THE HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA, FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD. BY FRANCOIS-XAVIER MARTIN. Coloniæ autem jura, institutaque populi Romani, non sui arbitrii habebant. GEL. lib. 16, cap. 23. VOLUME I. NEW-ORLEANS: PRINTED BY A. T. PENNIMAN & CO. Corner of Chartres aud Bienville Streets, 1829. Eastern District of Louisiana, 88. BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the twentieth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine, and of the independence of the United States the fifty-third, FRANCOIS-XAVIER MARTIN, of the said district, hath deposited in the Clerk's office for the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Louisiana, the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as author, to wit: "The History of North Carolina, from the earliest period. By François-Xavier Martin. Coloniæ autem jura, institutaque populi Romani, non sui arbitrii, habebant. GEL. lib. 16, cap. 23. In conformity to an act of Congress of the United States, entitled “An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned;" and also, to the act entitled "An act supplementary to an act, entitled an act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned,' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving and etching historical and other prints." FRANKLIN W. LEA, Clerk of the United Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. PREFACE. An historical inquiry into the discovery, settlement and improvement of the country, now covered by the important member of the North American confederacy, on the shores of which the English made their first attempt towards colonization, is certainly an object of general curiosity; and the work has been undertaken, in the hope, that, if it be not too negligently performed, the youth of North Carolina may not find it void of interest and utility. If it be true, that history is the best mean of teaching and exercising the minds of those who destine themselves to public life, this advantage will, more certainly and eminently be found in the annals of the country, which is to be the theatre of one's actions: especially, if these annals present the rare and interesting spectacle of a handful of adventurers, attempting, with incredible toil and danger, a settlement in a new world, and after repeated disasters, successively falling victims to their enterprising spirit, and the cruelty and treachery of the aborigenes: next, that of a new set, continuing the like efforts, undismayed by a beginning so disastrous, enduring for years the combined calamities of famine, disease and war, succeeding at last, in laying the foundation of a colony, which suffered a long time, under the errors of a theoretical system of government, ill calculated for its moral and local condition, struggled afterwards under the oppression of an unnatural parent country, and finally, shaking off the yoke of dependence, through alternate vicissitudes of misfortune and success, became a powerful state. Imperfect as the present publication is, it began to engage the attention of the writer as early as the year 1791: at that period, the legislature of North Carolina afforded him some aid, in the publication of a collection of the statutes of the parliament of England, then in force and use within that state. preparing that work, he examined all the In |