North Carolina in 1650
was settled by emigrants principally from the State
of Virginia." Be it so. They were very wise Vir
ginians to come over to a land raore genial in its
climate, more various in its resources, and raore illus
trious in its historic associations. They were won
over perhaps by the very fact that it was " the Vir
ginia" of Raleigh, and, as such, different in all its^e-
culiarities from "f/te Virginia" of a man by the name
of John Smith. They had heard that Grenville,
Cavendish, Drake, Hariot, and Lane, all men of the
age of Elizabeth, had been but the agents of Raleigh
in consecrating it to the genius of English freedom ;
and seeing around them every day those dangerous
violations of the liberty of the subject which had de
scended to the governraent of Jamestown, in the shape
perhaps of a " peculiarity characteristic " of the
Scotch King, they came to the solitudes of North
Carolina, where, at least, the freedom of opinion
was safe. When Pacificator shall convict any North
Carolina memorial of Raleigh of being imported
from Virginia, Mr. Jo. Seawell Jones, of Shocco, re
commends him to hang it up in his own cabinet of
" sounding brass and tinkling cymbals ;" as North
Carolina has had enough of Virginian influences, since
the days of Thoraas Jefferson, without going back to
the days of the cowardly monarch under whose au
spices she was first settled.

60

MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA.

CHAP. V.
EXTRACT FROM THE "PICTURESQUE HISTORY OP
NORTH CAROLINA."
ROANOKE ISLAND.*
" Such is the aspect of this shore,
'Tis Greece, but living Greece no more ;
So coldly sweet, so deadly fair,
We start, for soul is wanting there." GlOUR,
I HAVE never wandered over the Island of Roanoke
without a feeling of melancholy, as intense as that
of Byron whilst contemplating the fallen greatness
of Greece. The days of her glory are over, and
gone with those beyond the flood; but still she is to
me an island of the heart, for her shores are the
graves of the warlike and the wise. The native In
dian built his Machicomack on her hills; and there,
too, stood the city of Raleigh, the birth-place of the
Anglo-American ; and thus was Roanoke known,
long before the beach of Jamestown was settled or
the rock of Plymouth consecrated. She is the clas
sic land of all English America, and will live in the
future story of our Republic as the mother-earth of
* The above extract from the " Picturesque History of North Carohna "
apphes so strictly to the subject of this book, that it is here inserted as an
additional chapter.

MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 61
American liberty. The illustrious names of Raleigh,
of Cavendish, of Grenville, and of Drake — the he
roes of the reign of Elizabeth — are a part and por
tion of her history. Hariot, the mathematician and
philosopher of the age, for the space of a whole year
studied its natural resources and Indian history ; and
nearly two hundred and fifty years since, gave to the
world a book unequalled for the accuracy and the
interest of its details. It would seem, indeed, as if
the chivalry and learning of that age had contributed
this splendid representation, to give a dazzling bril
liancy to the early history of that State on whose
shores the flag of England was first unfurled, and in
whose vallies, and over whose hills, the mountain
Goddess Liberty first shouted the cry of American
Independence. Bear witness, Mecklenburg, on the
20th of May, 1775.
But it is not historic association alone which
makes sacred the shores and vine-clad forests of
Roanoke. Nature seems to have exerted herself to
adorn it as the Eden of the new world. The rich
est garniture of flowers, and the sweetest minstrelsy
of birds, are there. In traversing the Northern sec
tion of the island, in the spring time of the year,
flowers and sweet-scented herbs, in the wildest luxu
riance, are strewn along your winding way, wel
coming you with their fragrance to their cherished
isle. The wild rose-bush, which at times springs up
into nurseries of one hundred yards in extent,
" blooms blushing " to the song of the thousand birds
that are basking in her bowers. The mocking-bird,

62 MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA,
too, whatever ornithologists may say of its " chimney
habits," makes this his favorite haunt ; and I have
myself seen him pillowed on the highest cluster of
roses, and swinging with his weight the slender tree,
as he warbled out his most exquisite song. It may
be, however, that Roanoke is the very spot, where,
in imitation of the Eastern queen of song, the mock
ing-bird fell in love with the rose.
There are stately pine forests extending along the
centre of the island ; but the most beautiful of its
trees are what are commonly called dogwood, the
laurel, and a delicate species of the white oak. I
have seen a forest composed of these trees, the
branches and limbs of which were literally inter
twisted and knitted together by the embraces of the
Roanoke vine, which here, in its native garden, grows
with extraordinary exuberance.
Within the deep shades of these reclining vintages,
the spirit of solitude at times reigns in undisturbed
majesty. At mid-day, when the heat of the summer's
sun is too glowing for exertion, there is not the chirp
of a bird to break the solemnity of the spot. The
long and slender vine snake, which at other hours
is seen industriously threading his way through the
mazes of the vintage, has now suspended himself on
a twig, and hangs as idle and as still as a black silk
chord. If you hear the tread of footsteps, it is not
of man, but the stealthy retreat of an unsuspecting
fawn, which hath slept too long, and which now,
like a woodland nymph, hies away on the approach
of man. But in the morning and in the evening this

MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA. 63
scene of quiet and of repose is all changed. It is
then the granary of the island, and the birds have all
assembled and are warbling in bacchanal confusion
their morning or evening hymn. The scenery of
Roanoke is neither grand nor sublime. There are
no Alpine summits to mingle with clouds, but a series
of gentle undulations, and a few abrupt hills, in the
valleys of which the richly-dressed scenery I have
described may be found. If it should ever be the
lot of the reader to stroll under the vintage shades
of Roanoke — made impervious to the rays of the
sun by the rich foliage and clustering grapes above
him — he will not venture to discredit the highly-
wrought sketches of Hariot, nor mock the humbler
enthusiasm of the volume now before him. I re
member once to have stood upon the loftiest eminence
of the island, and to have watched the progress of a
sunset. It was on a summer's eve, which had been
made peculiarly clear by a violent thunder squall the
preceding night, and not a film of a cloud or a vapor
was to be seen about the horizon or in the blue vault
of heaven. There was not a breath of air to stir the
slender leaf of the few lofty pines that straggled
around me, and even the mocking-bird seemed to
have hushed his capricious song, to enjoy the intense
feeling of the moment. To the westward of the
island, the waters of the Albemarle crept sluggishly
along ; and in the winding current of the Swash se
veral vessels stood, with out-spread but motionless
wings. Away down to the South, the Pamlico spread
itself out, like an ocean of molten gold, gleaming

64 MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA.
along the banks of Chickamacoraico and Hatteras ;
and, contrasted with this, were tlie dark waters
which separate Roanoke from the sea-beach, and
which were now shaded frora the tints of the sunset
by the whole extent of the island.
A sea of glory strearaed along the narrow ridge
— dividing the inland waters from the ocean ; and
beyond this the boundless Atlantic heaved her
chafed bosom of sapphire and of gold against the
base of yon stormy Cape. I enjoyed and lived in that
sunset and twilight hour. I thought of the glorious
destiny of the land on which I trod — as glorious as
the waters and the earth then around me. I thought
of the genius and the death of Raleigh — ofthe heroic
devotedness of Grenville — of the gallantry of Ca
vendish and Drake — of the learning of Hariot — of
the nobleness of Manteo, the Lord of Roanoke — of
the adventurous expedition of Sir Ralph Lane up the
river Moratock — of the savage array of the blood
thirsty Wingina — of the melancholy fate of the last
of the Raleigh colonies — of Virginia Dare, the first
Anglo-American — of the agony of her mother — and
I then thought of those exquisite lines of Byron,
" Shrine of the mighty, can it be
That this is all remains of thee 7"
On the ruins of the ancient city of Raleigh " the
indolent wrecker now sits and smokes the pipe of
oblivion — a very wretch " — ignorant of the glorious
associations of the land of his birth. He can tell
you nothing of the deeds of those whose early efforts

MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 65
in the settlement of Roanoke gave an impulse to the
English colonization in America, and thus laid the
foundations of our great American Republic. He
will speak vaguely of the name of Sir Walter
Raleigh, and will regale you with legends and
stories of pirates and wrecks, which it is the busi
ness of the novelist, and not the historian, to record.
Such of them as I could link with the Raleigh colo
nies, I have engrafted upon raore authentic materials,
and perhaps the traditionary history of no country is
equal in interest to that of Roanoke Island. The
legend of Sir Walter Raleigh's ship, of the great bat- /
tie of Hatteras, and the nativity of Virginia Dare,
which I have perhaps too painfully detailed, are the
best assurances that the names of those who first
planted the flag of old raother England on our shores
cannot die.
The Island of Roanoke is at present tenanted by
a class of people as rude and as boisterous as their
native seas. They are a race of adventurous pilots
and hardy mariners, and in their light craft seek the
remotest islands of the West Indies ; and occasionally
with their freights of naval stores, penetrate into the
Mediterranean, to the ports of Gibraltar and Malaga.
A race of rugged Mariners are these,
Unpohshed men, and boisterous as their seas.
The native Islanders alone their care,
And hateful he who breathes a foreign air.
These did the Ruler ofthe deep ordain
To hnild proud navies, and command the raain ;
On canvass wings to out their watery way,
No bird so fleet, no thought so swift as they.
Odysset.

66 MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA.
Am I then too enthusiastic in the history of
Roanoke Island 1 It is the birth-place of Virginia
Dare — it was the home of the faithful and noble
Lord of Roanoke; and every hill, and every vale, is
marked in its history, by scenes of joy and woe.
The battle fields of the warlike Wingina are there ;
and there the imagination may stretch itself back
wards over the course of time, and dwell upon the
Indian legends of wars that had passed, when the
assembled host of barbarians fought upon the beach
that they raight be cheered on by the rausic of the
waves. I have drearaed away many a sunny day
in the solitude of its woods, and while reveling in
my fancy upon the present magnificence of our Re
public, I have not forgotten that I stood within that
paradise of the new world in which Providence had
decreed tlie nativity of the first-born of a great and
mighty people.
" While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand ;"
while the great events of her annals are not forgotten,
the dignity of the history of North Carolina shall
stand — alike unsullied by the self-abasement of her
own sons, or the fiendish falsehoods of the Infidel of
Monticello.

MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA.

CHAP. VI.
MISS FLORA MACDONALD.
The romantic story of this celebrated heroine is
not confined to Scotland, nor to the fortunes of the
house of Stuart. The banks of the Cape Fear, in
North Carolina, were for several years distinguished
by her residence ; and it is this circumstance Avhich
will link her name with the history ofthat state, al
most as inseparably as it already is with that of her
own Scotland.
The rebellions of Scotland had contributed to the
population of the Cape Fear counties long before the
famous revolt of the Highland clans, under the chival
rous banner of Prince Charles Edward in 1745,
after which much of the nobility and gentry of the
Stuart party sought a refuge amidst the solitudes of
our forests. The fatal battle of Culloden annihilat
ed the power and independence of the Highland
" lairds ;" and in the year 1747 a colony of five
thousand Highlanders arrived, and settled on the
banks of the Cape Fear. They came originally
from hard necessity, but, even up to this tirae, from
ties of relationship, or the still deeper sympathy of
mutual origin, the Highland emigrants are prone to
seek the sandy region of their countrymen. He who
cannot go to Scotland may penetrate into the coun-

68

memorials of north CAROLIN.4.

ties of Cumberland, Moore, Richmond, Robeson, and
indeed into nearly all the Cape Fear counties, where
he will find even the Gaelic tongue, in all its native
purity. Flora MacDonald was the daughter of MacDonald
of Milton, in the island of South Uist ; but her father
having died during her infancy, and her mother
having married MacDonald of Armadale, in Skye,
an adherent of the government, she was thus endeared
to both parties, — the government and that of Prince
Charles, the young pretender. Her more usual
residence was with her brother, the proprietor of
Milton ; but such seeras to have been the estimation
of her character, that she was beloved by every clan,
yebellionists or not.
She did not see the Prince Charles until after the
battle of Culloden, when he was a wanderer, with
out a home, and without friends or adherents. His
forces had been slaughtered and routed, and he him
self driven to the hills and caves of his kingdom to
find a hiding-place ; and at such a moment Flora
MacDonald adopted him and his cause. She dis
guised him in a female dress, and guided him from
island to island ; and, after encountering every hard
ship and every peril, put him into the way to escape
to France, where he had friends on and around the
throne. Flora MacDonald was arrested, confined to prison,
and after a year was released, and then carried into
the court society of London by Lady Primrose, a
Jacobite lady of wealth and distinction. It is record-

memorials op north CAROLINA. 69
ed that twenty coaches of the proudest names of the
realm stood at the door of Lady Primrose, to pay
their respects to the heroine of the Scotch rebellion,
only a few days after her release. A chaise-and-four
were fitted up to take her back to Scotland ; and
when she was consulted as to who should escort her
home, she selected her fellow-prisoner. General
Malcolm McLeod, who boasted that he " came to
London to be hanged, but rode back in a chaise-and-
four with Flora MacDonald."
She afterwards married Kingsburg MacDonald,
of Kingsburg, the son of one of her old associates
in the perilous salvation of Prince Charles ; and he,
like all the Highland gentlemen, was encumbered
with heavy obligations, in the way of private debts,
and still heavier oaths of fealty to the house of Ha
nover. In 1773, Doctor Johnson and Mr. Boswell
visited the house of Kingsburg MacDonald, and
were entertained by the generosity and hospitality
of the proprietor and his noble spouse. She was
then a fine, genteel-looking woman, full of the en
thusiasm of her early life ; and as she was now the
mistress of the house in which both the fugitive prince
and herself had been once entertained by the father
of her husband, she put the great living patriarch of
English letters in the sarae bed in which her un
fortunate prince had on that occasion slept. In the
tour to the Hebrides, it is related that Kingsburg
MacDonald was embarrassed in his private affairs,
and contemplated a migration to America.
I think it was in 1775 when she arrived in

70 Mfe.MORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA.
North Carolina and settled at Cross Creek, the seat
of the present town of Fayetteville. It was a
stormy period of our history ; and those who came
among us at that time to seek peace and content
ment were disappointed, for they met, at their very
landing, civil and intestine war. The policy of the
royal governor, too, was to carry along with hira the
Highlanders, whom he represented as still liable to
confiscation of estate for their former rebellion. The
prudent emigrants were too recently from the bloody
field of Culloden to run heedlessly into another war of
extermination. They measured the strength of the
English government by their own experience, and
seeing around them no prince of their own blood to
lead them on to battle, they nearly to a man joined
the royal standard.
The truth is, the countryraen of Flora MacDonald
were incapable of appreciating the nature of our re
volution. They had come to North Carolina in
quest of fortune and undisturbed peace, and clung to
the governraent from a double sense of interest and
of fear. The sublime idea of an American empire
was not within the range of their hopes or anticipa
tions ; but Scotland w^as again to be their home,
when King George should have forgotten their rebel
lion, and fortune should again have restored to thera
wealth and importance.
Kino-sburg MacDonald entered with much zeal
into the cause of the royal government, and assisted
his kinsman, General Donald MacDonald, in his ex
tensive preparations for the famous battle of Moore's

MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA. 71
Creek. Flora, too, is said to have embraced, with
much enthusiasm, the same cause, and to have ex
horted her countrymen to adhere to their king. The
settlement of Cross Creek was the metropolis of the
Highlanders, and there they congregated to listen to
the counsels of their aged chiefs. The MacDonalds,
the MacLeods, the Camerons, the MacNeils, and the
Campbells were all represented there in the person
of some beloved and hereditary chieftain.
On the 1st of February, 1776, Donald MacDonald
issued a proclamation, calling upon all loyal High
landers to join his standard at Cross Creek, and on
that day fifteen hundred men mustered under his
command. The enthusiastic spirit of Flora forgot
that it was not for " her Charlie" she was warring,
and tradition says she was seen among the
ranks, encouraging and exhorting tliem to battle.
Loyalty seems to have been a strange principle in
the bosom of the Highlanders, Thirty years before
this period, they fought the battle of Culloden
against the house of Hanover ; and now they are on
the eve of a similar engagement for its support,
against the cause of freedora.
Kingsburg MacDonald was a captain in the
army of Donald MacDonald, and his wife followed
the fortunes of the camp. She proceeded with the
army towards the camp of General Moore, on Rock-
fish River, and was with her husband on the morn
ing of the twenty-sixth of February, on the banks
of Moore's Creek, a small stream in the county of
New Hanover. The Whig army, under the command

72 MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA,
of Colonel Lillington, was encamped on the other
side of this stream ; and on the morning of the twenty-
seventh the celebrated battle of Moore's Creek was
fought, the Highlanders signally routed, Colonels
MacLeod and Carapbell both slain, Kingsburg
MacDonald taken prisoner, and Flora once more a
fugitive, and indeed an outlaw. The Highlanders
were a brave and loyal race, but, poor fellows, they
had their Culloden in North Carolina as well as in
Scotland. Flora MacDonald returned to Cross Creek with
out her husband ; and there she found the Whig ban
ner triumphant, under the command, of Colonel Alex
ander Martin, afterwards governor of the state.
The sad reverses of her fortune seemed to have but
begun. Tradition says her house was pillaged and
her plantation ravaged by the cruelty of the Whigs,
and there is too much reason to believe it true. The
Highland population was, for raany years, conquered,
and kept in subjection by the remembrance of this
defeat ; and it is only during the latter part of the
war, when the contest became more doubtful, that
they again joined in the heat ofthe battle.
The Highlanders, and with thera the husband of
Flora MacDonald, there is too much reason to fear,
shared the fate of the unfortunate rebellionists in
1745. Their estates were ravaged by force ; and as
soon as a state government was established, the rava
ges of the Whigs were legalized by an act of confisca
tion . Kingsburg MacDonald remained in North Caro
lina but a few years, when he embarked in a sloop of

MEMORIALS OP NORTH CAROLINA. 73
war for Scotland. Mr. Chambers, in his admirable
history of the Rebellion of 1 745, records a circumstance
that occurred during the voyage, illustrative of her
character. The sloop encountered a French ship,
and in the thickest of the battle Flora was on the deck,
encouraging the crew until the contest ceased. She
afterwards philosophized, by saying that she had en
dangered her life for both the house of Stuart and
the house of Hanover, but that she did not perceive
she had profited by her exertions.
There is one anecdote connepted with the battle
of Moore's Creek, and with Donald MacDonald, who
was a kinsman of Flora, the Highland chief, which
deserves to be here recorded. He was an old vete
ran in the art of war, having been engaged as an of
ficer in the army of the young Pretender in 1745, in
which character he appeared in the battle of Cullo
den. He was sick at the moment of the battle of
Moore's Creek, and, committing the fate of his coun
trymen into the hands of his aid-de-camp, Colonel
MacLeod, he remained in his camp. After his forces
had been entirely routed, the Whig coraraanders found
hira alone, seated on a sturap, and, as they walked
up to him, he waved the parchment scroll of his
commission in the air, and surrendered it into their
hands. The town of Fayetteville now covers the spot for
merly the metropolis of the Highland clans. There
lived Flora MacDonald, and a host of others, whose
names appear in the history of Scotland as brave
and warlike spirits. To me it was a beautiful spot,
10

74 MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA.
as seen in 1828, before its destruction by fire, when
the spring time of year contributed to embellish the
banks of the small stream that winds its way
through the very streets of the town. I remember
one view which would have been a fit spot even for
the romantic genius of Flora MacDonald. There
was a sraall bridge that spanned the streara, connect
ing the court-house and the city-hall, and, standing
on this bridge, you had first the office of Mr. Eccles,
an accomplished attorney, imraediately before you,
suspended over the creek, and connected with the
street by a bridge ; the stream then flowed on through
a spacious and richly-cultivated garden, and then hid
itself amidst a profusion of the richest shrubbery.
On the left was the Episcopal church, and, away
down the creek, the high steeple ofthe Presbyterian
meeting-house shot up into the air as if it had been
the monument of the spot. A beautiful crystal
stream, with embroidered banks, winding its way
throughthe heart of a city; such an ornament had
the Cross Creek of the Highlanders. There is ano
ther creek, that courses along the southern extremity
of the town and just below the city ; the two
streams apparently cross at right angles. The su
perstition was of old, that the waters actually cross
ed each other, but, by a little observation, you will
perceive that the streams have, as it were, accident
ally touched, and, without farther conflict, separated,
and gone off quietly on their serpentine courses-
Hence the name of Cross Creek. The surrounding
country is a sandy barren, with but little under-

MEMORIALS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 75
growth, and, but for the lofty pines that cover it,
would pass for a Lybian desert. In the midst of
this wide waste of sand stands the American home
of Flora MacDonald, a city in the wilderness, an
Oasis in a sandy desert. The life of no female in
the history of any country was ever more deserving
the attention of the historian. Her adventurous
deeds in the service of the unfortunate prince have
been celebrated by almost every poet of the age, and
have, more than any single subject, infused a spirit
of love and war into the minstrelsy of her own poeti
cal country.

NOTES.

NOTES

NOTES TO CHAPTERS FIRST AND SECOND.
The Journals of Amadas and Barlowe may be found in Hakluyt,
commencing with the 301 page, to which the reader is referred for authori
ties. The dinner party described in the second chapter is scarcely any thing
more than a copy of the text in Hakluyt. It was, by the way, a much
better dinner than I myself have sometimes enjoyed on Roanoke Island ;
and I trust that my friend Mrs. Mekins will excuse me for asserting tho
superiority of the good Indian woman over any of the housewives of the
Banks.
NOTE TO CHAPTER THIRD.
The original design of these memorials was simply to sketch the begin
ning and the end of the authority of England over the Colonies. They
appeared in the New- York Mirror, and might have been continued had not
the criticisms of newspapers diverted me into the field of controversy. The
two first chapters sketch the origin of the dominion of England, and the
third celebrates its downfall ; for, whatever may be said of the Mecklenburg
Declaration by the philosophers of Virginia, it was the " Beginning." "In
the beginning was the word, and the word was " Independence.
For freedom's battle once begun,
Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son.
Though bafiled oft, is ever won.
On the subject of the Mecklenburg Declaration I have much yet to pub
lish. I have collected much material for a sketch of the lives of the heroes
of the 20th of May, and I have, besides, much additional evidence of the
authenticity of the paper to bring before the world. It has been intimated
to me by a friend, that the present Envoy Extraordinary of the govemment
of the United States near the throne of England had been entrusted with

80

NOTES.

a commission to explore the archives of the Colonial Oflice for evidence
against the Mecklenburg Declaration. Under whose superintendence and
advice this " exploring expedition " was got up it does not behove me to say,
but I can certainly wish its worthy commander whatever success he may
deserve. He may depend upon his deserts being fairly and thoroughly can
vassed whenever the fruits of his expedition shall have been disclosed to
the public. While on this subject I beg to make one remark in my own
behalf, viz. that no one should mistake my warmth for bitterness. I assert,
that no citizen of North Carolina can study her history without imbibing a
deep feeling against the character of Mr. Jefferson. Let him look at the
high place of the Slale before his elevation, and then go on and see where
she was a few years afterwards, and he wdi find other grounds of hostility
than his notorious abuse of her historv.

NOTE THIRD— THE POTATO.
There is some authority for the tradition that the potato was earned to
Ireland from Roanoke. I have seen it in very many books of modern date,
and have never lost an opportunity of searching for its truth. I remember
to have canvassed the matter with my excellent friend Mr. Bancroft, while
he was engaged in the composition of the first volume of his beautiful his
tory of the United States. I agreed with'him in his conclusion that the
authorities in its favor did not entitle it to a place in his work. Hariot, in
his account of Roanoke Island, describes several kinds of roots which may
have been what is commonly called the Irish Potato. I here extract his ac
count of two of them :
" Opena-nk are a kind of roots of round form, some ofthe bignesse of wal-
" nuts, some farre greater, which are found in moist and marsh ground, grow-
" ing many together one by another in ropes, as though they were fastened
" by a string. Being boiled or sodden, they are very good meat.
" Kaishucpeifianlt. A white kind of roots, about the bignesse of hennes
" eggs and near of that form. Their taste was not so good to our seem-
" ing as of the other, and therefore their place and manner of growing not so
" much cared for by us ; the inhabitants, notwithstanding, used to bod and eat
" many." Some years ago I called the attention of my lamented friend H. B.
Croom to this subject, and entreated his co-operation in the labors of in
vestigation. Poor fellow, he was too soon lost in the sad shipwreck of the
Home on the coast of North Carohna, and with him perished many a bright
hope. He was so accomplished, so zealous, and then his genius was as
beautiful and as various as the flowers whose nature and whose history he

NOTES. 81
had so assiduously studied. North Carolina lost in him what she could not
well spare — an accomplished and affectionate son, whose heart was wholly
hers, and whose bright genius would some day have adorned her history.
But 1 have sti-ayed from the subject of this note. Tlie potato, it is supposed,
was carried to Smerwick, in Ireland, by John White, governor of the city of
Raleigh, on his return to England in 1587. There is a legend, too, that Sir
Walter Raleigh caused them to be planted in his garden on his Irish estate.
In conclusion, I beg to say that I esteem it quite as .well .authenticated as
most of the facts in the history of that age, and that I confidently expect in
the course of a few years to establish beyond controversy that the Irish
Potato was a native of Roanoke Island.

NOTE FOURTH— TOBACCO
Was first carried to England, not Europe, from Roanoke; Its Indian
name was Uppowoc, and is thus described by Hariot :
" There is anherbe, which is sowed apart by itself, and is called by the
" inhabitants Uppowoc. In the West Indies it hath divers names, accord-
" ing to the several places and countries where it groweth and is used. The
" Spaniards generally call it Tobacco. The leaves thereof being dried and
" brought into powder, they used to take the fume or smoke thereof, by suck-
" ing it thorow pipes made of clay into their stomache and head ; from
" whence it purgeth superfluous fleame and other grosse humours, and open-
" eth all the pores and passages of the body ; by which means the use
"thereof not only preserveth the body from obstruction, but also (if any be
" so that they have not been of too long continuance) in short time breaketh
" them, whereby their bodies are notably preserved in health, and know. not
"many grievous diseases, wherewithal! we in England are oftentimes
" afflicted. " This Uppowoc is in so precious estimation amongst them, that they
" think their gods are marvellously delighted therewith ; whereupon some-
" time they make hallowed fires, and cast some of the powder thereui for
" a sacrifice ; being in a storme upon the waters, to pacify their gods they -
" cast some up into the air and into the water ; so a weare for fish being
" newly set up, they cast some therein and into the air ; also after an escape
"from danger they cast some into the air likewise, but all done with strange
" gestures — stamping, sometimes dancing, clapping of hands, holding up of
" hands, and staring up into the heavens, uttering therewithal! and chatter-
" ing strange words and noises."
Hariot says that men and women of great calUng, and learned physicians
also, used it freely upon its introduction into England.
11

82 NOTES.

NOTE FIFTH— RELIGION OF THE ROANOKE INDIANS.
Mantoac was the word which comprised all their gods. They believed,
however, in one great God existing from ah eternity. When God conceiv
ed the plan of the world, he made other gods to assist him in its erection
and its government ; and these subordinate deities they conceived were
represented in the sun, moon, and stars. A woman was first created ; and
the obvious necessity of peopling the newly-created world justified an in
trigue with some lascivious god, and thus the first of the children of the
forest were brought forth. They called the temples which they built to their
gods, Machicomacks. The most distinguished of their petty gods was
called Kewas.

NOTE SIXTH— GOLD MINES.
I do not place much rehance upon the authority of any of the old voy
agers on the subject of the precious metals, but it is somewhat singular
that the Raleigh colonies should have heard of their existence in that very
section of the new world where it has been since so abundantly found. Sir
Ralph Lane made a voyage in small boats in 1586 up the Albemarle Sound,
and penetrated four days' journey up the Roanoke (Moratock) river in quest
of information as to a country called Chaunis Temoaian, where, from the
accounts of the Indians, there was an abundance of the precious metals.
This country was described as being above twenty days' journey west ofthe
sea-coast, and to have been subject to the incursions of the Mangoaks, a
powerful tribe of Indians who occupied the immediate interior of the con
tinents. The savages described accurately enough the art of mining in its
rudest state, but it was perhaps the cataract of golden waters which excited
the zeal of Sir Ralph Lane. In his voyage up the Moratock (Roanoke),
he was hourly expecting a view of the South Sea, and was fretted with
an apprehension that the Pacific Ocean would break upon his view be
fore he could realize the golden stories of the Indians. Leaving, however,
every reader to the exercise of his own faith or skepticism, I shall proceed
to arrange the authorities upon which I assert the theory, that the golden
- treasures of her mountams had been explored by a race of people more inge
nious and civilized than the savages of the American wUderness.
The first gloamings of light upon this pomt of history are from the jour
nals of the French Hugonots, who in 1562 settled at St. Helena, Beaufort,
S. C. The genius, foresight, and liberality of Coligny founded the enter
prise which is even now distinguished for having originated the name of
Carolina, and as having been the first to seek a home in the new world, in

NOTES. 83
quest, not of the golden treasures ofthe savages, but of the still more pre*
cious blessings of the freedom of conscience.
In the interesting work of Laudonniere (Hakluyt, vol. 3, pp. 369, 70,
71, &c.) allusion is frequently made to the existence of gold in a country to the
north-west, and all the accounts he records tend to strengthen the theory
that at about thirty or forty leagues in that direction from St. Helena, there
was a splendid city, the metropolis of a wealthy and warlike people. In the
376 page he alludes to an account which he received from the savages ofthe
country of Chiquola, which, as far as he could judge, was " a very faire
citie." " For they said unto me, that within the enclosure there was a
" great store of houses, which were buUt very high, wherein there was an
" infinite number of men hke unto themselves, which took no account of
" gold, of silver, nor of pearles, seemg they had thereof in abundance.
" I began then to show them all the parts of heaven, to the intent to leame
" in what quarter they dwelt, and straightway one of them stretching out
" his hand, shewed me they dwelt towards the north."
Again, in 382 page, in describing a visit to an Indian king, he says, " Af-
" terwards he gave them a certain number of exceeding faire pearles, and
"two stones of fine crystal and certain silver oare. Our men forgot not to
" give him certain trifles in recompense of those presents, and required of him
" the place where silver oare and the crystal came. He made them answer
" that it came ten days' journey from his habitation up within the country,
" and that the inhabitants of the country did dig the same at the foote of cer-
"taui high mountains, where they found of it in very good quantitie."
On page 408 he again introduces the subject of the exceeding wealth
of the mountains to the north-west, and records the account of an Indian
who knew the passes of the Apalachi Mountains, where the sandy bottoms
of rills were dug up with hollow canes or reeds, and grains of precious me
tals secured. His whole work, however, teems with rumours of gold, and
immense power and splendour, to the north and north-west of the sea-coast,
about the latitudes of 32, 31, and 30 ; and here leaving Rene Laudonniere's
authority to the discretion of the reader, I shall introduce testimony of a
more wonderful as well as of a more pertinent character.
Pedro Morales was a Spaniard, whom Sir Francis Drake, in 1586, on his
return home from his famous West Indian cruise, caught along the coast of
Florida ; and he related that three score leagues to the north-west of St.
Helena were the mountams of gold and crystal, and that there was a great
city sixteen or twenty days' journey in the same du-ection, called by the
Spaniards La Grand Copal— "very rich and exceeding great."
But the most wonderful accountof the metallic richness of the country to
the north-west of St. Helena, (Beaufort, S. C.) is given by one Nicholas
Burgoignon, aUas Holy, who was lilxwise found by Sir Francis Drake on

84 NOTES.
the coast of Florida. He, too, spoke of the city of La Grand Copal, and
described its magnificence in " golden and diamond terms." Crystal, gold,
rubies, and diamonds glittered from every corner of its paths. A Spaniard
obtained there a diamond worth five thousand crowns, which was worn by
the governor of St. Augustine. This same Nicholas Burgoignon likewise
testifies that the mountains of North Carolina shone so brightly with their
immense masses of crystals, rubies, gold, and diamonds, that he could not
behold them and keep his sight, and therefore he had to travel hy night. I
am very sorry to say that these mountains aflbrd at this time no such ob
stacles to the comforts of a traveller, and that it now requires a vast expen
diture of labor and money to get a sight of any of these aforesaid jewels,
even in the sunniest days.
Nicholas likewise saw, some fifty leagues from St. Helena, up towards
La Grand Copal, Indians with long golden rings in their ears and nostrils.
He likewise saw herds of oxen, but they did not wear gold in their ears and
nostrds. Both Pedro Morales and Nicholas describe the Wateree as a
river which comes from the north-west, and appear to have travelled that way.
Hakluyt intimates that it was the same as the river Waren, (Cape Fear.)
So much for French and Spanish authority. Let us now return to the
annals of the Roanoke colony. They found prevailing on the coast of
North Carolina, rumours of a still more definite character, as to the geogra-
phical position of a country of immense mineral wealth. It was twenty days'
journey due west from the sea-board, and the ways and means of obtaining
the metal were accurately described. (See Hakluyt, p. 315, vol. 3.) Was-
sador was the general name of all metals. The country was called Chaunis
Temoatan, and over the browling rooks of tho streams the golden sands were
caught in bowls and skins. The territory north and north-west of St. He
lena (Beaufort, S. C.) wdl be found to be the same as that west of Cape
Hatteras ; and the distances from the respective points of calculation are
sufficiently correct for the indulgence of a mere speculative inquiry.
Having thus exhausted the ancient authorities in support of the theory
that the gold mines of North Carolina were formerly worked by a race of
people of superior genius to the common herd of American savages, I
shall now proceed to detail a few modern facts bearing directly on the sub
ject. The gold, though not sought after by a regular mining system until
within the last twenty years, was still known to exist. At distant and vari
ous periods of our history, suspicions of wealthy deposites of gold in certain
spots of land would arise ; and I have a will, dated 1787, in which the gold
mines, which may be discovered on a particular plantation, are reserved to
the heirs generally, and not to the particular legatee, to whom the estate
was bequeathed. As far back as 1774, gold was sent to Governor Josiah
Martin, (the last Royal Governor of North Carohna,) from the county of

NOTES. 85
Guilford ; and this was perhaps the first appearance of a specimen in modern
times. It should be recollected that civilization is not now a century old as
far westward in the interior of North Carolina as the river Yadkin, beyond
which the richest deposites of gold are found ; and that the bug night which
reigned over that golden region, from the age of Elizabeth to that of George
II. was sufficient to haye buried, all history and tradition.
Modern enterprise has, however, contributed one,arguinent in favour ofthe
antiquity ofthe gold mines, which, as an authority, is worth every other tes
timony. In the sinking of shafts, the earth exhibits indisputable evidences
of having been disturbed before ; and a few years ago, an earthen crucible
and several other implements uf mining operations were found sixty and
seventy feet below the surface of the earth.
Mr. Humphrey Bissell, of Charlotte, North Carolina, a gentleman of
great scholarship, of the most polite and diversified attainments, and of the
most independent habit of criticism, is of the opinion that the mines were
worked ages ago ; and I consider his testimony as of great weight and value.
He is, as far as I have had an opportunity of observing, the only man who has
observed with a scientific eye the mining operations of the state. What
ordinary Mineralogists and Geologists have pretended to do in the course of
a single tour, Mr. Bissell has made the work of years ; and I doubt whe
ther any state in the Union can boast of a citizen so thoroughly taught in ,
the mysteries of her mineralogical wealth as North Carolina.
The speculative reader may indulge in whatever theories his fancy can
sugges*-. Whether in the thousand years of past ages a civilized and refin
ed people may not have existed, whose very name the calamities of war
and pestUence may not have swept from the land of their nativity ; and if
he is fond of dreams and poetical iUusions, he may draw upon his imagina
tion for the golden streets of La Grand Copal, and find, perhaps, the very
ruins of the waUs that protected it in tlie phenomenon of the natural
bulwariss * of Rowan.
NOTE SEVENTH.
The second colony whioh Sir Walter sent out to Roanoke, sailed from
Portsmouth on the 26tli of AprU, 1587, under the command of John White,
who was commissioned as governor of the " citie of Raleigh.'' I propose
to make a few extracts illustrative of the history of Roanoke.
* The Xaiural WaU found in old Rowan is, I suppose, called natural be
cause no one remembers when It was built. It has, I believe, never been exa
mined by a manofsoienee, By the sUghte.st excavalion it may be traced many
mUes.

85 KOTES.
" The 13th of August, our savage Manteo, by the commandment of Sir
" Walter Rileigh, was christened in Roanoke, and caUed Lord thereof and
" of Dassamonguepeak, in reward of his faithful service.
"The 18th, Elenor, daughter to the Governor and wife to Ananias Dare,
" one of the assistants, was delivered of a daughter in Roanoke, and the
" same was christened there the Sunday foUowing ; and because this chUd
" was the first Christian born in Virginia, she was named Virginia.
A few days after these two remarkable events, Govemor White returned
to England to obtain further supplies ; and here closes all certain knowledge
of the Raleigh colonists. Governor White afterwards visited Roanoke
Island as late as the year 1590, but he could not or would not find them.
Perhaps his foUowers were mutinous and would not foUow him ; but be that
as it may, he finally abandoned his daughter, the httle Virginia Dare, and
his countrymen, to a cruel and an unknown fate.
After a variety of embarrassments in the waters about the island, he
finally succeeded in finding the place, where, three years before, he had left
his colony. I here extract from his journal :
" Our boats and aU things fitted again, we put ofi" from Hatorask, being
"the number of 19 persons in both boats ; but before we could get to the
"place where our planters were left, it was so exceeding darke that we over-
" shot the place a quarter of a mile. There we espied, toward the north end'
" of the island, the light of a great fire thorow the woods, to which we pre-
" sently rowed. When we came right over against it we let faU our grapnel
" near the shore, and sounded with a trumpet a call, and afterwards many
" famUiar English tunes of songs, and caUed to them friendly ; but we had no
" answer. We therefore landed at day-break, and coming to the fire, we
" found the grass and sundry rotten trees burning about the place.
'- From thence we went thorow the woods to that part of the island di-
" rectly over against Dassamonguepeak, and from thence we returned by
" the water side round about the north point of the island, until we came to
" the place where I left our colony in the year 1587. In all this we saw in
"the sand the print of the savages' feet of 2 or 3 sorts, trodden in the night.
" As we entered up the sandy bank, upon a tree under the very browe there-
" of were curiously carved those fair Roman letters CRO ; which letters we
" presently know to signifie the place where I should find the planters seated,
" according to a secret token agreed upon between them and me at my last
" departure from thera ; which was, that in any ways they should not faU to
" wnte or carve on the trees or posts of the doors the name of the place
" where they should be seated, for at my coming always they were prepared
" to remove from Roanoke, 50 mUes in the maine.
" Therefore at my departure from them, in Anno Dom. 1587, 1 willed them,
» that if they happen to be distressed in any of those places, then they

NOTES. 87
" should carve over the letters or name a crosse (-(-) in this form ; but we found
" no such signe of distress. And having weU considered of this ; we passed
" towards the place where they were left in sundry houses, but we found the
" house taken down, and the place very strongly enclosed with a palisado of
" great trees, with cortynes and flankers very fort-like ; and one of the chief
" trees or postes at the right side of the entrance had the bark taken off, and
« 5 foote from the ground, in fayre capital letters, was graven CRO ATOAN,
" without any cross or sign of- distress.
" Ttus done, we entered into the palisado, where we found many bars of
" iron, two pigges of lead, four iron foulers, iron, sackin, shotte, and such like
" heavy things thrown here and there, almost overgrown with grasse and
" weeds." So much of extracts. Governor White found his own chests, his armour,
and various other articles, aU, however, nearly ruined by the rains. He re
turned to his ships, hoping to get up an expedition to Croatan ; but impediments
and embarrassments again intervened ; and after all his painful labours he was
compelled to return to England without having done his duty either to his
chUdren or his countrymen.
The fate of these poor colonists was indeed melancholy. Tradition has
given us but a faint gleam of their future career. Lawson, in his history of
North CaroUna, says, that for comfort and society they amalgamated with
the Hatteras Indians. The Hatteras Indians in his time, he says, boasted of
the descent, saying, that their ancestors could talk out of a book.
Croatan, the place to which they removed, was the birth-place of the
generous Manteo, who was a man of great power among the different tribes ;
and he no doubt became their most efficient friend and protector.