I beheld too in that vision Then a darker, drearier vision LONGFELLOW. CHAPTER XI. GOVERNOR EDEN.-BLACK-BEARD THE PIRATE. 1714. CHARLES EDEN was our next governor, and in compliment to him the name of a little seaport at the head of Albemarle Sound, called "Queen Anne's Creek," was changed to Edenton. 1715. In this year North Carolina was able to return South Carolina's kindness to us when we were in trouble. The Indians there began a fierce war, and North Carolina hastened to send generous help in men and money both. 1716. Governor Eden and Governor Spottiswoode of Virginia agreed to end the long dispute about the boundary-line, and then South Carolina set up a claim to the land lying south of the Cape Fear. One of the South Carolina agents sent to London on this business proposed that North Carolina should be divided up between Virginia and South Carolina! Governor Eden was accused of having protected a pirate named Edward Teach-nicknamed Black-Beard-who had a light, fast-sailing vessel and went up and down our coast stealing everything he could lay hands on. He and his crew had their haunt on one of our sand bar islands, and here he was hunted out by one of the king of England's ships and killed. His head was cut off and fastened to the bowsprit of the ship when it sailed away. His skull was made into a bowl and rimmed with silver, and is said to be kept in Virginia now. Governors of other States have been accused, 1722. as well as Governor Eden, of dishonorable association with pirates. It was probably some smuggling enterprises that they had together, and nothing worse. The charge could not be proved against Eden, but men in authority should be careful not to be even suspected of wrong-doing. Governor Pollock, who was president of the council, was again governor for a short time. Then he died, and William Reid took his place till George Burrington was sent from England. A great many hard things have been said about Governor Burrington, but, as he said many hard things about everybody, it is no more than might be expected. He had a bad temper and a sharp tongue, and indulged in very intemperate habits. Of course such a man had many enemies. He was, however, an active and energetic governor. He bought lands himself, encouraged new settlements, and set on foot much-needed improvements. 1724. One instance of his violent temper is enough to have made him hated and despised. He was riding one day through a great tract of land that he had bought, and saw that a poor man had built a cabin and was living on He immediately ordered the some part of his domain. man and his family to leave, and made his servants burn the cabin. The "Lords Proprietors" were by this time very tired of their "grant," as they had not made much money out of it and it had given them and their heirs a deal of trouble. They proposed that the king should buy it back from them, which he was very willing to do. George I. was now king of England, and he agreed to give them 1728. two hundred thousand dollars for that part of it which was called North Carolina. In 1725 the county of Clarendon, at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, was permanently settled, and the town of Brunswick was begun about fifteen miles below where Wilmington now stands. A gallant South Carolina gentleman named Moore, who had come to help in the war with the Indians, was so pleased with the Cape Fear country that he resolved to make it his home. Other men of wealth and refinement, some from Albemarle and some from South Carolina, joined him, and the new settlement took root and began to flourish from the first. The Lillingtons, Ashes, Waddells, Harnetts, Swanns, Hills, Moores, were all prominent, and their descendants still dwell in the country, useful and honorable citizens. In 1728 the unsuccessful government of the "Proprietors was ended. The last governor they sent over was Sir Richard Everard, who was no improvement on any of his predecessors. As it is better to have one master than eight, North Carolinians must have been satisfied to come under the king's rule, and might hope for better times. Just now, too, the boundary-line between us and Virginia was finally run by surveyors, who marched, with a party of gentlemen chosen from each State, straight west from Currituck Sound across the Dismal Swamp to the foot of the mountains. One of the Virginia gentlemen wrote a very entertaining book about this expedition. He came over and paid a visit to the town of Edenton, which had only thirty or forty houses in it, and few of them, he said, with a brick chimney, and no church of any kind. The courthouse looked little better than a tobacco-barn. From the appearance of Edenton this gentleman supposed there must be very little respect for law, and none at all for religion, in North Carolina. But in this he was mistaken, as people are apt to be who judge in a hurry and from slight observation. He notices the fruitfulness, the abundant way of living, the evident industry of the women, the pleasant climate, and the hospitality of the country-people. Wherever the party went they found the farmers were anxious the line should be run so as to put them in North Carolina rather than Virginia, "because this was a free State." 1729. The first governor given the colony by the king was no other than Burrington, who seems to have had friends at court if nowhere else. He began by quarrelling, and continued in his old scandalous way of life till removed |