*

the Senecas; and they were as different in qualities of mind from those around them as though of another race. Their reputation as warriors was so great that it is said the appearance of a Mohawk on one side, when two hostile tribes were contending, drove the other in headlong flight. They made much headway against the surrounding Algonquins, and sent wȧr parties far and near. The Senecas had a post even so distant as Fort Hill, South Carolina, since noted as the residence of John C. Calhoun. Their little bands often came down to surprise the unwary Cherokees. They drove the Eries, or Erigas, away from their home, and so effectually banished them that no trace of that tribe remains.

Though strong in war it was in civil affairs that their peculiar genius showed itself. These five nations were bound together in a confederation for years before the American colonies thought of union. This confederacy is the one instance of a successful organized government among savages.† It stood as an example to the colonists which might well have been followed earlier. Their union resembled the confederation adopted by the colonies in 1781, and has also been compared to the Amphictyonic Council of the Greeks. Each tribe preserved all its local institutions, but sent delegates to the Council, which had general powers. Each warrior had a right to aspire to any office, and when chosen served faithfully without pay. They understood the principle that the whole is stronger than any of its parts. Cannasstego, one of their chiefs, advised the whites to form some sort of union, in 1744, when he met the Commissioners of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, at Lancaster, but it took much humiliation to make Americans comprehend that in union there is strength.

Chateaubriand called them the "Romans of the West," and well they deserved the title. With Roman virtues, they had the Roman vices; with Roman bravery, more than Roman cruelty; with Roman fortitude, Roman contempt for the conquered. Their eloquence. was noted by the early explorers. The Frenchman, Charlevoix, said: Their harangues are full of shining passages which would have been applauded at Rome and Athens."

*

*

Such were the Five Nations of New York; and their Tuscarora brethren had their qualities, both good and evil. The great Tus

*Schoolcraft, Vol. III, p. 185.

+ McKenney and Hall, Vol. III, p. 17. Schoolcraft, Vol. III, p. 183.

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carora massacre of 1711, and the war following, was an earnest effort for self-preservation. They had seen the weaker Meherrins and Nottoways made homeless vagabonds, and while they felt that they would hold their own against the surrounding Indians, yet they foresaw their ultimate destruction at the hands of the whites if their settlements were allowed to increase. Absolute extermination was decreed.

Northern Carolina was then ruled from Charleston through a deputy governor. The population, though small, was varied. The first settlers were Virginians seeking rich lands and freedom from taxation. These settled principally upon Albemarle Sound, and some few ventured down upon Pamplico. A small number of French Huguenots went upon Pamplico and Neuse. The Pamplico Indians had been so reduced in numbers and so broken in spirit by an epidemic of small-pox, that they did not resent the intrusion of settlers. There was a considerable addition to the population of the lower part of the colony in 1710, when about one thousand German Palatines and Swiss came over. These Palatines were fugitives from religious persecution, who had fled to England on the invitation of Queen Anne. There they were dependent upon the public bounty until they were scattered through the various colonies. Christopher de Graffenried, an impoverished Swiss officer, and Louis Michel, a needy adventurer, desired to settle colonies in "English America. They bought ten thousand acres of land from the Lords Proprietors, with an option on one hundred thousand. A contract to carry over six hundred and fifty of these "poore Palatines," and to settle each family upon a farm was made with the commissioners, acting for the Queen. They brought over as many more Swiss also. Many of the Palatines perished on the way from sea sickness, and the helpless colony, through the duplicity of Surveyor-General, John Lawson, instead of being assigned separate farms, was huddled together like a flock of sheep, at the confluence of the Neuse and the Trent. This was the foundation of the present city of Newbern.

*

The proprietors had received little compensation for their trouble with the province of Carolina. The people would not be governed like the submissive inhabitants of Europe. They refused to obey good governors and bad governors alike; they refused to pay even the most reasonable taxes, and looked with scorn upon the

*Colonial Records, Vol. 1, p. 986.

+ Colonial Records, Vol. I, p. 910.

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attempts of the proprietors to impose upon them a scheme of
government perfect according to European ideas. If necessary
they used force to drive away a governor who attempted to follow
his instructions too closely. Even one of the proprietors fared
better than the rest.* In all their quarrels, however, it had been
the colony against the representative of foreign authority. Now
began a civil war which weakened the colony in the face of the
coming conflict.

Briefly, the circumstances are as follows. The ascension of
Queen Anne in 1704 made new oathst of allegiance necessary for
all officers, in order to carry out the provisions of an act of Parlia-
ment. The Albemarle Quakers refused to take these, and had
influence enough to have Deputy Governor Daniel removed. Colonel
Thomas Carey was then appointed, but he, too, required the new
oaths. By the influence of John Porter, their agent in England, and
John Archdale, the Quaker proprietor, he was removed, and per-
mission given to the council to elect a president. William Glover
was selected, but when he too proved obstinate in respect to the
oaths, Carey was again selected by a part of the council. It was
agreed to submit the matter to the members of the Assembly, and
this body decided in favor of Carey. Glover refused to submit to

the decision, and there was no government in Albemarle for nearly
three years. Another claimant for the empty honor appeared in 1710,
when Edward Hyde came over, but without a commission. Governor
Tynte had died and there was no official proof of his claim to
be deputy governor.
Nevertheless the council believed his story
and elected him president until his commission should arrive.
Glover submitted in good faith. Carey first submitted, but after-
wards took up arms. This revolt, if it was a revolt, was quelled by
the aid of Governor Alexander Spotswood, of Virginia, one of the
best colonial governors then in America.

Though the outward signs of revolution were obliterated, yet the
spirit of faction and division remained. The Assembly was divided.
The body refused to levy necessary taxes, "hoping by their frugality
to commend themselves to their constituents." This was the con-
dition of the colony when the fury of Indian warfare broke loose.

*Seth Southwell (Sothel) who may be classed as a bad governor. He took charge 1689.
+ It is claimed by some students of history that these oaths were not simple declarations of
allegiance, but partook of the nature of the hated Test Oath; this is not proven.

1708 Colonial Records, Vol. I, Prefatory Notes.

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There were signs of trouble, however, that might have well been noted. The historians of North Carolina have written as if the relations between the colonists and the Indians had been ideally friendly up to this time. Recent researches discredit this, for there was a serious invasion of "enemy Indians" in Albemarle as early as 1616, and this phrase is often used :* Human nature and Indian nature were much the same in Carolina and in Massachusetts."

66

There is evidence that the attack had been long contemplated. The immediate causes of the outbreak may be stated as follows: (1.) The forced removal from their burying and hunting grounds. (2.) Ill-treatment by a few lawless white men. (3.) Jealousy of the growing power of the whites. (4.) Divisions among settlers making a favorable opportunity. Gov. Hyde and all connected with him, declared repeatedly that Carey was responsible for the attack; that his agents worked among the Tuscaroras, trying to provoke them to the massacre; that he desired to ruin the country, he was not allowed to rule. This must be taken with much allowance, since there was little charity for enemies in those stirring times. But if not responsible directly for this contest, Carey must still be held as responsible indirectly; for, if the colony had not been so divided by his rebellion, the war would have more easily ended, if ever begun.

In the latter part of the summer of 1711 a circumstance happened which might have warned the settlers. Surveyor-General John Lawson prevailed upon de Graffenried to accompany him on a exploring expedition up the Neuse. At the end of the second day they were suddenly surrounded, deprived of all their effects, and made to march all night until they reached Cotethna, the village of King Hencock, or Handcock. The council of the Forty Elders tried them and decided that they should be liberated. Unfortunately Lawson began to quarrel violently with a petty chief. The Council of war then passed upon the case and sentenced them to death. de Graffenried escaped by claiming to be king of the inoffensive settlement on the Neuse. Lawson was obnoxious to them on account of his official position, and was secretly executed. De Graffenried was held as a prisoner for five weeks, and then released upon making a treaty. By this treaty he bound himself to be neutral in all con

* Records, Vol. I, Prefatory Notes, XIV.

+ Colonial Records, Vols. I & II. Letters of Hyde, Spotswood, Pollock, etc.

Colonial Records, Vol. I, p. 35.

tests between English and Indians, and in return all houses on which
the great N (Neuse) was placed were to be spared.

*

While de Graffenried was still a prisoner the plot for the destruction of the whites was completed, and the first blow fell. Since they had slain an officer of the province the Tuscaroras felt that there could be no drawing back. Only eight of their fifteen villages were openly engaged in the plot, but the others ass sted secretly. The day before the new moon in September, was appointed for action. The Tuscaroras were to ravage the country between the Roanoke and the Pamplico. The Cotechneys and the Cores were to do the bloody work on the Neuse and the Trent. The Mattemiskeets and Matchapungas had entrusted to them the destruction of the inhabitants around Bath. The Tuscaroras and Meherrins, with such other help as they could gather, were to complete the slaughter north of Albemarle Sound.

The plans were laid carefully and executed silently. All fire arms were left behind. The rising of the sun on the 22d of September was the signal over the whole colony. Within two hours one hundred and thirty persons were killed. No one was spared. The young man and the maiden, the aged and the infant, each alike was inhumanly butchered. The most horrible cruelties were practised. Women were laid upon the ground and great stakes driven through their bodies, and their infants were hung upon trees for the buzzards and the crows. Crazed by the New England rum found in the cabins, the savages staggered through the woods, hooting and yelling, pursuing the fugitives for miles. The extent of territory was so great that it was impossible to strike all at once, but to such an extent was the spirit of distrust and disunion spread among the settlers, that in many cases instead of fleeing to some central point and making a united resistance, each man tried to defend his own house. Disaster overtook most of these, and the home furnished the flame by whose light the unfortunate owner was slain. For three days this awful pursuit continued, and closed only when drunkenness and fatigue compelled. Then, sated with slaughter, the conquerors returned to one of the principal towns of the Tuscaroras which had been fortified with a palisade, there to make new plans for the complete destruction of the white settlers.

Though Governor Hyde immediately called for soldiers, very few responded. The province had been so long without any law,

*Letters of Gov. Spotswood.

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