The poor ministers wrote back very piteous letters to their bishops and missionary societies in England, begging for help or to be allowed to go home. They were terribly disappointed in their new parishes. Their habits of life had not fitted them for rough ways or for enduring hardships and privations. They were dismayed by a country of such vast distances, that had no roads to speak of—no churches, no bells, no parsonages, no money-and where it was with difficulty they could get a congregation together, or make parents have their children christened, or pay their preachers anything at all.

They complained a great deal, and had no good words to say of Carolina or its people. And of course they did very little good and had little or no influence.

On the other hand, the Quaker preachers made themselves at home. They bore patiently the want of comforts, the toilsome journeys, the dangers, the sleeping all night in the woods, the poverty. They went among the people very simply, making no claims, demanding nothing, holding their meetings from house to house. They were not at all particular as to forms, and would let the men smoke their pipes in meeting. All this suited a new country and a rough population.

The Quaker preachers wrote in praise of Carolina, and said the Albemarle people were "very tender," and that they had "precious meetings." They made many converts, and were the first who built a house for religious worship in this State.

1695.

It is a comfort to reflect, when we are reading history

and trying to understand what the quarrels and tumults were about and who was right and who was wrong, that after all the great body of the people were doing pretty well. In Carolina, at any rate, we are sure, from all accounts, that they ate and drank abundantly, and they married whether any Church-of-England minister was around or not, and they raised their children, and attended to their crops, no matter who was, or was trying to be, gov

ernor.

The tobacco grew finely, the flax and corn were flourishing, the cattle increased and grew fat in the canebrakes, the hogs were duly converted into bacon. There was plenty of rum brought in light vessels over the bars from New England, and plenty of molasses-or, as it was called, "long sweetening"-and sugar and salt from the West Indies to be exchanged for our products.

There is no doubt, too, that there was a good deal of tobacco smuggled into Virginia along the "Coratuck Sound." When rulers make unwise laws, people will always be found ready to break them. Tobacco never was exchanged for anything but money, and was the only crop that brought money.

One of the reasons why life was so comfortable to our early settlers in Albemarle was that they generally kept on friendly terms with the Indians. Later on we shall read of a dreadful war with the savage Tuscarora tribe, but for many years there was no serious trouble with any of the Indians in Carolina. They hung around the houses of the whites; they hunted and fished for them, though they

would not work. They knew well where were the sweet springs, and in what clear waters the fish bred fastest. Every rich planter would keep an Indian or two to shoot game for him or kill the wild-cats and bears that were making too free with his hogs and cattle. The Indian women and children brought their baskets and mats, and were always kindly treated by the white families.

Negroes were first brought to Anterica in 1619 from the West Indies. They had been carried there from Africa by the Spaniards. The English who had taken Barbadoes and others of those islands from the Spanish brought the negroes over to this country.

Afterward English ships also went to Africa and brought more. Indians also made slaves of negroes and of other tribes of Indians taken captive in war. In slavery the Indians soon died out: they could not bear it. But the negroes were of a more peaceable nature than the Indians. They bore their sad fate with patience and good-humor, and seldom rose against their masters. They and their descendants were certainly much better off here, though they were slaves, than they would have been in Africa; for there they were in a dreadful and bloody slavery to other savages, the weaker to the stronger, and lived like the wild beasts around them.

Here they were taught something. It is a great rise for a barbarian to learn how to plough. They were cared for, and on the whole were kindly treated, decently clothed, and instructed in religion. And the way they have increased and improved as a race shows that the Creator intended

to do them good when he brought them to America. They lived and flourished among the whites, while the Indian tribes disappeared. When they were fit to be free, then He gave them their freedom.

RECITATION.

SUNDAY AT A SOUTHERN COUNTRY CHURCH.

THERE no proud temples to devotion rise,
With marble domes that emulate the skies;
But, bosomed in primeval trees that spread
Their limbs o'er mouldering mansions of the dead,
Moss-girdled oaks and solemn pines between,
Of modest wood, the house of God is seen,
By shaded springs, that from the sloping land
Bubble and sparkle through the silver sand,
Where high o'erarching woodland blossoms blow,
While fragrant blooms breathe kindred sweets below,
And elm and ash their blended arms entwine
With the rich foliage of the mantling vine.
In quiet chat before the hour of prayer
Masters and slaves in scattered groups appear:
No city discords break the silence here,
No sounds unmeet offend the listener's ear;
But rural melodies of flocks and birds,
The lowing, far and faint, of distant herds,
The mocking-bird with minstrel pride elate,
The partridge whistling for its absent mate,
And cautious crows their harsher voices join,
In concert cawing from the loftiest pine.

GRAYSON.

CHAPTER IX.

FEMALE INDUSTRY.—MILLS.

ONE thing is to be noted in all the early historians and letter-writers of North Carolina: they are very apt to remark the industry of the women of this State.

They spun and wove both wool and flax, and clothed their families with the work of their hands. They made plenty of butter and cheese. They kept neat houses, their pewter plates were very bright, their tables were well supplied with good food, and they were very kind and hospitable.

When such things are said of the women of a State, we may be very sure that State is doing well and is a good State to live in. This character still belongs to the women of North Carolina, for whatever is partakes of the nature of what has been.

One of the greatest needs of the Albemarle country for a long time was mills. This was much complained of, for even as late as 1710 it was said there was but one mill, and that a wretched one, in the country. Rich people used hand-mills, and poor people pounded their corn in wooden mortars as the Indians did.

Perhaps one reason why mills were not built sooner was