men were not anxious to fight the Regulators, and were no doubt very willing to be dispersed.

Tryon met the whole body of about two thousand drawn up on Alamance Creek, May 16, 1771. They sent one of their men to his camp to negotiate with him. Tryon shot him dead with his own hand as he was leaving the camp, and the Regulators, seeing their messenger killed, immediately fired on Tryon's flag of truce. This began

the battle.

The Rev. David Caldwell, many of whose congregation were among the Regulators, was with them vainly trying to persuade the governor to peaceable measures, and praying the men to do nothing rash-to be prudent, to wait. He was walking in front of their lines, between the two armies, when the firing began. Tryon ordered his men to fire, and when they hesitated he shouted, "Fire! fire on them or on me."

Everything was in confusion among the insurgents, who had no commander and very little ammunition. Every man fought for his own life as he best could, and fought bravely till his powder and shot gave out. It is said that in truth not more than half of the men had

guns.

Tryon's victory was soon assured. The Regulators had to fly, and, as they knew the country well, but few of them were taken prisoners. Exactly how many were killed was never known, but many were wounded. Tryon in his report said that his own loss in killed and wounded amounted to sixty men.

Whatever the violence or the outrageous lawlessness of

the Regulators had been, it was no excuse for the severity and cruelty of Tryon toward his unfortunate prisoners.

He marched on to Salisbury, carrying his prisoners and actually exhibiting them in chains as he went, and treating the country-people as he passed with great severity. When he returned to Hillsboro he hung a number of these prisoners. Among them was a man whose little boy came in and begged the governor to hang him instead, so his father could go home to his mother and the other children.

Tryon showed no mercy. He effectually suppressed the Regulators, so that they never again rallied. He returned to New Bern in triumph. Within six weeks after the battle he was appointed to be governor of New York, and he and his family, accompanied by the lawyer Edmund Fanning, all left North Carolina together that summer.

He was governor of New York during the Revolutionary War, and distinguished himself there, as he had done. here, by his activity and his severity toward the Americans.

Fanning, who was a man of fine education and ability, rose high in the king's service, and it is said that in after years he expressed deep regret for the part he had acted in Carolina.

RECITATION.

ALAMANCE.

No stately column marks the hallowed place

Where silent sleeps, unurned, their sacred dust

The first free martyrs of a glorious race,

Their fame a people's wealth, a nation's trust.

Above their rest the golden harvest waves,

The glorious stars stand sentinel on high,
While in sad requiem near their turfless graves
The winding river murmurs moaning by.

But holier watchers here their vigils keep
Than storied urn or monumental stone;
For Law and Justice guard their dreamless sleep,
And Plenty smiles above their bloody home.

Immortal youth shall crown their deathless fame,
And, as their country's glories still advance,
Shall brighter glow o'er all the earth thy name,
Our first-fought field of freedom-Alamance!

SEYMOUR W. WHITING.

CHAPTER XVI.

GOVERNOR MARTIN. THE REVOLUTION.

JOSIAH MARTIN succeeded Governor Tryon. He too was a soldier and a man of liberal education, and anxious moreover to do his duty. He was the last of the royal governors, and for the few years that he inhabited the palace at New Bern his course was judicious and conciliatory.

He openly condemned Tryon's violence and extravagance, granted a free pardon to all offenders, and spent a part of next year travelling through the disturbed counties and trying to restore order and good feeling. He took especial pains to get acquainted with the principal men who had been Regulators, and to win their confidence and keep them quiet.

He was more successful in this than might have been expected, for these men had not been fighting to overturn and break up the government. They had only wanted justice and consideration, and to be freed from the intolerable oppression of the understrappers of the law.

All America was in an excited and rebellious temper by this time, for the royal government still asserted its right to tax its colonies without their consent. been going on for ten years.

The dispute had

We must remember that it was not the amount of money that the tax called for that the American people complained of. It was the principle on which it was to be collected. The States were all well able to pay three times the amount. In fact, the tax was made very light on purpose to induce them to pay it. It was the assumed right of the king to order it as he did that was so exasperating. The English people themselves had once gone to war and dethroned their king on just this principle.

It was plain that the English government had long been jealous of the growing strength of these colonies. As early as 1719 the government decided that no manufactures should be allowed here, because they might injure the trade of England. It declared that no hatter should employ more than two apprentices, for fear hats should be made here in too great quantities. All forges and mills for working in iron were forbidden, and, above all, no ships must be built, lest America should have a navy.

In spite of all this unwise treatment, in none of the States had there yet been any thought or wish of separating themselves from England, "their mother-country as they called it, from which their fathers and grandfathers had come. They were proud to belong to that great nation, and to think they were part of it and had the same language, the same laws, the same history. They still called it "home." Rich people sent their sons there to be educated.

And in all the States there were many people who to the last deplored the very idea of separation, and could not